Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Everyone loves a hero, but most heroes don't feel like one when the moment arrives. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his study of Esther, and he'll bring us to a pivotal crossroads in her story. One person, one moment, one impossible choice.

Chuck explores what it really means to stand alone when everything is at stake, and why God may have placed you exactly where you are for such a time as this. Chuck titled his message, "Thinking and Saying What's Right—Regardless."

Chuck Swindoll: For Esther's people in Persia, life had turned bleak overnight. Because of a wicked plan born in the anti-Semitic mind of a man named Haman, every Jew in the nation was suddenly living on borrowed time. Think of it. Before the year was out, their epitaphs would be chiseled in stone.

What a frightening thought. The capital city of Susa was thrown into a state of confusion and panic. Can this really be true? Can there be anyone who could change the plan, or delay it, or completely abolish it? The Jews were absolutely devastated.

Guest (Male): Today we pick up the account in the book of Esther, chapter 4. I'll be reading this passage from the New American Standard Bible. Chapter 4, verse 1 begins:

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. He went as far as the king's gate, for no one was to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

Then Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai that he might remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king's eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city square in front of the king's gate. Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and inform her, and to order her to go into the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people.

Now verse 13. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish." So Mordecai went away and did just as Esther had commanded him.

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Esther on your own, be sure to purchase our "Searching the Scriptures" Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "Thinking and Saying What's Right—Regardless."

Chuck Swindoll: In an overpopulated world, how easy it is to underestimate the significance of one. I mean, let's face it. There are so many people doing so many things that are so important and they are so gifted. Who needs me? What can I as a single individual contribute to the great, vast, overwhelming needs of our world?

I like the way Edward Everett Hale put it: "I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." What a great statement in a world like ours.

There is only one you. Only one person with your exact heritage, precise series of events in the pilgrimage and sufferings of life that have brought you to this hour. Only one with your personal convictions, your makeup, your skills, your appearance, your touch, your voice, your style, your mark. Only one.

History and biblical truth are full of accounts of individuals who have made a difference. Think of the military battles that were won because of one person. Think of the artists and the contribution of their lives, whether Michelangelo, or Da Vinci, or Brahms, or Beethoven.

Think of the scientific geniuses, the technological experts that have made a contribution that has changed the course of history. Think of the preachers, the clergymen, the ministers down through time that stood alone in the gap and made a difference. You say, "Wait a minute, those are all incredible people. Those are sort of genius types."

Granted, some are, some were. When I read God's Word, I don't find a series of stories about great crusades and city-wide revivals and mass meetings and God's attention upon an entire country or an entire community. I find one person here who made a difference and set the pace, or cut a swath, or stood in the gap and made the way.

It's an account from Genesis to Revelation of how God's hand was on one man or one woman in an era. And as a result, history was made. Listen to some verses that declare this: "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart"—singular—"is completely His" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

"Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede" (Isaiah 59:15-16). "Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and look now and take note, and see in her open squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks the truth, then I will pardon her" (Jeremiah 5:1).

"And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one" (Ezekiel 22:30). And one more: "They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them" (Psalm 106:21-23).

Only one. Only one missionary gets into an area and a tribe is reached. Only one statesman stands alone and a country is saved. Only one strong-willed and determined citizen says, "I stand against this evil," and a community changes its direction, and a city follows suit.

All of this is a perfect introduction for the fourth chapter of the book of Esther, which we are studying. An unusual book, because it never once mentions the name of God per se. He's woven through the tapestry of all the chapters, admittedly, but He is never once declared. He is working through the lives of individuals, but His name is never once mentioned specifically in all the book of Esther.

Remember the background to where we are today. The Jews have been threatened with extermination. Wicked Haman has influenced the king, King Ahasuerus, the king of Persia. And he has said to the king, "Because of this plan I have set up, it is possible for me to pour this money into your treasuries and for us to rid the land of these people who will not bow down and worship you as the king. Agree with me and we will set a date."

Sure enough, Ahasuerus gave him the okay and plans were underway. Look at verse 13 of chapter 3, and you'll see it in one verse: "Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder."

