Esther 4:14 (ESV) - 14 For
if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for
the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will
perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?”
(WHOLE CHAPTER)
Sometimes God calls people to stand up, and sometimes, to sit down
and claim what is right. Late in the day on a public transportation bus
in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, the bus driver asked an
African-American woman to move to the back of the bus so that a white
man could sit down. Forty-two-year-old Rosa Parks refused. Years later
she wrote:
When I sat down on the bus that day, I had no idea history was
being made—I was only thinking of getting home. But I had made up my
mind. After so many years of being a victim of the mistreatment my
people suffered, not giving up my seat—and whatever I had to face
afterwards—was not important. I did not feel any fear sitting there. I
felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to
face. It was time for someone to stand up—or in my case, sit down. So I
refused to move.
Five centuries before Christ, another woman made a bold move to
prevent the persecution––in fact the annihilation––of her people. Esther
was a Jewish woman among the population of thousands of Jews living in
Persia (modern day Iran). When the Persian king married her, Esther was
in a providential spot. One day she learned of a secret plot to
annihilate all the Jews living in Persia.
She could approach her husband, the king, but at great personal risk. That was when a cousin challenged her: “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14).
Providence is not displayed on billboards. God’s call is not like a
siren arresting everybody’s attention. Our place in God’s plan is
sometimes an actual physical spot we occupy.
For Rosa Parks it was a bus seat. For Esther it was the palace of the
king. For any of us, “the right place at the right time” could be a
phone call tomorrow that opens a new opportunity, an injustice we
witness that we speak up about, meeting a person who becomes a
significant work partner.
The question is: How will we react when it is our turn for “such a time as this”?
PONDER: What kind of fear, hesitation, or doubt might hold you back from
doing the right thing when you are the right person at the right time
in the right place to make a difference?
REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION:
During the time of Esther, the law decreed that people could not
enter the court of the King unless they were summoned. When Esther
received disturbing news from her cousin Mordecai about a plan to kill
all of the Jews in the land, this law put her in a very difficult spot,
and she had a huge decision to make. Would she speak up for her people?
Or would she remain silent out of fear?
Read the conversation between Mordecai and Esther in Esther 4:12-16.
Why was Esther afraid to speak up about this horrible plan to the King?
When has it been hard for you to speak up about what is right? Why is it
important for us to speak up for what we know is right?
No comments:
Post a Comment