Today’s encouraging word will be taken from the Book of Esther. Esther, in chapter number four, we are really only going to read a couple of verses here to get to the point of the encouraging word. But you remember roughly the book of Esther.

THE significance of the Book of Esther is that it testifies to the secret watch care of Jehovah over dispersed Israel. The name of God does not once occur, but in no other book of the Bible is His providence more conspicuous. A mere remnant returned to Jerusalem. The mass of the nation preferred the easy and lucrative life under the Persian rule. But God did not forsake them.

C. I. Scofield, Ed., The Scofield Reference Bible: The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments, (New York; London; Toronto; Melbourne; Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1917), 558.

The Book of Esther is basically broken up into seven parts: in chapter one you have the story of Vashti, the Persian queen, the Gentile queen, if you will, and she gets taken out of the way. And then they begin the process of finding a new queen. And of course, Esther ends up being that queen, being a Jew. So the Gentile queen is replaced by a Jewish bride. And we won’t get into all the types and things about all that stuff. We don’t have time for that in an encouraging word, but then you have the conspiracy of Haman, and that’s here in chapter four.

That is what we have here with Haman, he was jealous of the Jews. He was more specifically mad at Mordecai, which was Esther’s uncle; because he wouldn’t bow down to him and give him the honor that he felt he deserved and had actually received a royal writ for, that he was supposed to receive. Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him. But, you know, it was more than just that, because Haman wasn’t just trying to take out Mordecai, he wanted to take out all the Jews. That’s what you have going on here. And of course, back in these times, you know, you couldn’t just come up and talk to the king just because you wanted to. You know, you see all these shows now, you know, they have you know, the king sits in his big room and all these people come in, you know, with their chickens and their sheep and their goats and, and their complaints and, and all this stuff and everything. But, you know, you couldn’t just approach the king without being summoned to the king. If you did, then he could quite literally take your head off. So it was a big thing. So Mordecai gets wind that Haman has talked the king into writing this decree out that on a specific day, they were going to have everybody in every province across the kingdom, and they were going to attack, obliterate, and kill the Jews.

Mordecai got wind of this and Long story short, he ends up getting a message to Esther. And tells Esther what she needs to do is she needs to go and speak up for her people to the king. And of course, she was afraid to do that, and she was afraid to do that because of the reasons that I just mentioned. She hadn’t been called to stand in front of the king or to be in his audience, so to speak, for quite some time. And she couldn’t just show up just because she was a queen. She couldn’t just show up and just say, well, I’m the Queen. I’m going to do whatever I want. You know, she wasn’t Cersei Lannister. Couldn’t just do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She had to be called. And she hadn’t been.

So she was afraid to do that. So she’s like, you know, I don’t know about all that, Mordecai. I mean, I mean, you’ve never steered me wrong before. You took care of me my entire life and raised me like your own daughter and gave me good counsel and everything. And I ended up in the position that I’m in now. All because of your counsel and everything. All right. You got wind that somebody was going to try to kill the king, and you got that message through, and. And you saved the king’s life. And I know all these things about you, Mordecai, but this time I’m not so sure. And that’s where we find ourselves here in Esther chapter four. And we’ll look at verses 13 and 14 specifically here this morning.

Esther 4:13–14

13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.

14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: …

So he’s saying, well, you know, if you keep quiet and you don’t do what God has is commanding us for you to do, and you don’t do what his will is in your life, the Lord will find another way to get it done. But you’re going to pay a price for not doing what you were supposed to do. Okay. That’s what he’s telling her in a nutshell here.

And then he says this. And this is what I really want to key in on here for a few moments:

Esther 4:14

14 … and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Mordecai’s reply to Esther’s was straight to the point. It was straight to the point. She’s not going to escape when the rest of the Jews were slain, if she were to keep her mouth shut, even though she was a queen if she refused to act, somebody else would be lifted up to deliver the people. But she would still have to suffer those consequences. And maybe this is why she was put in the place that she was put in in the first place.

And those words in verse 14 should challenge each and every single one of us, because who knows whether we are come For such a time as this. Who knows if whatever it is that you’re going through in your life. You weren’t put into the position that you’re in, whether it’s a leadership position, whether it’s you’re talking work or you’re talking relationships or you’re just talking about situational whatever situation you find yourself in. Who knows? If you weren’t put into that position just for such a time as this.

And that’s really the question. Look, it’s easy to tell other people not to worry about their circumstances. You tell people, don’t worry about things. You know, God’s in control, and God will take care of you and all those things. It’s really easy to tell other people that. It’s easy to tell ourselves that too, when things are going good. But when things aren’t going so good, it’s really easy to lose sight of that. It’s easy to get all bogged down and and just just quite honestly, just to be fearful about some things and be worried about some things.

Proverbs 29:25

25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

We worry and we fret and we complain about different financial situations or work situations, health situations, whatever it might be. Whatever storm that we happen to be going through. We get all discouraged and worried and just wish that there was just some way that the Lord would just miraculously just transport us out of this, this situation now out of this time and and transport us to a different time and just pull us out of this storm and things.

A lot of Christians say that they’re happy and they can’t wait for the rapture. But the problem is, the reason they’re happy and can’t wait for the rapture is because they’re looking at that as their escape plan. They just want to get out of this mess. They’re not looking forward to the rapture because of what it actually means and what it actually represents and what it actually is going to allow to occur. That’s not why they’re looking forward to the rapture.

They’re not looking forward to the rapture because the Lord’s going to call his believers out, and he’s going to be able to set up and prepare for him to be able to take the kingdom which is rightfully his, which is the actual theme of the entire Bible. You know, the theme of the Bible isn’t your salvation. The theme of the Bible isn’t Gentiles. The theme of the Bible is the fact that the Jewish king is going to get the kingdom and rule and reign in the kingdom.

That Jewish king, of course, being the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the main theme of the Bible. And that’s why we should be looking for the rapture and seeking for his return, not just so that we could get out of our mess. But that’s most of the time because we’re selfish. That’s what we’re thinking, you know, why can’t the rapture happen, you know, in the next couple of seconds? Because I want to get out of this mess. Well, first of all, yeah. Please, Lord. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. But understand what that is and what you’re praying for. And don’t forget the fact that you know, as soon as you are together with him in the Lord in the air, and shall so forever be with the Lord in the air and all that, you’re going to the judgment seat of Christ. Okay?

I’m not trying to scare you away from the rapture. I’m just telling you, we want the Lord to transport us out of here and get us out of the mess. But maybe we’re in this mess. Whatever that is, for such a time as this. So that we can stand up and we can accomplish something that the Lord puts in front of us to accomplish. So instead of looking for a way out of the mess all the time, how about we look for how it is that the Lord is working through that mess? And how can we join in the fight?

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.