Esther 4:12-13 12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.
For many people, the thought of disaster and tragedy can be overwhelming. They avoid thinking about it at all costs. They put an “Off Limits” sign at the door in their mind, a door to the room of the unthinkable. They just don’t even allow themselves to think about the possibility of the ‘worst’ happening to them. That kind of thing happens to other people, not to them.
Now the ‘worst’ can take many shapes. It varies between people and communities. For some the thought of not living in a gated community is overwhelming. For some who don’t even have food for tomorrow, the fears are much more down to earth.
For large portions of the Christian church around the world, the real possibility of persecution and death loom over their lives on a daily basis. We have heard the reports, for instance, of the crackdown on Christians in China, where the threat of being locked up in ‘reeducation’ camps has forced them underground. They face the loss of family, income, property, personal security and so much more.
There are laws in many countries that prohibit the practice of Christianity. So far we have avoided the laws here in this country, but the unwritten laws are being codified in the face of public opinion and bullying. Those who don’t conform to the new standards get ‘canceled.’
Our text for today places us right in the middle of one such friction moment where life and death hangs in the balance. About 100 years after the Jews have returned to Jerusalem and the Promised Land after the Exile, sometime between 486 & 465BC, a political rivalry has erupted. A personal hatred has become an international policy. Kill the Jews!
A law has been written and published in all the vast areas of the Persian Empire mandating the slaughter of the Jews on a particular date. And one person has the means to stop the slaughter, but doing this will expose her to grave danger. If she keeps silent, she could escape. But her silence means the first Holocaust for the Jews.
The king is madly in love with his wife Esther and will do almost anything for her. But she is a Jew and under the same sentence of death as all the other Jews. Her uncle and advisor step in to help persuade her to take the risk.
The first thing it does is rip off the false sense of safety that she has. He pulls off the bandage of protection, her position as queen. Either she steps up and seeks relief from the king, or she and her family will die. Not a threat of violence, but a prophetic statement.
Her uncle calls her to ‘put it all out there,’ ‘leave everything on the field,’ ‘give it all you’ve got.’ These are very hard words for a woman who is now at the pinnacle of power. This is more risk than can be imagined.
So many people shirk from these types of moments. They retreat back into a false sense of safety, the only safety they have known. The familiar becomes the comfortable, and the call of God becomes a distant memory.
But these moments are the moments that form our future. Esther’s uncle speaks the famous line that perhaps she is in her position for “such a time as this.” This might be her moment in history, her reason for the twisting path to where she is now, for the death of her parents, her Jewish lineage, her beauty, her charm, the favors she has been shown. Maybe it was all for this!
I think we all have had some of these moments, or we will soon. But for some, these moments took the ‘safe’ turn rather than the turn of obedience and risk. For others, these moments began a whole new chapter in the story the LORD is writing in and through their lives. And what a glorious story it is becoming.
Maybe today is such a moment for you. What path will you choose?
The Arnold Journey 