Esther 4:1-17
We often encounter circumstances beyond our control. It’s easy to despair, to give up and doubt God’s goodness and grace. It doesn’t feel like God is being good. We like to think we can successfully direct our lives with careful thought and planning. But there are days when we encounter circumstances beyond our control. Our sense of security that God is in control is shaken. It’s during these dark days that God calls us to trust Him, even when we don’t feel like it. He allows such situations in our lives to help us learn to walk by faith, not by sight.
In our text, the lives of Esther, Mordecai and the Jewish people of Persia seem to spin out of control.
1. Mordecai’s Plan to Save Israel (vv. 1-9)
Triggered by Mordecai’s refusal to bow to Haman, the Jews were scheduled for annihilation. Mordecai reacted with great emotion. His actions had brought the entire Jewish nation into potential tragedy. In typical mid-east fashion, he expressed his sorrow and grief: he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth (a loose-fitting, rough garment made of goat’s hair), sprinkled ashes on his head and wailed “loudly and bitterly.” Verse three tells us that once the Jewish entire Jewish nation heard of the king’s new law, they responded in similar fashion. Since no one clothed in sackcloth could enter the king’s palace, Mordecai could only go as far as the king’s gate.
Seeing Mordecai’s grief, Esther’s maids reported his actions to the queen. How much they knew about Esther’s relationship to Mordecai is not stated. However, they must have known that Mordecai – one of the king’s officials – was close to the queen. When Esther sent some new clothes for Mordecai, he refused to wear them. Perhaps she wanted to summon him but knew he couldn’t come to her in sackcloth. When he refused the clothes, she summoned her servant, Hathach, to find out why Mordecai was so troubled.
Life in the king’s harem seems to have been one of isolation. The women were cut off from information that reached the outside world. Thus Esther didn’t know of Haman’s treachery or the king’s decree and had to send Hathach out to learn what had happened. Mordecai told him everything, including the exact amount of money Haman had offered to pay for the destruction of the Jews. Providing a copy of the new law for Esther to see, Mordecai appealed to her “. . . to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people” (v. 8).
2. Dialogue Between Esther and Mordecai (vv. 10-17)
Esther was understandably reluctant to go before the king. It had been 30 days since the king had called for her and the law of the land stated that any man or woman (including the queen) who approached the king without being invited risked being put to death unless the king extended his royal scepter. The correct protocol was to request an audience with the king through one of his messengers and await an invitation. This even applied to the queen! Only seven men of the court, known as the king’s “friends,” were permitted to see the “face of the king” on a daily basis, Haman being one of them. Haman had access to the king; Esther did not.
Remember, Esther hadn’t read the end of this story! She was living the story! It’s easy for us to think it wasn’t much of a risk. We are apt to think, The king loved her, he would never have her killed just for coming to see him! Remember Vashti? She was deposed simply because she had refused to come. This man was extremely ruthless and volatile. His mood could change instantly.
How would you have felt approaching such a man, especially when he hadn’t called for you in a month? Apparently, five years into their marriage, the king’s desire for his queen had cooled. Evidently, she chose not to request an audience, perhaps afraid that she would be ignored.
When Mordecai received Esther’s answer, he replied right back, “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish” (vv. 13-14). Esther needed to understand that she would not escape the king’s edict. Her royal status would not protect her. So Mordecai warned that if she kept silent, deliverance would come from another source, but because of her cowardice she and her family would be killed. To what other source of deliverance Mordecai was referring is not stated, but his faith shines through in that he had confidence that God would somehow protect the Jews from annihilation even if it was through another place, which could be a veiled reference to God.
Thus Esther’s life was in jeopardy if she went to the king uninvited, but her doom was certain if she did not. This appeared to be a lose/lose situation. What should she do? What would you do?
Mordecai challenged Esther with our key verse, which is viewed as the pivotal statement in the whole book of Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”(v. 14b). Mordecai pointed out that all of the previous circumstances of Esther’s life that led her to the Persian throne may have been just for this moment, so she could intercede for her people.
The author doesn’t let us in on Esther’s thoughts. Possibly Esther suddenly saw her past clearly and understood God’s purpose for her life. This insight would have helped her to bravely respond to Mordecai, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (v. 16). Notice there is no specific reference to praying or to God, although it’s very possible praying was understood to accompany fasting. Some say Esther’s remark, “if I perish, I perish,” is more of aresignation to the inevitable than a statement of faith. (Jacob made a similar statement when grieving the potential death of Benjamin, “As for me, If I am bereaved, I am bereaved” Genesis 43:14).
I believe this was a statement of Esther’s faith. She was willing to put her life at risk to do what was right. This was a defining moment for Esther, one of those moments which changed her life forever. To save her people meant revealing her own identity as a Jewess, admitting she had not been living as a devout Jew, identifying herself as a target for destruction under Haman’s decree and becoming an easy mark in the treacherous Persian court.
“So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions” (v. 17). Ceasing to be the instructor, Mordecai became the instructed – he did exactly what she said.
