So Haman started on his plan to annihilate the Jews.
8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain.9 If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who carry on the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries.”
Fast-forwarding through an episode or two, we finally come to the end of chapter 3 and the king’s irreversible decree to annihilate the Jews.
All of this because one man refused to bow. He must have felt terrible.
And he did.
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly. (4:1).
“Often, in our culture, people sob quietly, or compassionately hug those who are grieving. In the East, however, sorrow has always been expressed visibly and vocally. We have all seen pictures of great mobs as they push a casket overhead through the crowd while screaming and crying out. They cry out verses from their sacred word and they claw at the casket. They wail! And they mourn! That’s what Mordecai does here. He holds nothing back. His grief knows no bounds. In sackcloth and ashes he stumbles toward the gate of the palace.” (Swindoll)
It wasn’t just him. There was great mourning among the Jews, in each and every province where the command and decree of the king came. They began to fast, weep and wail; with many laying sackcloth and ashes. Riddled with immeasurable guilt, Mordecai sends a message to Esther giving her a copy of the text of the edict that declares the upcoming destruction of the Jews, hoping she will go to the king and plead with him to do something.
Didn’t Mordecai tell Esther not to reveal that she is a Jew? But now she’s living in the palace with the king, while the Jews are slated for genocide. What is she supposed to do? Reveal her true identity? Yes, the king chose her for a reason, but how do we know it was for this. He might just kick her out!
Esther was heartbroken for her cousin and her people, sending a message back to Mordecai explaining why she is helpless to do anything to stop the decree. Decrees cannot be revoked, and everyone knows whoever enters the king’s presence without having been invited risks being killed, even the queen.
These sound like valid excuses. Excuses, nonetheless, but they have some validity to them.
Esther makes it clear to Mordecai that he does not know how the palace works and that a person like Esther cannot just simply march into the presence of the king and tell him what she is thinking.
She is really trying to convince him, isn’t she?
In fact, Esther goes as far as to tell Mordecai that she and the king have not even gotten together recently.
Because that is a valid excuse right…
11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.”
Can I be honest? I bet she was just scared of losing it all. She knows where she’s come from. Rags to riches. You said Esther means “star” right, well she’s really leaning into it. Appearing uninvited before the king is likely just too risky and controversial for a star. After all, look at what happened to Vashti.
“Esther reminds Mordecai of the reality of life, as she has not been called into the presence of the king for 30 days. Doubtless he has not been without other company. This ungodly marriage is no partnership of equals or an eternal romance. Esther exists simply for the whims of her sensuous husband. Her first response is not outright refusal, but it is tied up more with the fear of man rather than God (Pr 29:25). The king has proven with Vashti that he is a capricious and ruthless man toward his leading lady for breaches of etiquette.” (Ferguson)
Mordecai gets the note from Esther and sends another note straight back to her. This is basically his child. He raised her. He was not going to take no for Esther’s final answer.
13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”
There it is! For such a time as this!
My Sunday Skl 