Queen Esther: Would You Speak Up When It Costs Everything?

Y’all, The story of Queen Esther has a lot more to say to us than I ever thought. It all started with my husband and a wrong order at a restaurant.
Sam will order something and if it comes out wrong, he is not going to say a word to the waitress. I’m usually the one flagging her down. It’s the same story when something he orders online shows up broken or the wrong size. That return will sit in a bag by the door for three weeks until I finally print the label myself. I always figured that was just a Sam thing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized most of us have something we’d rather let slide than speak up about.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a comment that wasn’t right or something ugly said at the supper table that everybody pretended not to hear.

Who Was Queen Esther?

She was an orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, and she ended up in a Persian palace in a way she never would have planned for herself. Nobody around her knew she was Jewish because she’d been told to keep that quiet. I’m not going to spoil how the rest of it unfolds, since that’s what the episode is for, curvy back roads and all. I will tell you the king had a rule that nobody walked into his throne room unless he sent for them, and that included the queen. She hadn’t been called in thirty days.

Why was it a big deal?

Walking in without being invited could have cost her life, Staying quiet could have cost her people theirs, which is a pretty tough spot for anybody to be in. What I love is that she didn’t just storm in there with both barrels loaded. Before she ever went near that throne room she asked everybody to fast and pray for three days. And when she finally did stand in front of the king, what she asked for first surprised me, so you’ll have to listen to find out. There’s also something about God’s name in this book that honestly blew my mind. I’d say go read it yourself and see if you can spot it. Read Esther.

What Queen Esther Can Teach Us About Speaking Up

Most of us will never walk into a throne room, but every one of us ends up in some spot where somebody needs us to say something. At least be the one who doesn’t laugh along with everybody else. Mordecai asks Esther a question in this story that I still think about. Maybe she ended up right where she was for a reason. What have you been letting slide? I’d love to hear what you think, so leave me a comment below.

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If you missed last week, go back and catch Ruth and Naomi: Would You Stay or Would You Go?, because it’s where this series really got rolling.

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