Welcome to Kendra Graham’s Online Bible Study! This is a place where we can come together and share in our journey towards Scriptural truths and spiritual maturity. We pray this will be a safe, respectful, resourceful place to come and discuss God’s Word…to discover What it says…What it means…and What it means to you!
Make sure you don’t miss a post, just enter your email in the “Subscribe Via Email” box in the upper left hand corner of our blog. It’s free and you’ll receive these posts straight into your email inbox.
Kendra Graham notes from : Esther 4:16
“Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go into the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
THE FACTS: Assemble all the Jews in Susa. Fast and pray for me three days (night), I and my maidens also will, thus I will go to the king, not according to law, if I perish, I perish.
THE LESSONS:
“To everyone who has been given much, much will be required.” Luke 12:48
Many of us in swing states are being bombarded with campaign commercials, everywhere we go. So, as Christians, who do we vote for? HRC? The Donald? McMullin? Johnson? Does God’s Word give us a clear cut answer? There are many Christians and theologians giving their two cents regarding who we should pull the lever for, and if we don’t follow their advice we are seen as wicked people who have sold our souls…. so some of us will stay at home and not vote at all, letting whatever happens, happen. But is that right either? We are known as “One nation under God,” as a country where “God’s grace has been shed.” So what is the right answer?
I love this verse in Esther, and I think we can receive encouragement and direction from it. The lives of the Jewish people were in the balance–slated for slaughter–with nothing to be done to change the outcome. Or was there? Ahhh, there was! Queen Esther, who had no “real” power at all, but was the one God called to stand up at that moment in history. The “king” that Esther would risk her life to speak to, was Xerxes. He called himself, “The king of kings,” the “Almighty.” He had a complex for sure. Xerxes was not a king who regarded life as precious…he was willing to sacrifice the lives of every man in his army if he could have control over Greece. An evil and cruel dictator, Xerxes had his previous wife banished from his presence forever for one act of disobedience. Worse yet, the right-hand man of this king was Haman, who was just as evil and manipulative–a true enemy of God and His people. Haman is the one who made the kill order for the Jewish people across every province in the Persian empire. (Cue the evil laugh…can you hear it?)
Esther was the only one with access to King Xerxes (kind of). She needed to be summoned by the king to have the “privilege” of access, and he hadn’t summoned her in quite some time. Esther couldn’t just walk in to the throne room uninvited unless she wanted to lose her life. This posed a problem…what help would she be to the Jewish people if she was dead? Esther had been silent regarding her Jewish heritage since she’d been placed in the palace. Esther could have run away, she could have hid, she could have said, “What is the use? What can my words do to make a difference?” Esther was not ignorant about who she was dealing with. Esther was absolutely right. What could she do? Esther could make things a lot worse–especially for herself, if you think about it. Esther knew her own limitations, but she knew the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords… and she had access without limit to Him.
Esther turned to prayer and fasting for three days and called the Jews in the city to do so as well. Esther would go and meet this responsibility head on, believing God would go before her. If this meant the end to her and her people, it meant the end. Still, she would gather her courage and go. To whom much had been given, much was required. Esther met the challenge. Perhaps that is why she was Providentially chosen to be where she was.
We as Americans may not be kings and queens, but we do have access to the same Almighty King of kings and Lord of lords that Esther had. The people of Persia had no right to vote for their leader, but we do. Now is not the time to shirk the responsibility that has been given to us. Running from the problem of the candidates is not gathering our courage. What if three days before the election, we as God’s people who have been entrusted with this civic duty, prayed and fasted together, then, after three days, we put on our robes and went to the polls to vote for the person that God has laid on our hearts?
Remember, throughout time, God has used even the most wicked of kings like Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Ahab and Xerxes, because right in the middle of the darkness, He had the light of His presence, and in the end, delivered His people in spite of the odds.
There is a time to hold our tongues and keep our heads down, but that time is not now! Now is the time to move from silence to supplication, as Esther did. Now is the time to make a STAND on our knees like never before! My prayer for this election is found in Psalm 31:3, “For Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.”
APPLY IT:
Will we determine to move from silence to supplication on behalf of the responsibility God has entrusted to us?
LIVE IT OUT:
For Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me today, give me the ears to hear, the heart to understand and the feet to follow.
___________________________________________________________
What Scripture are you studying now? What have you learned? How has the Lord spoke to you? Share with us in the comments section.
__________________________________________________________
To see more of Kendra’s Bible Studies, click here.