{day 6} When the Kidnapped Becomes Deliverer

She sat alone. Her face wet with tears. Why had she been chosen? Out of all the women he could have, why did Xerxes care about her?

I’m just a girl, she thought, Just a Jewish orphan. It was a truth she kept quiet. What would the king do if he found out the women he’d chosen to be his queen was one of his captives? Mordecai had told her to tell no one and she had not.

And now, she sat as queen in this palace, the seat of the most powerful empire in the world, helpless.

Sheer curtains billowed as she perched by the window, her thoughts pacing back and forth. A handmaiden stood nervously by the door. Wasn’t it  just the other day when she’d heard of Mordecai’s wild mourning? She had sent clothes, but they were returned.

With the cause of such despair unknown, Esther sent Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, to discover her uncle’s trouble. When he returned, his eyes betrayed him. She knew the cause was grave indeed.

Her people were being led to the slaughter. A decree signed by her husband’s own hand numbered their days. Will I survive? she had wondered.

But there was more. Mordecai had asked her to petition the king, though his wife it was a death sentence to appear uninvited.

“It’s been 30 days since I was invited…” was the message she sent back to Mordecai.

Heaviness settled over her as she remembered his reply,

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.“

Esther sighed and when the heaviness expelled, she knew what she must do.

“Summon Hathach. I am ready to send a message to my uncle.”

With one last look across the garden, Esther’s eyes rested on a small myrtle tree. Hadassah.

“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

The Lord has been with our Fathers–Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has promised good to us, perhaps…perhaps deliverance will come through me.

“Your Highness, what message shall I send?”

“Tell Mordecai to go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

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Even though Esther was made queen, she wrestled with the providence of God, her position as a women, and as a Jew. She felt insignificant. She wasn’t the beloved wife of the king. She was his property. Stolen from the streets when her predecessor was banished, Esther was just one of many women for Xerxes to freely choose.

A captive in Babylon, an orphan, a young girl, she looked at her life through mortal eyes. Perhaps she thought this was just one more judgment on the exiles.

Even with the annihilation of her people at stake, Esther was bound in insignificance until she met the truth. Mordecai spoke severely, but honestly, to her. His words remain as a reminder that God is faithful even when his people are not.

And so, for three days Esther met the Lord on her knees. When it was time to make her petition, she spoke convincingly with power,

“If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.”

If Esther had stayed in fear, wondering what would happen if she approached the king uninvited, would she have been able to make such a bold request? No, it wasn’t until she came to see God as her deliverer and portion that she could approach an earthly throne with confidence.

What about you? Where are you looking at life with mortal eyes?

What is God calling you to do that can only be done in His strength?

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We’re on day 6 of a 31 day journey. Join in at 31 Days of Significance.

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