Take me to the King

Her heart began to race. The words her cousin had just said echoed throughout her mind. The Jews were to be killed. There was no mistaking the message that had just come to her. But what could she do? She was a Jew, living in a Persian palace, but no one knew her identity. How could she stop this? She sent a message back to her cousin, expressing her concerns. Eternity seemed to pass before she got the reply, and when she got it, she knew that life was going to change forever...

This week, I had been thinking of the story of Esther. It's kind of ironic, especially as in two weeks, Jews will be celebrating the festival of Purim. 

In the story of Esther, we hear of a young Jewish woman who marries a Persian King. However her identity as a Jew is unknown to the king. Amongst the King's officials is a man called Haman who agrees with the king, to have all of the Jews living there killed as they do not follow the king's laws. Haman constructed this lie to have the Jews killed for his own gain, since earlier Esther's cousin refused to bow to him. Mordecai, Esther's cousin, hears of this and passes this information to her. If Esther reveals her identity to save her people she could die! But Mordecai says something to Esther that changes the course of history.'Who knows, but perhaps you have been given a royal position for just such a time as this?' Immediately, Esther tells Mordecai to tell the people to fast as she is going to go before the king.

Reading this story this week has challenged. Sometimes I can be very passive and it's usually in the middle of a crisis. Once I was walking down with the road with a friend and in the corner of my eye I could see a car quickly approaching us. It jumped the curb and stopped. So did we. There was no screaming and running away from the danger. In our fear we froze, but by the grace of God the car didn't hit us. I'm the person who would be on the Titanic, moping in the corner upon hearing that the ship is sinking. In times of a crisis I freeze. But this story has challenged me to do a number of things:

1) Pray
Now this may be the most obvious one, forgive me. But when in the midst of my fear, and I am still as a statue, prayer can be a difficult task. I really have to encourage myself to get my lips to move! Matthew 7:7 reads Ask and it shall be given unto you. Philippians 4 speaks of making our request known to God. We need to bring our troubles to God. When the Jews heard of Haman's plans, they didn't just sit in the corner and weep. They prayed and they fasted. They did something about where they was. They brought it to God. In prayer we also get wisdom from God about what to do. Which leads us nicely to the next point :)

2) Look for the solution
In the midst of the crisis I usually think 'well what am I supposed to do now?' Often times we need to speak to people with more wisdom in a certain area. Or speak to a person in position who can do something about it.  Mordecai decides to go and speak to his cousin, Esther. She is in a prime position to do something. Esther also makes the decision to go and speak to the king and she does it with such wisdom. 

3) Trust in God
This last point runs through the last two points, for we won't do them if we have no faith. Praying and looking for the solution requires such faith. As Esther went before the king, it was possible that he would order her death, as no one could just approach the king. She had to trust in God. However, I love what Mordecai says to Esther before she goes to the king. "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish."  Mordecai believed that God would deliver them.

Hebrews 11:6 reads that without faith we cannot please God. We have to believe He is who He says He is, and that He will reward those who diligently seek Him. We must believe. In a time where there are many wars and disasters...a lot of national crises as well as personal crises we must believe. James says that faith without works is dead, so we can not be passive, but active. What are we doing? As Haman wasn't shy to execute a plan to kill all of the Jews, the enemy isn't shy in bringing about things to destroy our hope. In the midst of a crisis what are we going to do about it?

.....Take me to the King...