All Together Now
Esther 4:15-17
Esther now faces a great challenge! She needs wisdom as she approaches the king and makes a plan to serve as deliverer.
Challenge is often a part of life. When challenge comes, we can either face it, run away from it, or let it knock us over. Much like a person who finds themselves running in a windstorm, we can run strong - pushing through - or give up. Esther chooses to face the storm, but she chooses not to do so alone. Esther depends on both her community and on her God to help her overcome!
In her reply to Mordecai, Esther asks him to gather together all the Jews in Susa. She knows that the community of God’s covenant people must work together to overcome this threat that comes against them. She cannot do it alone. God formed the Hebrews into community as a witness to His goodness and as a necessary aspect of the plan for redemption for all peoples. In community, the people of God are stronger than they are as individuals!
The covenant community of the church is also stronger together than as individuals. In fact, we are stronger together than we are as local church gatherings. The church around the world needs to gather together to seek wisdom and revival in all times. We need to set aside any differences and rest in the fact that God has drawn us together through Jesus Christ as His people in the world.
As Esther, through Mordecai, calls upon all the people, she also calls them to a task – the task of fasting. Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline reminds us of the purpose of fasting, “Fasting must forever center on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained.”[1] Inherent in this request for the people to fast is a request for the people to seek after God, His wisdom, and His plan for deliverance. This is one of the places where we see God peeking through the text of Esther: guiding the people and drawing them together as the covenant community. Esther calls for the people as a collective group, in the midst of their exile, to seek God. In this manner she faces the challenge before her: in a community that cohesively looks to God for wisdom, guidance, and courage.
We too need to seek God within the community He has blessed us with: His church. This seeking might be accomplished through a number of means including fasting. We should pray in community. We should worship in community. We should celebrate within community. We should live hospitably within community. We should read and study Scripture within community. We should give generously within community. We should serve and love our neighbors in community. God has formed His church to live as community in the world, seeking after God’s wisdom so that God’s covenant promises can continue being fulfilled.
Prayer: Holy God, three in one, in your wisdom you have called your people together to seek you and to know you. Please bless your community and urge us forward in your grace and love. May we know you better and live for you as a witness to the world. In Jesus Christ’s holy name we pray, Amen.
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