A Safe Space Designed by, Built by, and Occupied by… (your name goes here)

Esther 4:13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.”

When you know what you have to do but all of your options don’t give you much confidence in the outcome.

Esther was concerned for her uncle Mordecai’s well-being. She loved him and didn’t want to see him in sackcloth and ashes (typical mourning garments), wailing loudly and bitterly. (Esther 4) When it was told to Esther, she “writhed in great anguish“. She wanted to help, truly she did. So she sent garments to clothe him that he might remove his sackcloth.

There you go, fixed that! Oh, don’t laugh! She meant well. She suffered for him for a minute and provided a widely used (still today) solution to grief. STOP IT! Pick yourself up, clean yourself off, and start all over again!

Mordecai refused. This was more than just a little tiff that escalated because Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to Haman (the current BFF of the king). Not that Mordecai ever considered trying to please Haman (the man was evil – he was filled with rage – Esther 3:5). This wasn’t about the normal honor an official could expect, this was about taking pleasure in planning and orchestrating the extinction of an entire people he hated just because! And now, he had the power of the throne.

Mordecai told him (Esther’s messenger)all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and inform her, and to order her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people. Esther 4:7-8

Whoa! What’s a girl to do? Besides, what could she do? Barely a teenager, chosen in a beauty contest she didn’t choose to enter, brought to the palace to replace a rebellious queen who happened to say “No!” to the king. For Esther to actively seek help for her uncle and all her fellow Jews, she would be risking death just to ask for a moment with the king much less ask for him to rescind an order authorized by the crown. “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.” Esther 4:11 Beside’s the fact that no one knows I’m a Jew. Esther 2:20 Do you really want me to commit suicide????

Mordecai wanted Esther to realize this was her choice, but he also wanted her to face reality and choose righteousness, not self protection.

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. 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?” Esther 4:13-14

“You are a Jew, Esther, whether they know it yet or not. You cannot escape who you are AND  there is no guarantee of safety and protection from this world of evil. If you choose to place your faith and life in the hands of a worldly system, you cannot expect God to abandon His people and His Will for His people, so that you do not have to risk what He has ordained for your life.”

No Spoiler Alert necessary… Did she or didn’t she put her life in God’s hands? Did evil Haman get his dreams fulfilled? I’m not telling! Read the rest of the book.

My point is… We spend so much of our time, our mind, our life, focusing on OUR WAY. How to build a safe space, a space that will not allow disruption of our peace, our plan, our pursuit. A space that only those who know and willingly follow my rules of safety first are allowed into. A safe space so well constructed and guarded that, “No Worries!” is not just a sign on the wall but the actual oxygen of each and every room. A Palace built for and by the  king/queen of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

I just have one thing to say to myself and anyone else who’s primary goal in life is, “Safe. Secure and In Control”… “Do not imagine that you, little earthling, in the king’s palace, you so carefully built, can escape any more than all the rest of the earthlings on this planet.”

I’m just sayin…

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.