Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
I have been following my church's reading pattern for a few weeks now. We started off in Marks gospel, but for the last 3 days we have been reading, one chapter a day, from the book of....(yes you've guessed it from the quote) Esther.
As I started digging around to find some background to the story, I looked into Haman, the villain of the story, wondering why so much hatred existed in him for the Jewish people (The story is all based around his plot to annihilate the Jews) that he would offer 10,000 talents of silver (375 tons, worth around £32, 000,000 in todays money)and found that he was possibly a little more than just profoundly peed off at Mordecai's snub, though it more than likely triggered him.
Haman was an Agagite, a descendent of Agag, the Amalekite King, killed by Samuel, after Saul Disobeyed God and spared him. The reason God was so harsh on the Amalekites? Well part of it was their history with Israel. It was the Amalekites who attacked Israel in the desert under Moses, when they were vulnerable. It was the Amalekites who were descended from Esau, Israel's (Jacobs) oldest enemy, and later on It was the Amalekites who sacked Ziklag and carried off David's wives into captivity, And here It was the Amalekite descendent Haman, trying to wipe out the Jews by manipulating the king. The enmity ran deep.
I was especially encouraged to see how the solution to defeating them had a consistent thread running through all of these encounters. The Answer is prayer.
Have a look.
Jacob, wrestled with God all night before going to face Esau and was spared in the morning.
Moses held his arms aloft whilst Joshua fought the battle below. When he raised his arms in prayer they were winning, and when he lowered them, they were losing. They won that day.
David, after they had sacked Ziklag, prayed and encouraged himself in the Lord. He then rode out with his men's faith restored and took back what their enemy had stolen from them, and was rewarded with the spoils too!
And dear Esther, having heard what Haman had in store for her people called for 3 days of prayer and fasting and then committed herself to risking death by approaching the king uninvited.
Listen, with all of these prayers there was prayer and there was action. Pete Grieg refers to this model as breathing in prayer and breathing out mission.
Jesus did the same thing all through his ministry, and lastly at Gethsemne, where he laid down his life for us, before he was ever betrayed to the Romans.
The Seeking of the king and the outworking of the Kingdom. Committing yourself to God in prayer and committing yourself to God's will in the outcome.
Once the deed was done in the prayer room, Esther surrendered to God. If I perish, I perish, she said.
Our battle, Paul reminds us, is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
If a new foe feels familiar, it's because the same spirits still seek the destruction of the people God loves, and they are still bested, on our knees, in prayer.
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