Living Outloud: Courage At The Crossroads

We pause at Esther’s cliffhanger and ask how to face our own crossroads with courage, clarity, and prayer. We explore fear, stewardship, and the cost of going public with faith in a culture that often rewards silence.

• the illusion of safety through silence
• sovereignty and responsibility working together
• blessing reframed as stewardship and assignment
• fasting and prayer before decisive action
• “if I perish, I perish” as faithful surrender
• courage in hostile or skeptical environments
• practical ways to inventory influence and act
• using resources to serve God’s people

Go to outloudbible.com and download the free Echo Discipleship Guide for Esther to reflect, discuss, and take action together

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Transcript

Setting The Stage For Esther

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project podcast. This is Mike, and this is Living Out Loud, where we take a look at what we read earlier in the week in the podcast, and we talk about how specifically we can live this out. What can we do so that the Bible makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us? And I'm joined here today by the voice of Queen Esther herself. My wife Kelsey.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Hello.

Why Focus On Esther Now

SPEAKER_00 0:36

And uh yeah, we started the book of Esther this week. And on the podcast, we did cover a lot of ground. We we covered, oh gosh, how many books? We covered Nahum, uh uh Obadiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and we started the Book of Esther. Uh and those minor prophets, we had some great discussions in those episodes. Uh, but cracking open the story of Esther this week, just last episode, I think this is a great opportunity to drill down deeper there because we find in Esther it's a beautiful narrative and it's a really compelling story. Um, a great heroine. Uh, we don't see a lot of female leads, so to speak, in the Bible, and this, but this is certainly uh one of them. Um, but we find a lot of great applications to our own life when we find ourselves in a in a crossroads. Because even where we left off this episode, yeah, it's like kind of like a cliffhanger.

A Cliffhanger And A Crossroads

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Oh, yeah. And I I kind of love that we're having this conversation right now, uh, after that one episode. We're not having this conversation about Esther as a book, knowing how everything turns out. So I'm I'm kind of interested to have this conversation, choosing to forget where I know the rest of story, the story of Esther goes, and just drill down on where we left off. And where we left off is this you've said it, the crossroads moment. This here's the problem, the people of God, the Jews are gonna be annihilated. And what are you gonna do about it? Now, we might might not be in a position where if we don't speak up, all of our friends and family and nation will be murdered and systematically and taken out. But we might be in a position where we're at a crossroads in life. We have a big decision to make, we have a hard conversation to have, we have something weighing on us that God might be inviting us into, and we don't really want to do it because it's scary and it puts us at risk. And how are we gonna handle that con those crossroads in life, those big moments that God invites us into? So that's kind of where we're at in the book of Esther, and I think how we can start thinking about how it applies to our lives.

Resource: Echo Discipleship Guide

Read Esther 4:12–16 Together

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah. So let's let's see what wisdom we can get from this. Uh, we're gonna be reading from Esther chapter four. We're gonna be talking about uh verses 12 through 16. If you want to go back and listen to that episode, that's a great idea, or you want to crack open the Bible yourself uh in chapter four, twelve through sixteen. I'll also take a minute here to uh recommend that if you have not already, go check out the website, outloudbible.com. You can find an echo discipleship guide there that will uh offer just some really good reflection questions. You could do them solo or with a friend. I call it a discipleship guide because it's a really good opportunity for discipleship together uh to go through them together. There's a couple questions there, and there's a couple just action steps to pick one of those action steps to actually do what we're reading about here. And the Echo Discipleship Guide this time around, we uh we provide those for a lot of the books that we read and we're working on building the library even more. Uh, this one's really focusing on the fact that we don't see the name of God referenced in the book of Esther. However, we see his orchestration of events very clearly if you're looking for it. And uh, and so that guide will really highlight those times where you're like, oh, okay, God isn't mentioned here, but he's definitely doing that.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

So uh really good uh resource for you. I'm I want to point you to outloudbible.com. Go to the resources.

