Identification With The People Of God

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “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 4:13-14

WHEN ESTHER BECAME QUEEN, she kept her Jewish identity a secret. She kept the secret so well, in fact, that no one thought to inform her of the king’s edict that her people were about to be slaughtered. But then Mordecai sent her word of the edict and advised her to plead with the king on behalf of her people.

Esther knew that if she went to see the king and he did not extend to her his golden scepter, she would be put to death. Approaching him could clearly cost her something —maybe even everything. Esther was in real danger. She was in danger of being so assimilated into the kingdom of the world that she would lose her identification with the people of God.

But Esther came clean with the king, telling him, “My people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us” (7:4). By identifying herself with God’s people and their plight, she effectively added her name to the list of those to be slaughtered on the appointed day.

As with Esther, the pull of the pleasures of this world’s kingdom on our children is strong. This kingdom wants to assimilate them so they will look like everyone else and think like everyone else and value what everyone else values. But the Kingdom of God calls them away from that. It calls them to identify themselves with the people of God. It may mean being hated and marginalized in this world, but we can assure them that aligning with his Kingdom holds out great reward when Christ, our King, returns.

Lord, to witness Esther’s courageous identification with you and your people causes me to look at my own life. I must ask myself if I have been this bold and committed to being a part of your people. Give me the courage I need to identify openly with you and your cause. And give ________ the extraordinary courage it takes to be different, even if it means being rejected because of identification with you.