Too many Cains and not enough Esthers

"Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated...” Esther‬ ‭7:3-4

It is well known among those who read their bibles that queen Esther put her life at risk to speak up on behalf of her people. She could have relied on her beauty and other schemes to try and save her own neck, and let someone else worry about the diabolical plot to annihilate her people. She was living the "good life" as a pampered queen. She could have said, as did Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper."  Instead, she recognize with the help of her uncle, that God put her in the position she was in during a grave time in history, not to preserve her own life, but to save many who were being unjustly targeted for extermination.

Today we have too many Cains and not enough Esthers. We have too many people that remain silent and will not speak truth in love because they are afraid of the repercussions. This is true, not only when it comes to speaking out against the injustices in our world, but more importantly the preaching of the gospel. Only the gospel can bring eternal and lasting change in the hearts of men where every imaginable evil is birthed. If we speak up against injustice and don't preach the gospel, that's a million times worse than a doctor pointing out that a person has a treatable form of cancer, but withholds the cure.

The evils of racism, which still exist, have diminished substantially in the USA. Why? Because of the Esthers that spoke up against it at great cost to themselves over a sustained period of time. And along with the crying out against injustice, the gospel, that calls men to repentance and faith in Christ to be saved from the power of sin and death, and which above all else demonstrates the justice and unconditionally love of God for all of humanity, was proclaimed with relatively little opposition. 

But today, although men still cry out against the injustices in the world, there is an increasing hostility towards gospel truth. At one time Christians in America that believed the bible and proclaimed the gospel and stood for liberty and justice for all, were respected and honored. But today they are maligned and ridiculed. They are seen as part of the problem and not the solution even though the principles of liberty and justice for all that are so valued in our society are rooted in the Christianity of the scriptures. If Christians today do not rise up, as Esther did in such a time as this, if we do not preach the gospel, and live the gospel, which includes putting our necks out on behalf of the poor and oppressed, things will not get better, they will get worse. A mind that rejects with hostility the truth of the gospel, which is what society is doing today, will not be able to discern what true Liberty and Justice for all is suppose to look like (Romans 1:18-32). It already cries out for animal rights, but approves and legalizes the killing of the unborn.

The only real hope for America in a time like this is for the church to prayerfully discern where there is real injustice, cry out against it, while seeking to be part of the solution not the problem. The church is to be the example to the world of racial reconciliation and loving unity in spite of class, culture and color differences. But although we've come along way, as Dr. King said years ago, 11am on Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week. Sadly, there's more unity in spite of color and class at a baseball game because of a common love for a team, than there is in the Church because of a common love for Jesus. And there in lies the real and ultimate hope of man. We cannot have unity, where godly Liberty and Justice for all exist, apart from a common love and reverence for Jesus, who demonstrated His love by freely giving his life in our place for our sin to satisfy the just demands of a holy God.

In a world where the truth of the gospel is suppressed and rejected, which leads to a moral free fall, including injustices of all sorts, if there's going to be a turn around, we need more Esthers to rise up. We cannot remain silent because of fear of the repercussions. We must cry out against injustice, but most of all we must preach and live the gospel. And we must do so across cultural, class, color, crime, and crisis lines. In times like these, the Church must like never before stay focused on our mission, which hasn't changed, namely to make disciples of all nations for the greater fame of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20).