When the Messenger Arrives

“Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why.” — Esther 4:5 (ESV)

Esther did not know what was happening. She heard that Mordecai was at the gate in sackcloth, and she sent him clothes, but he would not receive them. So she sent a messenger to find out what this was about.

This small, practical detail matters. Esther did not have the full picture. She was inside the palace walls, insulated from what was unfolding outside them. The information she needed to act had to be carried to her by someone who moved between the two worlds, inside and outside, protected and exposed. Hathach became the carrier of the intelligence that would eventually set the rescue in motion.

There are moments in our lives when the thing that is happening to us is connected to something much larger that we cannot see from where we stand. We are inside the palace, so to speak, and the crisis is outside. We feel that something is wrong but we do not have the full picture. In those moments, the question is whether we will send for the information, whether we will ask for what we need to know, whether we will allow the messenger to cross between the worlds and bring us what we need to act.

Esther could have decided that Mordecai’s sackcloth was his private sorrow and none of her business. She was queen. She had her own concerns. But she sent Hathach. She asked the question. She wanted to know. That small decision, to send for information rather than remain comfortable in ignorance, was one of the turning points of the entire story.

God uses messengers. He uses the conversation that finds you at the right moment, the word that someone carries to you from a direction you did not expect, the piece of information that reframes everything. The question is whether you are paying attention, and whether you are willing to send for what you do not yet know.

Today, is there a question you have been avoiding? A piece of information you have been too comfortable not to seek? Esther sent Hathach. Sometimes the rescue begins with the willingness to ask.

Prayer

Father, make me a person who asks the right questions at the right time. Do not let me stay comfortable in ignorance when you have information that changes everything. Send me the messenger I need, and give me the wisdom to receive what they carry. In Jesus’ name, amen.