In preparation for our church’s women’s conference this weekend, I am writing a seven-minute presentation on the Biblical character Esther and how she was unshakeable in her efforts to save her people from evil. There are so many facets to this small book of the Bible that I could never cover all of them in seven days, much less seven minutes, so I am trying to find the “nuggets” that are most important and then “package” them into something the ladies in the workshop can easily connect with. I share that presentation here, hoping it will be helpful to you, too.
If you think of things that are “unshakeable,” what comes to mind? Obviously, we can say that God is unshakeable. But, what do you need – what do you do? – during the times your world feels like it is shaking? The Psalmist tells us, “God only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 62:6 ESV). I believe that when we lean into God in those times we may feel the movement of the earthquake or the blast of the wind and weather but we will NOT go down because God is our unshakeable source of favor and hope.
I’m going to look at the story of Esther with you. This is an amazing book and there are so many facets of this story we cannot look at all of them today. Whether you’ve read this story a thousand times or have no idea who I’m talking about, I invite and encourage you to read these 9 ½ chapters this weekend. The book of Esther, with its intrigue, betrayal, villains and heroes, is almost as exciting as any action movie, but it never mentions God. Although it seems a strange thing that a Bible book would never mention God, the hand of God is all over this story.
Today I want to give you some practical “nuggets” you can take home. When we think of women who were unshakeable in their faith – especially in very shaky times and circumstances – we can learn a lot from Esther’s life. I am going to use the image of a healthy and strong tree that can withstand terrible storms to help us remember those “nuggets” from Esther’s life.
As you probably remember, Esther was a teenager living in a Jewish community after the Israelites had been taken into captivity by the Persians. She was an orphan, raised by a male relative Mordecai, who had taught her the tenets of the faith and her identity in that faith. This is the first “nugget” of our Unshakeable Faith Tree: roots in her identity as a member of the community of faith.
Mordecai had taught her what it meant to believe in God and to know her heritage. The same goes for us: we must know our identity as daughters of the King of Kings, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as salt and light in an increasingly dark and shaky world. 1 John 3:1 says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV) As his children, our roots are in our identity as God’s children.
Our roots are also in having a circle of Spirit-filled, godly, people around us – our faith community of church and friends. We need each other for fellowship, companionship, mutual accountability, encouragement, and so much more. Hebrews 10:25 tells us “This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together… to encourage and urge each other onward….” (TPT) Being unshakeable means having our roots firm in our community of faith.
After Esther was chosen to be queen, she found out that the evil Haman had convinced King Xerxes, who didn’t know Esther was Jewish, to sign an order that all the Jews would be killed on a certain date. Mordecai convinced her she’d have to intervene for her people. When she heard this she asked him and all the other members of the Jewish community in that city to fast and pray for three days before she approached the King about this threat to her and her people. Not only did Esther have roots in her faith community, she also knew the spiritual disciplines to use as they intervened with God. This is the next part of our tree – the strength and depth of our spiritual disciplines makes up the trunk of our unshakeable faith. Prayer and fasting, worship and giving, and serving and studying are just some of the spiritual disciplines that help to build that sturdy trunk of our faith.
After this faith community exercised these spiritual disciplines, God gave Esther a plan to use when she met with King Xerxes on behalf of the Jewish people. Esther was very favored by Xerxes, but, under penalty of death, she still could not approach him without an invitation. Think about the tremendous amount of courage Esther summoned in order to do this really HARD thing – with discernment, grace, and poise. She boldly went into the King’s presence, he excused her trespass, and she was able to convince him to change the course of a people and a nation. On our tree, her roots in her identity and faith community helped to support her spiritual disciplines, and these led to the leaves of courage, wisdom, and discernment she needed. We, too, need courage, wisdom, and discernment to face the shaking times we live in and have unshakeable faith.
Even though God is not mentioned in the Biblical book of Esther, I believe that he poured out favor on her. Why was Esther chosen out of all the beautiful young women from all over King Xerxes’s territory? Why was she given favor with the king’s attendants? Why did he extend mercy to her when she approached the king uninvited, saving her from death? All these things, in my mind, are gifts of God’s guiding hand of grace and favor, poured out on her. Over 150 times in the Bible the word “favor” is used – and often it is to show God’s special love, grace, forgiveness, or blessing on someone. Sometimes “favor” is the Hebrew word hesed, which Michael Card defines as “When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.” * Obviously, we sinners have the right to expect nothing from a perfect and holy God – yet he gives us everything. Esther had the right to expect nothing from King Xerxes, yet she not only was saved from execution, the favor she had with the king led to him eventually agreeing to save the Jewish people. Our symbols for this are the beautiful flowers on our tree.
As we continue to live with unshakeable faith in our unshakeable God, may our roots go down deeply into our identity and the strength of our faith community connections. May our roots and the trunk of spiritual disciplines help to give us the leaves of our wisdom, discernment, and courage so that we might have they flowers of favor with God and with others. May we always know, deep within our spirits, that, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer…” We will “…trust in and rely on the Lord [with confident expectation] [so we are like a mountain] which cannot be moved [or shaken] but remains forever..” (adapted from Psalm 18:2 NIV, Psalm 125:1 AMP)
AMEN and AMEN!
*https://www.michaelcard.com/why-hesed
