Daily Lesson for September 24, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Esther chapter 4 verses 9 through 17:

9 Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. 10Then 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 sceptre to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.’ 12When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, 13Mordecai 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. 14For 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.’ 15Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, 16‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ 17Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

This is one of the most well known passages in all the Bible, with the famous words of Mordecai, “Perhaps you have come to this place for just such a time as this,” (another translation) topped only by the strength and courage of Esther’s words, “If I perish, I perish.”

As famous as this scene is, I don’t know that I ever noticed how Esther asked her cousin Mordecai to ask all the Jews everywhere to fast for the three days leading up to the day when she has decided to enter her husband the king’s throne room. Esther has chosen to speak up.  She knows that either way this shall be a fateful decision. She asks her people to help her, to strengthen and uphold her. Though Esther will have walk by herself into the presence of the king, many will walk with her in the presence of the LORD.

Here today is a reminder to pray for one another, especially for those who dare to live with courage and with conviction. Not all can go before the king. Some have more access and power than others. Some have more possibility than others. Some simply cannot speak; others would not be heard. But all can pray; and all should pray. 

And the one who goes before governors and kings and courts and boards and the powers that be goes girded in the strength and prayers of the whole people.