Esther 4
When the Jewish people in the king’s city heard of the cruel order for all their nation, young and old, to be destroyed, there was the bitterest sorrow and crying. They went without food, and put on coarse, rough garments, called sackcloth, with ashes sprinkled on their heads to show how awful was their sorrow. The man, Mordecai, came dressed in the sackcloth to the king’s gate, although it was against the rules to show grief there.
Queen Esther was also of the Jewish nation, but she had not heard in the palace of the wicked order against her people, so when her maids told her that her cousin, Mordecai, was dressed in sackcloth, she did not know the reason, and sent new clothes for him, but he was too sad to change. She sent again to learn why he was so troubled; then he sent a copy of the king’s order for her to read, and told her that she must go to the king to beg him not to let the Jewish people be killed.
The queen answered Mordecai that it was against the rules of the king for any person to go into the king’s room unless invited, and that, even her life would not be safe if she went to him, unless he should hold out his scepter as a signal that she could speak. Esther knew the king could be very cruel so she greatly feared to go to him. But Mordecai told her that even though she was the queen in the palace, her life too would be taken by the cruel order, the same as the other Jewish people, unless she made request to the king to save them.
Mordecai believed that God would not let the nation be killed, and that Queen Esther was the one to have favor with the king to save them.
So Esther consented to go to make the request to the king that he should save the Jews from the dreadful order of death. But she asked for Mordecai to first have all the Jews in the city of Shushan fast, which meant for them to go without their usual food and drink. She said that she and her maids would also fast. When these people fasted in a time of trouble, they also prayed for God to help them. They knew God’s promises, for He had said long before this sorrow:
How many days were Esther and the Jews to fast? Verse 16.
What kind of a scepter did the king have? Verse 11.
ML 03/03/1940