The Time to Decide
Esther 4 :8-16
10. and Esther gave him this message to take back to Mordecai :
11. “if anyone, man or woman, goes to the inner courtyard and sees the king without being summoned, that person must die. That is the law; everyone, from the King’s advisers to the people in the provinces, knows that. There is only one way to get around this law: if the king holds out his gold scepter to someone, then that person’s life is spared.
Mordecai “offended” Haman and as a result Haman decided to do more than punish Mordecai alone. He made plan to kill all the Jews in the whole of the Persian Empire. On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, all Jews were to be killed. They were to be slaughtered without mercy and their belongings were to be taken.
This was a serious trouble for Israelites, wherever this proclamation was made known, there was loud mourning among the Jews. The Israelites fasted, wept, wailed, and most of them put on sackcloth and laid in ashes. The Israelites need an urgent saviour.
Mordecai had no choice than to send message to Queen Esther, his cousin to take their case to the king so that she would plead on behalf of the Jews. This was one of the greatest decisions Queen Esther had to make. Her decision to give excuse rather than to move into action at once reveals who she loved more, the king or her people. Suddenly Queen Esther remembered the rules and the protocols. “You see, anyone that appears before the king without invitation will be killed.” Excuses upon excuses.
Now let’s rewind a bit, Esther 2 :22 “Mordecai learned about it and told Queen Esther, who then told the king what Mordecai had found out. Here there was a plot to assassinate King Xerxes, Mordecai informed Queen Esther about it and Queen Esther immediately appeared before the king without invitation and without bothering about all the risks involved. Because of the ‘love’ she had for the king, she was ready to risk her life.
Queen Esther was aware that the honor she had as a queen was all because of the king. She realized that if the king dies, she would cease to be queen, and lose all the acolades attached to her ‘office’ as the queen. She was going to lose all the attention the people usually give to her. So she reasoned, the king must not die. Before going to see the king, she didn’t remember the rules and protocols. She didn’t remember to tell the Jews to fast and pray for her; without a second thought, she was ready to die for the king.
For her to help the Israelites, Mordecai had to persuade her before she accepted to appear before the king. No wonder Mordecai told her “if you keep quiet at a time like this…” when they wanted to assassinate the king, she wasn’t quite.
Just like the way Queen Esther was in her comfort zone before Mordecai spoke up. Are you not like her? It’s none of our business as long as our church is not affected, let them keep killing Christians in other places. Thousands of sinners are dying daily but we are not ready to leave our comfort zones for evangelism. Queen Esther believed as long as the King’s life was secure, it meant nothing if all the Jews died.
Are we not like Queen Esther? As long as things are going well for me, it doesn’t matter if a smoker dies in his smoking, if harlot dies in her prostitution, if an unbeliever dies in his unbelief, if a sinner dies in his sins.
The time to take a stand between evangelism or watching television 10 hours each day; between propagating the gospel and pressing phone for 5 hours in a day; between interceding for sinners and engaging in unnecessary discussions and arguments; between doing morning evangelism and thinking about those you won’t greet, between preaching in the bus, airport, market, street, house to house to sinners and discussing politics. This is the time to make a decision between rescuing God’s people and enjoying in your comfort zone.
Mordecai told Queen Esther “maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen.” Prior to this, she had thought she became queen so that she can rescue the king. She didn’t realise that she became a queen so that she can rescue God’s people. That blessing, position, authority, wisdom, knowledge, gift, money or power was given to you so that you would use it to propagate the gospel. All you have is God’s property in your care, use it for promoting the Gospel of Christ.
Queen Vashti failed and was replaced, Queen Esther too would have failed if she hadn’t retraced her steps promptly. I pray that the work God has placed in your care will not be replaced in Jesus name.
Also Read: 4 Things That Make Your Prayer Ineffectual
Rotimi Israel is a writer and a teacher of God’s word. He attended the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Bible School. He is also currently training as a pastor with a Pentecostal denomination. He loves reading the Bible and preaching.