That's the plan. It has the makings of the worst kind of Holocaust. The Jews will no longer be in our land; we'll be rid of these people. In case you wonder what impact it had on the community, look at the last word in the third chapter: "Confusion."

While Haman and Ahasuerus sat over their drinks at the table in the palace, the Jews wandered in bewilderment and disillusionment, wondering how can we continue, how can we exist. You talk about a time for one person. But who could do it?

I mean, this is in the days of the laws of the Medes and the Persians, and when an edict was set forth, it was final. Nobody changed the plan. Certainly no Jew. What a day for a heroic patriot to step forward. And her name is Esther.

Follow the story as we find the response of the people beginning at verse 1 of chapter 4. They are lost in mourning and weeping. "When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly."

We read of sackcloth and ashes, but it's seldom explained to us. It was common in those days to wear loose-fitting, dark-colored garments made of goat's hair, and they hung on you like a large gunnysack. When in bankruptcy, or in mortal loss, or living with a dread disease, or having buried a family, or a mate, or a child, or having gone through some terrible disaster in one's home or in one's city, the people would commonly wear these dark, coarse clothes.

And they would take ashes and get fistfuls of them and would throw them on themselves so that they would be covered with them and appear as unclean. Or they would even sit in the midst of a cold ash heap and throw the ashes on themselves as an expression of their grief.

In our land, we do not express our sorrow in mourning. We hold it in. Even when a president is assassinated, there is a dark veil that hangs over the face of the First Lady, now a widow, and we don't even see her tears. And people speak graciously and gratefully of her strength in time of mourning.

Not so in the East. You and I have seen many pictures, often on television, of great mobs as they push a casket through the crowd and they scream and they cry out, and they speak verses from their sacred word, and they claw at the casket, and they wail and they mourn. That's what is here. This is in Persia.

Mordecai holds nothing back, and in sackcloth and ashes, he stumbles toward the gate of the palace. But he isn't allowed in because he's considered unclean. Verse 2: "He went as far as the king's gate, for no one was to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth."

One wonders if he has in mind the hope of getting the attention of the queen, for it's doubtful she knew much, if anything, of this edict. She lives in the secluded environment, the indulgence of that lovely palace. She doesn't concern herself with the people of the street. He thought, "If only I could get her attention."

It isn't just in Susa, the capital. "In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews and fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes." It's a picture of incredible mourning and loss and sorrow.

Have you noticed, by the way, how suffering brings a people together? It forces us to grab hands and shoulders with one another and to pull together. Suffering never ruined a nation. Affluence does, but not suffering. Not hardship. It pushes everybody to the same level with the same goal of survival.

And so these Jews weep and wail and fast together. Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her—I'm sure they mentioned the presence of Mordecai at the palace gates. The queen writhed in great anguish. Remember, this is her home, these are her roots.

She wonders who's died? What's been lost? Why the sorrow? She can't speak to Mordecai directly. So she sent garments to clothe Mordecai that he might remove his sackcloth from him. She hopes that perhaps in a change of clothing, he would be allowed entrance and she could dialogue with him about what had happened. But he refused them. He would not accept them.

Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king's eunuchs—I'm sure one of the runners, one of her trusted assistants—whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. She doesn't know. She has no idea.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city square in front of the king's gates and Mordecai—watch carefully—told him all that had happened to him and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. First time she ever heard this.

He also gave a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and inform her. I am impressed with the accuracy with which Mordecai carries out his job. He informs her of all that had happened. He specifies the exact amount of money in the deal.

And he even sends along a text of the edict and he says, "Have her read this. This is with the king's signet from the king's ring. This is exactly what he has said." Why do I make such a point of this? Because we live in a day of hearsay.

How few there are who pass along information that is exact and precise and reliable. Do you? When you are asked your response to a certain issue that has to do with information that could hurt or hinder another, are you very careful with what you say? Do you have the facts? Do you present texts? Do you prove the information to be exactly right? I hope so.

