For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther's inquiry shows true kindness: to weep with those who weep, we must first know why they weep. She wanted to understand Mordecai's trouble fully before she acted, and this is how all who love God's people should order their prayers and griefs.
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Commenting on Esther 4:5-17
Mordecai went his way and did what Esther commanded: he gathered the Jews and ordered a three-day fast. Some say he transgressed the festival law to do it, fasting even on Passover itself, but the command took precedence.
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Mordecai speaks from genuine faith: God will deliver His people whether all earthly means fail or not. If Esther stays silent, deliverance comes another way, but she and her house are destroyed. Providence has placed her in the kingdom for this very hour.
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