Tags
Related Posts
Share This
Queen by Day, Risk-Taker by Night
Today’s passage focuses on Esther’s love for her Jewish people and how she risked her life to save her people. Esther, a Jewish woman raised by her cousin Mordecai, won King Xerxes’ favor and was crowned queen, though she had very few rights as queen, including limited access to King Xerxes. She kept her heritage a secret as well per Mordecai’s request, so that it would not create problems with the king.
Esther received knowledge (from Mordecai) that all of the Jewish people in the land would be killed for not following the law, according to false information that the king had received from his high official Haman. He was trying to destroy the Jews because Mordecai would not follow the king’s orders to bow down to the king’s officials.
Esther decided to risk her life and approach the king to plead for the lives of her people. When approaching the king without his request, Esther faced one of two results: being put to death or having the king’s gold scepter extended to spare her life. Because Esther had favor with the king, King Xerxes extended his scepter and offered Esther anything she wanted. Instead of making her request known immediately, Esther held off her request for two nights, choosing to dine with the king and Haman both nights. Finally, at the second dinner, Esther requested for the king to spare her people because they were wrongly chosen to be slaughtered. Since the king found Esther favorable, he honored her request, and the king put to death the person that wanted to slaughter the Jews – Haman.
God placed Esther in her position as queen to save the Jewish people. While Esther could not see (at the time) why her heritage should be kept a secret, God ultimately knew that a time would come where Esther would need to reveal her Jewish heritage in order to save her people. While we might not see God’s plan being formed in our own lives, God is always in control, and eventually we will see the outcome of His plan put in action.
Recent Comments