Esth 4:1-17 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
After Esther became queen, “King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him” (Esth 3:1). All the king’s servants in the king’s gate bowed down to Haman, “But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage” (Esth 3:2). The passage only says that Mordecai “had told them that he was a Jew” (Esth 3:4).
“When Haman saw that Mordecai didn’t bow down nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath” (Esth 3:5). “But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone … Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus” (Esth 3:6). They cast Pur to choose the day (Esth 3:7), and the king’s decree went out to every province: on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, in one day, “to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women” (Esth 3:13). “The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed” (Esth 3:15).
This lesson begins when Mordecai hears the news.
1Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly.
2He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
3In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth, but he didn’t receive it.
5Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.
6So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square which was before the king’s gate.
7Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
8He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Susa to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people.
9Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai:
11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
12They told Esther’s words to Mordecai.
13Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews.
14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai,
16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
17So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
Wailed loudly and bitterly. “Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly” (v. 1). He stopped at the king’s gate, “for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth” (v. 2). The Jews in the provinces did the same: “there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing” (v. 3).
Exceedingly grieved. When Esther heard, “the queen was exceedingly grieved” (v. 4). First she sent clothes: “She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth, but he didn’t receive it” (v. 4). Then she sent the eunuch Hathach to ask, “to find out what this was, and why it was” (v. 5).
For her people. Mordecai told Hathach everything, even the sum Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries (v. 7). He gave him a copy of the decree “to show it to Esther,” and “to urge her to go in to the king to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people” (v. 8).
These thirty days. Esther sent word back: whoever “comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live” (v. 11). She added, “I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days” (v. 11).
Who knows. Mordecai answered her: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews” (v. 13). “For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish” (v. 14). Then comes this line: “Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (v. 14). He did not say it certainly was; he said ‘Who knows.’
If I perish, I perish. Esther’s answer was: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way” (v. 16). And then: “Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (v. 16). The last line of the chapter is: “So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him” (v. 17). In Lesson 1, Esther did “as Mordecai had commanded her” (Esth 2:20); in this lesson, Mordecai does as Esther commanded him.
Captives weeping in a foreign land appear in the Psalms too: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137:1).
Readers can see this: the Jews in Susa and in the provinces, with their “great mourning … and fasting, and weeping, and wailing” (v. 3), were captives living in a foreign land, facing destruction once again.
Perhaps you, too, are in a hard place right now: news has come, your heart is heavy with grief, what you can do is very limited, and it may even mean taking a great risk.
This lesson does not say that everyone has a mission waiting to be fulfilled, and it does not say that if you are brave you will surely succeed — Esther said, “if I perish, I perish” (v. 16); she did not know how it would turn out. What it shows you is this: Esther did not carry it alone; she asked others to fast with her; and Mordecai did not let go of her either. The New Testament says: “Bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2).
This week: Think of someone who is going through a hard time. This week ask them: ‘Is there something I can carry with you?’ If you yourself are going through a hard time, this week find one or two people you trust and ask them to stand with you.
Scripture: World English Bible.