The Hinges of Providence Text: Esther 2:19-20
Introduction: God Behind the Curtain
The book of Esther is famous for what it does not contain. There is no mention of God, no mention of the law, no mention of prayer. And for this reason, many through the centuries have been skittish about it. But this absence is a deliberate literary device. It is a master stroke of divine instruction. The point is not that God is absent, but that He is invisibly present. He is the author of a story who never writes Himself in as a character, but His fingerprints are on every page, on every plot twist, and on every seemingly insignificant detail. God's providence is the stage, the script, and the director of the entire affair.
We live in a world that looks very much like the court of Ahasuerus. It is pagan, it is powerful, it is decadent, and it is run by proud men who believe they are the masters of their own fate. And in such a world, it is easy for the saints to feel that God is distant, that He is not involved in the day to day grind of politics, bureaucracy, and the quiet faithfulness of His people. But Esther teaches us the opposite. It teaches us that God's most significant work is often done in the mundane, through ordinary means, and by people who are simply doing their duty in the station where God has placed them.
The events of our text are what you might call the interstitial material of the story. They are the connective tissue between the big, dramatic scenes. Esther has been made queen, a stunning turn of events. But the great crisis with Haman has not yet erupted. These verses appear to be a simple scene-setting, a bit of background information. But in the economy of God, there is no such thing as filler. These verses are not background noise; they are the quiet setting of the stage for the salvation of the entire Jewish people. Here we see the small hinges on which great doors are about to swing.
The Text
And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. Esther had not yet told anyone about her kinsmen or her people, just as Mordecai had commanded her; indeed Esther was doing what Mordecai declared that she do, just as she had done when she was being brought up by him.
(Esther 2:19-20 LSB)
Providence in Place (v. 19)
We begin with the first part of this divine stage-setting.
"And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate." (Esther 2:19)
The gathering of the virgins a second time is a detail that biblical commentators have puzzled over. Some suggest it was a search for lesser wives or concubines, or perhaps an administrative assembly of those who had been part of the initial collection. But the Spirit of God includes it here to provide a time stamp, to locate the next crucial event in the flow of the narrative. While the machinery of the pagan king's fleshly appetites continues to grind on, something far more important is happening, almost as a footnote. "Then Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate."
This is not an incidental detail. The king's gate was the center of civic life and administration. It was the ancient equivalent of city hall, the courthouse, and the public square all rolled into one. For Mordecai to be "sitting at the king's gate" means he held some kind of official position. He was not a loiterer. He was a magistrate, a civil servant in the Persian bureaucracy. This is crucial. God did not place his man outside the system, throwing rocks at it. He placed his man inside the system, right where he needed to be.
Mordecai is simply at his post. He is going to work. He is doing his job. He is not, at this moment, leading a protest or writing a theological treatise. He is a faithful man in a pagan system, earning his living and fulfilling his duties. And it is from this very post, this mundane nine-to-five, that he will overhear the assassination plot that will eventually be the key to saving his people. God's providence does not despise the ordinary. In fact, He delights in using it. Your workplace, your station, your daily routine is not a distraction from your spiritual life. It is the very arena in which God has placed you to exercise your faithfulness. Mordecai's position at the gate was as divinely appointed as Esther's position on the throne.
Covenantal Obedience (v. 20)
The second verse gives us another piece of crucial information, this time about Esther's character and her relationship to Mordecai.
"Esther had not yet told anyone about her kinsmen or her people, just as Mordecai had commanded her; indeed Esther was doing what Mordecai declared that she do, just as she had done when she was being brought up by him." (Esther 2:20)
Here we see the virtue of steadfast, principled obedience. Esther is now the queen of the greatest empire on earth. She lives in the palace, surrounded by luxury and power. She could very easily have concluded that she had outgrown her humble cousin Mordecai. She could have adopted the airs of royalty and decided that she now made the rules. But she did not. The text makes a point of telling us that her character was constant. "Esther was doing what Mordecai declared that she do, just as she had done when she was being brought up by him." Her change in circumstance did not cause a change in her character.
This obedience is not the thoughtless submission of a slave. It is the intelligent, covenantal faithfulness of a daughter. Mordecai was her elder, her guardian, the one who had raised her. He represented the authority of her family and her people. Her obedience to him was an expression of her loyalty to the covenant community from which she came. She understood that her new position was not for her own aggrandizement, but for the good of her people, and she trusted the wisdom of her elder.
And notice the specific command: she was not to reveal her Jewish identity. From a certain kind of pietistic framework, this looks like compromise. Why not stand up immediately and declare her heritage? But this was not cowardice; it was strategy. It was wisdom. God's providence was moving all the pieces on the board into position, and the queen's hidden identity was one of the most powerful pieces. Mordecai, guided by a wisdom that can only be attributed to God, understood that this information needed to be kept in reserve. It was a card to be played at the exact right moment, the moment of maximum impact. Esther's obedience here is an act of faith. She is trusting that Mordecai's command is part of a larger plan, even if she cannot yet see the whole picture. This is what faithfulness looks like. It is doing the right thing, right where you are, with the information you have, and trusting God with the timing and the outcome.
Conclusion: The Unseen Hand
So what do we take from these two quiet verses? We learn that God's providence is woven into the fabric of the mundane. Mordecai is at his desk job. Esther is keeping a strategic silence. Nothing spectacular is happening. There are no prophets, no miracles, no voices from heaven. There is only the quiet, steady faithfulness of two of God's people, living in a compromised and pagan world, and doing the next right thing.
And this is a profound encouragement to us. We often think that for God to use us, something dramatic must happen. We need a new job, a new ministry, a new calling. But more often than not, God's will is for you to be faithful right where He has you. At the gate. In the palace. In the office. In the home. Mordecai's faithfulness at the gate prepared the way for the unmasking of a conspiracy. Esther's faithful obedience to Mordecai prepared the way for the unmasking of a much greater one.
Our God is the God who works behind the scenes. He places his people in strategic locations, sometimes for years, before the purpose for their placement becomes clear. He calls for quiet obedience, for steadfastness, for a character that does not change when circumstances do. These are not glamorous virtues. They do not get much attention. But they are the very things that God uses to turn the world upside down. The story of Esther is a story of great reversals, but those reversals were made possible by the small, unseen acts of faithfulness recorded right here.