“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 royal position for such a time as this?”
– Esther 4:14
Hi James and Ellen,
It is in God’s hands. It is what it is. If I die, I die. How fatalistic are you? Are you a defeatist? Does everything invariably go wrong for you? How do you respond in untenable circumstances? How do you respond to unassailable situations? A 2,490 year old real life case model gives cues to how to react to a very problematic life crisis that will surface vulnerability. When Haman – an egotistic Persian noble, was spited by Mordecai – a principled Jew people group commoner, when Mordecai snubbed him by not giving him the special tribute that he thought that he really deserved – which would have had Mordecai bowing down to him, this megalomaniac who King Xerxes – who was the king at this time who reigned over the guys and gals who lived in the country of Persia – or Iran today, promoted to be his right hand guy, drafted an edict – that he had King Xerxes approve, that explicitly mandated that every guy, gal and kid who was a Jew who was living in a Persian occupied territory be killed. Esther 4 narrates what Mordecai did when he learned of Haman’s diabolical, fiendish scheme – which was being driven by his upright response to Haman’s self-centered conceit resulting in him wanting to totally annihilate all Jew people group guys, gals and kids. Mordecai immediately tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and sprinkled himself with ashes. Mordecai then went to where Persia’s kings’ winter palace was located in the city of Susa – which was where King Xerxes was staying, and to the king’s gate where he wailed bitterly and loudly. Mordecai was not alone in his mourning response to the diktat that Haman had King Xerxes sign off on; Jews – who are God’s specially chosen guys and gals, in every Persian occupied province began to fast, weep, wail, wear sackcloth and lie in ashes. What would you do if you learned that a presidential positioned bureaucrat – who had for one reason or another internalized a deep seated hatred for guys, gals and kids who are Christ-followers, induced or hoodwinked your President into signing a bill that stated that if any guy, gal or kid is found to be a Christ-follower, that he or she is to be executed? If you are thinking that this cannot possibly ever happen to you during your God-ordained, fleeting planet Earth assigned duties as citizens of a county – like the country in which you are living in right now, that is proud of its heritage and historical freedoms – including the freedom to freely worship God, you could be allowing yourselves to be duped. There is a demonic influence that is easily capable of deceitfully persuading a guy or gal to adopt an authoritarian leadership style which if that kind of dictatorial mode is taken on by an elected official – such as a President, it will mean the elimination of all the freedoms that you are now experiencing – such as in the country in which you are now living. Because of the seemingly very deliberate, methodical ruination today of the private business sector by an elite number of self-serving decision makers, the critical populace mass of your country has become beholden to the entitlement traps that are being established by these government officials to insure their own reelections.
As in most stories, there is an incident that becomes the catalyst for the narrative. Two feasts begin the story. King Xerxes has a feast to celebrate his wealth and power. Queen Vashti has a feast to celebrate her role. When a ‘drunk’ King Xerxes sends his seven eunuchs to get Queen Vashti – as he wants to show off Queen Vashti’s raving beauty to his cohorts, Queen Vashti refuses her husband’s request which leads King Xerxes to depose Queen Vashti for life from ever getting the chance to be in his presence again and for King Xerxes to do a countrywide search for the most stunningly beautiful gal to replace Queen Vashti as his wife. Of all the eligible gals who were available to replace Queen Vashti, a young, orphaned Jew gal – whose name was Esther, is selected. Queen Esther grew up in the home of a cousin – who just happens to be Mordecai. When Queen Esther is told that Mordecai is at the king’s gate making a ‘fool’ of himself, Queen Esther sends Hathach – her king assigned eunuch, to the king’s gate to find out why Mordecai is there. After Mordecai gives Hathach a copy of Haman’s letter that pronounces the pending eradication of his people group – the Jews or God’s specially chosen guys and gals, Mordecai asks Hathach to urge Queen Esther to go before King Xerxes to plead for his mercy on his and on her people group of guys and gals. Queen Esther’s response to her cousin is that if she approaches King Xerxes without King Xerxes first asking her to come before him – which he has not done in the previous thirty days, and that unless he extends his gold scepter towards her, King Xerxes will have her killed. Verse 14 is Mordecai’s incentive for his beloved cousin to . . ., “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 royal position for such a time as this?””
If you know that there is a good chance of being killed by either of two options that you have to choose from and that the one option that you are encouraged to make breaks a law, which option would you choose? Even though Esther knew what she had to do – which was to go to King Xerxes to ask him to show mercy on her people group of Jew guys and gals, would break a King Xerxes in-house law, Esther’s answer was ‘and if I perish, I perish.’ Would you pull an Esther even if it means being killed for defying a law that was made to keep you from worshipping God.
Esther 4 (1166)