August 22, 2008
Hadassah was a young woman. How old? Most likely between the ages of 13 and 20. She hadn’t had an easy life. War had taken her parents. She lived with a loving uncle. And then she found out she was going to be in a beauty pageant.
The prize? Daily facials and manicures and beauty treatments. No snaggly toes for this girl. She had access to the most beautiful clothes. She could be a fashionista, if she chose.
But if she won the pageant, she became Queen.
Hadassah stood before the king, and he picked her.
Her lucky day. Her life was easy now, right?
Except that a bad guy enters this story: Haman. He wants to kill her uncle because he refused to bow to him, and he’s power hungry, and now he wants to nix all the Jews in the land because that’s just the kind of guy that he is.
No one knows that Esther is a Jew, not even the king. Mordechi asks if she will appeal to her husband and save the Jews.
If she approaches the king, she might die. Only 7 men in the entire country had permission to walk into his presence uninvited. And second, if she told him she was a Jew, would he order her to be killed?
Haman built a gallows 75 feet high. He delighted in the king’s favor, and rubbed his hands together, anticipating the moment he could hang the old guy named Mordechi that refused to bow to him at the city gate.
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:4 (New King James)
That’s what Uncle Mordechi said.
And that’s where Hadassah, now called Queen Esther, made one bold move.
Funny, but through this entire story, she was the only one who grew in personality and in her faith.
The King stayed the same. Yeah, he was powerful because of his station in life, but the guy was like a boomerang. People could convince him to do things he later regretted.
Haman started as a bad guy, and just kept revealing his not-so-nice side.
Mordachi remained a man of convictions.
But Esther, under tremendous pressure, discovered what she was made of. She started out as a girl, but ended the story as a hero to an entire nation of Jews. She risked her life. She revealed her faith to a powerful men and her enemy. She allied with good over evil.
I love that scripture. “For such a time as this”.
Sometimes it’s easier to remain quiet and just hope that it all works out, but are we called to “easy”?
I doubt if anyone reading this today will have to risk their life to save a nation, but maybe the one bold move is letting those you care about know that you are a believer. Or maybe it’s standing against a wrong committed against someone who doesn’t deserve it, even though you might pay the price for defending that person. Or maybe it’s just growing in spite of feelings or circumstances.
One bold move. What does that mean to you today?
Judi says:
This was awesome!
-Judi
Lynn says:
Suzie,
Thanks for the reminder that without one bold move things will stay the same and so will we!
-Lynn
Debbie says:
I LOVED this devo! It’s one of my favorites that you ever wrote. <3
Debbie