Esther 4:8

What, then, changed the way people were thinking? What brought confusion to the city of Shushan, and spread wide, real, deep sorrow elsewhere? The king's decree, the written word, confronted them. It was a word that would not be changed, a word that must be carried out — unless someone found a way of deliverance in time. Haman's hatred by itself would have caused no sorrow. But the decree of death made all the difference, because it came from the one who held the power to kill.

Esther, in the secluded part of the palace, knew nothing of the great edict which had gone out. Her maids and attendants, whom she may have used to keep in touch with her uncle, then brought her word. Mordecai was missing from inside the gate. He was sitting outside in a most pitiable state, weeping and wailing.

He did not say "for this people" but "for her people." This made Esther's Jewish origin known to Hathach. Mordecai knew the great favour Esther had found with the king, and he hoped her supplication would turn away the doom of the race.

The Jews are described as "her people" (2:20; 4:8; 7:3). This detail casts much light on the true meaning: the fate of the entire people hangs on their representative — the faithful few, pictured here in Esther.

And yet there is still one ray of hope, although it is very weak indeed. That ray of hope is that Esther should "go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people." Mordecai commands her to do this. But what use is his command when even the way into the king's presence is closed? … So the only way of escape is the grace of the one who holds sovereign authority.

Esther fully realised that her life was at stake in the charge her cousin laid on her. Everyone at court and through the provinces knew how strictly the law guarded the king. No one dared approach him, on pain of death, unless he called. And it so happened that even she had not been called to come to the king for the past month. Mordecai, however, is only the bolder in his demand, and the strength of his faith is as plain as that of Abraham.

She sees the difficulty, and feels the dangers; and for a time she speaks out of her circumstances… But Mordecai counsels her as the stronger one. He shows himself above both circumstances and affections, in the cause of God and His people. He sends a firm message to Esther, though he loved her so much. He is calm and steady in the middle of these dangers… His faith is in victory; and the weaker one is strengthened through him.

The day was fixed; the people named. Destruction seemed certain. But Mordecai tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth. He goes into the middle of the city and cries with a loud and bitter cry. And if God's name is not written and does not appear, God's ears heard all the same.

In time she heard of the sorrows of her people. Then, like another Moses or Nehemiah, she forgets all that was her own — the ease and security and honours of the palace — and went out to look only on their burdens.