Esther 4 · Story · Courage
Esther: For Such a Time as This
Queen Esther went to King Xerxes without being summoned, at the risk of her life, to plead for her people.
The queen of Persia had kept her people a secret until a decree named them for death (Esther 2:10).
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 house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
- Where
- Susa
- Who
- Esther, Mordecai, Haman, Xerxes
- When
- The twelfth year of King Xerxes (Esther 3:7)
Summary
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, Haman cast lots and obtained a decree to kill all the Jews of the empire on one day. Mordecai, who had raised Esther as his own daughter, sent word to the queen to plead with the king. Esther answered that anyone who entered the inner court unsummoned would die unless the king held out his gold scepter. She asked the Jews of Susa to fast for her three days, and then she went.
- The decree set the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, for the killing (Esther 3:13).
- The decree was sealed with the king's signet ring (Esther 3:12).
- On the third day the king held out the scepter, and she touched its tip (Esther 5:2).
- The book of Esther never names God.
A Decree Against a People
Haman's lot fell on the twelfth month, and the decree was sent to every province of the empire.
Esther: For Such a Time as This tells Esther 4, the chapter in which a queen chooses to go before the king for the sake of the Jews. It belongs to the value of courage, because Esther names the danger plainly, prepares with fasting, and acts knowing she may die.
The question the story answers is what courage looked like for one woman under a death decree. The page sets out the risk step by step from the law of the court, follows the exchange between Esther and Mordecai, and reads the fast as the preparation for her act.
On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.The decree bears the king's own authority, so only the king could answer it.
When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate. In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.The grief shows how fully the decree had fallen on every Jewish home, and it is what first draws Esther in.
From the Lot to the Banquet
The text dates the lot and the decree, and counts the days of the fast.
Esther went to the king on the third day of the fast, months before the day set for the killing.
- Haman's lot is cast in the first monththe Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before HamanEsther 3:7
- The decree is written and sealedin the name of King XerxesEsther 3:12
- Mordecai mourns at the king's gatehe tore his clothesEsther 4:1
- Hathach carries messages between themEsther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchsEsther 4:5
- Esther asks for a fast of three daysfast for meEsther 4:16
- Esther stands in the inner courtOn the third dayEsther 5:1
- At the second banquet she pleads for her lifegrant me my life as my petitionEsther 7:3
- She names the enemyThe adversary and enemy is this wicked manEsther 7:6
A timeline of eight steps in Esther 3 to 7, each with the words of the text and its verse; the time between the decree and the fast is not given.
At the second banquet she pleads for her life, She names the enemy
The Law of the Inner Court
Esther's first answer to Mordecai was to name the law that stood between her and the king.
Mordecai also gave Hathach a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for the destruction of the Jews, to show and explain to Esther, urging her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead before him for her people.Mordecai's request is specific, so Esther knows exactly what he is asking her to do.
“All the royal officials and the people of the king’s provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned—that he be put to death. Only if the king extends the gold scepter may that person live. But I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the past thirty days.”This law is the reason Esther hesitates, and it shows the cost of the courage the chapter asks of her.
The Greek historian Herodotus, in his History (3.118), records that seven Persian nobles had the right to go in to the king without being announced. The privilege of the seven suggests that others needed a summons, which agrees with the custom Esther describes.
Mordecai's Charge
Mordecai answered that the palace would not protect her and that her place might be the reason she was there.
he sent back to her this reply: “Do not imagine that because you are in the king’s palace you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews.Mordecai removes the false safety of the palace before he gives Esther a reason to act.
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), called Mordecai's words that relief would arise “from another place” “the language of strong faith”. The reading of hidden providence in the book is argued on its own page.
The Fast and the Resolve
Esther prepared for the king by fasting with her people, and then named the cost she accepted.
“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!” So Mordecai went and did all that Esther had instructed him.Esther asks for the fast before she speaks of the danger again, and Mordecai does at once what she asks.
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, read the fast as joined with prayer.
“She believed that God's favour was to be obtained by prayer, that his people are a praying people, and he a prayer-hearing God. She knew it was the practice of good people, in extraordinary cases, to join fasting with prayer, and many of them to join together in both.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Esther 4:15 to 16Puritan
Before the King
On the third day Esther stood where the law forbade her to stand, and the king received her.
On the third day, Esther put on her royal attire and stood in the inner court of the palace across from the king’s quarters. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal courtroom, facing the entrance. As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter.The scene the whole chapter has prepared for passes in two verses, and the danger Esther named does not fall.
Esther did not plead at once, and her two banquets for the king and Haman led to the rescue of the Jews. That rescue and the feast that remembers it are told on the page on Purim.
A Voice on Esther's Courage
A bishop of the fourth century asked his clergy what moved Esther to face the king.
died 397 · Ambrose of Milan
Ambrose of Milan wrote in On the Duties of the Clergy (3.21.123), “Why did Queen Esther expose herself to death and not fear the wrath of a fierce king? Was it not to save her people from death, an act both seemly and virtuous?”
Courage in a Book That Never Names God
Readers have asked whether Esther's courage was faith, since the chapter mentions no prayer.
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, noted on Esther 4:16 that “still we hear nothing of prayer, nor of God!”
Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the Old Testament, answered that “Esther's fast could have no object but to obtain God's favor and protection”. The text gives the fast and the resolve and leaves the rest unsaid.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Herodotus, The History of Herodotus, tr. G. C. Macaulay, vol. 1.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old Testament.
- Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy, tr. H. de Romestin, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 10 (1896)
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