"Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: "Don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?"

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: "Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die." So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him."

Civil disobedience is not a new concept that arose during the civil rights movement in Americas south, it has been going on for hundreds of years. In the Book of Esther we are told that the Jews were to be murdered because Mordecai refused to obey a law that violated his religious beliefs. And because he continued to refuse to obey the law he had his niece Esther use her position within the political realm to intercede on behalf of the Jews, and in doing so she violated the law also.

We can see from the passage above that though we cannot obey unjust or ungodly laws we must not be eager to do so or to violate them lightly but soberly and with much prayer to discern that we are indeed within the will of God when we resist the "king's decree".

The day is fast approaching when the Church will be faced with decisions much like what Mordecai and Esther faced. We will need to stand against injustice and put the lives of others before our own. Revelation says that "they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die."

The test is coming soon and we must all be ready to resist tyranny and a godless authority when it makes decrees that violate our core values. As you read Revelation, and indeed the entire Bible it is clear that many of our "Heroes of the Faith" are such because they 'broke the law'. Jesus was crucified for what the Sanhedrin claimed was the breaking of the law, Paul was in prison for violating laws and the believers mentioned in Revelation will be persecuted, hunted down and slaughtered be because they will violate the law.

Know your God and know Him well, the days ahead will be like none we have ever seen before. Many will faint and fall away, their love will grow cold and their hearts will fail them from fear, but the faithful who remain until the end will receive a crown of life and will hear the words we all desire to hear; "Well done good and faithful servant..."