In the book of Esther, we read of a beautiful, young Jewish girl whose Hebrew name was Hadassah. She was sought out for her beauty as a wife for King Ahasuerus, the King of Persia.
Little did the King know - she was Jewish, not Persian. And little did Esther know, the King’s right-hand man, Haman, was plotting the death of ALL the Jews throughout Persia. But God knew it all…
Esther was being raised by her Uncle Mordecai, as both of her parents had died when she was an infant. They were fourth generation Jews in this “foreign” land. They longed for home, but going back seemed highly improbable, so they carried on as “strangers and sojourners.” But God made “a way of escape that they could bear it…”
As Esther learned of Haman’s plot to kill the Jews, she did exactly what she knew she needed to do… go boldly to the throne room and appeal to the King. Her Uncle Mordecai warned her that the future of the Jews very lives was dependent on her interceding on their behalf… “Perhaps you have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this. But if you don’t, God will provide a deliverance from another place.”
Esther’s response is one of complete courage - “I will go to him unsummoned (which could bring death). And if I perish, I perish.”
Esther did what was needed in such a dark and dangerous time. Haman was put to death on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai. This type of gallows was not a “hang by the neck gallows,” that we often see depicted in movies, but a spike gallows that the body was dropped on, impaling the body, with a slow, torturous death.
Friends, do we see the correlation to our time? As God so faithfully choreographed this entire true story, to the saving of the entire Jewish nation, so we, too, as Christ’s bride are “brought to the kingdom for such a time as this” to intercede on behalf of the saints that are struggling sojourners, weary and longing for Home, and being threatened with imminent death daily. May we rise up and be bold! Brave! And unafraid to plead our case before the King of kings. The Supreme Court isn’t going to save us, God is!
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