Esther 4 | Courage by Faith
We want to believe that given the opportunity, we would act with courage. Faced with a challenge, we want to be the kind of people who respond with bravery. Such courage, Esther reminds us, is the willingness to risk it all for the good of others.
This chapter begins with Mordecai’s despair over the fate of his people (4:1-3). All of God’s people seemed doomed for destruction. Mordecai’s mourning came to Esther’s attention, and she tried to soothe him (4:4). Mordecai would not be comforted, but instead, he informed Esther of the plot against her people, and he challenged her to intercede with the king on their behalf (4:5-9). Esther knew that to go before the king would be to risk her own life (4:10-11). The deposing of Queen Vashti could not have been far from her mind.
Yet, Mordecai would not let Esther off the hook so easily, but challenged her: “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 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?” (4:13-14). Her life, Mordecai warned Esther, was already at risk whether or not she went before the king. Perhaps, Mordecai dared Esther, she had been put in this position for just this moment. Then, Esther resolved, “Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (4:16). She came to the point where she was willing to risk her life to identify with her people in order to intercede for them.
Such courage can come when we have confidence in God’s providential care. When we know that God is good, that he is in control, and that he is at work, we can be willing to risk it all to serve the vulnerable. Reading between the lines of 4:14, we can see Mordecai reminding Esther of God’s goodness and his activity in the world. Mordecai challenged her: “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.” God would bring another deliverer for his people if Esther failed to do her part. Mordecai displayed confidence in God’s care for his people. He also reminded Esther that it was God’s hand that brought her to this position: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14). She was not queen by chance but by God’s gracious providence. He put her in this position in order for her to intervene for her people. Esther’s response demonstrates that the courage she was about to display resulted from her faith in God. She instructed her people to hold a fast (4:16), and in the Old Testament, fasting was intimately connected with prayer. This seems to be a point where the author strained not to mention God, but just beneath the surface is Esther’s faith in God. Such faith fueled her courage to go before the king.
When we are challenged with the need for courage, we can have even greater confidence in God’s goodness and care because we can look to the cross of Christ. Jesus did not merely risk his life for us, but he gave his life to identify with his people. He so identified with us that he took on our nature, bore our sin, and died an atoning death. When we look to the cross, we see our God becoming like us so we could become like him. This gospel fuels our courage to give our lives to identify with those in need and to work for their good.
