Esther 4:1-17
1 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. 3 And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate. 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days." 12 So they told Mordecai Esther's words.
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"
17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.
Decreed for destruction by the adversary, Mordecai mourned for God’s people. He lamented the impending doom signed by the king who was influenced by slander against the Jews by a longtime enemy desiring revenge by annihilation, by genocide. The other Jews in the city also fasted, wept, and cried out to the LORD for deliverance (even though His name is not mentioned here, these actions were always to Him), with many humbling themselves in sackcloth and ashes to gain His merciful intervention. Queen Esther tried to get Mordecai to come in, and when he refused, she sent to find out why he was in such distress in public. She heard how Haman the adversary of old to God’s people had bought their imminent destruction by a huge payment and a larger lie to the king about the Jews, Esther’s own people. Mordecai also pleaded that the Queen would intercede for them all before the king. But Esther knew the law of the land; if she approached the king directly without an invitation and was not granted access by his scepter offered as she came near, she would be put to death. The risk was great, especially since it had been a monthly since the king last asked for her presence. Mordecai reminded her that she was also a Jew, and when that fact came out she would suffer the same fate as all her people. The risk of death to her was no less than approaching the monarch uninvited. Her silence would doom her people, the chosen of the LORD, and the risk had to be assumed by her. God had sovereignly and providentially placed Esther in her position to intercede and deliver her people. It was such a time as this that she had to consider before refusing to risk death, for many lives hung in the balance of her decision. Therefore, Esther asked for a fast before she approached the king against the law and at the risk of her own peril to save others. She accepted that she might die, but it was worth it to try. While this example of God’s sovereign providence at work reflects Christ’s interceding work on the cross to deliver us from destruction, it also demonstrates how we can put our lives on the line for others (John 10:18, 15:13), knowing that if He puts us in a precariously dangerous position, they it may be for the salvation of others (like missionaries and the early reformers who suffered and even died for the word of God’s gospel to be heard). In such a time of providence as this, when we face uncertainty and danger, may we have the wisdom of Mordecai and the courage of Esther’s resolve to face the challenge with faithful obedience (Hebrews 11:35-37, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-6). Christ gave all for us, even His life; how can we not offer the same in return for others? Esther had a decision to lay down her life if necessary to intercede for others. This is true still in God’s providence of circumstance for us. Anytime, anywhere, any cost, bar nothing.
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