Esther 4
4:1-3 On hearing the news, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. This was not only a way to show mourning among the Jews, but the practice was familiar to the Persians as well. The sackcloth was often only a loin covering. In that piteous apparel, he made a scene in the middle of the royal city. His uncouth state represented all God’s people throughout the world, as there was great mourning among the Jews. It may be significant that they did not accompany fasting, weeping, sackcloth, and ashes with prayer. They are not said to have engaged in prayer, which may mean that these Jews who had elected to remain in exile had strayed so far from God’s ways that prayer had become foreign to them.
4:4-7 Word reached Esther that her adoptive father was making a terrible show of mourning in the city square. When he wouldn’t take the clothes she sent, she inquired after his motivation. He educated the messenger with what was to come.
4:8-9 Although his mourning probably seemed haphazard, Mordecai had a purpose for the wild display. He intended to command Esther to go in to the king… plead before him for her people. Esther was the queen, and yet her adoptive father presumed to commandher. This shows the powerful bond of father and daughter that can supersede official positions of power. Incredibly, Mordecai was the catalyst for this attempt at genocide (3:6), but he too was instrumental in a plan for deliverance. God's providence often comes in dramatic, intricate, and unexpected ways.
4:10-12 The sovereignty of king Ahasuerus was so great that anyone who went into the inner court to the king, who had not been called, would be put to death unless the king extended his golden scepter. It had been a month since Esther had been called in. Like most royal wives of history, she had no access to her sovereign husband except that which he allowed.
4:13 Esther had not revealed her ethnicity or religion to the royal establishment (2:20), and now more than ever, she had cause to keep the secret. Esther might have thought that she and Mordecai were protected from this deadly decree because of her royal status and Mordecai's official position. However, Mordecai knew Haman would stop at nothing to eradicate all the Jews (3:6). In times of trouble, there is a strong temptation to remain completely silent when silence might buy one’s life.Even some of the early believers in Jesus did so (John 12:42). Mordecai helped her see that she would not escape alive if she remained quiet.
Though Mordecai isn't represented as particularly religious in the lead-up, he believed the Jews would be delivered. If not through Esther, then deliverance would arise for the Jews from another place. Although, he makes it plain that Esther and Mordecai's entire household would die if Esther remained silent. This is probably because, even if the empire-wide genocide didn't work, Mordecai, and likewise his household, was one of Haman's primary targets.
Mordecai is credited with the most famous statement in the book of Esther (v 14), though many have misapprehended his meaning. He was not suggesting that Esther had been placed in power and thus, forced to act. He didn’t imply she had no choice. His suggestion is much softer with these words, “yet who knows.” He acknowledges Esther's free will. She is entirely free to take action or stay silent. However, she is not free of the consequences of her choice. The broader scope of Scripture shows there is free will to believe or disbelieve and be active or inactive (John 5:40, Matt 23:37).
Thus, Esther is given a weighty choice. She could take part in God's amazing plan to save her people, though she might die in doing so. Or, she could stay silent and would die along with her people. The two difficult options are punctuated by the powerful notion thatEsther may have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. God is never without a backup instrument if the first proves unwilling. However, it’s to the joy of God’s instruments when they choose to do the task for which they were intended.
3:15-17 As soon as Esther makes her choice, she spares no time putting a plan into action. She calls for a Jewish fast among those in the city. A fast is often only from food, but she commands that they neither eat nor drink for three days. About three days is how long a person can survive without water. This fast represented a matter of life and death.
Maybe Esther knew Asaph's Psalm, which says, "Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted… Free them from the hand of the wicked (Ps 82:2-4). Her actions reflected that Godly sentiment. Esther was aware of the potentially dire consequences of her choice, saying, “if I perish, I perish!”
It is often the most difficult circumstances that bring out the most Christ-like character. There's no greater love than to lay down one's life for friends (John 15:13). Despite her distance from the promised land, her religious silence, and her nonobservance of some of God's laws, she became a representative type for which Jesus would one day become the culmination. She was prepared to lay down her life to gain physical salvation for her people. Jesus laid down his life to win eternal salvation for all mankind (1 John 3:16).
