Mordecai on Missions (Esther 4:13-14, Part I)

“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘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).

Do not think to yourself that in America you will escape the bloodguilt of the unreached any more than believers living among them will (consider the watchman on the wall: Ezekiel 33:1-9). For if you neglect the unreached at this time, then the prayers (see footnote 1), financial support(2), and proclamation of salvation(3) for the nations will come from another place (guaranteed: Revelation 5:9; 7:9)(4), but you will forfeit all the promised missionary's rewards(5) and enjoining the pleasure of the missionary God(6). And who knows but that you were born in America with so informed an education, such a wealth of opportunities, such access to wealth, such political freedom, and all that God has entrusted you with—all these for such a time as this(7)? Who knows but that the calamities that brought refugees to our cities and foreign poverty that brought immigrants are for this very purpose(8)?

(1) “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2; cf. Matthew 9:37-38).

(2) “Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 5-8).

(3) “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15).

(4) “by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9; cf. 7:9).

(5) “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life’” (Mark 10:29-30; cf. Matthew 19:29).
“For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20); “[hold] fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Philippians 2:1; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:14; Philippians 4:1); “I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:23); “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14); Romans 15:16-21

(6) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32)

(7) “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations” (Psalm 67:1-2); “I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).

(8) “God meant [evil] for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive” (Genesis 50:20; cf. 45:4-8).
Other examples where God spreads his fame to other nations or brings other nations into Israel: Israelite slave girl (2 Kings 5:2-3), Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:8-19), Rahab the prostitute (Joshua 2:8-13), Ruth the Moabite.