One of my favorite Bible stories is of a simple Jewish woman who found her place in history by merely being herself. Queen Esther's quiet spirit of obedience gave her favor with God and with man. Because she found favor with the King, God used her to save her condemned nation.
Esther was beautiful, but so were the other virgins brought to the palace when King Ahasuerus of Shushan sought to replace his wife Queen Vashti. Vashti had angered him by refusing to come when he wanted to show off her beauty to his court and visitors. The King's counselors warned that she set a bad example for all wives in the kingdom and advised him to dispose of her.
Every good story has a villain. In this one, his name is Haman. The King promoted Haman above all the other princes, second only to himself. Haman advised the king to make a decree to kill every Jew in the nation at a specific time because they followed their own laws and refused to bow down and worship him as the King's most powerful prince. The king agreed and made the decree. He had no idea that his beloved Esther was a Jew. She had kept this to herself.
Her uncle, Mordecai sent word to her of this plan and told her she must make a plea to the king for the sake of her nation. She sent word to Mordecai that, "All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces know, that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except him to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days." (Esther 4:11, Webster Ed.)
Mordecai responded, "Do not think within yourself that you shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if you are completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:13,14 NKJV) These words were not wasted on Queen Esther. Through the fasting, prayers, and God's grace she found favor when she entered the king's presence, and ultimately saved her people.
Esther was a woman of destiny. Like you and I, she was God's woman for her time. The same can be said when God asks any of us to do something for Him. We can allow fear to cause us to miss an opportunity to serve our generation. Or we can overcome our fear, grab hold of our destiny, and change our world.
-by Dr. Sharon Schuetz
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