You Can’t Squeeze a Marble

If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.

Esther 5:8

Esther, Esther—why in the world are you waiting? Blurt it out girl. You have the ear of the king. He asked you before, when he held out the gold scepter of approval (5:2), and he’s asking you again: “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom. It will be granted” (5:6).

But Esther had seen the results of the erratic whims of the king in the past with the previous queen. Not only had he been furious enough to depose Vashti, but all the women in the kingdom had been ordered to handle their husbands with kid gloves (1:12-20). And on top of that, the edict to eradicate all the Jews was irrevocable.

Esther knew her request was a delicate matter indeed. As Oswald Chambers* suggests: you can’t squeeze a marble and expect to get wine out of it; nor can you squeeze a grape, until it is ripened. The king needed to be softened up, their relationship given time to ripen.

So, even before she had approached the king Esther pulled in all the prayer support she could: “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 maids will fast as you do” (4:15-16). And then she trusted God for the outcome: “When this is done, I will go to the king, even if it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (4:16).

When you are faced with a marble of a relationship or situation, do you gather together your friends for prayer and fasting? And then, do you trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)?    

Nancy P

*Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 30

,All Scripture quotations are from the NIV Translation 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted