Or, For Such a Time as This
Scripture: Esther 4:1-17
Date: September 21, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There has never been a better time to act. God made us as characters who live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). He created us to think and to do. We have brains and bodies, heads and hands. We live in a day when so many problems are visible, when so many resources are available, and who knows, maybe God has us here for such a time as this.
We are agents, as in, beings with agency. Agents have the capacity to see how something could or should be, and they have the capacity to interrupt the status quo and initiate steps to an alternative quo. Agents don’t just solve problems like a calculator—with someone else pushing our buttons, we set goals and fear God and get going.
When men decide what they want according to their own standards let alone lusts, or when men will do whatever it takes to get the result without any regard for what’s right, they make trouble. Because we are image-bearers, that sort of independent agency is rebellious.
For that matter, inactivity is a different kind of rebellion. Note: prayer and fasting and waiting on the Lord are not inactivity. But laziness is. Dereliction is. Not showing up is.
What do we need? We need consecrated agency. That is, we devote our plans and our energy to the Lord. We trust Him, and trust looks like taking steps. As we’re walking God is working.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
(Psalm 37:5 ESV - see also Proverbs 16:3)
I’ve been signing off my emails “for such a time as this” for over a year. When we started Ezra, the plan was to cover Ezra Nehemiah and Esther, and the key phrase is finally here in Esther 4:14. In fact, that first message from Ezra 1 on September 29 last year was titled “For Such a Time as This.” When God gives a mind to work, He makes us consecrated agents.
In Esther 3, Mordecai refused to bow before Haman. Haman was so petty that he turned the personal affront into a plan for an empire-wide genocide of the Jews. He got the king to authorize it and then announced the date of destruction far and wide. The city of Susa was in confusion, and the Jews were in commiseration.
Mordecai himself opened the door for this. Maybe Haman already had anti-semitic feelings. Maybe as an Agagite Haman hated the Israelites as much as they had contempt for the Amalekites. But there’s no way Mordecai could have imagined that his behavior would put his entire people at risk. Maybe Mordecai was willing to lose his own life, but not all the Jews.
Mordecai does what a lot of Jews did, except that he did it in public, through the streets of Susa, and up to the king’s gate. He put on sackcloth and ashes, the typical mourning outfit. He cried out, loudly, so that everyone could hear him. That he kept it up all the way to the palace means that he was trying to get attention. Not only was it unhidden, it was unacceptable to the administration. No one was allowed to be upset like this in the gates. You didn’t complain about the king or his decisions. It was not a place for free speech.
And all throughout the empire there was weeping and fasting and lamenting. The Jews were in great trouble, and Mordecai was getting himself into great trouble.
Her cousin’s behavior was not good. Everyone was seeing and hearing Mordecai. Esther’s servants told her what was happening, but Esther apparently didn’t know all that was happening. She doesn’t ask any questions, she sends clothes. She’s trying to cover it up, physically. But Mordecai won’t take them, and this must mean that something is really wrong.
Esther sends a particular attendant to talk to Mordecai. And Mordecai spills the beans. He tells all that had happened to him, which seems to mean that he knows that he is the starting point. He’s got the receipts, that is, a copy of the decree of destruction. And he tells Hathach to tell Esther that she needs to get the king to change it and now.
But Esther replies with what Mordecai already knew: you don’t interrupt the king. This was standard Persian practice. There were seven guys who had access, but anyone else who wanted an audience with the king had to be asked for. There was one other option. It’s not obvious how this would happen, but some could get to the throne room and if the king held up the golden scepter then you got to plead your case. But if he did not hold up the scepter, you got to go to your death.
We feel bad about putting our phone on Airplane Mode for a couple hours to get some deep work done. Ahasuerus’ policy against interruptions took it up a notch.
Esther hadn’t been called for a month, so not even the queen had anytime access. This means Ahasuerus was also busy elsewhere during the evenings. Husband and wife weren’t sharing meals or a bed, let alone catching up on how their days were going. She must have sensed a vibe that things weren’t great. Even for her this was a matter of life or death.
Mordecai agrees that she’s in trouble, except that he points out it is not whether but which. It is a matter of life or death if she does not go. There is no escape. She is a Jew. This is not just the inescapable concept but an inescapable conflict.
Mordecai trusts Hathach with this info. Esther had been keeping her identity secret, as Mordecai had told her to do. But at this point even the queen’s throne wasn’t a hiding place, it actually made her an obvious target. So far, Ahasuerus is easily steered by plans to please him. Does Esther still have his favor so that he’d protect her?
She needs to act no matter. Verse 14 is the key. Mordecai says a couple things, which are dead serious, whether taken as threat or as exhortation. First he says that he trusts that God will protect the covenant people. Relief and deliverance will rise, count on it. But if Esther remains quiet, Mordecai anticipates that she and her family—which, that is only himself?—will still die.
Then he says, And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? All of the things that have happened have happened to get her to this moment. This is it. Providence has brought her to this exact point.
She accepts the mission, but she asks Mordecai to get the community to pray for her and pray that God would give her success. She and her maidservants will also fast, day and night, for three days. Then she’ll go, and If I perish, I perish.
One qualification and then a few exhortations about agency from Esther 4.
As we look for our own application from Esther—which we should do—we should remember that the retelling of a story focuses on the action, not the waiting. Nine years have passed since the beginning of this narrative, and at least five years have passed since Esther became queen. Our stories include down time.
That said, we do see what consecrated agency looks like.
Agency is doing something. Something is greater than nothing. And consecrated agency is not trying to do everything either. Fleshly agency is a great agency burden, when you try to make it happen from and through and to yourself. You were not made to be god. But it is wrong to say, “There is nothing I can do.” Agency says, “I am going to do something.”
Consecrated agency is doing something by faith. Do we fear that we won’t get the golden scepter of public approval? Will we be embarrassed, proven wrong, criticized? Assassinated? Esther, and Mordecai and Hathach for that matter, all risked death. So they fasted. They looked to God to bless their words.
What seat are you in? Mordecai, Esther, and Hathach are all active, but Mordecai in public mourning, Hathach as a faithful messenger, and Esther as queen of prayer. Can you point out the problems that could cost your comfort? Can you make connections between people? Do you have access to the person that can fix it?
Ladies, does this apply to you as well? Well, yes, of course it does, the story is titled “Esther.”
God purposes human agency in His providence, and so all our agency should be consecrated. Commit your way to the Lord, for such a time as this.
God does not need to use human agents to accomplish His purposes. God also says His purposes will be accomplished as He uses human agents. Christian, consecrate your God-given agency to Him for His purposes. He has consecrated and BLESSED you for such a time as this.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23–25 ESV)