When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
Haman's decree to wipe out the Jews now carries the king's seal. It has gone out to all 127 provinces of Persia, and this verse is the first answer to it. Mordecai's torn clothes and bitter cry raise the question the whole book turns on: where is God when His name is never spoken and no escape is left?
The Signs of Grief
Torn clothes, sackcloth and ashes spoke a language everyone understood. The same custom stopped Mordecai at the palace gate.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhen Mordecai heard what had been done, and learned of the plan to wipe out his people, he tore his clothes. Tearing his clothes and putting on sackcloth and ashes were the outward signs of the most intense grief. The sackcloth was a coarse hair-cloth of a black colour. Then his bitter cry and wailing rang out in the middle of the city. The Persians also used sackcloth as a sign of mourning over the dead, so they treated it as unclean. They looked on the king's palace as a clean and holy place. So Mordecai could not enter the king's gate. He had to stand outside the wall.
But there is more here than sorrow. One writer names the attitude behind the sackcloth, and is careful not to claim more than the text says.
Leslie M. GrantMordecai of course very soon learned of this satanic plot of Haman against Israel. He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes as a sign of humiliation and repentance. Whether he prayed to God we are not told, but he cried out bitterly in the middle of the city.
A Doom That Could Not Be Undone
Persian law gave no legal way back, and that is why the cry is so bitter. But the cry did not vanish into the air.
William KellyTheir doom was sealed. So it appeared. All the more so because one rule of the Persian empire never changed: a law once passed was never revoked — "according to the law of the Medes and Persians that alters not." Nothing then, it seemed, could have saved the people. The master of 127 provinces had given his royal word. He signed it with his seal and sent it by messengers through the whole length and breadth of the empire. The day was fixed; the people named. Destruction seemed certain. But Mordecai tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, goes into the middle of the city, and cries with a loud and bitter cry. God's name is not written here and does not appear, yet God's ears heard him all the same.
Why God's Name Is Missing
Many readers treat the missing name of God as a flaw in this book. One writer argues the opposite: the silence is the design.
William KellyPerhaps there is no more remarkable development of the great truth of divine providence in the Bible. Notice a striking feature: the name of God does not appear throughout. Ignorant men have supposed this to be a defect. In truth, if the book named God openly all the way through, it would be seriously spoiled. The prime object is to show His hand secretly working where His name could not rightly be proclaimed. Far from being a fault, this is one of the most strengthening thoughts we can have, once we remember that we deal with the same kind of secret providence every day.
Mourning and Confidence Together
Mordecai mourns like a man with no remedy, yet he expects rescue all along. Two other men show the same pairing.
J. G. BellettOn the issue of the fatal decree Mordecai fasts and mourns in sackcloth. But all the while he counts on deliverance. Such a combination is full of moral glory. Elijah gave a sample of it in his day. He knew the rain was at hand, yet he casts himself down on the earth and puts his face between his knees, as one in "effectual fervent prayer". The Lord Himself gives another sample of this. He knows and testifies that He is about to raise Lazarus from sleep, the sleep of death; but He weeps as He approaches the grave. So here with Mordecai. He will not put off his mourning. He refuses comfort while the decree stands against his people. Yet he counts, surely counts, on their deliverance one way or another.
A Shadow of a Greater Trouble
The grief does not stop with Mordecai. It spreads through every province, and one writer sees in it a shadow of something worse ahead.
H. L. RossierMordecai goes out into the city with his garments torn, pouring out his desolation with a "loud and bitter cry." He no longer even has access to the king's gate, for the king will not tolerate mourning and weeping in his presence. Everywhere, in the provinces, there is mourning, fasting, weeping and wailing among the Jews. Esther herself is in great anguish. Do we not see here a weak early image "of the great tribulation" in the future?
Summary
- Sealed decree. Persian law could never be revoked. It named the day and named the people, so destruction looked certain.
- Open grief. Torn clothes, black sackcloth and ashes were the plain language of deepest sorrow. The same custom kept Mordecai outside the king's gate.
- Hidden God. His name is missing from the book on purpose. That way we see His hand working in secret where His name could not be proclaimed.
- Steady hope. Mordecai keeps mourning, and keeps expecting rescue. Grief and confidence stand together in one man.
- Shadow ahead. One writer sees in the mourning of every province a faint early picture of the great tribulation still to come.