STHER - Victim to Queen

Esther was an ordinary girl in Old Testament times whom God used in an extraordinary way. Because Esther’s name symbolizes hope, we will use it to remember other Biblical stories which bring hope and healing.

Esther was an orphan who had been raised by her Uncle Mordecai. Her life was very difficult. She had many tough decisions to make, sometimes all by herself. Esther was a beautiful girl, but that complicated her life. When the Persian king, King Xerxes, decided to stage a beauty contest to find a new wife, his soldiers drafted Esther to be one of the contestants. I’m sure she was terrified! Part of the selection process meant spending a night with the king. (We’d call it harassment or sexual abuse.) But in that day, women were considered to be pieces of property, and kings could do anything they pleased. Esther didn’t love the old drunken king, but he chose her to be his queen.

One of the big decisions Esther had to make had to do with a secret. Nobody but Uncle Mordecai knew that Esther was Jewish. One of the king’s most important officials, a man named Haman, hated the Jews and wanted to kill them. If Esther admitted she was Jewish, she would be risking her life.

If you read the book of Esther, you find out that Esther had to make a choice. Because she was queen, she had a chance to save the Jewish people. But if Haman found out she was Jewish, she might get killed along with her people.

Esther made the choice. She told her secret. She ended the silence. And, in doing so, she helped a lot of other people. Maybe you have a secret you’re afraid to tell. Maybe you're afraid no one will believe you. Maybe you're afraid of the consequences if you tell - or even afraid for your life, as Esther was.

But maybe telling your secret is the right thing to do - the right thing for you, and the right thing for other people too, even though it might seem very frightening.

Sometimes doing the right thing is terribly difficult. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. But doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.