Esther 4:12 – And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.

Esther 4:13 – Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.

Esther 4:14 – 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: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Esther 4:15 – Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,

Esther 4:16 – Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Esther 4:17 – So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

Hello readers, thanks for reading today. Today we are in the book of Esther. The situation is simple… there’s a bad guy who hates God and God’s people called Haman, and he’s been advanced and promoted by the king, and with his position of leadership and influence and power, he’s plotting the murder of all the Jews in the realm. Pretty wicked stuff. Hitler wasn’t the first guy to come after the Jews. And you know why he wanted them all destroyed? Because Mordecai, who was Esther’s sister, refused to bow to him. Refusing to bow has a cost… it got three Hebrews thrown in the fire, and refusing to bow made Haman mad. This world and the evil that is running rampant in these days is demanding you to bow to it. The church today is bowing to all sorts of compromise and sin… but we who are saved should not bow… we only bow to God. His word is our authority.

But that’s not the topic today… I’ve heard sermons on “for such a time as this”. And they’re great. This is a key moment in the book, because in this chapter Esther has a chance to save her people. Firstly she needs to be made aware of what’s going on, of the sentence of death that has been put out by Haman. And she goes to Mordecai for the answer. Mordecai, what’s going on, why are you upset? Tell me what to do Mordecai. She’d always looked to Mordecai in her life, and so should we always look to Jesus Christ and never stop looking to him. Going to Jesus Christ is where we need to get our information, our wisdom, our knowledge, our instruction from.

Why was Mordecai upset? Well he was upset because there was a sentence of death on his people. There’s an impending destruction… a mass murder about to happen. Don’t think Jesus Christ doesn’t care for you. He does. For God so loved the world… he gave his only begotten Son. God gave his best for you to be saved, so you don’t need to go to hell, so you don’t need to die lost and damned. Jesus doesn’t take delight in the sentence of death that abides upon you. He cares for your soul. And he’s going to do something. He’s gonna send Esther in just like Jesus said pray that God would send forth laborers into the harvest. Believers have a responsibility to reach the lost, to make a difference in this lost and dying world. And Esther has a chance to do something about it. First, she tried pacifying Mordecai, but it didn’t work. There’s a lot of pacifying going on in Christianity today, trying to pacify God with inaction, compromise and not doing anything about it. Hey Mordecai, it’s alright… but it wasn’t alright. Your life of sin and disobedience isn’t ok. Let’s stop pretending.

Esther had a role to play. She had a purpose in life. We all have a purpose in life. Firstly to be saved, then to serve. God’s got a Canaan land for your life. There’s a plan, a purpose, fulfillment from God for you. This was her time… this was go time. Mordecai gave Esther a command… which she would obey. Why do we have so much trouble with the commandments of God to us? We hate them, we find them restrictive, we try to find ways around them… Jesus said why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the thing’s which I say? Salvation takes faith, it’s not work to be saved, but there is a responsibility for us to believe and receive what he’s done for us. And we do have choices in life, choices to obey God’s word and follow him or not. This is where Esther is at.

But she’s afraid. We all suffer from fear. Fear is common to man. Fear is in fact one of the things that Satan uses to imprison us. The Bible says of Jesus in Hebrews 2:15 – And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Fear brings torment and bondage, and Esther is in this horrible place in life where she knows what she needs to do, but doesn’t want to do it. Most of us could identify with this place in life. We can be in bondage for a lifetime because of fear. You can either choose to let fear rule you with it’s cruel bondage forever, or you can be like Esther… I’m going in, if I die I did… but I’m gonna obey Mordecai and by faith do as he says.

Today we are talking about what Mordecai said to Esther. “But thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed”. That’s pretty strong stuff. Boy this sounded harsh and blunt and unforgiving. Hey Esther, if you don’t go in and see the thing, know that God’s gonna take care of the Jews… but you’re going to die. This is amazing. God’s word is amazing. Mordecai said think not that you’re going to escape more than all the Jews. Wait a second on this. In this is another great truth. So many of us live a life thinking we are the exception to the rule. Everyone else will cop it, but I’ll be fine. Maybe Esther thought by bunkering down and looking out for herself she’d be ok… but no. We tend to think we’ve found a safe place in our life where all the rules don’t apply to you. Oh yes, everyone else is going to cop it rightly for what they’ve done… but no, not you. We so easily slip into this mentality. We have this double standard where our sin is ok, our disobedience is ok, our compromise is ok… and we’ll get by with it… while everyone else doesn’t. Oh yes I’m different, I’m special. Well Esther was… yet she wasn’t. She was a Jew and she would get no special treatment. God is no respecter of persons and he’s the righteous Judge, throw away this silly mentality. You’re not going to get away with it.

