I have a vivid memory of my early teen years. It was a moment of courage…or so I thought, my mom and sister might tell this differently. I lived in Arizona at the time. Four of us were hanging out in the backyard of a friend’s house, Kathy, Stephanie, Renee and me.  Renee is my sister. The street Kathy lived on was a hill, so her yard was quite a bit higher than the street below. While we were goofing off, a rock came hurling over the top of her cinderblock fence. It almost hit my sister. I remember jumping up and grabbing the top of the fence only to see a guy from school laughing at what he did.  I yelled he better stop what he was doing, or I would come and make him stop. You guessed it, another rock came hurling over the fence. Again, I yelled stop, or he was going to get it from me. Another rock came. I opened the back gate and started running toward him and he ran toward me yelling for me to make him stop. Yep, I hit him…now I said courageous not smart. He threw the next punch. And we got at it. When it was over, my friends declared me the winner. Yes, I went home proudly and told mom I beat up a boy. I remember feeling pretty proud that even though I hurt, had a big black eye, and some scrapes, I stepped up to the challenge and defended my sister, friends and me.

Are you facing a challenge right now? Are rocks coming across the fence, maybe dangerously close? Do you desperately need to battle, but fear has you stuck…you can’t move forward and face your reality? Is the risk of the battle scarier than the rocks that are thrown at you?  Maybe the rock coming at you is divorce. Maybe a wayward child. Is it a newly diagnosed disease? Trouble at the office? Finances? What is satan throwing at you to try to get you to turn away from God?

The story of Queen Esther is where I want attention to go to today. She gets pulled into a rock fight. It’s a fight for her very life. The NIV Study Bible has this to say about Esther. “Esther displays God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Him. It shows that He can take ordinary people and place them in a place of significance, to carry out His plan”. Let’s start in Esther 1. This chapter sets the stage of the story. King Xerxes arranges a feast to buy friends. He is flaunting his wealth and having them indulge in all he has to offer.  At the same time, his queen, Vashti has a feast. Evidently, King Xerxes’ feast was quite a drunken occasion.  If you look at Esther 1:10, you see that when King Xerxes was in high spirits, he wanted to show off his BEAUTIFUL queen. Now I can’t speak for other women, but it’s one thing for my husband to think I’m beautiful, but I never wanted to be the subject of cat calls or wandering eyes.  Neither did Queen Vashti. She refused to follow the king’s command. She would not indulge him or his guests.  By refusing the king, she could have lost her life. No one refused the king. Queen Vashti paid a price, a big one.  It cost here everything. She lost her crown, her husband, her home, everything she knew.

Four years passed. Esther 2:1 says, “After Xerxes’ anger had subsided he began thinking about Vashti and what she had done and the decree he had made.”His attendants suggested he start a search for a new queen. Young, beautiful, virgins were “invited” to come audition for the king… they would have beauty treatments, learn court customs and be taught how to please King Xerxes. From these ladies, a new queen would be named. Enter Esther. She is described as a young, beautiful, Jewess. She was one of the ladies chosen to go and live in the King’s Harem. If she pleased King Xerxes, she would leave his harem and become his wife, the new queen. If not, Esther would return to the life of the harem, essentially, she would live like a widow. Hegai, the man in charge of the king’s harem, took special interest in Esther.  It seems he had insight to the king’s preferences. Hegai gave Esther advice on how to win the king.  Soon after Esther’s night with King Xerxes, she was named queen. He arranged another great banquet, a holiday was declared in her honor, and King Xerxes gave gifts to everyone. From what I could find, Esther was a young teen when this happened…13-15 years old.  What a stroke of luck! What a dream come true for a teenager! Wait until everyone learned what an awesome life she would have! After all, she was queen and she was going to live happily ever after with no worries. Right? Not hardly.

Now hold this information in the back of your mind and let’s turn and look at Esther’s upbringing. She was an orphan that was raised by her uncle, Mordecai. Uncle Mordecai plays a prominent role in this story. Although he was a Jew, he was an official of the Persian government. Jewish people had lived in Persia during the time of Exile. Although many Jews returned to Judah, Mordecai and Esther along with other Jews stayed behind, and continued to live in Persia. Those that chose to live in Persia did not assimilate into the Persian culture. This caused friction between Jews and Persians.  Mordecai was in tune to the world around him. Scripture does not say why Mordecai asked Esther to keep her heritage quiet, but this background information makes me think he understood she was at risk. Esther was wise to follow his instruction.

Mordecai had duties at the kings gate every day. While at work one day, he overheard two men plot to kill King Xerxes. Mordecai immediately got word to Esther. Because she had won favor with the king, she warned King Xerxes of the plot to assassinate him. An investigation was done, and the plot was proven.  Although the plot was foiled, nothing was done to honor Mordecai at the time. King Xerxes just had it listed in his chronicles and Mordecai was named.

