"For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, 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."

Esther 4:14, RSV 

 

Have you ever had a day like this? Everything just seems to be going your way. You have the relationships you want, the job or position you want, and it even seems that for the first time in your life you are about to have all of the money you want... then something happens to threaten all of this. All of the plans you have made are finally coming to fruition, but somebody throws a monkey wrench into the works. Now you will either have to make a stand for the right thing and risk everything that you have worked for, or you will have to put your principles aside and ignore your God given duty and try to hold on to what you have.

 

Life can be a bummer sometimes!

 

This is precisely the situation that Esther finds herself in. Somehow, she has gone from being an obscure Jewish girl to being the Queen. She has power, position, freedom, and all of the comforts that money can buy!

 

It is good to be queen!

 

Then someone decides that they don't like the way a Jew treated them so they are going to have all of the Jews killed. Esther can be silent and let it happen - after all, she is Queen and nobody probably even knows that she is Jewish. On the other hand, Esther is Queen, and therefore in a position to at least try to stop the slaughter of her people. If she succeeds, she will save them all; but if she fails, they will all die anyway and she will lose her own life. What would you do?

 

At first, Esther wavers. She decides that she is just a young girl and what can a young girl do? She will be quiet and maybe no one will notice her. That's when her cousin Mordecai gives her the speech you read above. 

 

Don't you hate guys like this? Guys who will tell you the truth you need to hear instead of the lies you want to believe? But Mordecai tells Esther what she needs to hear, nonetheless, and Esther, an incredibly courageous woman of God, does the right thing. She risks her life and she... well you can read the ending for yourself.

 

But now I want to ask this question: "How about you?" Have you remained silent during the wholesale slaughter of babies that America has called "a woman's right to choose"? Have you remained silent as Christians are imprisoned for refusing to endorse the sin of homosexuality? Have you even let anyone at work or school know that you are a Christian for fear that you might be teased - or worse? Then welcome to the dilemma of Esther!

 

What should you do?

 

Do you speak and risk everything, or do you continue to remain silent and hope that no one notices you? Will you risk your own neck for the necks of your fellow Christians, or will you remain silent and jealously guard the few miserable physical things that you think that you have gotten on your own? Will you have the courage of a young girl, or will you shrink from all possible consequences?

 

It's a critical dilemma to solve for, who knows, maybe you were put exactly where you are right now... for a time such as this!

 

"Do not be afraid what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

the words of Jesus as recorded in Revelation 2:10, NIV 

 

Today is the third day of the 30 day challenge to read through the books of wisdom, with the book of Esther being the reading for today. May God richly bless you as you learn His will so that you might take the right stand for a time such as this!