Well on with the topic, and Mordecai said… if you hold your peace, God is still going to deliver the Jews, but you Esther… you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. What a statement. God showed me what this meant to me personally a while ago. I was going to pen it down, but then forgot, and then it completely evaded me what God had showed me. Then it came back thank God. It’s a good idea to write down what God shows to you, because you may be like Nebuchadnezzar who had the dream… and then he lost it. He wanted Daniel firstly to tell him what his dream was before offering any explanation as to what it meant. Don’t take for granted what God shows you. If you wake up late, the manna will be gone. Gather it in the morning, and gather it. Have you gathered your manna today? Gather it daily, gather from God’s word every day.

But I’ve been thinking about this. because there is a great truth in what Mordecai was saying. You may be saved, you may be a Christian, and God may have called you to serve him. To witness to others, to blow the trumpet aloud and sound the warning, to point people to Christ… whatever it is. Go time is today. Today is the day to obey. Don’t count on tomorrow. Because what Mordecai was telling Esther was… your command and purpose and goal in life isn’t always going to be there for you to choose when to obey. Why does God say remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth? Because you don’t get another youth. There are things that are gone in time. She was born for this time. She could live for many years after this, but have missed out on God’s purpose and plan and will for her life. Many Christians are like this. He’s saying Esther, you don’t obey this and you procrastinate and put this off and disobey, you’re out to pasture, you’re on the shelf, you’re done. It wasn’t a threat designed to force her to obey, it was a plea, Esther, you have a great opportunity that God has given you to make a difference for your people.

Back in 1 Kings 20, king Ahab had a chance to take out Benhadad, king of Syria. Ahab was a wicked king, and Benhadad was a wicked king. They were both crooks. But Ahab had the chance delivered to him and was in fact commanded by God to destroy Benhadad… but he let him go. Benhadad negotiated for his life well! Sin will often plead for its existence in your life, and when you should have dealt with sin and error… you let it live to fight another day. Well Benhadad made some promises to Ahab which caused Ahab to let him live. Oh what a foolish move that was by Ahab. How often false promises that stoke our lust and pride suck us in. So Ahab was foolish. But the story doesn’t finish there…

One of the prophets of God came out to Ahab in disguise and told him a parable type story about a man in a battle who’d been charged with keeping a man captured in battle. If you lose him, your life for his life buddy. Well you’d think he’d have kept good watch of him. But the prophet said this “as thy servant was busy here and there, by and by he was gone”. He lost the man he was meant to guard! He said Ahab what’s your judgment? What do you think is fair because the man lost the man he was supposed to keep? Ahab agreed with the judgment of death, not realizing the story was about himself letting Benhadad go… whom God had delivered to Ahab to destroy. Anyway the point of this is that Ahab had been delivered a man appointed to destruction, and instead of obeying God, he disobeyed God and let him go. That cost Ahab dearly. Today is the day of salvation and today is the day to serve God. Don’t count on another chance, another day, don’t put off… that tomorrow you’re reckoning on may not come.

This truth applies to salvation and service. There is a day when God deals with you, when you know the truth, when you know what you should do… and what will you do? What will you do when it’s go time? Esther was fearful, but she didn’t let the fear make the decision for her. She’d been hiding who she really was. Very few people knew she was a Jew. That’s like most of us. Few people know we are saved and following God, because we don’t live it, and because we are hiding because we are afraid of not being accepted… just as Esther. Many saved people hide who they truly are for fear of the consequences of being that whacko that believes in God and holds to God’s word. Take up your cross and follow him. If Jesus took up his cross… if Simon took up Jesus’ cross… you can take up the cross of Christ in your life today. In taking up that humiliation, shame, false accusations, hatred, rejection… you may, like Christ, be able to make a huge impact on the lives of others. Think of all the people going to heaven because Jesus was faithful unto death. If you are dead with him, believe also that you shall live with him… who died once, and is arisen and alive forevermore and dies no more… EVER.

