Obedience: Esther, a case study

Queen Esther is someone who resonates different things to different people. However, she is generally known as the Queen who stood for her people.

But, do we know that this did not come at a cheap cost. Her lifestyle of obedience before coming to the palace made this possible.

Taking a few steps back to the beginning of what is known about Esther, her family was among those exiled with King Jehoiachin to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. She was eventually adopted by her uncle Mordecai and became his daughter.

From the book of Esther chapter 2, we see that she had a lifestyle of obeying and still remained that way while undergoing the beauty treatment in preparation to meet the King. This shows that she didn't stop obeying even when her circumstances changed for the better.

For her to have that kind of obedience it shows she believed in the values that Mordecai had and that he had passed down to her. Mordecai was known as a Jew who feared God and was willing to obey God even if it cost his life.

Back to Esther, her uncle had told her not to disclose her nationality when she was initially chosen to be amongst the women to be presented to the king. The King had removed his Queen after disobeying his order. He had young virgins selected from the different provinces to find a suitable replacement.

After the initial beauty treatment she was taken to meet King Xerxes and she pleased him. This led to her becoming the queen.

After a while, there was a man, Haman, who hated Mordecai because he did not bow down to Haman like other people at the palace gate.

This displeased Haman greatly and he decided to wipe out not just Mordecai but his entire nationality.

At this time, Esther had still not disclosed that she was a Jew. The king had also not called for her in about 30 days.

The custom was that if you approached the king without him calling for you and he didn't raise his scepter to allow the individual have audience with him, the penalty was death.

Mordecai called on Esther to help at this point by speaking with the king. Her initial response was that she couldn't approach the king without him calling for her because of the possible death penalty.

After Mordecai rebuked her, she considered the request and approached the king. Before this, she put in some prayer and fasting for 3 days with her servants and all the Jews on Susa.

The king was receptive towards her and eventually helped them. Even though he couldn't revoke what had already been ordered he gave Esther and Mordecai the opportunity to make a decree that would be beneficial to the Jews with respect to fighting for themselves.

Esther portrayed obedience when she obeyed Mordecai despite him rebuking her. She could have despised his advice since she was protected in the palace. But she obeyed despite the risk to her life.

A life of obedience is not developed in a day. It develops as you keep growing. As Christians, knowing that God has our best interest makes obedience easier.

The bible has already told us to trust God's leading with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. We tend to think this through on many occasions and humanly thinking our own opinion seems like the most reasonable but God sees beyond all that we see.

Building a relationship with God helps us trust Him better. Also, the Holy Spirit is able to lead us per time.

Seeing the result of obeying on a particular occasion gives us courage to obey on another occasion and it continues like that. On days when we disobey, it is important to get back up again. We shouldn't stay down because we disobeyed.

Finally, obedience is a lifestyle that must be cultivated. It isn't built in a day. We keep getting better as we keep obeying. Obedience always pays off.