Esther 2:19

Critics have called the opening words of verse 19 unclear: "Now when the virgins were gathered together the second time." Jewish interpreters have explained this as a plot. They say the enemies of the new queen collected more virgins so that Esther might somehow be overshadowed and pushed into the background. Others claim that the words "the second time" should be left out of the text, since there is some doubt about them. If they are dropped, the statement would refer to the gathering of the virgins in verse 8 of this chapter. But the idea that the second gathering was a plot may be the true meaning. It would show the aim of the unseen enemy, and it also explains why Mordecai was watching. He sat at the king's gate. By the custom of that part of the world, this was a public place where people heard news and talked with friends and others. Some say Mordecai sat in the king's gate because he was a government official, but that must be rejected as wrong.

We read that "Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate." It seems any citizen could do this, and Mordecai used that freedom to stay as near to Esther as he could. Esther had not told anyone her nationality, obeying Mordecai's instructions to her (vv. 19-20)... These circumstances too are part of God's working behind the scenes.

Mordecai himself was not a free man. He had not used the decree of Cyrus to return to Jerusalem. This was not out of indifference. Like Daniel and Nehemiah, he had a duty to carry out at the king's court, and he could not leave without special permission — permission his position most likely barred him from asking for. He "was sitting at the king's gate." Daniel himself held this same place (Dan. 2:49), at the moment when he was raised in rank in Babylon. It was a lower post, no doubt, but a post of trust, and it called for special watchfulness over the person of the ruler.

In his dealings with the royal court, he watches out for the king's welfare in the open. He sits at the gate to keep any danger away from the king's person. Esther's fortune hung on Ahasuerus staying alive, so Mordecai becomes the king's saviour. Then he withdrew without a word, asking nothing for himself, and let Providence — all that was left to his oppressed nation — direct him. It was Providence that had led those two officers of the court to reveal their plans in front of Mordecai.

So the traitors were found guilty. But the man who had done the king good was forgotten, strange as that is, until the hour of real need came. In the end this made his reward all the more certain, and it left the enemy in confusion. Secret providence ordered everything rightly, however hard appearances might be. Here again, with the conspirators and Mordecai, the way the king was warned was no more a matter of chance than the fall of Vashti or the rise of Esther. It was all in His hand, and He ruled unseen.