Mordecai Challenges Esther’s Safety Plan

SPEAKER_01 3:54

We build those because if you're listening with this podcast, that's fantastic. Just listening to the word of God every day in your life is going to make a difference. Having these conversations, Mike, you and I having these conversations of living it out loud, we can only come to this conversation with our experience and our context. And so those resources on the website are really they're free and to download and to work through. And it's really to try to help um all of us work through engaging with the Bible, wrestling with the Bible, applying the Bible to to your specific context, through your experience, uh, really making it part of you so you can live it out loud after you've wrestled through it. So I really encourage you to go download those resources.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

So here in chapter four, let's take a look at this conversation between Esther and Mordecai. Mordecai is like passing notes, you know, through people and like through the window and stuff because they got to have this kind of difficult secret conversation. Uh let's see what Mordecai says. Some really profound statements of faith, including one that, you know, you see at Hobby Lobby, so you know it's a really good one.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Because her response originally is, I can't go to the king, he'll kill me. So you've got to find another way. Yep. Like that's it. Like she's just like, that's the law. The law is I can't approach him if he doesn't call me. And if I try, I die. And he hasn't called me for like a month. So good luck, but that I'm not the right person to do this job.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Well, Mordecai pushes back and excuses. Yeah. Mordecai says, Don't imagine that because you are part of the king's household, you'll be the one Jew who will escape. Mordec Mordecai is challenging the idea that like just because you're, you know, you're comfortable that you're that that means you're safety.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Just because you're really close to the people who are going against God's people doesn't mean that you will be safe when they find out that you're one of their enemies.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

They may like you now. That does not mean that does not guarantee your safety later. And because she has been keeping her identity as a Jew a secret for a while. And that was even Mordecai's strategy when it was like, oh, wow, she's really getting into this beauty contest. She's really doing well. Hey, don't tell anyone you're a Jew. I let like keep that card close to your chest. I don't think it's time to play that uh right now. That that could, I don't know, kind of mess things up. And so she had been doing that.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

It's like I'm just keeping that card behind my back because Mike, that means that I don't have to tell anybody I'm a Christian and I can be more comfortable and win beauty contests if nobody knows what I am, right? Is that how I get to apply this part of the Bible?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

None of that is it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

No. Uh what but we we tend to do this, right? We tend to think that we're being strategic when we keep our identity as a Christian secret.

The Temptation To Be A Secret Christian

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I just won't tell anybody at work that I'm a Christian and I will climb up the ranks and I'll be like the best worker and I'll be the best manager, and people will really start to respect me. And then once they respect me, and once I have influence, and once they see how great of a person I am, if it happens to come up in conversation and I mention I'm a Christian, then maybe they'll have a good idea of what Christians are because they already like me. We think that's strategic, but it's really cowardice. It's really cowardice to live your life as a secret Christian. Nowhere in scripture does God tell you to just not say you're a follower of Christ, to hold that back. We saw Peter at the trial of Jesus claim that he doesn't know Jesus. I don't know who that guy is. I don't follow him, and it didn't go well. That's not what he was supposed to be doing. And so we we cannot take living as secret Christians while we get close to people of influence and while we gain a following, while we gain influence, while we gain finances, while we gain position and and reputation as a as an idea that that will keep us safe if the world coes against Christians. It's like, oh well, I I I'm a Christian, but you like me, so you're not gonna hurt me, right? Don't assume that.

Counting The Cost In A Hostile Culture

Sovereignty And Responsibility Intersect

SPEAKER_00 8:02

No. No, it and uh it's true. Like it's in in our country, we're speaking from America here, like it's getting less and less popular to be a Christian. It's looking more and more dangerous to be a Christian because there's a whole group of uh a very the gap is just growing wide between people who affiliate themselves with Christians and people who are deciding that Christians are hateful and uh assigning all sorts of labels to Christians and pre-deciding that uh if you're a Christian, then you automatically think this and I hate you. Um and and you know, there are I understand there are countries where this persecution of Christians has been commonplace for a long time, and and this is very relatable. It and they haven't felt safe being known as a Christian for a long time, so or ever. So I I get and I get there's a whole spectrum here. Um and this isn't even a commentary of oh, did should Esther have made known that she was a Jew earlier? I don't know. I honestly that's between her and God and Mordecai, I don't know. Um, but we live in a new era of a commission where we are sent by Jesus to go represent him openly to people. Um look, it and if he says, hey, play that card at a time that I I determine, then great, go ahead with that. Uh but we need to be making sure that we're not making fear-based decisions in order to inform what we're gonna do and how we're gonna respond to a situation and respond to God. But Mordecai goes on here. He says If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear from another source while you and your father's household perish. This so this is kind of a wild declaration of faith. He is recognizing that look, God's gonna do what he's gonna do. Again, he's not saying God, but you know, it's informing his his faith here. Like, God will keep his promises and he's gonna do what he's gonna do, but he doesn't necessarily promise your safety if you choose to not get on board with what he's doing. Right. It's this uh weird intersection of God's sovereignty, but also our free will. Sometimes we wrestle with like, well, do I have free will to do what I want to do or not? And and it it does God just do what he wants to do regardless or or not? And I don't know, it's one of those tensions that's kind of both are true at the same time, but I think we see it demonstrated the the intersection here that like God is gonna do what it's gonna do, but we do have the choice of jumping on the boat or not. In other words, God doesn't need you to do what he's gonna do. And and Mordecai has this perspective of and he's trying to communicate to Esther, is like, look, if God's gonna rescue his people, he doesn't need you. But I think I think he may want you to work. That's that's that's the point he's leading up to. But at first he's like, uh you are not, your safety is not guaranteed here.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah. And it's kind of like she doesn't want to do something because she's afraid of losing her life. And Mordecai is saying, you don't have the guarantee that if you do nothing, your life will be spared either. So like there just is no guarantee of your safety. So don't make your decision based on what feels safe.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yeah.

