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Scripture for the day: Esther 4:8-14 Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people. So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.
Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.
Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
Thought for the day: Have you ever been subjected to one of those mind games where they give you an apparently impossible situation and you’re supposed to figure out the solution? You know the ones; they’re designed to make you feel foolish when the simple answer is given. You’ve got hens, a fox, some feed, and a boat. You must cross the river but there’s not enough room for all of you in the boat. If you leave the hens with the fox, he’ll eat them while you’re gone. The conundrum is: how do you get all of them across the river without losing any? I really dislike those puzzles because, after I’ve thought for all of two or three minutes my answer is almost always: I’d kill the fox; I have no use for it anyway and the chickens I can at least eat later on.
That’s somewhat like the man who headed off to church in his brand new two-seater convertible. He had the top up because the rain was coming down in near-record amounts. As he drove along he saw three people standing by the roadside huddled under an umbrella that was altogether too small to keep them from getting soaked to the skin. The man slowed down to look and suddenly realized who these folks were. The man was old doctor Jones, the local GP, who’d correctly diagnosed a rare and deadly disease the man had contracted the year before. The man owed Doctor Jones his life. Beside him was his wife and daughter, a girl the man was powerfully attracted to. He knew he couldn’t just drive on by but with only one seat, who was he to pick up?
Unlike the fox and chickens puzzle, this man’s problem was easily solved. He pulled over next to the curb, jumped out of the car, tossed the keys to Dr. Jones, helped his wife into the passenger seat and gladly huddled under the umbrella with the daughter.
Well, Esther must have felt like she was in a similar situation when Mordecai sent her the distressing message that all Jews in the kingdom were to be destroyed on a certain day. If she went to the king she could die for not having been invited. If she didn’t go she might die anyway, simply for being a Jew. What to do? What to do?
Like the man in our story, Esther’s response was actually pretty simple; she had to approach the king and ask for mercy. She said, “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
So what’s the point to the whole story? There ought to be a point, don’t you think? It’s just this: the Lord has a way of putting us in positions where our cooperation with him is the only way out. And isn’t it amazing what happens when we stop fighting and starting working with Him? As one preacher put it: God’s sovereignty and our action so often go hand in hand.
Now go take on your world. - Bill