Perhaps one of the more powerful Scriptures in the Old Testament, the courage here is breath-taking.
The edict had been issued that all Jews were to be eradicated completely. Esther was a Jew and she was queen. She didn’t know initially but she knew her uncle who had raised her was acting strange. He was going about mourning and weeping and in sackcloth. She sent him clothes but he refused. Then she asked via messenger what was wrong and he sent the message back:
All Jews were to be killed and she must tell the king and implore his favor.
Esther wrote back what was known. If someone approached the king without being summoned, then it was the death penalty. Esther had not been summoned to his side in the last 30 days.
Mordecai responded back to her in an incredible. Here he was her protector and the one who raised her from her youth. He was the one who watched over her constantly standing by the gates. And yet in this moment, he realized that instead of hovering to protect her, he needed to release her and commission her to the purposes of God, even if it meant her death. Wow.
So he wrote to her this:
“Don’t think you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).
This is really quite an incredible statement. Mordecai acknowledges that God will bring salvation to the Jews somehow. He won’t ever let them be completely destroyed. Ever. He also sees the providence of God over her life, releasing her life fully to the Lord.
Esther received the message. Not as a hurt daughter, but rather as in the place to do something though at very great risk. So she sent a message back to Mordecai.
Have the people fast no water or drink for three days. Pray for her. And she would go forward. Even if she died. So Mordecai did as she said.
No water or food was the most severe fast that a people could do. But it was a severe situation. For everyone. Not just Esther.
It was just that Esther was going to be the first to potentially sacrifice her life.
But she was going to try.
Better to die trying than to die having not tried.
