In every province to which the king's command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. In every provinceThe phrase "in every province" indicates the widespread impact of the king's edict. The Persian Empire was vast, stretching from India to Ethiopia, encompassing 127 provinces. This highlights the extensive reach of the decree and the unity of the Jewish people across diverse regions. Historically, this demonstrates the centralized power of the Persian monarchy and the interconnectedness of its territories. to which the edict and order of the king came
The "edict and order of the king" refers to the decree issued by King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) under the influence of Haman, which called for the annihilation of the Jewish people. The use of both "edict" and "order" emphasizes the formality and irrevocability of the decree, as Persian laws were known to be unchangeable once sealed by the king. This reflects the dire situation faced by the Jews and the absolute authority of the king. there was great mourning among the Jews
"Great mourning" signifies the deep sorrow and despair experienced by the Jewish community. Mourning in ancient times often involved public displays of grief, and for the Jews, it was a communal expression of their collective fear and anguish. This mourning was not just personal but national, as the threat was against their entire people. with fasting, weeping, and wailing
The practices of "fasting, weeping, and wailing" are traditional expressions of lamentation and repentance in Jewish culture. Fasting is a physical manifestation of humility and supplication before God, seeking His intervention. Weeping and wailing are outward expressions of inner turmoil and distress. These actions demonstrate the Jews' reliance on God in times of crisis, seeking His mercy and deliverance. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes
"Sackcloth and ashes" were customary symbols of mourning and repentance in the ancient Near East. Sackcloth, a coarse material, was worn as a sign of humility and penitence, while ashes represented desolation and grief. This imagery conveys the depth of the Jews' despair and their earnest plea for divine intervention. It also reflects a biblical pattern where God's people, in times of great need, humble themselves and seek His face, trusting in His sovereignty and faithfulness. Persons / Places / Events 1. EstherA Jewish queen of Persia who plays a crucial role in the deliverance of her people. 2. MordecaiEsther's cousin and guardian, who first learns of Haman's plot against the Jews and urges Esther to intervene. 3. HamanThe antagonist who plots to annihilate the Jews, prompting the mourning described in this verse. 4. King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I)The Persian king who unknowingly authorizes Haman's decree against the Jews. 5. The Jews in PersiaThe Jewish community living in the Persian Empire, facing extermination due to Haman's edict. Teaching Points The Power of Collective Mourning and PrayerThe Jews' unified response in fasting and mourning highlights the power of communal prayer and repentance in seeking divine intervention. The Significance of Fasting and SackclothFasting and wearing sackcloth are outward expressions of inner humility and repentance, demonstrating a deep dependence on God during times of distress. Trusting God in Times of CrisisDespite the dire circumstances, the Jews' actions reflect a trust in God's sovereignty and a hope for deliverance, encouraging believers to rely on God in their own trials. The Role of Leadership in Times of PerilMordecai's leadership and Esther's eventual intervention underscore the importance of godly leadership and courage in facing challenges. God's Providence in Difficult SituationsThe unfolding events in Esther reveal God's unseen hand at work, reminding believers of His providence even when He seems silent. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the response of the Jews in Esther 4:3 reflect their faith and dependence on God, and how can we apply this in our own lives during difficult times? 2. What role does fasting play in seeking God's guidance and intervention, and how can we incorporate fasting into our spiritual practices today? 3. How can we, like Mordecai, provide leadership and encouragement to others facing crises in their lives? 4. In what ways does the account of Esther demonstrate God's providence, and how can this assurance of God's control bring comfort in uncertain situations? 5. How can the communal aspect of the Jews' mourning and prayer in Esther 4:3 inspire us to engage in corporate prayer and support within our church communities? Connections to Other Scriptures Joel 2:12-13This passage calls for repentance with fasting, weeping, and mourning, similar to the Jews' response in Esther 4:3. It emphasizes returning to God with a sincere heart. Jonah 3:5-9The people of Nineveh fast and wear sackcloth in response to Jonah's warning, paralleling the Jews' actions in Esther 4:3 as a sign of humility and repentance. Daniel 9:3Daniel's prayer and fasting for his people reflect a similar posture of seeking God's mercy in times of crisis. People Esther, Haman, Hatach, MordecaiPlaces SusaTopics Ashes, Command, Commandment, Covered, Crying, Decree, Dust, Edict, Fasting, Haircloth, Jews, Kingdom, King's, Lamenting, Law, Lay, Mourning, Numbers, Order, Province, Sackcloth, Sorrow, Spread, Stretched, Wailing, Weeping, Wherever, WhithersoeverDictionary of Bible Themes Esther 4:3 5463 proclamations
