God’s silence should never be interpreted as His absence. Take the story of Esther…Not once is His name mentioned in all 10 chapters of the book, yet none can deny His presence. Even when it looked as though all was lost, He was there. When Haman planned his murderous plot against the Jews and sold the king on his evil idea, God was neither absent nor indifferent. When the gallows were built for godly Mordecai and it appeared to be his last day on earth, God was there. Such times are terribly difficult to endure. Our minds play tricks on us. We pray, we wait, we plead, we long for our Lord to intervene, but nothing seems to change. Nothing is different. Wrong reigns and right is eclipsed beneath its ugly shadow. And then, almost overnight, God steps in and changes everything. Our heads spin, our eyes pop open, and we suddenly realize He’s been here all the time. What relief! That must have been the reaction of God's people when the events that led to their rescue unfolded so rapidly back in the days of ancient Persia.