Esther 4:9

Esther, in the secluded part of the palace, knew nothing of the great edict that had gone out. Her maids and chamberlains told her that Mordecai was missing from inside the gate. He was sitting outside in a most pitiable condition, weeping and wailing. How this report must have shocked Esther! She was full of grief, and she sent clothing to Mordecai. Persian custom in mourning for the dead was that the closest relatives should send the mourner new garments, to put on instead of the sackcloth. Esther thought that someone in Mordecai's family had died. But Mordecai refused the garments, for he was not mourning over a death. This must have puzzled Esther still more. So she sent Hathach, one of the king's chamberlains, her personal attendant, to find out the cause of his mourning.

Even Hatach had not heard of Haman's evil plot. Mordecai told him what had happened, and how Haman had promised to pay a large sum of money for the destruction of the Jews.

What, then, changed the direction of people's thoughts, threw the city of Susa into confusion, and spread deep and genuine sorrow everywhere else? The king's decree, the written word, confronted them. Here was a word no one would change, 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, issued by the one who held the power to kill, made all the difference.

The Persian empire always held to one rule: a law once passed was never revoked — "according to the law of the Medes and Persians that alters not." So it seemed that nothing could have saved the people. The master of 127 provinces had given his royal word. He had sealed it and sent it out by couriers through the whole length and breadth of the empire. The decree fixed the day and named the people. Destruction seemed certain.

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

Until then Esther had remained hidden; now, in this trial, her origin will appear in broad daylight.

The report of it soon reached the queen, as it was meant to do. Mordecai counted fully on relief and deliverance coming through her. Until it came, he refused even her own plea to take off his sackcloth and ashes.

He will not put off his mourning. He refuses all comfort while the decree stands against his people. Yet he counts, and surely counts, on their deliverance one way or another. This is another of those combinations that make up character or moral glory.

Mordecai tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth. He goes into the middle of the city and cries with a loud and bitter cry. God's name is not written and does not appear, yet God's ears heard all the same.