Here’s My Dilemma…
I’m in a pickle…I have a dilemma…I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’ve heard that last one for as long as I can remember and just heard it the other day at a ladies’ bible study. I wrote it down with a question mark, so that I could look up its origin. The saying “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place” dates back to early Greek Mythology; it describes a man’s dilemma of having to choose between two equally bad options, eventually opting for the lesser of two evils.
We were studying women of the bible and had been discussing Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman. She found herself between a rock and a hard place because it had been ordered that the Jews be annihilated and either could she could do nothing and die with her people or she could confront the king to plead for his mercy, an act which could be punishable by death.
An interesting fact that I learned was that Esther is the only book of the bible that doesn’t mention God; however, do not think for a second that God was not there, weaving through the lives of Esther and her guardian, Mordecai. The book of Esther shows us the sovereignty of God and how He opens up destiny to anyone willing to keep His priorities. In verse 4:16, Esther says, after asking others to fast with her and her maids, “I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” That’s a bold statement for a woman back in those days! She was struggling with two unfortunate situations, but we know that she had faith and trusted God because she was fasting and asked others to fast with her. Fasting is a sign of intense desire related to a desperate need. She was there…between a rock and a hard place.
We can learn from Esther that God is always there, even when we don’t see Him working in our lives. His name may not have been physically written in the book, but He was definitely with her as she became a queen, yet maintained her perspective and integrity, not allowing the title’s prestige to corrupt her. We see God with her as she faced a difficult decision, opting to put the lives of others above her own. If we can learn to trust and obey, as Esther did, we can be sure of God’s presence and watch Him weave all things together for His glory and our good.
John 5:17 “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.’”