Let the Esthers Arise, For Such A Time As This

I wrote this in my pro-life blog for youth. Please pray with us because a population control bill is being pushed in our country.

Esther was a teenager whom God used to save the lives of her people. Not just a generation, but all the Jews in Persia.

Like a fictional genie would, the king asked Esther what she wanted, even half the kingdom was offered to her. But she chose to ask for the king to spare her people from annihilation.

She would have kept quiet if they were to be made slaves and not killed. But they were marked for death, for annihilation.

Haman even promised to put money in the Royal Treasury to carry his evil plan out.

If Esther had chickened out and chosen to keep quiet, some of that money from Haman would have been hers, as she was a queen. And she and her family would have perished.

God had a plan and a purpose to save the Israelites, and He could have used anyone to deliver the Jews in Persia. Esther was not indispensable in His plan. But Esther chose to participate with God in His plan and purpose.

God has a plan and a purpose to save the unborn generation and future generations. Will we participate with God or keep quiet? Esther chose to participate with God.

As a result, the king gave her Haman's estate and she herself wrote the decree that overturned Haman's death decree.

____________

The Book of Esther in the Bible tells of the story of Esther (a.k.a. Hadassah), a Jewish teenager, who was an orphan. It was her Uncle Mordecai who took care of her.

The search for a new queen of Persia led Esther to the king's palace where she became Queen of Persia.

One day an evil man named Haman wanted all the Jews killed because he hated Mordecai. So he tricked the king into signing a death decree for all the Jews by saying there were treacherous disobedient people who needed to be killed.

When the decree was released, Mordecai and all the Jews began mourning and wailing. Esther, in her confinement in the Palace, did not know about this until she sent a messenger to find out why Mordecai had been mourning.

Mordecai sent Esther a copy of Haman's death decree for the Jews. He also told her that Haman had promised to put big money in the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He urged Esther to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Now Esther knew that one cannot go into the King's presence uninvited, under penalty of death, unless the king extended his golden scepter. She had this told to Mordecai. She feared for her life, because it had been 30 days since the king called her.

Mordecai sent a straightforward message to Esther: ""Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 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?"

Her Uncle Mordecai's words were enough for Esther to make her decision. She decided to go to the king, even though it was against the law. She had this told to Mordecai: "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

So Esther, under penalty of death, approached the king of Persia. But he held out his scepter for her and her life was spared. Having a strategy in mind, she asked the king and Haman, the king's right-hand man to a banquet, which was followed by a second banquet.

At the second banquet, the king asked Esther what her request was. He even asked her if she would like to have half the kingdom, and he would give it. But Esther didn't ask for riches and land and jewels. She told the king, "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life-- this is my petition. And spare my people-- this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king."

The king asked her, who would do such a thing? That is when Esther pointed out that the one who had decreed it was Haman.

The king got so angry. And so Haman's fate was decided.

But Esther did not stop there. The death decree for the Jews had been issued and was still set to be carried out.

Esther risked her life once again and approached the king once more, under penalty of death. This time she pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the death decree of Haman. She said, "If it pleases the king, and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces. For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?"

What did the king do? He told Esther to write a new decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews.

So here we have an ORPHAN, risking her life twice to approach a king, writing a decree to overrule a death decree because she could not bear to see the annihilation and destruction of her people.

___________________
Right now in our country we have a death decree on future generations being tackled in Congress. It is called the Reproductive Health and Population Development Bill. Foreign finance institutions have promised to put big money in the Philippine treasury if the Bill becomes law.

Let the Esthers arise in this generation, who will not care if they will not have half the Kingdom, who will pray and fast and risk their lives for the Lord, for the unborn generation whom the Lord loves, for their children and for future generations. Let the Esthers speak up, write and issue decrees to overturn the death decrees on their generation.