Esther

I love the story of Esther!  My husband and I love it so much that we named our daughter Hadassah (Esther 2:7) after her.  Esther is the story of great courage.  And not just by Esther but others as well.  I am going to talk about a few of those courageous people in this post.

Vashti

We don't always talk about Vashti.  She is only mentioned in the first chapter, but she leaves a last impact in that chapter.  The king had a feast of all the princes and Vashti, the queen, had her own feast as well (Esther 1:9).  The king had her beckoned to appear before him (1:10-11) but Vashti refused (1:12).  Out of fear that the women of the land would follow her example, a law was written that the men of the land would rule over their houses and Vashti was dethroned (1:18-22).  The scriptures do not tell us the reason Vashti refused the king but she must have known that she was risking her life to do it.  This shows great courage.

Mordecai

Mordecai also shows great courage in this story.  He actually set the destruction of the Jews in motion through his act of courage.  Mordecai refused to bow before Haman, first prince in the king's court (3:1-2).  We have already established what can happen to those that disobey the king so Mordecai refused to bow before Haman at the risk of his own life.  Because of this act, Haman asked the king to set out a decree to kill all the Jews (3:6-15).  He then asks Esther to risk her own life and go before the king to try and save the Jews (4).

Esther

I just love Esther.  She was asked to do a hard thing from the beginning.  When she was taken into the palace to be presented before the king she had to keep her identity as a Jew secret (2:10).  That in and of itself can be a very hard thing to do.  In chapter 4 she was asked to do the hardest thing of all.  Mordecai asked her to go before the king without being called.  The punishment for that is death.  But she very bravely said she would do it to save her people.

I have learned so much from the book of Esther over the years.  All of these people did very hard things even though their lives were on the line.  They did what was right, no matter the cost.  I strive to have the faith and courage Esther did every time I receive a prompting from the Spirit to do something.  It is not always easy.  But it will always be worth it.

Elijah and Elisha

Elijah was translated at the end of his ministry.  The scriptures say, "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings 2:11).  I did some research in 3 Nephi 28 in the Book of Mormon and in the study guide for the Old Testament on what exactly "translation" means.  Simply put, translation means to not taste of death.  To it in common worldly terms it would mean to become immortal.  But not in the sense that we become immortal at the Resurrection.  Translated beings still go through a resurrection of sorts (it is different because they never die).  Because it is not the same as resurrection, being taken up into heaven does not mean that Elijah was taken up into the Celestial glory.  This will happen after the Resurrection, as with all of us.

I think the purpose for translated beings is to further the work of the Lord.  In 3 Nephi 28, 3 apostles ask to be able to remain on earth indefinitely so that they can do His work.  The Lord grants them their wish because they asked with sincere heart and good intentions.  In their case, they remained on the earth to serve and do good.  Elijah was taken up into heaven but we do know he comes to earth to restore the sealing power.

Elisha was to succeed Elijah the prophet after he was translated.  Lord called him through Elijah the prophet (1 Kings 19: 16-21).  Just before his translation, Elijah asked Elisha what his desire was.  Elisha answered that his one desire was to given a double portion of Elijah's spirit (2 Kings 2:9).  Elijah replied that if Elisha saw his translation that he would be given his desire (2 Kings 2:10).  Elisha did witness Elijah being taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:12).  In verse 15 of 2 Kings 2, we find that Elisha's desire was granted unto him.  When the sons of the prophets that he had met with earlier saw Elisha, they saw that the spirit of Elijah did rest upon him.

Elijah

Elijah lived around the time of 914 BC.  Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah at the time.  He was such a faithful prophet of the Lord that he was translated, or taken up to heaven without tasting death.  He was given the priesthood keys for the sealing power and then restored that priesthood to the earth in our day.

Another prophet that was granted the sealing was Nephi, son of Helaman, in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 10: 4-10).  There are a lot of similarities between this passage and 1 Kings 17 about Elijah.  God promised Nephi that whatever Nephi would say would be done would be done.  This is because of the "unwearyingness" Nephi showed in keeping the commandments.  To me, this shows that Nephi had great faith in God.  The woman in the story of Elijah also showed great faith.  She has enough food for a tiny little meal for her and her son.  Elijah asked her to feed him.  Although she knew she did not have enough she did it anyways.  For her faith she was given enough feed for all three of them to live off of for a few weeks.  And when her son had dies, Elijah used the power of the priesthood to bring him back to life.

My life has been directly affected by Elijah the prophet.  As I mentioned earlier, he restored the sealing power to this.  For those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the work we do in the temple, this is the power to seal families together for all eternity and to do all saving ordinances for the living and dead.  I have partaken of these saving ordinances.  I have been baptized, received my endowments, and have been sealed to my husband for all eternity.  My life would be completely different if it were not for these ordinances.  I would not put as much focus on my family.  I probably would not even be married with kids at this time in my life.  I would not have the blessings that come from knowing my husband and children.  I would not have pure joy in my life.  For that is what these ordinances have brought into my life, pure joy.