Esther Series – part 13

Pastor Eric A. Green

And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews.  He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction , which was given to Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.  So Hatach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 

Esther 4:7-9

Then Esther spoke to Hatach, and gave him a command for Mordecai:

"All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live.  Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days."

Esther 4:11

Esther's ascension to the throne was not an isolated event, but it was connected to the divine plan of God.  Are you aware that there is a divine reason for you being where you are? We are most often so caught up in the day-to-day that we miss divine appointments with regularity.  Are we taking full advantage of the opportunity to be the "salt of the earth" right where we live and work?  Like Esther, your blessings are not isolated events, but God's way of putting us "in play" in His enterprises.

Esther was elevated to the dazzling height of royalty, and she was set for life.  As long as she played the role of Queen Esther in a way acceptable to the king, life was as good as it could be for any young woman.  She, like any of us, would have loved to kick back and enjoy the blessings God had given her, and live a very nice life doing very nice deeds from her very nice position.  Only it was not to be - life has a way of messing up our nice and cozy plans!

Esther would have to take her life in her hands in order to help her people, and though she was reluctant to do so, she did.  She learned and displayed one of the primary lessons in ministry – self-sacrifice.  You see, we never learn to serve others as the Lord wills until we stop counting what it costs us.  As long as we worry about who will give us credit, how tired we are, or how much we have to put out, we will be of no use to God.  True ministry is never a matter of our convenience.  It always costs us something, perhaps even our lives.

Jesus puts it like this:

"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain."  John 12:24

He promises that if we forget about ourselves and emulate Him, our laid-down lives will be a pathway for many to live and prosper in the goodness of God.  And remember, God has a wonderful way of raising us up wherever we voluntarily lay our lives (and our rights) down for Him. Pray about it.

Love and perfect peace,

Pastor Eric