Esther 4:14: “For if you [Esther] 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?”

November 19th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

At the request of Haman, the king issued a decree to destroy the Jews completely. But Mordecai had faith in God’s sovereign power to preserve His people because he knew God’s promise to Abraham back in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, / And I will curse him who curses you; / And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Mordecai sent word to Esther that she must go to the king and plead for her people. Mordecai was painting Esther into a corner when he reminded her that she would not escape destruction just because of her prominence and that as a result her father’s name would also be lost.

However, with these remarkable words, Mordecai was pointing Esther to a higher calling than mere self-preservation: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Could it be that everything in her life up to that point had been leading toward this defining moment? She was an orphaned girl, chosen to be a queen, and married to the most powerful monarch in the world; the very monarch who had agreed to the killing of all her people. Was her position merely an accident, the luck of the draw? God’s providence was at work and Mordecai had spoken great truth. It was not something Esther wanted to hear, but to her credit, she submitted to it.

What storm are you facing, fellow believer? What opportunities to serve are before you today or may be before you in the near future? Could it be that God has been preparing you all along for “such a time as this?” Are you prayed up and spiritually prepared to face the challenges at hand? It seems Esther had little choice when she was chosen to become part of the king’s harem, but she humbly submitted and ended up becoming the most powerful woman in the world. Once there, she did not use it for personal gain, but rather risked her life to obey God. We will probably have an opportunity today, for the sake of serving God and others, to put the needs of someone else ahead of our own. Esther had such an opportunity, and she chose the needs of others. And because of that she became a world changer. Do you want to be a spectator or a world changer?

“LORD, make us world changers for You this day by choosing the needs of others over our own desires.”

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Esther 4 KJV

¹ When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; ² And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³ And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. ⁴ So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. ⁵ Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was , and why it was .  ⁶ So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the king’s gate. ⁷ And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. ⁸ Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. ⁹ And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. ¹⁰ Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; ¹¹ All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. ¹² And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words. ¹³ Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. ¹⁴ For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for sucha time as this? ¹⁵ Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer , ¹⁶ Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.  ¹⁷ So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.