When Mordecai understood what Haman had done, he “tore open his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter voice” (Esther 4:1). Obviously, he sought the queen’s help, because he left his, then, present position and sat before the king’s gate in the square, where Esther’s servants would see him and inform her of his trouble (Esther 4:2, 4-5). One of the great sins in the history of the Jewish nation is that the fathers caused their children to “walk through the fire” (2Kings 16:3; 17:17; 21:6; 23:10), which they were commanded not to do (Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:10). While this matter was probably a literal one involving human sacrifice, it also has a spiritual connotation, meaning one shouldn’t cause his son or daughter to pass through the dire circumstances of the parent’s making. In other words, be responsible enough to take your own punishment for the deeds you do, rather than punishing your children causing them to walk through the consequences you’ve created.
Mordecai wasn’t the spiritual giant men often make him out to be. He did wrong and brought the whole nation of the Jews to the brink of extinction, but he wants Esther to take the responsibility and risk her life to save his and that of the nation. Yet, he sounds so spiritual, when he does it! However, is he really the spiritual man many believe him to be?[1]
In the course of their discussion made possible through the service of Hatach, Esther’s eunuch and messenger, Mordecai told Esther to ask the king to make a ruling in favor of the Jews (Esther 4:9), but Esther responded, saying it was against Persian law to simply go before the king, without his having commanded her appearance. In fact, anyone, man or woman, who would dare approach him without the king having called such a one, would be slain. He or she would die before the king, unless the king held up his scepter to permit that one to live, and Esther hadn’t been called by the king for the past month (Esther 4:10-11).
So, when Mordecai was informed of what Esther had said (Esther 4:12), he responded with a threat, telling her that it would be wrong of her to imagine that, because she were the queen, that she would escape the order to have all Jews destroyed. In other words, the secret of her national identity would, surely, become known, and she would die with the nation. Moreover, if she continued to keep silent, the Jews’ deliverance would ultimately occur, but she and her father’s house would be destroyed, while deliverance would come through another (Esther 4:13-14).
This ‘sounds so spiritual’ doesn’t it? In fact, Mordecai’s: “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for a time such as this?” (Esther 4:14) has been used as the pin upon which the whole story of the Book of Esther spins. Certainly, it is the most memorable verse in the book. But, let’s try to put Mordecai’s statement in context. First of all, Esther didn’t refuse to do as Mordecai requested. All she said was it was dangerous for her to appear before the king without his command for her to come to him, and he hadn’t called for her for thirty days. What seems to be the case is that Esther was telling Mordecai, this would take some time. It wasn’t necessarily a refusal.
Secondly, Mordecai seems to be taking Esther’s reply as a refusal, and responds with another threat. Nevertheless, the time for the casting of lots (Purim; Esther 3:7) was during the first calendar month of the year. The context of Mordecai’s finding out about Haman’s conspiracy is that it was relatively recent to the time the decision was made, for all the Jews throughout the kingdom were mourning over what was to take place (Esther 4:3). It would have taken no more than three weeks for the decision to become known to the authorities, even those in the most remote part of the kingdom. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for such news to remain secret. So, even if Mordecai was clueless in Shushan, he would have been informed by communication from Jews in other parts of the kingdom. Therefore, his understanding in Esther 4:1 must have occurred in a month or less (cp. Esther 8:9). Yet, the tragic event wasn’t to take place until the twelfth month in the calendar. The point is, surely the queen would have been called by the king before the twelfth month. Why was it necessary for Esther to risk her life to make a request to the king sooner? Mordecai’s decision to break Persian law had gotten the Jews into this predicament. Now, he wanted Esther to break Persian, law by risking her life to make a request to the king that might have been made at a safer time.
It seems Mordecai’s impatience is due to his own lack of faith in the matter, and he wants Esther to risk her life, to solve a problem he, himself, had created. This is not a spiritual man! He may have been a good man, but he doesn’t come across as being spiritual in the record we have. He is about as spiritual as his father Saul, the king. Both men expected God to act and be pleased with their service. However, just as Saul didn’t do the whole will of God, but saved Agag and his house alive, so Mordecai erred in his service to God by conspiring to slay the Agagites without having been sent by God to do so.
Obediently, Esther decided to risk her life for the sake of obeying her foster father’s command, and she sent a message to him, saying she would go to the king to make her request known. However, she commanded Mordecai to inform the Jews of Shushan of her decision and to fast from food and water for three days. She and her servants would do the same. Then she would go to the king, and if she was slain, so be it (Esther 4:15-16). Therefore, when Mordecai understood what was to occur, he did as Esther commanded (Esther 4:17).
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[1] This sin is often repeated in the church, today. Men devise false doctrines and cause the people to believe them, and the doctrines embraced by the ‘faithful’ hurt and even destroy others who suffer because of it. Admission of error by the authorities is rare, and the ‘faithful’ are willing to enforce the false doctrine by causing others pass through its fire.
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