DAY FOUR: For Such a Time as This
Please carefully read Esther 4:12-14 and answer the following questions.
1. Whether Mordecai was grieved at Esther’s response we are not told, but he bluntly responded to her concerns. What did Mordecai first remind her of (v. 13)?
NOTE: The Amplified Bible puts the beginning of his message, “Do not flatter yourself” that she would escape because of her position. Again, we don’t know what Mordecai’s tone was, but to assume it was angry like this is not necessarily so. He knew his cousin and how she would react to his words. The phrase “do not think in your heart” more literally means to not think in her soul, the life principle, the innermost self.[vii]
2. Next, what did Mordecai remind Esther, which indicates he did have faith that God would work in one way or another (v. 14a)?
NOTE: Relief here means breathing freely, coming from the Hebrew word meaning breath, spirit, or wind.[viii]
3. Verse 14b brings us to the most crucial statement of Mordecai in this book to motivate his cousin. What was that statement?
4. In Esther 4:14 we see the principal theme of the book, which is that God takes care of and delivers His people, but He doesn’t always show us how until the right time. All of the things that Esther had experienced up to that moment (including being taken away from her people), and all that seemed negative as well as positive happening to her, had worked together to place her in such a setting for such an appropriate time and season[ix] for her to make a difference.
She now was at the point of having to decide what she would do, what cost she would be willing to pay. The decision was difficult, like some decisions we all face, but it was probably one of those moments where the light bulb came on and made sense to her at last. How can the following passages help us in trusting God when we face a difficult decision with potential negative consequences if we obey?
1 Samuel 30:6
Jeremiah 29:11
Psalm 56:11-13; Hebrews 13:5, 6
Daniel 3:16-18
Matthew 6:25-33
Scripture Memory: Try to fill in the missing words in the blanks below, by memory if at all possible, and then review the passage several times today.
For if you ______________________ completely _____________________ at this time, _______________ and deliverance will ________________ for the Jews from another ____________________, but you and your father's _____________________ will ____________________. Yet who knows whether you have __________________ to the ________________________________ for such a ________________ as this? Esther 4:14, nkjv
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