Chap. 4
IT may be well to add that the believer is in no way bound to defend the procedure of Mordecai, save just so far as we recognize his real faith. We do not learn that he was under compulsion to present Esther to the monarch, nor was he called to conceal that she was a Jewess; nor can it be made out that he could not bow in civil respect to Haman, Agagite though he was certainly we read of Abraham bowing down to the sons of Heth, though of the cursed line of Canaan. And we find Jacob blessing Pharaoh though head of those to afflict his seed four hundred years, and to be judged of the Lord Jehovah. It was the unbending spirit of the Jew in exile, who hated the deadly enemy of the chosen people, and believed in the day of vengeance of their God. They are the simple facts of the case, which we are taught and can judge according to the far deeper principles of Christ in the gospel.
Our chapter opens with the profound grief of Mordecai and among the Jews where the king's decree penetrated. The report of it soon reached the queen, as it was meant to do; for Mordecai fully counted on relief and deliverance through her means, and, till it came, utterly refused even her to divest himself of sackcloth and ashes.
“And when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry: and he came even before the king's gate; for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandments and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told [it] her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him: but he received [it] not. Then called Esther for Hathach, [one] of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this [was], and why it [was]. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which [was] before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show [it] unto Esther, and to declare [it] unto her; and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, and to make supplication unto him, and request before him, for her people” (vers. 1-8).
But it is striking to observe how the furnace may be heated seven times before the rescue comes. For Esther fully realizes that her life was at stake in the charge her cousin laid on her. It was universally known at court and through the provinces how rigorously the law hedged the king's majesty, whom none dared approach, on penalty of death, unless called. And it was so ordered that even she had not been called to come to the king for the last mouth. Mordecai however is only the bolder in his demand, and the strength of his faith is as plain as that of Abraham.
“And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spake unto Hathach, and gave him a message unto Mordecai, saying: All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, [there is] one law for him, that he be put to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether boldest thy peace at this time, there shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for [such] a time as this” (vers. 9-14)?
Not less fine is the reply of the queen. She is ready, now that all the truth is before her soul, to jeopard her life at least as worthily as Mordecai, and in a spirit far more gracious. Even here it is striking to observe that, though her faith shines, the Name is kept as secret as ever. Yet fasting without a doubt implied the most earnest prayer to Him Who dwelt in the thick darkness and would hear as surely in Shushan the palace, as in the temple at Jerusalem.
“And Esther bade to answer Mordecai, Go, gather together all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which [is] not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him” (vers. 15-17).
It is the undaunted Jew who now complies with all that Esther enjoined. He had warned her faithfully and with solemnity of inevitable ruin to herself and her father's house if she were silent. But at the same time he expressed the fullest certainty that relief and deliverance should come from another place. This is the victory that overcometh, even faith, as we may surely apply here; and its effect was no less apparent with Esther than Andrew's was on his own brother Simon. The queen is ready if need be to perish in such a cause, strengthened by the unseen hand that sustains the universe, as the king's heart was to be turned at His will.
But may we notice in passing the strange misapplication so common among preachers! “If I perish, I perish” was not unbelief, but a martyr readiness in the queen's mouth, about to fall at such a despot's feet. Does it warrant a similar sentiment at the feet of Him Who came into the world to save sinners? Who has already declared that “him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out?”