Keep your thoughts together on Mordecai and Esther… now we need to add Haman to the mix of people in this story. Haman was an official of the royal court, scripture says he was the most powerful man in the royal court. King Xerxes ordered all nobles to bow down before Haman to show him respect. Mordecai refused. When Haman realized that Mordecai would not honor him, he became enraged. Haman learned Mordecai was a Jew. He was so angry with Mordecai, he decided to not only punish Mordecai, but all Jews. The battle lines were drawn…rocks were coming. Decisions had to be made.

Haman went to the king and reported how awful he thought the Jews were. He considered them trouble because they did not assimilate into the Persian kingdom.  Haman offered King Xerxes a large sum of money for his royal treasury if he would sign off for all Jewsto be destroyed, annihilated. Since King Xerxes did not personally know any Jews (cough, cough), he was happy to get rid of that group of people. They never really fit into his kingdom. They were trouble. The king had a decree issued that on March 7^th of the following year all Jews would be destroyed. He sealed it with his ring. It could not be undone. Talk about a rock fight. This was huge stones being catapulted right into the middle of Mordecai’s world, and ALL JEWS. 

If you can, stop and read Esther 4. The first 3 verses show Mordecai’s immediate reaction. Mourning, wailing, and fasting. He displayed his pain, but he went straight to God with fasting. Other Jewish people joined him. As soon as Esther learned about Mordecai, she sent her attendant, Hathach, to go to him and find out what was troubling him. Mordecai gave a copy of the decree to Hathach. Mordecai also told Hathach, that he needed to direct Esther to go and plead to the king on behalf of the Jews. INCOMING…OVER THE FENCE…ROCKS FLYING EVERYWHERE! Our of the blue Queen Esther was thrown into the middle of the biggest battle of her life. She had rocks hurling at her. She had to decide to “climb the fence” and go and face the bully or take her chances with the rocks. Face the bully or take a chance that a rock would not hit her. Face the bully or pretend she was not one of “them”, the Jews. Face the bully or ignore what was going on around her. Queen Esther needed courage. She needed strength to get through this tough time. She knew she needed to face the bully, the one hurling rocks her way, and take a stand. But if the March 7th decree was not a big enough rock,  King Xerxes had not called for Esther in over 30 days. If she approached him without being summoned, she could die. She tried the “easy way” first. Hathach went back to Mordecai and told him the king had not called for the queen.  Mordecai would not let Queen Esther live in denial. Sometimes denial seems to help me get through the problem…well not really.  It just delays the final answer. (Does anyone else struggle with this?) Mordecai sent word back to Esther in Esther 4:13-14 “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.  If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Esther understood that she had a big decision to make. She had to live courageously. She would have to face the bully. She could not just dodge the rocks and hope for no injuries. This particular decision could cost her life. She could not see a way to win…don’t approach the king and she would die because she was a Jew, and by the way, so would all other Jews that still lived in Persia. Approach the king and she could die because he had not called for her. Have you been there?  Have you looked at your choices and not seen a way out? Have the rocks been coming so hard and fast that you can’t think about a solution? What do you do? Where do you go for strength? Where do you go for wisdom? Stop. Stop and think. Where do you find the courage to face your impossible?

I propose that Esther found her courage in her roots.  She was able to avoid the incoming rocks and face the bully because of the way she was raised by Mordecai to be deeply rooted in a relationship with God. Look at Esther 4:15-17. ¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” ¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther knew that Jewish people fasted to be sure they totally depended on God. They denied physical needs to proclaim that God was in control. Like today, it showed their repentance and a hope for restoration with their Father. By having the Jewish people and those that surrounded Esther fast, Esther found the courage to go before the king. By returning to her roots, she found courage. She was able to go do battle with the bully that was throwing rocks at her and her people. Her time of fasting gave her time to trust God to go before her.  She knew that God would be with her and guide her. Next she surrounded herself with others that fasted, those in her court. This has me ask a couple more questions. What are your roots? Who are your peers that help you walk through hard times? What resources do you turn to when satan is hurling rocks at you? What gives you the courage to climb the fence and confront the bully in your life?

People were blessed because Esther had the courage to turn to God and let Him give her courage to face the bully throwing the rocks. Because of her willingness to battle the bully, God did extraordinary things through her. What will God do with your life because you face the bully? Who will be blessed because they watch you trust God and fight? Abraham faced offering his son. Noah faced a flood and neighbor’s scorn. Joshua faced an army on the wall waiting to kill him and the Israelites. Gideon faced an army much bigger than his. David faced Goliath. Queen Esther faced Haman’s decree that her husband signed off on. Daniel faced lions. They were all ordinary people. Ordinary people that had very big rocks thrown at them. Ordinary people that faced daily challenges, challenges that seemed impossible to overcome. Ordinary people that were blessed because they chose to be courageous and take on the battle that was before them. Will you?

Blessings – Cherie