What a message for us today. If you hold your peace, you’re gonna be destroyed. There are many Christians who’s life and service is a destruction. Because they don’t obey God. They miss their time due to fear, procrastination, rebellion, loving the world, whatever it is. So many Christians today are on the shelf, they’re just marking time now, they’re not making a difference. You have potential for life, purpose, everything… but it is possible to miss it. Speak to washed up Christians who missed it, who’s life testifies to the fact they missed it. They’re in their holding pattern in life and they’re never going to be useful or make a difference. They never answered the call. Mordecai made a call and a commandment to Esther. It was a plea of salvation. The salvation of her and her people was at stake. Maybe you put off the call of salvaiton, you never got saved and it’s been ages since God’s Spirit stirred on your heart and suol. Maybe it’s service, you always put off what you know you should be doing in life. You’re trying to pacify God with half obedience and bits and pieces of your life… just as Esther tried pacifying Mordecai with raiment that we bring of our own efforts, works, reasoning and religion. God’s not interested in your way, he wants you to come to him and obey him and live HIS way.

Paul was very careful not to become a castaway. But many Christians are castaways. Do you want to stay profitable to God, a soldier in the fight of faith? Or would you rather be in the retirement home, you’re as washed up as that old prophet in 1 Kings 13… only good for tripping young Christians up. Do you really want to be someone looking back in life… I wish I had obeyed God. Are you happy for your Christian walk and service to be destroyed by Satan? By sin? By love of this world? Is it worth it? Is that a good trade? Maybe you’re not just trading that, but your very soul you love sin that much. Don’t overestimate your importance. Yes you’re important and God wants to save you and use you and bring you into the promised land… but he also will find someone else. How much of your disobedience are you going to make him bear. Yes, he’s longsuffering, but he will move on. God will find someone else. That’s what Mordecai was saying. We need to get a different attitude to serving and obeying him… it’s an honour and privilege to be seated at his table and to be in his service. To have purpose in our lives. We should want to bring glory and honour to the king, it shouldn’t be a chore and something we need to be coaxed and convinced and badgered into.

But the essence of what Mordecai is saying is… Esther… and you reader… it’s not always going to be there. The chance to be saved and serve and obey God and make a difference and make your life count… it’s not always going to be there. It’s not always going to be your time. THIS was Esther’s go time. Esther thought she was going to lose out seeing the king and obeying Mordecai… but it’s always worth it to obey Jesus Christ. Don’t miss your calling in disobedience and procrastination and putting off and fear. Don’t go on God’s shelf. Maybe you’re in the junkpile, because you made terrible decisions like Lot in your life… not based on obedience and honoring God… but based on serving self. Think about this. Heaps of Israelites missed out on what could’ve been, what should’ve been, what would’ve been… yet wasn’t. It’s possible to miss your purpose and plan and Canaan in your life. It’s possible to never cross that Jordan and go in. Unbelief kept them out. And they wasted out in the wilderness.

God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do… you can be part of that or not. Don’t be a castaway, don’t be on the scrap pile, don’t be knocked out the game. Don’t miss out on salvation and service and look back with regret like so many do later. If Esther hadn’t obeyed, she’d have lived with “if only” for the rest of her life. If only…. because she thought she’d be able to do what she wouldn’t be able to do later. Maybe you think you’ll be able to do it, do what God tells you and has called you for…when you can’t no more. A lot of people forget Israel actually tried going in the promised land. Lots of people miss that after they didn’t believe and rebelled and fear reigned… God said you’re not going in. THEN they tried going in! And they got whipped and run out of there quick smart. Don’t’ get hardened to God’s word and used to disobeying him, used to living in compromise and sin. Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts the Bible says.

Maybe you’re going to be a Christian “tomorrow”, you’re going to get serious tomorrow… oh yes. Tomorrow never comes, there’ll never be a better time, that’s why today is the day. If you’ve burnt massive parts of your life, yes, God can restore the years which the locusts have eaten, this blog doesn’t frustrate that. But if you know better, presumption is going into sin counting on making God make good of it and working with it. You’re abusing God’s grace. And God’s not going to indulge your willful rebellion and you think you can mock him with your life and it be ok. It won’t be. There are some things you can’t get back, you’re not going to get this year back again to obey and honor the Lord… this is your chance, you were born for such a time as this, make today count, make your time count, it’s go time.

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