Esther 4

1. Esther 4
1 When Mordecai perceived 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;
2 And came even before the king’s gate: for none
might enter into the king's gate clothed with
sackcloth.
3 And in every province, whithersoever 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.
Verse 1 has three pictures of mourning.
First, “Mordecai rent his clothes.”
That’s a picture of the flesh being torn. In Hebrews
10:20, the veil of the temple is equated with Christ’s
flesh. What’s so important about that? God tore that
veil in two just like men tore Christ’s flesh.

2. Next, Mordecai “put on sackcloth with ashes.”
That sackcloth is a rough cloth like grave clothes.
When a person put on sackcloth, it was a picture of
being buried. The “ashes” are usually accompanied
with dust, and they are sprinkled on the head (Job
2:12, 30:19, and 42:6). At funerals, when the minister
commits the body to the ground, he says, “Ashes to
ashes; dust to dust.” So, it is a symbol of burial. The
idea is the thing over which he is mourning is
going to bring death to him.
Finally, he “cried with a loud and bitter cry.”
The picture is a man being tortured until he dies and ends
up in Hell, where there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth”
(Matt. 13:50).
That’s what happened to many a Jew in the
concentration camps in Germany during World War II.
So, what you have in verse 1 can be a picture of a lost
sinner dying and going to Hell.
It’s also a picture of that Jew suffering at the hands of
the Gentiles for his sins (Lam.1:13–14; 2:3; 4:8; 5:10).
Lam 1:13-14 13 From above hath he sent fire into
my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath

3. spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he
hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his
hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck:
he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath
delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not
able to rise up.
Lam 2:3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the
horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from
before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a
flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are
not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their
bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
Lam 5:10 Our skin was black like an oven because of
the terrible famine.
This will happen again, just like He did under
Nebuchadnezzar, Titus, and Hitler, (Zech. 14:2).
Zech 14:2 For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and
the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half

4. of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue
of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Finally, it is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ suffering
for our sins on the cross. Christ experienced the full wrath
of God.
Mordecai is obviously in mourning for what’s about to
happen to his people.
So instead of sitting “IN the king’s gate” (Esth. 2:19)
where he is supposed to be, he “came...BEFORE the
king’s gate” (vs. 2). He is outside, but he is not coming in,
no one was allowed to come into the king’s court sad or
depressed.
That’s quite a lesson for a Christian. In Psalm 100:2, 4, the
Lord says, “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before
his presence with singing.... Enter into his gates with
thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.”
It’s a good thing the Lord doesn’t put the same restriction
on us today!

5. Verse 3 shows that the scene with Mordecai (vs. 1) is
repeated throughout the kingdom.
All the Jews of the captivity are in “mourning” for what is
about to take place, and they have added “fasting” to
their displays of sorrow. Although it not stated, prayer
obviously accompanies the fasting as it does elsewhere in
the Scriptures (2 Sam. 12:16, Dan.9:3, Neh. 1:4).
The Jews are depriving themselves of food counting on
God for their survival.
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4 So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and
told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved;
and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take
away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.
5 Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king’s
chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon
her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to
know what it was, and why it was.
6 So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of
the city, which was before the king’s gate.
7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened
unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman

6. had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the
Jews, to destroy them.
8 Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the
decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to
shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to
charge her that she should go in unto the king, to
make supplication unto him, and to make request
before him for her people.
9 And Hatach came and told Esther the words of
Mordecai.
10 Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him
commandment unto Mordecai;
11 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 of his to put him to
death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the
golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been
called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.

7. Esther has no idea of the decree passed against the Jews
(vs. 5).
She does not know that all the Jews throughout the
kingdom are wearing sackcloth and crying and
fasting. In fact, if her “ladies in waiting” had not told
her, she would not have known that Mordecai was in
mourning.
Verse 4 says, “Then was the queen exceedingly
grieved.”
Esther loved Mordecai and did not want to see him
sad.
She wanted to have communion with him, but as long
as he was clothed in the garments of sorrow, he could
not come “before the court of the women’s house”
(Esth. 2:11) and talk to her.
She tried sending him a new set of cloths, thinking
that that would take his mind off his troubles, but he
turned them down and sent them back to her.
Then she sent one of her attendants, Hatach, to find out
what was bothering Mordecai.