Prayer is the right response to adversity. Remember I Peter 5:7? “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” God is able to shoulder and solve all of your problems, often not the way you wish He would or when you wish He would, but He will solve your problems. The challenge is for us to give them to God, to cast them at His feet. Why? Because giving our problems to God frees us from fretting about them. The enemy (or our own self-talk) whispers in our ears, “God doesn’t care about me, He doesn’t even know what’s going on.” That’s a lie, but the enemy tries to convince us it is true. Cast means to heave over. It is a definite and deliberate act and the all is emphatic. It means not just some of the problems we face, but all of them.
However, there is a condition. You can’t claim the promise of verse seven unless you meet the conditions of verse six. What is verse six? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” We need to remember, life is not about us. It’s about God. We need to be willing to be humbled before God and man, so that He may lift us up in His time. We need to get our eyes off ourselves. And that’s not easy.
When faced with adversity, commit yourself to God and His purposes. II Corinthians 5:9 says, “So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” Chapter four is a defining moment for Esther. For the first time in her adult life (as far as we know) she identified herself with the people of God. Far too often, when a crisis crashes upon us, we act like pagans instead of followers of a sovereign God. Trouble and pressure force us to discover what we are trusting—ourselves or God. These high-voltage defining moments can seem to come unexpectedly. But they have far-reaching consequences. Ask yourself, “Will I trust God when life seems to fall apart?” Will the moment define me or will I (by God’s grace) define the moment?
Let’s think about another Old Testament woman who had a defining moment, choosing to stand up for what was right in a very stressful situation. She wasn’t a queen like Esther but she acted like one. I Samuel 25:4 describes Abigail as beautiful and intelligent (she sounds like Esther) and Nabal, her husband, as very wealthy, surly and mean in his dealings (how did these two ever get together?).
Nabal had refused David and his men any food in exchange for their protective services, earning David’s anger. Abigail rushed into action, bringing enough food for 600 hungry men.
God used Abigail to intercept David, who was on his way to slaughter Nabal and his servants, saying: (v. 24 – 25) “My lord, let the blame be on me alone [she was humble and wise]. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name is Fool, and folly goes with him.
But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.” And she gave the men the food she had provided. This was Abigail’s defining moment. And God blessed her for her response. David and his men were fed, the future king was prevented from much needless bloodshed, and God dealt with Nabal ten days later by striking him dead. Oh, and did I mention that David sent for her to become one of his wives (v. 39)? David was certainly impressed!
What is a “defining moment?” Have you had one? How did you do? Did you (by God’s grace) define the moment by standing up for what is right, or did the moment define you? Maybe you didn’t do so well, but don’t worry, God will give you future opportunities! Make up your mind now to define the moment when it comes by standing up for Christ.
God is still sovereign when life seems to spin out of control. While man is responsible for his actions, God remains sovereign. God works concurrently through the very circumstances that Satan intends for evil, to accomplish His perfect will for us. The early church prayed with such confidence when they were being persecuted, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31). We too must have that same confidence regardless of the evil we face. We must learn to trust God and His good character in the midst of pain. We must never allow the questions of our hearts to overturn our faith. On the contrary, we must allow our faith to overrule the questions of our hearts.
Two questions: (1) Could Jews living in disobedience to God’s will in Persia still expect God to keep His promise of protection? Mordecai and Esther, and all the other Jews throughout Persia, should have been back in Palestine rebuilding Jerusalem (See Ezra and Nehemiah). Did their disobedience invalidate God’s promise? Remember, they hadn’t read Esther chapter seven yet. They didn’t know the outcome of the story.
We’ll answer that question based on Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The answer is Yes. God is always faithful to keep His promises.
(2) What does the Bible teach about fasting? Biblical fasting is abstaining from eating food for a spiritual reason for a specific length of time. Fasting is not just skipping a meal. The reason we fast is to devote time – which would normally be spent in preparing and eating food – to prayer. There is no uniform time dimension for a fast. Esther called for a three-day fast. Normally the length was one day, abstaining from the dinner meal until the following evening. While there are few rules generally, fasting involves no eating but allows drinking. Esther’s fast was total; she called for no eating and no drinking.
Why fast? Biblical characters fasted in times of distress (threat of war, sickness, mourning, repentance, etc.). Daniel fasted prior to his receiving new revelation (Daniel 9:2-3). Anna fasted as she worshipped (Luke 2:36-37). The early church fasted prior to sending out Paul and Barnabas as their first missionaries (Acts 13:3) and when they consecrated new elders in the church (Acts 14:23). Whenever there is a spiritual need, it is appropriate to fast.
Do we fast to earn God’s favor or twist His arm? No. Fasting is rebuked when it becomes an empty outward act. (Jeremiah 14:12). Are we commanded to fast? No. Fasting is merely reported, never commanded.
Is there any spiritual benefit to fasting? Yes. Fasting helps us focus on eternal priorities. It reinforces our dependence on God’s Word (Matthew. 4:4). It can increase our sensitivity to the spiritual. Fasting can bring our bodies into subjection and we learn self-discipline. Fasting is putting our bodies on notice that we are in charge. However, if all we can think about is food while we are fasting, we have defeated our purpose.
Take Home Truth: Remember when life seems to spin out of control, we must always rely on God’s promises and His good purposes.
Recent Comments