Last Week On The Podcast We Wrapped Up “The Destiny” Season - So To Close That Season Up For Good I Wanted To Show You Guys A Paper That I Wrote About The Season That We Did On Counter Clockwise! Have A Great Week!!!
Ansley Hester
Ms. Pettet
Ninth English
February 2021
Tragedy to Triumph
Imagine having the willingness to lose one’s own life to save the lives of one’s people. Esther did just that. Esther was a biblical figure that was willing to die for a whole people group. She used her bravery and confidence to overcome the fear of death to change the direction of history. Esther was a young girl who grew up without a family and she thought, without a purpose as well, but God would prove her wrong and use her to defeat a giant. Esther, who seemed to have nothing going for her, was favored and protected by God who was always with her and was used by God to change the direction of history.
The tale of Esther is about a young woman whose story went from tragic to triumph (Cooper). Mordecai was Esther’s older cousin who took care of her after both her mother and father died when she was very young (“Esther. 2.7”). Most children learn pretty much everything from their parents, especially as young children. Children are who they become because of their parents and without their parents, often do not know where they would be. Esther was able to overcome that bump in her life and still manage to do great things. The King was obsessed with Esther more than any of the other girls and she won his beauty pageant and became the new queen of Persia (Shea). From the beginning of Esther’s story, it is stated that Esther was very pretty and she had a beautiful figure. God's favor was upon Esther as her beauty is what placed her in a position to be noticed by the king. Esther did not realize that by being born in the beauty that God gifted her with, that she would be able to do something great.
When a person gives up their life to the work of God, He will take that person places that they never thought possible. This is what Mordecai told Esther when she was debating on going to the king, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”(“Esther. 4.13-14”). Most people would need to think for a bit before making a big life-threatening decision. So when Esther was in the “debating phase” Mordecai pretty much pressured Esther to go to the king before she had time to think about it. Now Esther was still human and she was fearful to go to the king because during this time it was not custom for the queen, to go before the king without him asking for them. So, as any person would be in her shoes she was very scared because if the king did not want to see her or got mad because she was a Jew then Esther could have been put to death.
Mordecai used the idea that maybe she was put in the place of the Queen for this very moment. Christians need to be the first to believe that coincidences are God’s hand at work, not just the luck of the draw. After a few days of being nervous and probably debating, she did go to the king and once he let her come into his presence she asked him to spare her people because her people have already gone through much pain (Shea). He did grant her request and then went on to find Hamen, the man behind the annihilation of the Jews (“Esther 7.5”). Esther had to break down some mental doors to walk through the door to the king's palace. Just like Esther gave up her plans for her life for the will of the Lord, Christians need to be able to do the same. If Christians are not so focused on what is desirable personally, then there will be more room for what God is going to do!
“Nothing someone can do can hold that person down when God is on their side, absolutely nothing!” (Cooper). Even though God is on the humans' side, people will still have that whisper on our shoulders, which is one form of the devil (Cooper). The Bible tells us in Romans that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). Esther’s devil whisper came in the form of a man named Haman. When people give up their life and let God take the wheel it still does not mean that life is going to be easy. It can sometimes mean it will be harder. Everyone has their known devil whisper. It could be friends, drugs, or the world. Once the people identify what their devil whisper is then they will be able to defeat it just like Esther did. To be a true Christ-follower, Christians need to learn to stand up when everyone else is sitting down. This might just be the hardest part of the job as Christians. To be counterclockwise when the whole world is going clockwise is difficult. God is the strength of Christians and following Him is not going to make life easier; it just might make it harder. However, the heavenly reward that one gets is much better than “fitting in” in high school.
Esther was a girl who had to knock down some mental and physical doors to open the door where she would change history forever. She gave over her life to the work of the Lord and once she did that, she was able to understand and find her destiny. Esther had to go up some large mountains to see some life-changing views at the end of her journey. She had a rough start but ended up finishing on top of the world. Everything that happened in her life was for a reason and that is the same for people all around the world. Everyone has hard things that they have to go through in their life but God uses those hard times to make you stronger. Because of Esther’s story, people learn that they don’t have to fear the future because God knows what is going to happen and he is going to do great things if each person lets him.
Works Cited
Sidnie White Crawford. ESTHER. University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2009,
Accessed 30 January 2021.
BibleStudyTools Staff. Queen Esther. 2016,
www.biblestudytools.com/bible-stories/queen-esther.html. Accessed 30 January 2021.
Ray C. Stedman. “ESTHER: A Queen under Control.”
cdn.pbc.org/Main_Service/1965/05/23/0217.pdf. Accessed 30 January 2021.
“Esther.”Bible Gateway, Bible Gateway,
30 January 2021.
Cooper, David. Destiny. Cleveland, Pathway, 2020.
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