8. Evidently the queen and all of those in her house were
quite sheltered from the outside world, for not even
Hatach knew what Haman had done.
“The city Shushan” may have been “perplexed” when the
decree was made, but it was all news to Hatach.
Mordecai had to explain the entire situation to him
and actually give him a copy of the law passed by
Haman so that Esther could know what going on.
Mordecai ordered Esther to “go in unto the king, to
make supplication unto him, and to make request
before him for her people” (vs. 8).
Remember (Esth. 2:20) “Esther did the
commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was
brought up with him”.
So, Mordecai laid a task on her; he gave her a duty to
perform. He wanted her to go to the king and plead for
the lives of the Jews.
It was an obligation she had toward her people. But Esther
had a problem. It was not a simple thing just to walk
into the king’s presence.

9. The Persians had a law that no one could see the king
unless the king summoned him. If a person came into the
king’s court unbidden, he was to be put to death unless
the king held out his golden scepter and welcomed him in
(vs. 11).
That is a picture of entering into God’s holiness.
The Apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus as “dwelling in
the light which no man can approach unto; whom no
man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16).
When Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord told him,
“Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see
me, and live” (Exod. 33:18–20).
That’s why Jesus Christ came to earth as a man.
John 1:18 says, “No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him.”
Jesus told the Apostle Philip, (John 14:9) “He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father”.

10. Jesus Christ made it possible for me to go straight into
the throne room and give my petition directly to the King
(Heb. 4:16).
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need.
He is the “Sceptre” (Num. 24:17) that God uses to bid us
enter into His presence.
Num 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall
behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out
of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and
shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the
children of Sheth.
13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think
not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s
house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this
time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy
father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time
as this?

11. 15 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this
answer,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in
Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink
three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will
fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is
not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all
that Esther had commanded him.
When Mordecai receives Esther’s reply, he reminds her
that she is a Jew too and will not escape just because she
is the queen.
It is in verses 13 and 14 that the purpose of God’s
providence is manifested.
God knows that He made Esther queen just for this
occasion, but if Esther won’t fulfill the purpose for
which God has placed her in the palace, then the
He will find someone else to deliver the Jews.
If He has to do that, though, then He will judge Esther’s
house and destroy it.

12. Application to a Christian:
 God has placed you where you are for a specific
reason and purpose.
 If you don’t do it, then the Lord will get someone
else.
 If you fail to perform the task that the Lord has set
for you, then you will lose the reward God had
prepared for you and be relegated to God’s “second
best” for your life.
(vs. 16) Esther makes up her mind to go before the king
and take a chance, but she asks Mordecai to have the
Jews in Shushan fast and pray specifically for her for three
days while she and her maidens do the same.
Christ recommended fasting for hard cases (Matt.
17:21).
Matt 17:21
21) Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and
fasting.
The early church fasted (Acts 14:23).
Acts 14:23

13. 23) And when they had ordained them elders in every
church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
The Apostle Paul fasted often (2 Cor. 11:27).
2Cor 11:27
27) In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
If there is some answer to prayer that you need really
badly, it won’t hurt to fast for it.
verse 16- If I perish, I perish
Esther’s statment in verse 16 is a good way for Christians
to handle the trying circumstancesof life. Esther said,
“If I perish, I perish.”
Esther determined to trust God and do right even if
it cost her life.
When you do act, realize that you are not taking a
chance, but put yourself in God’s hands.
 Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in
him” (Job 13:15).

14.  Like Joab’s attitude in 2 Samuel 10:12 “Be of
good courage, and let us play the men for our
people, and for the cities of our God: and the
LORD DO THAT WHICH SEEMETH HIM GOOD.”
 The three Hebrew children in Daniel 3:16–18 told
King Nebuchadnezzar, “We are not careful to
answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the
burning fiery furnace...BUT IF NOT, be it
known unto thee, O king, that we will not
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image
which thou hast set up.”
They were prepared to do right whether God
delivered them or not.
verse 17
Up to this point Esther “did the commandment of
Mordecai” (Esth. 2:20).
Now, “Mordecai went his way, and did according
to all that Esther had commanded him.”

15. The little girl has grown up. She has taken on some
responsibility, and she is going to risk her life to do as
Mordecai asked. So, Mordecai reciprocates and does as
she ask him to do.
Husbands there are sometimes when your wife is right,
and you should do what she asks you to do, regardless of
how you feel?
When Sarah told Abraham to get rid of Ishmael, Abraham
didn’t want to do it, but God said, “In all that Sarah hath
said unto thee, hearken unto her voice” (Gen. 21:12).
Sarah wasn’t usurping Abraham’s authority. She saw
something that Abraham didn’t see because he
loved Ishmael.
The same apostle Paul who said, “Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord”
(Eph. 5:22), also said, “submitting yourselves ONE TO
ANOTHER in the fear of the Lord.”