Two,  A Leader With A Sense Of Destiny Seeks To Serve God's Purpose "For Such A Time Like This".

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14; NIV).

The story of Esther is about God using an ordinary woman to impact the lives of others. Just as God raised up Esther to act in a particular time in history for His purposes, so He has raised different leaders to make an impact for His kingdom throughout history. She was just one woman.  What could one woman do? Not much. But one plus God equals majority!

Esther was a Jewish teenager in the Persian kingdom who was chosen from a harem to become queen. She soon found herself called to a difficult and dangerous task to save her own people. When the king Xerxes (aka Ahasuerus) made Haman the prime minister, everybody in the palace bowed down to him except Mordecai who would bow to no one except God. Haman became infuriated. He vowed not only to punish Mordecai, but to exterminate all Jews in the Persian empire (that would have included the land of Israel because it was part of the empire). Haman got the king to agree to his plan and it was sealed with the king’s ring — the irreversible law of the Medes and the Persians. Scripture tells us that

when Mordecai learned about all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the city, crying with a loud and bitter wail. He went as far as the gate of the palace, for no one was allowed to enter the palace gate while wearing clothes of mourning. And as news of the king’s decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in burlap and ashes (Esther 4:1-3).

In light of the grave situation where thousands of innocent people would die, Mordecai said to Esther, "If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (4:14). What could she do? Should she sit still or do something about it - speak to the king and risked her life since no one could enter into the king’s presence unless invited?  Moreover, the king had not invited her into his presence for  a month.  Esther accepted her divine destiny and decided to do something about it even at the expense of her own life.

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him (4:15-17). ^[1]

As the story continues, God was already at work behind the scene. The king Xerxes extended the golden sceptre and Esther approached him.  She invited the king and Haman for a dinner followed by a second dinner.  On the night between the banquets, Xerxes could not sleep. That night the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him. In those records he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king’s private quarters. They had plotted to assassinate King Xerxes. “What reward or recognition did we ever give Mordecai for this?” the king asked. His attendants replied, “Nothing has been done for him” (6:1-3).

Ironically, Haman arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole he had prepared. The asked him to be brought in and then asked him, "What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?” (v 6). All this time Haman thought the king meant him. So he came up with an elaborate reward.

If the king wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king’s own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden—one with a royal emblem on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king’s robes and led through the city square on the king’s horse. Have the official shout as they go, ‘This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!’” (7-9).

Upon hearing Haman's suggestion, the king said, 

 “Excellent!” the king said to Haman. “Quick! Take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you have suggested!” So, Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!” Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated (10-11).

Haman went home and told his wife and friends what had happened. While they were still speaking, the King's eunuch came to fetch Haman to the banquet that Esther had planned. 

At the banquet, the king again said to Esther, “Tell me what you want, Queen Esther. What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!” (7:2). Then Esther replied,

“If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared. For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. If we had merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to warrant disturbing the king.” “Who would do such a thing?” King Xerxes demanded. “Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?” Esther replied, “This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.” Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen. Then the king jumped to his feet in a rage and went out into the palace garden (7:3-7).^[2]

The king ordered that Haman be hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. He gave Haman's property to Queen Esther. Mordecai was brought before the king given his signet ring which he had taken back from Haman. The king then gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of Haman’s property (8:1-2).

God was orchestrating all the events. Indeed, we can see "the visible hand of the invisible God" working silently behind the scene all the time. Esther's sense of destiny helped saved her own people.