Esther 4

Esther 4:1

B. Mordecai’s Talk with the Queen (Chap. 4)4:1-3 The Jewish population was stunned as the news broke throughout the land. There is always sadness where evil reigns. Mordecai put on mourner’s garb and lamented through the city until he came to the king’s gate, beyond which he could not go because sackcloth was not allowed in his majesty’s presence. He knew that he was the main object of Haman’s hatred. The fate awaiting his nation had been unwittingly prompted by him. 4:4-9 Since custom forbade Esther to leave her confinement in the palace, she sent a servant to take some garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might not be seen in sackcloth by the king and lose his life. But Mordecai refused to disguise his anguish. When Hathach, Esther’s personal servant, came to find out why he continued in mourning, Mordecai told him the whole story. A copy of the written decree was sent back to the queen along with an order to use her office to intercede for her people. 4:10-12 Esther responded to Mordecai by reminding him that it was a capital offense to appear before the king uninvited, unless he spared the intruder’s life by extending the golden scepter. She told of a further complication which would make such action doubly dangerous: She had not been summoned by Ahasuerus for thirty days, indicating that she may have somehow incurred his displeasure. 4:13, 14 Mordecai’s reply to Esther’s rationale was to the point: She would not escape, when the rest of the Jews were slain, even if she was queen. If she refused to act now, someone else would arise to deliver His people, but she would be destroyed. And perhaps this opportunity to save her people was the reason she had been exalted to the throne. The words of verse 14 should challenge each of us: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Though few of us will ever be in such a position as Esther’s, each believer has an essential role to play in the ongoing plan of God. 4:15-17 Making her decision, Esther instructed all the Jews to fast with her for three days. Then she would go before the king. Matthew Poole comments on Esther’s famous and heroic words, “If I perish, I perish”: Although my danger be great and evident, considering the expressness of that law, and the uncertainty of the king’s mind, and that severity which he showed to my predecessor Vashti, yet rather than neglect my duty to God and to His people, I will go to the king and cast myself cheerfully and resolutely upon God’s providence for my safety and success. The Christian’s attitude in difficult and trying circumstances should not be one of fatalism but of optimism, especially when it comes to approaching the heavenly throne for grace to help in time of need. We have bold and confident access; the scepter of God’s forgiveness has been stretched out to us at Calvary. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb_4:16).