August 28, 2025 - Esther 4:15-17 - "The LORD's Will Be Done"

Esther 4:15-17

"Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him."

In this God inspired portion of His Holy Word, we are confronted with one of the most sobering declarations in all of Scripture: “If I perish, I perish.” Esther, though queen, was brought to the end of herself. She could no longer remain silent in the face of Haman’s decree for the destruction of her people. And yet, this is more than a story about Esther—it is about the God Who rules and overrules all things in His world, and Whose will is always done. Our Savior taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). That is not a plea for God’s will to begin, but a confession that His sovereign will is already ruling and will always be accomplished.

In this scene, we see Mordecai as a type of Christ, interceding, directing, and protecting, while Esther pictures the church, often fearful and hesitant. Mordecai urged her not to think she could escape by hiding, reminding her that her life was bound up with her people. So it is with us: we cannot hide from the cost of being identified with Christ. Our LORD said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Esther’s words—“If I perish, I perish”—echo that cross-bearing spirit of submission to the will of God.

What courage was required! Yet it was not courage found in herself, but the grace of God working in her. Left to ourselves, we shrink back. But Christ sustains His church. Hebrews 11 speaks of those who “were stoned… sawn asunder… slain with the sword” and yet endured by faith (Hebrews 11:37). Why? Because the will of God cannot fail, and His promises cannot be broken. Esther’s stand was not just about her own survival, but about the preservation of God’s covenant people—from whom the Messiah would come. Christ the Savior and Promised Seed was in view even then (Genesis 3:15).

Unlike Esther, who asked others to fast for her, Christ fasted and suffered for His people that the Father had chosen in electing grace and placed in His Almighty Hand as the Mediator and Surety. He faced all the powers of evil in the world, sin, Satan, and even God's just and inflexible law, which could only condemn. Yet, He bore it all away, that upon completing His work, He redeemed His people and entered into the presence of His Father. He did not perish in defeat but triumphed in resurrection. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

What then does Esther’s story teach us? First, that God’s will directs His people to seek Him. She called for prayer and fasting—a picture of the church casting itself wholly on Christ. Second, that God’s will is always accomplished, whether in life or death. “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord” (Romans 14:8). And third, that God’s will is to be embraced above the fear of man. Our LORD said, “Fear not them which kill the body… but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

This passage is not calling us to heroism in our own strength, but to faith in Christ Who has already borne the cross for us as His chosen people. Like Esther, we may be called to stand in hard places. But unlike Esther, who was uncertain about the outcome, the success in interceding was already assured by God's sovereign purpose for her and her people in Christ. The LORD Jesus has promised, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish” (John 10:28). Therefore, in every trial, we may bow with confidence and confess, “Thy will be done.”