by The conversation between Esther and Mordecai in the book of Esther is significant, especially verse 14, “For if you keep silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, NASB 2020). There is a question that will be answered. As related to Esther and God’s redemptive mission, what is the significance of the timing, the place, and the choice to be made by her?
Esther and God’s Redemptive Mission
God creates a time when each person must make a choice to either trust or not trust in him and help other people. The communication between Esther and Mordecai was at a time when all the Jews were to be soon murdered and Esther was in a unique position at the king’s palace to influence the king to stop it. The statement from Mordecai hints to Esther that God will find a way to save the Jews but there is no guarantee for her safety or her family’s safety, including Mordecai’s, unless she does something. There is also a hint that God placed her in the palace as the Queen for this exact reason. Her decision and statement at the end of verse 16 is that she will do what is right and leave her fate to God to decide. Hamilton states, “But if the book of Esther highlights a beneficent providence at work to preserve the Jews in Persia from obliteration, it also highlights the courage, the ingenuity, the wisdom of those Jews. It is not the case that God is active (even if behind the scenes) while his people are passive.”[1]
[1] Victor P. Hamilton, Handbook on the Historical Books (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 542.