Day 5 – Esther’s Sacrifice
January 9, 2025
By Bishop Bill Donner, Pacific Conference
Scripture meditation: Esther 4:12-17
On the third day of her fasting, Esther stood alone in the inner court of the king’s palace. The risk was real; the stakes couldn’t be higher. Death threatened whoever approached the Persian King unbidden. Yet here she was, risking it all. But as she paused, her decision echoed again: “If I perish, I perish.” And with those words, she had peace.
Memories flashed through her. She was torn from home and swept into Xerxes’ harem. Horrible! She was set in the palace to be a plaything for a pagan man. Powerless! Why had God allowed it? She was forced to hide her Jewish identity, eating unclean food and even abandoning her name. Shameful!
In exchange, she had the ironic glory of being elevated as “queen.” Now, that was her entire life. All was safe if she did not rock the boat with this tempestuous king. Survival had become her philosophy. After all that was lost, she would cling with all she had to what she had won. So she thought.
This new normal was shattered when she heard from Mordecai. “We Jews have been sold out to be annihilated!” He even showed her his copy of the decree. It was already in motion. He had begged her to plead for her people. He said, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, 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?”
And here was the tipping point. The only way she could make purpose of her life was to agree with Mordecai; this risk gave meaning to her humiliation and her exaltation. After all she had lost, she suddenly knew she had not lost her faith. “If I perish, I perish,” she had told Mordecai. And with that thought, she swept into the king’s chamber.
Esther’s broken life suddenly came together when she was called to risk her comfort and her safe (but false) identity to save her people. The king received her that day, and it set off a chain of dramatic events that delivered the Jews throughout the empire.
Like Esther, we too are tempted to hide behind being respectable. But in risking her safety Esther was revealed as a true queen. In the story of Esther, risk unlocked the possibility for God’s redemption. Will you take risky steps of faith to open the door for God to touch the lives of those around you?
Prayer
Father, I pray that you would make me like Esther. Help me to lay aside what seems safe. Show me where to invest who I am into the lives of others. Lord, raise me up to know that I have come “for such a time as this.” Work through my brokenness to redeem! Amen.