Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Esther 4:13-16 (ESV)
13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
Esther was a Jewish woman living outside of Israel, in the land of Persia. By a combination of resourcefulness and providence, she became one of the king’s wives. However, the king did not know she was Jewish. Then a terrible time came when wicked people in the government persuaded the king to kill all the Jews. Esther’s brother Mordecai appeals to her to go before the king and try to get him to change his mind. She agrees to go, risking her life, because it was illegal for anyone to approach the king if the king didn’t request the visit. Her strength and boldness resulted in the saving of all the Jews in Persia. That’s a valiant woman!