HEROES OF FAITH: ESTHER

I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish! Esther 4:16

by Mark Finley

     Have you ever grieved over your background? Have you wished your early childhood was different? Have you felt you were born with three strikes against you? Esther certainly could have. She was orphaned at an early age and brought up by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
     Esther never knew her real parents. She was a Jew in a foreing land, brought up in a hostile environment as part of the despised minority. When Vashti, the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, embarassed him, Esther was one of the manyyoung women brought into the harem and put in the custody of the king's eunuch. A corrupt palace lifestyle in the ancient world was hardly conductive to Esther's faith.
     Mordecai kept his eye on her, even in the king's palace. He urged her to keep her ethnic background hidden. For a year Esther was trained in the life of the harem. When she finally made her appearance before the king, he "loved Esther more than all the the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins" (Esther 2:17). Enamored with her beauty, poise, and character, Ashuerus immediately apponted her as his new queen.
     What was God's strategy in all of this? Why was Esther exalted to such a key position? Haman, one of the king's princes, hatched a plan to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. Every Jew was to be slaughtered.
     Mordecai overheard rumors of the plot. He appealed to Esther to speak out. "If you remain completely silent at this time," he said, "relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
     Esther met the challenge, and God responded. Thanks to her courageous attittude, God's people were delivered.
     In the divine drama of detiny, God has placed you in the world for a time such as this. We did not choose to live in the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is God's doing. Like Esther, we have been called to the kingdom for a time such as this.
     God calls us to faithfulness. No matter what are our backgrounds, He wants us to be loyal to Him. Esther made a powerful difference in her world. We can make a difference in ours today.
     Take on today with courage. You are God's man, God's woman, God's youth, destined to live at this time, this day, to make a difference for Him.