Time couldn't allow me to name the people who have been hurt by rumor and innuendo and exaggeration and hearsay. Maybe you as well. Forgive this personal illustration, but it happens to me a lot. I had a fellow write me this last week and he said, "Tell me when you almost committed suicide. I heard this past week that when you spoke to [named the group] that you had mentioned that you had almost taken your life."

Well, I thought back. When was that? I have never almost taken my life. And I remembered speaking in a group and I spoke of some strains and difficulties in ministry, and I'm sure the person who heard that read into that a little more than I ever even implied.

And it makes a lot better story if Swindoll's about to take his life, and he decided that that's really what I meant. It's not what I meant. Up in the Northwest, word is out that I'm divorced. And so rather regularly, I have to send word up there, I have never married before.

If you knew how young I was when I married the first time, you'd know that I'd had to have been a child groom to have married before. This is the same woman that's been willing to stay with me all these years. That's the amazing thing. That's what's remarkable.

Be careful what you say about an individual. Be careful how you say it. Be careful that the person gets the right message. Review it. Give proof, or be quiet. Mordecai knows that he has put the issue on the line for Esther, and he knows if she acts on this, it could mean her life.

This is no time for rumor. In fact, the last of verse 8 says, "order her to go into the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people." Tell her that's what she's to do. No one knows she's Jewish. No one will know until she says it.

Now there's the hook. Does one person make a difference? Would that Jewess make a difference to the nation? Would anyone have more the ear of the king than the queen? James Hastings writes: "Mordecai contemplated this bitter necessity. He gazed upon it till his eyes were a fountain of tears. He studied the situation till the iron entered into his very soul. Then he made his appeal to Queen Esther to stand forward as the savior of her people."

I am certain that when he saw Hathach, and when he stood there in his sackcloth and ashes, he thought, "This is the moment. This is my only chance. Tell Esther to stand in the gap. Tell her to stand alone." Hathach comes back, verse 9, and relates Mordecai's words to Esther.

Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to reply to Mordecai. Now, before I read it, let's not be too harsh with Esther. And before you sit there feeling like a Nathan Hale or Patrick Henry, that you would have never responded like that, remember, you're surrounded by friends, in a very comfortable place, in the daylight, and there are no armed soldiers outside, and there was no threat on your race.

Just remember, you are in a very protected situation, in a bubble of security. How easy for all of us to be brave when we're all together. Let's not be too harsh with her first response. I can identify. I can understand it.

Esther said, verse 11: "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live; and I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days."

I haven't even seen the man. I don't even know what his feelings are toward me now. I'm not sure I can do that. It's a dilemma. You see, Mordecai knew Esther. He had reared her, he had trained her. He knew how far he could push. He knew her character.

You have occasions in your life, brief vignettes, little windows of time where you can step forward and tell your children to be brave. Step forward and do it. There are times when you must call upon your children to stand alone and to trust them to do it.

Bill Meyer: Esther's story reminds us that God often places an ordinary person in an extraordinary moment, not because they have all the answers, but because they're willing to act. This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll has been walking us through the remarkable book of Esther, and we have some excellent resources for you to deepen your study.

For example, there's the Esther Bible study workbook from our Searching the Scriptures studies. It's an in-depth companion to this series, designed to take you beyond Chuck's teaching into your own personal discovery of the Bible. To purchase your Esther Bible study workbook, go to insight.org/offer.

Did you realize that Chuck has also written a full-length book on Esther? It's from the Great Lives series, and you'll love engaging in Esther's story, told only as Chuck can tell it. Everyone loves a transformation story: rags to riches, obscurity to royalty, fear to fearless courage.

But Esther's story isn't a fairy tale. It's a true account of an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and the God who quietly worked behind every scene. Chuck's book on Esther will take you deeper into her world than you've ever been.

You'll walk away with more than inspiration; you'll walk away changed. To purchase Chuck Swindoll's full-length book on Esther, visit insight.org/offer. Thanks for remembering that Insight for Living is made possible through voluntary donations.

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I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll continues to share his thoughts on "Thinking and Saying What's Right—Regardless" tomorrow on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Thinking and Saying What's Right—Regardless," was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1997, 2005, 2018, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.