In this episode of Pray the Word on Esther 4:14, David Platt makes a Biblical case for trusting God’s sovereign leadership in their lives.
“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.”
-Esther 4:14
Probably the most famous verse, the most famous phrase from the book of Esther. As Mordecai has informed Esther about the King’s edict to destroy, annihilate all the Jews on a certain day. And Esther is wrestling with what to do about this edict because she knows it would be risking her life to even try to go to the king and to attempt to persuade him to change an edict he’d made.
Esther 4:14 Reminds Us of the Way God Delivers His People
So Mordecai says to her if you keep sound this time…” I love this phrase. Relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. As the faith of Mordecai, here he knows God is going to save his people. He knows God’s going to be faithful to his promises, to his covenant with his people. He says relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Mordecai says, and who knows whether or not you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther, God has put you at this time and this place for the accomplishment of his purpose.
Remembering the Story of Esther
And you know the story. And if you’ve read Esther you know the story. She risks her life after fasting and praying and calling others to fast and pray. She goes to the king and asks him to change the edict he’s made. In other words, she’s faithful in the time and place in which God has put her. So I think the way we pray according to this verse is pretty obvious. God, we praise you because we know your purposes will be accomplished in the world. We praise you that the revelation and all that we read there will happen. And we say today, we trust that all of that will happen.
Esther 4:14 Leads Us to Trust in God’s Sovereign Leadership
That you will bring a multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people to gather around your throne, celebrate your salvation, and worship you, and be with you forever in a new heaven, in a new earth where your justice and righteousness reign. That we all trust in Jesus will be with you forever. And all of our suffering here will not compare with the glory that will be revealed in us on that day. So we say, yes, we trust that everything in the world today is working toward that end under your sovereign leadership.
Placing Our Trust in God
And at the same time, God we trust that you’ve put us in this time and this place meaning all the different places where we are right now, where I’m standing right now, where different ones of us are living right now, are working, we’re not here by accident. And this time with all that’s going on around us, and our culture, wherever we live, our country, wherever we live, it’s not an accident. That we’re here right now, that you’ve put people in our lives right now, you’ve put opportunity is around us right now. That you have sovereignly ordained that we live where we do right now for the accomplishment of your purpose.
Esther 4:14 Calls Us to Live Faithfully
So God we pray that like Esther you would help us to be faithful to live according to your purpose today. To do all that you are calling us to do no matter what that costs us. God, I pray for that in my life, I pray for that over everybody listening right now. Help us to do whatever you’re leading us to do. To trust that you’ve brought us to this point in this time and this place according to your purposes. And that you’re leading us in the days ahead.
So help us to do all that you have called us to do for the accomplishment of your purpose in the world, for the spread of your glory among all the nations, including the Assyrians of Iran, all 17 million of them who have little to no access to the gospel.
Praying for the Assyrians in Iran
God, we pray for somebody in this time, in this place for more people to spread the gospel among the Assyrians. We pray for your blessings on our brothers and sisters in Iran, what you’ve done there in the church for the spread of the gospel. God, help them in this time and this place, even at much cost and much risk to live for the spread of your gospel in Iran, and particularly among the Assyrians. And God we pray for that in our lives.
We don’t want to pray that they would take risks. And we’re sitting back here now willing to take risks. God help us all to be faithful in the time and place you’ve put us in to do all that you put on our hearts to do. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to Esther 4:14. Amen.
View the 2022 McLean Bible Church Reading Plan.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
