For Such a Time as This Text: Esther 4:1-14
Introduction: The Hidden Hand of God
The book of Esther is a peculiar book. It is a story of palace intrigue, of racial hatred, of courage and cowardice, and of a stunning reversal of fortunes. But what makes it most peculiar, as many have noted, is that the name of God is not mentioned once. There are no prophets, no miracles, no direct divine speech. And yet, God is on every page. His providence is the ink with which the story is written. The absence of His name forces us to look for His hand, and when we do, we find it everywhere. This is a book that teaches us how to see God when He appears to be hidden, how to trust His sovereignty when all we can see are secondary causes and political machinations.
This is a lesson our generation desperately needs to learn. We live in a secular age that is tone deaf to the music of providence. Our news is filled with political commentary, economic analysis, and sociological trends, but God is never mentioned. He is the great unacknowledged legislator of the world. But the fact that godless men do not acknowledge Him does not mean He is not reigning. The book of Esther is a divine tutorial in reading the newspaper with biblical eyes. It trains us to see that behind the arrogant decrees of godless rulers and the wicked plots of proud men, there is a sovereign God who is working all things together for the good of His people and for His own glory.
In our text today, the crisis that has been brewing comes to a head. Haman's wicked plot has been codified into law, and a death sentence hangs over every Jew in the Persian empire. The people of God are facing an existential threat. And it is in this moment of utter desperation that we see the first stirrings of a divinely orchestrated response. This chapter is the hinge upon which the entire story turns. It is the pivot from lamentation to action, from fear to faith, and from hiddenness to a bold confrontation.
The Text
Now Mordecai came to know of all that had been done. And he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried out loudly and bitterly. And he went as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. Now in each and every province where the word and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes.
Then Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai to know what this was and why it was. So Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city square in front of the king’s gate. And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of silver that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries to cause the Jews to perish. He also gave him a copy of the written law which had been given in Susa for their destruction, in order to show Esther and to tell her and to command her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to seek him out for her people.
Then Hathach came back and told Mordecai’s words to Esther. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to reply to Mordecai: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.” So they told Esther’s words to Mordecai.
Then Mordecai said for them to respond to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s house can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not reached royalty for such a time as this?”
(Esther 4:1-14 LSB)
Public Grief and Political Theater (v. 1-3)
We begin with Mordecai's response to the genocidal decree.
"Now Mordecai came to know of all that had been done. And he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried out loudly and bitterly." (Esther 4:1)
Mordecai's reaction is not a private sorrow. It is a public, political act. Tearing clothes, wearing sackcloth, and covering oneself with ashes were the traditional signs of deep mourning and repentance in the ancient world. But Mordecai does this in the middle of Susa, the capital city. He goes right up to the king's gate, the center of imperial power. He is forbidden from entering, because the pristine, manicured world of the pagan king cannot tolerate such a raw display of human grief. The pagan wants his world to be neat, orderly, and free from the inconveniences of death and sorrow. But Mordecai refuses to let the king and his court ignore the consequences of their wicked law.
This is a form of protest. It is a loud, bitter cry against a monstrous injustice. Mordecai is not just sad; he is making a statement. He is ensuring that the evil that was cooked up in the secret chambers of the palace is dragged out into the public square. This is a necessary first step. Evil thrives in darkness and silence. Mordecai turns on the lights and makes a lot of noise. And this grief is not his alone; it spreads throughout the empire. Wherever the decree goes, it is met with "great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing." This is a covenant people facing a covenant threat, and their response is communal.
The Insulated Palace and the Uncomfortable Truth (v. 4-9)
The news of this public display reaches Queen Esther, who is living in the gilded cage of the royal harem.
"Then Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept them." (Esther 4:4 LSB)
Esther's initial reaction reveals her disconnect from the reality her people are facing. She is in "great anguish," but her solution is a cosmetic one. She wants to solve the problem by changing Mordecai's clothes. She wants to remove the outward sign of the problem, so that things can go back to being comfortable and quiet. Send him a new suit, and maybe he will stop making a scene outside the gate. But this is a profound misunderstanding of the situation. The problem is not Mordecai's wardrobe; the problem is a death sentence. Mordecai rightly refuses the clothes. He will not be comforted with superficial solutions. He will not pretend everything is fine when it is not.
This forces Esther to dig deeper. She sends Hathach, a trusted eunuch, to find out what is really going on. And Mordecai lays it all out. He explains the whole sordid affair, including the precise amount of the bribe Haman offered. He gives Hathach a copy of the written decree. He is dealing in facts, not feelings. And then he issues a command to the queen: "command her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to seek him out for her people." The time for quiet anonymity is over. The time for action has come. Mordecai is not asking; he is commanding. As her elder cousin and adoptive father, he still has authority, and he is leveraging it for the sake of their people.
