Today's Daily Lesson comes from Esther chapter 4 verses 10 through 14:
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.” 12 When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, 13 Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
"Thank you, your Honor; and may it please the Court . . ."
Saturday night we watched "On the Basis of Sex" as a family in honor and memory of the recently-passed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It tells the story of her rise as a young law student then trial attorney, dedicated to ending discrimination based on sex and gender.
RBG was a modern Esther -- two women called for just such times as the one in which they lived.
We mourn Justice Ginsburg's passing. But we also believe, with Mordecai in today's lesson, that more women like her and Esther are to come from "other quarters".
Many scholars have pointed out that there is no miracle in the book of Esther. I disagree. While there is no supernatural feat, there is the miracle of a person rising up -- perhaps with fear and trepidation -- but rising up nonetheless, to speak with courage and conviction.
May the miracle happen again -- for just such a time as this.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow we begin reading Nehemiah chapters 1-5.
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