JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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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?”
13Mordecai 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. 14If 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?”
15Then 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.”
Have you ever read a book or seen a movie in which the hero risked their own life for the chance to save others? There is no one we would rather root for, and no story that naturally stirs our affections more than when someone is willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of someone else.
That’s what happened in the book of Esther. A death plot was planned against the Jews who were living in exile. Queen Esther was Jewish, but no one knew that except her cousin, Mordecai. Esther could speak up and attempt to save the Jews—but, by doing so, she faced the very real risk of being killed herself.
Mordecai suggested to Esther that she might have been chosen as queen “for such a time as this.” Perhaps God had put her in that position specifically so that she could thwart the evil plan against her people. Sure enough, Esther spoke to the king and talked him out of allowing the plot against the Jews. Esther’s faith was demonstrated by her willingness to stand firm and speak up, which enabled her to be used by God in his plan to rescue his people.
God’s rescue plan in Esther points to another, even more amazing rescue plan. Esther, who couldn’t see the big picture, faithfully risked her life to save God’s chosen people. Jesus, who did know the whole story, gave his life to save us. God proved himself faithful in Esther’s day, and he continues to show his faithfulness to us through Jesus. God loved his people in exile by sending a faithful queen and her encouraging cousin to deliver his people from certain death. Generations later, God sent King Jesus to deliver his people from the punishment, power, and presence of sin.
God, the hero in every story from creation to Esther to Jesus, is a God who rescues.