Esther’s story is history, but also prophecy. It’s a story of God’s providence in preserving his people, but it’s also a shadow of what is to come. Simply Esther story is our story.
Throughout this series, we have learned that Esther and Mordecai weren’t living out an exemplary life of faith. Nevertheless, they reached a pivotal moment that called out for change, an order to kill all the Jews. Talk about an eye-opening situation that demanded action and sacrifice because the cost of not changing was greater than the cost of change. Thankfully they both responded and took the road of change: weeping and mourning, counting the cost, and fasting and praying. which ultimately saved the lives of thousands of Jews.
Like Esther, we all have roads ahead filled with dangerous paths, but will we take the path of change or remain the same?
The Road to Change:
The First Turn is to Weep and Mourn| When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. Es 4:1-3
The second turn on the road is to count the cost| And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “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?” Es 4:12
The third turn on the road to change is to fast and pray| Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. Es 4:15-17