Don’t Choose What Only Feels Safe

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Don't make your decision based on what rema s spares your own life and your own comfort and your own position. Don't make your decision based on that because you may follow God and die, you may reject God and die. You may go into the mission field and be killed by natives, or you may stay and build a life in New York City and be hit by a car. Like it doesn't matter. Like your life and the preservation of it, it's very human to want to preserve your life, but is it is very heaven-centric and God-centric and Christ-like of us to consider losing our life in order to gain it. You heard what I'm saying? Like those who try to save their lives will lose it. Those who tr lose their lives for Christ's sake will gain it. And so rejecting, I think the call here is to reject our natural inclination to make our decisions for our lives based on what will preserve our lives, because we're not guaranteed one way or the other that we're gonna be safe. The primary concern that we should be concerned with is following God and doing what is right in his eyes.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Because again, he he doesn't need you to do the right thing. He's not thrown off if you're like, oh no, I th really I was really hoping she was gonna do that. Oh no, now what am I gonna do? Like God's not thrown off by the fact that you don't do something or do something. But he invites us into his work. He invites us into his work, and that ultimately is the safest place to be.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah.

For Such A Time As This

SPEAKER_00 12:59

I'm not saying your physical safety is guaranteed, but the safest place to be is to be in the boat where God's going and go with them. And I love what Mordecai says next. A lot of people do. It's the most famous verse from this whole story. Mordecai says, it may very well be that you have achieved royal status for such a time as this. He's saying, think back. Put connect the dots, look for all the fingerprints in your life that God has been where God has been showing up, opening doors, opening opportunities, he's been with you all along. What if do you suppose that God has brought you all the way to where you are right now, not for your own personal benefit, but for some bigger than you work that he's doing? This is what he's inviting you into. What if everything you have right now is for that purpose? And we gotta be honest, because we have to look at ourselves and do the same thing. It's like everything I have right now, maybe maybe it's for bigger than me. It's tough to think because Esther could have seen all of this, her lap of luxury that she gets to enjoy now as a blessing from the Lord, as a reward for her faithfulness through her life. Her parents died. She's been an orphan, she's been a poor Jew living in a non-Jewish land her whole life, and finally things are starting to turn up Esther. And it's like, you know what? Yeah, thank you, Lord. You have blessed me, you've positioned me here as it's almost like compensation for a rough earlier life, and now I get to enjoy this. And, you know, it's really easy to justify the money that we have, the resources we have, maybe the job or the career, the position that we have now, as a, you know what? Finally, God has answered my prayers. And now I get to live in in the enjoyment of God's abundant blessings.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yeah. But Mordecai's call to Esther that perhaps you have this position for such a time as this is a call to us, too. That perhaps the blessing that you're living in isn't about you and it's not for you. It's a position that God intends to use for his glory, for his kingdom, for his people. And so we have to be willing to look at the situation God's put us in, the positions God's given us, the platforms he's placed us on, the influence that we have, no matter how big or how small you may think it is, God may have a plan for you to step into that for his purposes. Your blessing is not for you. Your blessing is to be able to help build the kingdom of God here on earth.

