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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 24 January 2026:
Esther 4:1-3 — When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry…. And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
For the first time in Esther, grief is no longer private. Mordecai’s mourning spills into public space — tearing garments, ashes, loud cries. What had been hidden behind palace walls is now exposed in the streets. The decree is not theoretical; it is personal, existential, and final.
This grief is appropriate. Faith does not deny reality. Biblical hope never bypasses lament. Throughout Scripture, true faith begins not with optimism but with honest reckoning. Mourning here is not despair; it is clarity. It is the soul refusing to anesthetize itself when life and covenant are at stake.
Esther 4:4 — Esther was deeply distressed… and she sent garments….
Esther’s first instinct is to fix the symptoms, not confront the cause. She sends clothes to cover Mordecai’s grief, attempting restoration without repentance, relief without engagement. This is not callousness; it is distance. Palace comfort has insulated her from reality.
There is compassion here, but it is incomplete. Mordecai refuses the garments because what is broken cannot be mended superficially. There are moments when consolation is premature and courage is required instead.
This tension is familiar. When suffering intrudes into comfortable lives, the instinct is often to quiet it rather than confront it. But faith matures when we allow pain to summon us, not repel us.
Esther 4:5 – Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.
Esther, living in comfort and luxury in the king’s palace, was unaware of what was happening to her people and untouched by the crisis impacting them. There is a lesson here for all of us.
Esther 4:6-9 — Mordecai told him everything that had happened…. that he might… explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.
Truth finally crosses the gap. Mordecai explains the decree, the money, the certainty of destruction. He does not minimize the danger, nor does he exaggerate it. He places the full weight of reality before Esther and asks her to act.
Significantly, Mordecai does not appeal to emotion alone. He appeals to responsibility. Esther’s position is not accidental. Privilege now demands purpose. Knowledge requires response.
Grace often works this way by confronting us with truth that removes neutrality. Once we know, we must choose.
Esther 4:10-12 — “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law — to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
Esther responds honestly, not heroically. She explains the risk. She names the cost. Approaching the king uninvited is a capital offense, and she has not been summoned for thirty days. Her security is already fragile. This is not faithlessness; it is realism. Courage does not deny danger. Scripture never glorifies recklessness. Esther’s fear is understandable, and God does not rebuke her for naming it. But fear cannot be allowed to decide the outcome. Faith listens to fear but does not obey it.
Esther 4:13-14 — Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape…. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Mordecai delivers one of the most sobering statements in Scripture. Safety is an illusion. Neutrality is impossible. Silence will not preserve Esther’s life; it will only postpone accountability. Christians are being persecuted across the planet for their faith. We should not think that we will remain unscathed ourselves, but even more importantly, we should not allow our isolated comfort to desensitize us from the heartache of other members of the body of Christ, the global church. We must seek God’s heart for them – when one member of the body suffers, the whole body ought to suffer – that is the natural response of a healthy body. Even when you stub your toe, your whole body responds; how much more should the body of Christ react to persecution?
Then comes the great turning point: “If you keep silent… relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.” God is never named, yet His sovereignty is assumed. Deliverance does not depend on Esther, but participation does. This is grace without flattery. God does not need His servants, yet He invites them. History will move forward, but Esther must decide whether she will be faithful or merely preserved. The question is no longer whether God will act, but whether Esther will join Him.
Everyone will decide whether they are willing to put it all on the line for God and whether or not they will be used by God to fulfill His purposes. Those who remain irrelevant through compromise and indecision will simply miss out on what God is going to do anyway and suffer the consequences of being outside of God’s will.
Esther 4:14 — Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Mordecai helped Esther see God’s purpose for her life and helped her understand how God places His people in specific places, and specific times, in intentional relationships with other people, to accomplish His purposes. He also helped her understand that she had to choose to be faithful to the opportunity God had given her to join Him in His work. Do you understand God’s purpose for your life right where He has intentionally placed you? Are you living faithfully to your calling?
- Ephesians 4:1 — I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called….
Esther 4:15-17 — I will go to the king… and if I perish, I perish.
