For such a time as this
“For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?””Esther 4:14 · WEB
Esther is a Jewish orphan who becomes queen of Persia without anyone at court knowing what she is. When Haman secures a decree to exterminate the Jews across the empire, her cousin Mordecai sends word. Her first answer is fear: to go to the king unsummoned is death. Mordecai's reply is one of the great sentences of Scripture — do not think you will escape in the palace; deliverance will arise from somewhere, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? She fasts three days and goes in: if I perish, I perish. The book never once mentions God's name, and his fingerprints are on every page. Courage here is not the absence of fear; it is a frightened woman walking through a door.