If I Perish, I Perish

Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, “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 – all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.” When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Moredecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther 4:10-17

The king of Persia had signed a document calling for the extermination of all Jewish people under his rule. When the Jewish captive Mordecai heard the news, he challenged his niece, the newly crowned queen Esther to plead for the lives of her people.

Most of us will never face the kind of test that Esther did. But all of us can take courage from her example. There is a fate worse than death, and that is not to live the life God has given us to the fullest.

To die for our service to God and our love for Him is indeed the greatest honor. Jesus has told us that we should not be afraid to kill the body. After all, that is what He did for us.

Our Daily Bread – January 13, 2006