In Esther, chapter four, verse fourteen, Mordecai believed that it was God’s purpose to use Esther to deliver Israel and that she had become queen for this very reason. However, Mordecai knew that Esther could fall short of that purpose if she did not do her part in God’s redemptive plan. If she refused to help the Jews, she too would “be destroyed.” God’s sovereign purposes usually include human responsibility, as in Matthew twenty-six, twenty-four.
Mordecai is confident that God will not allow the destruction of his people. Without naming his name, he implies a trust in his gracious promises and a conviction that Haman’s purpose will be frustrated; how, he knows not, but certainly in some way or other. If deliverance does not come through Esther, it will arise from another quarter.
This passage reveals the basic meaning of the book: God is involved in the events of the world to save His people from evil and to accomplish His redemptive purposes on their behalf. All believers must remember that God is working in what happens around us to deliver us from this present evil world and to bring us to be with Him forever, as in Romans eight, verses twenty-nine through thirty-nine, Galatians one, verse four, and Jude twenty-four.
All Christians hold the principles which underlie our missionary operations. They all believe that the world is a fallen world, and without Christ, the fallen world is a lost world. The preaching of the Gospel is to bring Christ to those who need Him, and the Church is committed to reconciliation.
All Christians must promote the missionary cause on the lofty grounds already referred to. Besides that, it may be our duty for some additional reasons drawn from peculiarities in our condition. Circumstances do not make duties, but they may bring a weight of obligation on us to do them. Times again do not make duties, but they make a thing a special duty now.