On the 23rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me a challenge to speak so I can save (Esther 4:16).
Rachel Scott, Me Ling, Varia, Nijole Sadunaite. These are names you probably have never heard of, but they are all connected to us. They are Christian martyrs, women brave enough to take a stand for Christ knowing that doing so could strike them down. Many of us like to think we could be like these women, but I wonder how many of us would speak up in defense of Christ when faced with the possibility of death?
At one time or another we all may have said, “Maybe I was born for a time such as this,” personalizing what the uncle of Queen Esther said about the Persian queen who risked her life to save her fellow Jews. We believed that God may have placed us on a job, at a church, or in our family or neighborhood to positively impact that sphere, but in Esther’s day these words meant more than to do a service; they included dying for that service.
The only way Queen Esther could save the Jews was to approach the king uninvited to initiate her plan to reveal the scheme to kill the Jews. And going to the king uninvited could get you killed (Esther 4:11). Esther took that chance and eventually told the king she was Jewish and told him about the enemy’s plan to kill Jews, which would include her. Esther risked the comfort of her royalty to identify with her people, and she received the king’s approval. This is a picture of Jesus Christ.
Jesus veiled His glory to come to earth to identify with the people He came to save. God the Father said of Jesus “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice—the one that God the Father approved—and the only one who could save us. Esther was the perfect sacrifice and likely the only one who could save the Jews. Are we ready to be like Esther? Or how about Rachel or Me Ling, Varia or Nijole? Are we ready to give up our comforts to tell others about Jesus, to live our lives that will identify us with Jesus? Are we willing to die to save others from eternal death—an afterlife in Hell? Living our lives may seem easier than the speaking, but living our lives includes the speaking. We all must risk our lives to speak up for a Savior who went down for us. He rose again, and we will too.
Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith