A Word in Season: For Such a Time as This (Esther 4:13–14)

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Esther's life was in danger. She was at great risk for a number of reasons.

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The enemy of the Jewish people at the time, Haman, had secured an edict from King Ahasuerus to bring about the destruction of the

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Jewish people, and Esther was in the firing line together with all her people. And then there was what

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Mordecai had asked her to do, the prospect of approaching the King Ahasuerus unbidden.

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And even though she was his queen, there was no guarantee that she would be received, and to approach unbidden and to be rejected meant death.

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And Esther was, understandably, troubled. She thought about what was at stake, and she argued back to Mordecai that perhaps this wasn't the right way and this wasn't the right time.

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And Mordecai gave an answer to Esther that still contains much of value for God's people today.

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He said to her, There are many occasions in our lives as God's people when we have opportunities or we see duties that may seem oppressive to us.

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There may be distinct dangers that we face or particular pressures that we have to wrestle through, and it's very easy for us at times to think that if we can just keep our heads down maybe we'll be okay.

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There are battles perhaps that we say that we don't need to fight. We tell ourselves that this isn't the hill that we need to die on.

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We hope that if we can just play our cards right then perhaps the storm will pass us by, and the warnings and the exhortations that Mordecai gave to Esther in the palace of King Ahasuerus need to come down to us and apply to us still.

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Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other

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Jews. There may be many of us who enjoy certain privileges, we have many blessings, and yet if we are

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God's people then there is something in which we must share with them.

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We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of heaven, and too often perhaps we think that we might be the ones who will escape the disdain or the dangers that are associated with faithfulness to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. But that is not the case, even though some more prominent than us, perhaps more public or vocal in their attachment to Christ might be first in the line, nevertheless the assault, the distaste, the persecution, the antagonism of the world towards God's people, it will eventually catch up with us.

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And then the second thing is to remember that God has his ways and means of delivering his people.

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If you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from the

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Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. I'm not going to suggest for a moment that that means that God will cast off people, his own people, his true sons and daughters who are in some way cowardly, but if we do not speak up when there is righteousness at stake, if we do not preach the gospel when the gospel needs to be declared, if we do not honour

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God when all others dishonour God, if we will not exalt Christ when he is trampled,

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God's church will not be destroyed, God's church will not be swept away. God knows how to bring relief and deliverance for his people, but our names and our churches may not survive that time of testing.

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And so here is the exhortation, the question, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

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You may be saying, I wouldn't have chosen this time, I wouldn't have chosen this place,

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I wouldn't have chosen these duties and these opportunities. No, but this is the time and the place and these the opportunities and the duties that the

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Lord God of heaven has granted to us. Ours is not to choose the where and the when and the how, but to choose what is right in the sight of God and to do what pleases him.

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So as we go out of our doors today, as we go about our business, as we look at the world around us with all its pressures and pains, all its trials and threats and tribulations, let us remember that it is in God's providence that we have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.