Esther’s resolve marks a transformation. She does not suddenly become fearless; she becomes surrendered. She asks for fasting, not strategy. Dependence replaces insulation. Solidarity replaces isolation. This is not fatalism; it is trust. Esther accepts that obedience may cost her life, but disobedience will cost her soul. She steps out of passive survival and into purposeful faithfulness. Here, without miracles or divine speech, Esther aligns herself with God’s redemptive work. This is the quiet courage that Scripture consistently honors, not confidence in outcomes, but faithfulness in obedience.
- Job 13:15 — Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.
- Philippians 1:21 — For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- Psalm 48:14 — For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
- Revelation 2:10 (NIV) — Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer… Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
- Psalm 73:25-26 — My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Crises have a way of waking us up. What comfort dulls, danger clarifies. Again and again, Scripture and experience show that it often takes a threat — cancer, collapse, loss, exposure — to rouse hearts that had drifted into spiritual numbness. Many return to God not through ease, but through desperation. Esther 4 is one of those moments. A people morally compromised, assimilated, and spiritually quiet are suddenly forced to reckon with extinction. And in that pressure, faith stirs.
Mordecai and Esther are not introduced to us as models of covenant faithfulness. Esther’s marriage to a pagan king and Mordecai’s earlier silence about Jewish identity reveal accommodation, not devotion. Yet when annihilation becomes real, compromise can no longer hide. Mordecai publicly mourns, identifying himself with God’s people at last. Esther, sheltered in the palace, is confronted with truth she can no longer avoid. Crisis exposes reality and becomes the means God uses to summon obedience.
Esther’s call for fasting marks a turning point, placing the outcome rightfully in God’s hands. Her words, “If I perish, I perish,” are not spoken in despair, resignation, or emotional impulse. They are the language of holy resolution. Esther entrusts herself to the outcome she cannot control, choosing duty over self-preservation. Matthew Henry observed that she trusted God with the result and welcomed His will, whatever it might be. This is not recklessness; it is submission. She acts without certainty, sustained only by confidence that doing what is right is better than surviving by disobedience.
This moment captures the hidden providence that defines the book of Esther. God is never named, yet He is unmistakably active. Esther cannot see the end. She cannot know whether her courage will save her people or cost her life. Like believers today, she must decide without full information, acting on truth rather than outcomes. James later describes this posture precisely — living faithfully without presuming control over tomorrow.
What Esther could not yet see is what the gospel later reveals clearly. Her willingness to risk death for the salvation of her people foreshadows a greater deliverance. What evil intended to destroy Israel became the means of their preservation. And in the fullness of time, what evil intended in crucifying the Son of God became the means of salvation for the world. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Esther steps forward not knowing whether she will live; Christ steps forward knowing He will die.
Here, faith is not certainty — it is obedience under uncertainty. Esther entrusts herself to God’s unseen hand, believing that her life is safer in obedience than in silence. That same call confronts every believer. God’s providence is usually hidden. Outcomes are rarely clear. But obedience remains non-negotiable.
This is the kind of faith that does not wait for reassurance, clarity, or success. It acts because it is right and trusts God with everything else.
Esther 4 reveals the heart of redemptive history: God acts decisively, but He calls His people to participate courageously. Eternal deliverance is assured, but obedience still matters today. Grace does not eliminate responsibility; it empowers it.
This chapter exposes the lie of self-preservation. Attempting to save one’s life by silence ultimately forfeits it. True life is found in surrender, not safety.
The Cross reveals this truth fully. Salvation came not through avoidance of suffering, but through faithful obedience unto death. Esther’s willingness to risk everything mirrors the greater faithfulness of Christ, who did not cling to safety but entrusted Himself to the Father for the sake of others.
Hope is not found in control, timing, or protection — it is found in alignment with God’s purposes, even when the outcome is unknown.
- Philippians 2:5-11 — Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 24 January 2026: Identify where fear, comfort, or self-preservation may be silencing your obedience. Ask yourself: Where has God positioned me, not by accident, but by providence, to speak, act, or intercede? Choose one faithful step today that costs you comfort but aligns you with God’s purposes.
Pray: “Father, You see clearly when I hesitate. Forgive me for clinging to safety when You are calling me to faithfulness. Thank You that deliverance does not rest on my strength, but that You still invite me to participate in Your work. Give me courage to obey even when the cost is real and the outcome unknown. Teach me to trust You more than I trust my security. I place my life in Your hands, confident that You are faithful beyond what I can see. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
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