Derek Prince - How Queen Esther's Fast, Changed Jewish History
This is a clip from the full sermon: Self-Humbling Through Fasting
Then we look at the story of Esther in the book of Esther 4. You know all of you the story of Esther, I hope. I think I have the privilege of speaking to people who know their Bibles. If you speak in England today to the younger people, they haven’t a clue as to what the Bible has to say. You can speak to them about Peter and they don’t know who Peter was. Some of them don’t even know who Jesus was. That’s a terrible situation but we have to do something about it. So this is very interesting in a way because Israel, the Jewish people, never really fasted and repented while they were a free and independent nation. But when they were taken into captivity and Haman plotted to destroy all the Jewish people, for the first time the whole Jewish people repented and fasted.
I think, in a way, that perhaps applies to us here. We’re still free and independent to a measure. Are we going to use our freedom the right way, or are we going to wait until it’s taken away from us? And then do what the Jews did in Shushan? Then they humbled themselves. They’d learned what the rod of God would do. They’d been under the discipline of God. I pray, dear brothers and sisters, we may not have to go that way. Because it could easily happen. Could easily happen that we loose our independence, we’d loose our freedom, and them we’ll be sorry that we didn’t use it better. Anyhow, let’s just look. You know the decree had gone out that every Jew was to be annihilated. And Mordecai, who was Esther’s cousin, had got Esther into the position of being queen but it wasn’t known that she was Jewish.
And so Mordecai sent a message to Esther in the king’s palace. And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this"? Then Esther told them to return this answer to Mordecai: "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day", that’s 72 hours, "My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish"! That’s commitment you see. Whether I live or die is not the matter. The question is I’ll do what my duty is to do. "Then Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded".
Then we read on how Esther put on her royal robes and went in to the presence of the king, the inner court. And the law was anybody who does that without being invited is put to death, unless the king stretches out his golden scepter. I always like this. She fasted and prayed but when she went into the king she put on her royal robe. And there was a law that no one could go into the presence of the king fasting. And I think the church has got to come to a place that after we’ve fasted we put on our royal robes. We behave like a queen. I have a little series of messages called, "Esther: the Queen God Is Looking For" or something like that. Oh, I’ve been so impressed by Esther. And she changed the history of her people. She and the Jews that fasted. You see, if you want to change history, the most effective tool is fasting and prayer, because it’s self-humbling. We get out of the way and let God free to do His thing.