Approaching the King - by Elizabeth Reynolds

One week at church, a thought popped into my head about the story of Queen Esther and King Xerxes. If you don’t know the story that well, I encourage you to read it in the book of Esther.

When Esther learns that Haman, Xerxes’ chief minister, had schemed to kill all the Jews, her cousin Mordecai tries to persuade her to approach the King to make him realise what is going on and to retract the decree, and that if all the Jews are put to death, then his queen would be too, as Esther herself was a Jew.

Now the rule was that if you approached the king without having been summoned by him, you would be put to death. That is, of course, unless the king held out his golden sceptre to you. So Esther risked her life to go to her husband uninvited. Esther had asked her people to pray and fast for her before she did this act. And when she did approach, king Xerxes did extend his sceptre and basically Esther could breathe again. King Xerxes loved his queen. He hand-picked her because of her beauty. And so, his heart was soft toward her and he allowed her to live.

There is more to the story, but I will stop here because this is the moment I want to focus on. I got to thinking, why did Xerxes extend his sceptre to her? My mind made a connection between this scenario, and ours with God. There are a few things that don’t really fit like not being allowed to approach the king without an invite. This is not true of God. He has invited us, mark my words. But like king Xerxes, God is our King. Not an earthly king, but a righteous and holy King, and so approaching Him is no small deal. Without the redemptive blood of Jesus over us, approaching God would mean certain death for us because of His perfect holiness.

We come to God with our less than perfect lives, with all our brokenness, shame, anger, hurt, sin and so much more ugly baggage that we doubt whether we should even approach Him at all. It’s too scary and shameful. Who would want to face that? But here’s what happens when we do.

God our King, ‘holds out His golden sceptre’ to us, and for NO OTHER REASON than the fact that He loves us, and thinks we’re beautiful. Think about it. God cannot stand sin, in fact, He hates it. And we must stink of the stuff! So why would He break the rules to allow you into His presence? Well, because He hand-picked you. He loves you. And He thinks you’re beautiful. Although we deserve death because that is the way of things, it is the consequence of our sins, He reaches out to us and accepts us into His presence. Not only that, but He makes us sons and daughters and welcomes us into His kingdom.

Have you ever been afraid to approach God? Esther did not know how Xerxes would react when she approached her husband. But through the scriptures and through our relationship with Jesus, we know how our King will react. He hand-picked you. He loves you. He thinks you’re beautiful. So you can approach boldly!