The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Reply” it comes from the Hebrew Word “teshuvah” which means “answer, reply.”
Mordecai delivers a challenge that will define Esther’s entire legacy. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Esther 4.
When Mordecai learns of everything that has been decreed, he tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and ashes, and goes out into the city crying with a loud and bitter cry, and this same mourning spreads among Jews throughout every province wherever the king’s decree arrives, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, many lying in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther’s maids and chamberlains tell her about Mordecai, she is exceedingly grieved, and sends clothes to replace his sackcloth, which he refuses.
Esther sends Hatach to learn what troubles Mordecai, and he explains everything, including the exact sum of money Haman promised the king, and gives Hatach a copy of the decree to show Esther, charging her to go to the king to make supplication for her people. Esther responds that anyone who approaches the king’s inner court without being called faces death, unless the king extends his golden sceptre, and she has not been called to the king for thirty days.
Mordecai sends back a sobering “reply,” “teshuvah” in Hebrew, warning Esther not to think she will escape in the king’s house any more than the rest of the Jews, since if she remains silent at this time, deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but she and her father’s house will perish, and asking, “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther responds with courage, asking Mordecai to gather all the Jews in Shushan to fast for her three days, neither eating nor drinking, and declaring she will go to the king, though it is against the law, adding, “if I perish, I perish.”
Mordecai’s piercing question, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this, remains one of Scripture’s most powerful challenges about providence and purpose, suggesting Esther’s entire unlikely journey to the throne was preparation for exactly this moment. Her courageous response, if I perish, I perish, shows genuine faith translating into decisive, risk-taking action rather than paralyzed fear.
Visit Us At: www.youtube.com/@BibleLifeBasics
Support Us On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BibleLifeBasics