“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise
from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows
but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:14
The ten chapters of the book of Esther encapsulate a story about one of the most well-known women in the Bible. It is an incredibly inspirational tale from Jewish history that could have been tragic instead. Throughout history, the Jewish people have been the target of extermination. We are all aware of the Nazis’ attempt to do so in the modern era. They murdered six million, and yet today, the Jews have increased to more than double that number.
In today’s Bible story, King Xerxes was looking for a new queen because his first one named Vashti refused to appear before him and his banquet guests while he was intoxicated. A Jewish girl named Esther was one of many chosen as a possible replacement. She found favor in Xerxes’ eyes, and was then named queen.
This is when the story turns dark, as the cousin who adopted her, Mordecai, refused to pay honor to a man honored by Xerxes named Haman. This caused hatred to boil up in Haman’s heart against Mordecai and the Jewish people. So plans were successfully made to pit the king against the Jews and exterminate them.
Mordecai realized that their only hope was for Esther to appear before King Xerxes, earn his favor, and expose Haman’s plans. His words to Esther should be motivation to us all, as God seeks to use us to carry out His plans. See today’s verse. God wants to use us like Esther “for such a time as this” when sin needs to be uncovered and the truth made known. Otherwise, He will find someone else to do it, even though it was supposed to be our task to obediently carry it out.
Esther asked the Jews to join her in prayer and fasting for three days prior to her appearance before the king. You can read the rest of the story, but thanks to Mordecai’s wisdom and Esther’s boldness, Haman’s plan backfired, and he and the enemies of the Jews were killed.
There will be moments in life when we need to be like Mordecai and encourage someone to speak up. And there will be moments in life when we need to be the one speaking up. Now is one of those moments for us who believe. We need to speak up in America for the truth of God’s Word. We need to come out publicly against the global persecution of God’s people, be they in Israel or elsewhere. And we need to pray and fast for the persecuted church around the world.