2009 – Day 186.July 16 – The Cause

2009 – Day 186.July 16 – The Cause

Passage of the Day: Esther 4: 12 - 16 … 12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words. 13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

My Journal for Today: It’s of interest to me that Chuck Swindoll, in his devotional exposition of today’s passage, likens Esther’s attitude of surrender to God and her confidence in His protective power to that of David when he arrived on the scene where Goliath was mocking God and calling for a warrior from Saul’s camp to do battle. And there are a lot of parallels between the decisiveness of this young Jewess whose life was being threatened and the young shepherd boy, both of whom would one day become effective leaders of the Jewish people. And they both had come to a moment of truth and decision in their lives.

Esther, like David in his confrontation with Goliath, saw a force, Haman, who had set himself up against Esther’s people and, more importantly, God Himself. And Esther, like David, saw that action was needed. Someone needed to stand for God Almighty and to take action to save God’s people; and Esther, like David, stepped into the fray at the risk of her very life. And, as David declared (in 1st Sam. 17: 29), “Is there not a cause?” … Esther declares, “… if I perish, I perish.”

Hey, my fellow Christian, are we not called onto the battle fields of life; and is there not an enemy who is calling out Christians to do battle? Is there not an enemy who (as in 1st Peter 5: 8) is roaring like a lion to scatter the flock of the Good Shepherd, … an enemy who hates the Living God and wants to depose Him as King? Is there not a cause to stand up for God and against the Goliaths or the Hamans of the world?

Look out there, my friend. Pick your Goliath. Are you affronted by abortion or pornography or a government takeover? What are we doing to stand against these goliath issues in life? Do we really believe, as God’s word itself declares (in Romans 8: 31), “If God is for us, who can stand against us?” Do I have a Phil. 4: 13 attitude, that “I can do all things through Christ, Who gives me the strength?” Because, if we really believed these declarations as truth, we’d be out there with our slings standing against Goliath. We’d be saying, as did Esther [at the end of today’s passage], “… if I perish, I perish;” and we’d be going before “the king” of this world, Satan, and doing whatever it takes to stand for God.

I hope you are out there, my dear one, on the battle fields of life, going to war in the Name of Christ. We need to hold to the truth of 1st John 4: 4 that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world;” and we need to go forth in the Name of Christ and for His glory.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be a David or an Esther and stand for You. If I perish, I perish; but I will do so in Your Mighty Name. Amen