When a bad decree was issued against the Jews in the days of King Ahasuerus, the Jews including Mordecai went into great mourning. It was a great moment of distress when a whole remnant of Israel was bound to be destroyed under the most powerful empire in the world.
Queen Esther (a Jew and a wife of King Ahasuerus) having heard of this sent royal garments to Mordecai (her uncle) to clothe himself and stop crying.
Palliative measure was her first response – not finding out what happened. She wanted to deal with the symptoms rather than the cause.
But Mordecai refused the palliative and continued his mourning over the evil decree that had been raised against the children of Israel.
After sending more messengers to Mordecai on this mourning issue to find out the cause, then Mordecai opened up and charged Esther to go in before the most powerful king on the face of the earth to plead for reversal of the judgment against the Jews.
But here is what Esther said in response,
“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.” Esther 4:11
Mordecai replied her in verses 13 and 14, ““Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
With these words, Queen Esther made a decision (a wise one) to go in before the King to appeal the judgment – against the norm, against the tradition of the palace, against her selfish interest, against the royal disposition. She called for prayers for herself and uttered the popular statement, “If I perish, I perish!”
She did not perish but through this brave act got deliverance for the children of Israel.
The words that resonate more are:
“For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
May the Almighty God grant all the leaders and those in corridors of power across the world the fear of God to do the right things and bring deliverance to the people who have been condemned for death and/or untold hardship!
Let all the type of Esther rise up with the Spirit of Power and of Love to do the right things in this hour! Set the oppressed free. Amen!
With or without you, the Lord will still set His people free!
Happy weekend!
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