"If I Perish, I Perish"
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: "If I Perish, I Perish" ------------------- Date: 3/7/2003
Keywords:
“silence”
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to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: Esther 4:14-16*
14. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"
15. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
16. Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."
Questions
Background — The book of Esther relates the story of the Jews’ deliverance from an evil plot devised against them by Haman, a court official of King Ahasuerus of the Persians. The events of Esther took place during the sixth century B.C. Esther’s book is unique among all the books in the Bible because of the absence of any reference to God, except for the oblique reference in 4:14 (above).
1. Did Esther have a "guarantee" that she would find favor with the King if she went into the throne room to make request for her people?
2. What kind of a risk was she taking?
Practical help
Esther’s words at the end of verse 16 ("if I perish, I perish") are not fatalistic, but courageous. And her courage has prompted admiration for thousands of years. She could have been put to death for entering the throne room of the Persian King uninvited. Yet she was willing to risk death to do what was right.
Her example presents each eXXit reader and writer with a challenge: What kinds of risks are we willing to take to do what is right in the sight of God? Are we willing to risk the temporary pain of porn-withdrawal? Are we willing to risk the loss of the source of some instant — although admittedly short-lived — sexual gratification? Are we willing to risk the loss of the rush of participating in a secret, hidden life on the Internet?
Would we be willing to risk all of this — and more — to do what is right and to put porn behind us? God is pleased when we serve Him with no guarantees of pleasure, comfort, or ease. Esther’s "if I perish, I perish" is God’s call to each of us today.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
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