five years they must have wondered why this Persian queen cared so much about Jewish people. Now they knew … she was one of them. Perhaps the greatest and most affirming aspect of Esther’s plan, however, was that she finally surrendered to God’s will: “I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16c). What a change of heart. She changed from fear to faith; from hesitation to determination; from concern about her own safety to concern for her people’s