Esther on WorkMuestra

Before we dive into the details of today’s passage in Esther 5, let’s first establish some context for the Book of Esther. 

The book is set in the kingdom of the pagan King Xerxes. After banishing Queen Vashti from his presence forever, Xerxes regretted his decision and set out to find a new queen. To make a long story short, Esther—a Jew living in exile—became that queen.

Esther is clearly held up as a hero of this book, for good reason as we shall see throughout this plan. But she is an imperfect hero to be sure. 

For starters, we are told that Esther deliberately concealed her Jewish faith in her new place of work (see Esther 2:10). Then, when a royal official named Haman led a plot to exterminate God’s people, Esther initially refused to ask the king for help (see Esther 4:6-11). Finally, when Esther did decide to speak up for the Jewish people, we see in Esther 5 that she got cold feet—twice! The king made it clear that he was ready to give Esther whatever she requested, but she punted, deferring her answer to two subsequent banquets.

As we will see tomorrow, Esther had courage, but it was clearly what author Jessica Honegger calls “imperfect courage.” And yet, God was able to use that imperfect courage to save his people.

This is a theme we see throughout Scripture: God choosing the timid, the weak, and the imperfectly courageous to do his work. You see this in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Rahab, Noah, and David just to name a few.

Is there sin in your past that is subtly keeping you from believing that God can use you for his redemptive purposes in your place of work? Is there something you know God is calling you to do at work (report a fraud, invite a co-worker to a Bible study, etc.) but you’ve been waiting around for the perfect time and courage to do it?

Be encouraged by Esther’s example. God doesn’t use perfect people or perfect courage to do his work in the world. He uses ordinary, broken people to do extraordinary acts of redemption so that he alone will get the glory.

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