“Thou Art Come … for Such a Time as This”

The quietest person in the room may be the person with the most spiritual strength.

King Ahasuerus of Persia loved his wife Esther but had no idea that she was Jewish (Esther 2:17, 20). Her cousin and guardian, Mordecai, had warned her not to reveal it. But when the king’s chief minister, Haman, threatened to kill all of the Jews in the kingdom, Esther had to speak up, even at the peril of her life. Mordecai asked, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). It was her time to show genuine courage, and she did. She revealed her identity to the king and pleaded on behalf of her people (Esther 7:3-4). The king sided with her over Haman, and her people were saved (Esther 8).

The Book of Mormon contains a story of a woman who rose to a similar challenge. Abish, a servant of the Lamanite queen, had been “converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father” (Alma 19:16), but she had apparently kept that to herself. But when a missionary named Ammon taught the king, the king, the queen, and Ammon all collapsed to the ground (Alma 19:12-14). Recognizing the hand of God, Abish ran to gather the people, so they could see this miracle. When they didn’t interpret the scene in a positive light, Abish took the hand of the queen and raised her up, so that she could testify to the people (Alma 19:29).

Even though Esther was the queen, she didn’t feel powerful until she needed to exercise her power. Abish also seems to have been content to nurture her faith in solitude until circumstances compelled her to be more open.

President Russell M. Nelson shared a similar modern experience. A stake president (a regional ecclesiastical leader responsible for 5-12 congregations) was leading a council meeting in which leaders were wrestling with a difficult challenge. He turned to a female leader who had not spoken and asked if she had any impressions. “Well, actually I have,” she said, and then shared an insight that changed the entire course of the conversation. The stake president said, “As she spoke, the Spirit testified to me that she had given voice to the revelation we had been seeking as a council” (“A Plea to My Sisters,” October 2015 general conference).

This week, as we study Esther, let’s observe how the hand of the Lord often operates quietly yet powerfully to bless God’s children.