Blessing As Stewardship Not Comfort

SPEAKER_00 15:42

In a word, it's stewardship. Jesus talks about stewardship a lot. He he says to whom much has been given, much is expected, right? Like if God gives you a lot of something, it doesn't have to be a physical something or a financial something, but if he's given you a lot of something, then he's gonna expect that you do something with it. And it's not for you to simply just enjoy, it's for you to pour back into the work that that God is doing somewhere. So um let's I think it's wise to just do a check of like what do I feel like I actually have a lot of? Could be time, it could be uh money, it could be connections, could be influence. Okay. Enjoy it, I guess, but don't let your enjoyment of it kind of blind you from the fact that it's all God's in the first place, and he may have positioned you to be able to give that to someone else for the benefit of something bigger than you. Now, obviously, Mordecai has a lot of really great quotes here, a lot of great statements of faith, and you know, a lot of great perspective, but Esther has uh a really powerful response of her own. She sent this reply back to Mordecai. She says, All right, go assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast on my behalf. Don't eat and don't drink for three days, day or night. My attendants and I were going to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

I I love this, and I think we can just simply say when we have a big decision to make, when we have a big uh crossroads in our lives, may we not rush it. Let's learn from Esther right now that the best knee-jerk reaction, the best approach is to pray and fast first. Don't agree to any contracts, don't agree to any action, don't take action into your own hands, don't start moving and protesting and going out there and making things happen and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps until you have prayed and fasted. Pray and fast. When there is a problem in front of you that you might have a a part to play in the solution, pray and fast first.

Inventory Your Gifts And Influence

SPEAKER_00 17:51

And that will give you uh just that unreasonable confidence. Like God promises a peace that surpasses understanding if you take to him your your worries and and thank him and tell him what you need. I think in a similar way, praying and fasting gives you uh a confidence that surpasses all understanding to go and do something like this, where Esther says, afterward, I'll go to the king, even though it violates the law, like I'm putting myself in danger, and if I perish, I perish. Now, on the surface, it just sounds like is she just being fatalistic? I don't I don't think this is fatalistic or depressive or like, oh well, if I die, I die. I what's the matter anyway?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

This is a beautiful realization of her submission to the the position God's given her. If it, if, if it ends her life, she would rather position her life as less important than God's sovereignty than to put her life above anything else. So it's it's a beautiful position that she has placed herself in to say, I submit to wherever this is going. May I be nothing. We might say in the New Testament covenant, may I be nothing and may Christ be made much of. Like I will give up everything in order for his kingdom to move forward. My life does not matter as much as God's purpose and kingdom being made known. And so if I die, I die. And honestly, that's where she thinks this is gonna go. Like by all natural measures, she's gonna go break the law and go talk to the king when he hasn't summoned her, which is punishable by death.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

She probably she wouldn't be able to get a word out edgewise if if the king deems it inappropriate. She wouldn't even be able to say a word.

Esther’s Plan: Pray And Fast First

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Right. There's an there's the offshoot chance that he might like extend his scepter and she'll be able to speak. But if he doesn't like what she speaks, she could still die. And so she genuinely is like, I'm gonna go do this, even if it means my own death. And that's just placing the the kingdom and the purposes of God above the value of that is even above your the value of your own life.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

And I get it. Your situation is probably not a matter of life and death. It's probably not like, all right, well, I'll I'll walk into my death if that's what Jesus wants me to do. It's probably not that. But you will likely lose something. Something is at risk. If I perish, I perish. It might mean if you know, if I'm broke, I'm broke. If I lose my friend, I lose my friend.

If I Perish I Perish Explained

SPEAKER_01 20:24

I I heard it said recently that in the in human psychology, being um banished is the is equal to death. Um and so so people will use the threats of of banishment from a community, banishment from a uh a so society as threats because because our human psychology equates that with it, it's it's just like death. And so Christians often are silenced because it's like, well, if you speak up about your faith, if you speak up about Christ, you're gonna be ostracized. And so like, well, I don't want to be, I don't want that death. I don't want social death, so I'll stay quiet. And and Jesus is calling us, calling us Christians to stand for what is true, to stand for what is good, to stand for the word of God, to stand for the kingdom of God, instead of staying silent so that we can just preserve our own lives and comfort.

Closing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Well, if you find yourself throughout this conversation realizing it that you have a tough conversation you need to have, or a scary, brave step that you need to take, I hope you pray. I hope you fast. Take three days, fast in this time, and go soak yourself in this story. Draw from some of Esther's courage, let the Holy Spirit encourage you, literally give you and increase your courage through the example that's already been set, so that you can take the bold step to represent him in an area that it may be not popular, it may be dangerous. Whatever the conversation is, whatever the situation you may find yourself walking into, let this story of Esther not just stay on the page, not just stay a nice sounding story here on the podcast. Go live this out. That's living out loud. Thanks for joining us here in this conversation. Join us next time we'll continue this amazing story of Esther here on the podcast. We'll see you then.