Day 266.
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:14-16 ESV)
When the Jews are threatened Mordecai, a Jew, goes to tell Queen Esther do that she, also a Jew, might appeal to the king. But the laws in the land forbid anyone coming before the king without first being summoned. If the king does not extend the royal scepter, then death is the sentence. In Esther’s case, it has been 30 days since being called into the king’s presence, a sign that she is currently out of his favor. She is scared to do what Mordecai has asked. His response is moving,
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
God’s salvation will come to His people one way or another for God will not be thwarted. And while He could save by any means, He chooses to work through His people. We are invited to participate in His mission; to know the camaraderie of soldiers and the fruit of victory; to have a deeper appreciation for His saving and guiding hand.
Esther’s response, though scared, models the attitude we too must have, “if I perish, I perish.”
Lord, you have commissioned us to advance against the gates of Hell and set your prisoners, scattered throughout the world, free by making disciples. This threatens our standing among peers, our plans to pursue our own riches, and invites others to see us as standing against the direction of our culture. Help us to have the attitude of Esther, if we perish we perish. Thank you for including us in this great work of redemption, that we might know the power of the resurrection!