The Calculus of Fear (v. 10-12)
Esther's response to this command is one of fear, and it is a perfectly reasonable fear from a human perspective.
"All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days." (Esther 4:11 LSB)
Esther lays out the political reality. To approach the king unsummoned is to risk immediate execution. The law was absolute. Furthermore, she reveals a crucial bit of personal information: she has not been in the king's favor for a month. Her influence is waning. She is no longer the new, exciting queen. She is just one member of a large harem. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, her mission is suicidal. She is weighing the certainty of the law against the slim hope of the king's mercy. Her fear is logical. She is doing the math, and the numbers do not look good.
This is the central test for Esther. Will she live by the logic of the Persian court, or by the logic of faith in the unseen God of Israel? Will her identity as Queen of Persia trump her identity as a daughter of the covenant? Her hesitation is understandable, but it is also a moment of profound spiritual danger.
The Unanswerable Argument of Providence (v. 13-14)
Mordecai's reply to Esther's fear is one of the high points of biblical theology. He does not scold her or minimize the danger. Instead, he reframes the entire situation with the unanswerable logic of God's sovereign providence.
"Then Mordecai said for them to respond to Esther, 'Do not imagine that you in the king’s house can escape any more than all the Jews.'" (Esther 4:13 LSB)
First, he demolishes her illusion of safety. She may be in the palace, but the decree is against "all the Jews." Her royal position is not a shield. Sooner or later, her identity would be discovered, and the law would apply to her as well. There is no neutral ground. The idea that you can retreat into a private, personal piety while your people are being destroyed is a damnable lie. Your comfort and security are bound up with the fate of God's people. To think otherwise is foolish self-deception.
Next, Mordecai makes a staggering statement of faith in God's covenant faithfulness, even without naming Him.
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish." (Esther 4:14a)
This is raw, undiluted confidence in the sovereignty of God. Mordecai knows that God has made unbreakable promises to His people. He will not allow the line of Abraham to be extinguished. The gates of hell, or in this case, the gates of Susa, will not prevail against His covenant purposes. Mordecai is so certain of this that he says deliverance will arise. It is not a question of if, but of how and through whom. God is not dependent on Esther. His plan will not be thwarted by her disobedience. If she refuses to be the instrument, God will simply raise up another. But, and this is the sharp point of the warning, there are consequences for refusing God's call. If she fails this test, she and her family will be cut off. God's program of redemption will roll on, but she will be crushed by it instead of carried along with it. God's kingdom is coming; you can either get on the train or get run over by it.
"And who knows whether you have not reached royalty for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14b LSB)
This is the final, masterful stroke. Mordecai invites Esther to view her entire life through the lens of divine purpose. Her beauty, her orphan status, her being chosen as queen, all the seeming coincidences and accidents of her life, were not random. They were appointments. God had been moving all the pieces on the board, arranging her entire biography, to place her in this precise position at this exact moment for this specific task. This is the doctrine of providence made personal. It is the realization that your life is not a series of random events, but a story written by a sovereign Author. And you have a part to play. This question transforms the crisis from a threat to be feared into an opportunity to be seized. It is a call to courage, a call to faith, a call to embrace her destiny.
Conclusion: Your Time is Now
Mordecai's words to Esther echo down through the centuries and land squarely in our laps today. We live in a time of great spiritual and cultural crisis. The enemies of God are arrogant and bold. They pass wicked laws and seek to destroy the people of God and the testimony of Christ. And like Esther, we can be tempted to retreat into the relative comfort of our own little palaces, hoping the trouble will pass us by.
But the logic of Mordecai still applies. Do not imagine that you can escape. The war is not just out there; it is for your soul, for your children's souls, and for the future of the church. There is no safe, neutral corner where you can sit this out. Silence is not neutrality; it is complicity.
And more importantly, God's purposes will not fail. Relief and deliverance for His church will arise. The gospel will triumph. The Great Commission will be fulfilled. Jesus promised to build His church, and He is doing it. The only question is whether you will be a faithful instrument in His hand, or whether you will be set aside as a cautionary tale. God is not wringing His hands over the latest Supreme Court decision or the wickedness in Washington D.C. He is sovereign over it all.
And so the final question comes to each one of us. Look at your life. Look at your resources, your position, your talents, your relationships. Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? God has placed you where you are, in this family, in this church, in this town, in this historical moment, for a purpose. He has been weaving the story of your life to prepare you for the challenges and opportunities that are right in front of you. The call is not to a life of safety and comfort, but to a life of faith and courageous obedience. It is a call to risk everything on the unshakable reality that God is on His throne, and His kingdom cannot fail.