“Between a rock and a hard place” means being in a very difficult, stressful, or impossible situation where you must choose between two equally unpleasant, undesirable, or risky options. It describes a dilemma with no easy solution, often referred to as “the lesser of two evils”. 

As humans living in an imperfect world, we all will face and experience challenging circumstances that require us to decide and respond. We can choose our response or it will be chosen for us.  We can gather information from reliable sources beforehand responding, we can form a strategy for how to respond with the least resistance, we could ask others we trust for their advice, or can be silent and not respond at all.  All of these are forms of decision making.  But, sometimes, we might be stuck “between a rock and hard place” as the saying goes when whatever we decide will not be good for all concerned.  Someone will get hurt or suffer.  National, state, and local leaders face decisions such as these often.  Pastors and church staffs also find themselves in situations that no matter what you decide, someone will not be happy.

The best advice in decision making of matters of life and death is demonstrated for  us by God through His beloved Queen Esther.  God arranged for “such a time as this” when He made her Queen who found favor with the King of Persia.  When Esther heard the news of Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews of the land because he was angry at her cousin, Mordecai for not bowing down to him; she sought the Lord first!  She also offered herself to the Lord as she fasted and prayed, seeking His will. Esther’s obedience to whatever God said as she laid her life on the line for God’s people was demonstrated with her resolution, “If I perish, I perish.” 

Does this attitude of submission to God sound familiar?  Jesus sought God before his final resolute decision to suffer and die for our sins on a cruel cross. He knew.  But He loved us enough to complete the mission.  As God’s obedient Savior, Jesus readied Himself to sacrifice His life for our sins; we remember Jesus final decisive words in His prayer to His Father the night before He was arrested—He who knew no sin.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

The parallel is not lost on us.  Let’s read on…

Esther 4

Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. ² But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. ³ In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ When Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. ⁵ Then Esther summoned Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

⁶ So Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. ⁷ Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

⁹ Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ¹¹ “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

¹² When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, ¹³ he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Before Hitler was Haman who hated the Jews with a cultural, generational passion.  Mordecai has become his mortal enemy because of not only being a Jew; but a Jew who refused to bow down to him.  Haman’s plot to kill all Jews of all ages is not only driven by hate but by his ego to gain recognition as being the most powerful man on the planet, second only to the King.  He also seeks to be king, I’m sure, as part of his overall strategy.

Mordecai takes a stand against the enemy.  As a result Haman decides to not only rid the world of Mordecai but to kill all Jews.  Mordecai’s appearance and actions were those of a person showing great grief or deep repentance according to the Jewish culture.

Mordecai was neither afraid nor ashamed to let people know where he stood. He had already told the officers at the gate that he was a Jew; now he was telling the whole city not only that he was a Jew but also that he opposed the murderous edict manipulated by Haman, getting the approval of the king.  The King does not have all the information he needed, however, when he made that decision!

Mordecai’s wailing was not only a cultural response; it got the attention of Queen Esther attendants.  Mordecai had previously gotten messages to Esther through her “ladies in waiting.”  Esther is told of his weeping and wailing and inquires.  God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary acts of His will. 

“So often in the work of the Lord, He uses obscure people to accomplish important tasks. What was the name of the young boy who gave Jesus his loaves and fishes? Who were the men who rescued Paul by lowering him over that Damascus wall in a basket? What was the name of the little servant girl who told Naaman to go see the prophet? We don’t know, but God used these people to accomplish His purposes. Here the eunuch Hathach is named, but we know nothing else about him.”—Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible

Hathach certainly had a great responsibility placed on him as the living link between two distressed people who held in their hands the salvation of the Jewish nation!

This was a matter of life and death both for Esther and for her people; but our Sovereign God uses the crisis that Haman created to bring a spiritual revival to His people scattered among the Gentiles in Persia! Often God’s people must experience trouble before they will humble themselves and cry out to God.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes, haven’t you? Our God is always with us.  He never gives up His authority over all He has created.

From the human point of view, everything was against Esther and the success of her mission;

• No one could go to the King unless they were summoned. That included Queen Esther and she knew the Persian law.
• The new law said all Jews must be slain and she is a Jew.
• Her gender was against her, because the king’s attitude toward women was worse than chauvinistic. Remember what happened to the last queen?
• The officers of the court, ordered and commission by Haman were against her.
• The three days of fasting probably weakened her and made her “less beautiful” to the king’s standards.

But Queen Esther was resolved after seeking God to do what God said to save His people.  “If I perish, I perish.” 

Stay tuned as the plot thickens…

But remember this truth for today:  God is still in control.  God was, is, and always will be in control—even if we don’t’ see or feel it—God is always at work! 

“And if God is for us; who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

Lord,

Decision-making, of which there are dozens each day, is not easy for humans. It is even harder when we do not first ask for your wisdom, strength and help.  Thank you, again for this lesson to seek you before doing anything of significance.  Lead us, Lord in all we think, say, and do.  We need you every hour of every day.

In Jesus Name, Amen