5794 asceticism
7505 Jews, the
8431 fasting, reasons Esther 4:1-3 5831 depression Library Mordecai and Esther
'For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?'--ESTHER iv. 14. All Christians are agreed in holding the principles which underlie our missionary operations. They all believe that the world is a fallen world, that without Christ the fallen world is a lost world, that the preaching …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureWatkinson -- the Transfigured Sackcloth
William L. Watkinson, Wesleyan minister, was born at Hull, 1838, was educated privately and rose to eminence as a preacher and writer. The Rev. William Durban calls him "The classic preacher of British Methodism." "He ranks," says Dr. Durban, "with Dr. Dallinger and the Rev. Thomas Gunn Selby as the three most learned and refined of living preachers in the English Methodist pulpit. Dr. Watkinson is famous for the glittering illustrations which adorn his style. These are for the most part gathered …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 8 Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
BY A.E. GRIMKE. "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in unto the king, …
Angelina Emily Grimke—An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety A Case of Conscience Resolved
WHETHER, WHERE A CHURCH OF CHRIST IS SITUATE, IT IS THE DUTY OF THE WOMEN OF THAT CONGREGATION, ORDINARILY, AND BY APPOINTMENT, TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THEIR BRETHREN, AND SO TO ASSEMBLE TOGETHER, TO PERFORM SOME PARTS OF DIVINE WORSHIP, AS PRAYER, ETC., WITHOUT THEIR MEN? AND THE ARGUMENTS MADE USE OF FOR THAT PRACTICE, EXAMINED. BY JOHN BUNYAN. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. This exceedingly rare tract was first published in 1683, and was not reprinted, either separately, or in any edition of Bunyan's …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Prevailing Prayer.
Text.--The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.--James v. 16. THE last lecture referred principally to the confession of sin. To-night my remarks will be chiefly confined to the subject of intercession, or prayer. There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival; one to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer to move God. When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God's mind is changed by prayer, or that his …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion Of the Discipline of the Church, and Its Principal Use in Censures and Excommunication.
1. Of the power of the keys, or the common discipline of the Church. Necessity and very great utility of this discipline. 2. Its various degrees. 1. Private admonition. 2. Rebukes before witnesses. 3. Excommunication. 3. Different degrees of delinquency. Modes of procedure in both kinds of chastisement. 4. Delicts to be distinguished from flagitious wickedness. The last to be more severely punished. 5. Ends of this discipline. 1. That the wicked may not, by being admitted to the Lord's Table, put …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion Of the Public Fast.
A public fast is when, by the authority of the magistrate (Jonah iii. 7; 2 Chron. xx. 3; Ezra viii. 21), either the whole church within his dominion, or some special congregation, whom it concerneth, assemble themselves together, to perform the fore-mentioned duties of humiliation; either for the removing of some public calamity threatened or already inflicted upon them, as the sword, invasion, famine, pestilence, or other fearful sickness (1 Sam. vii. 5, 6; Joel ii. 15; 2 Chron. xx.; Jonah iii. …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Of a Private Fast.
That we may rightly perform a private fast, four things are to be observed:--First, The author; Secondly, The time and occasion; Thirdly, The manner; Fourthly, The ends of private fasting. 1. Of the Author. The first that ordained fasting was God himself in paradise; and it was the first law that God made, in commanding Adam to abstain from eating the forbidden fruit. God would not pronounce nor write his law without fasting (Lev. xxiii), and in his law commands all his people to fast. So does our …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety From his Entrance on the Ministry in 1815, to his Commission to Reside in Germany in 1820
1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed; and the extracts which follow describe his first offerings in the ministry in a simple and affecting manner. 1 mo. 5.--The subject of the prophet's going down to the potter's house opened so clearly on my mind in meeting this morning that I thought I could almost have publicly …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel Sign Seekers, and the Enthusiast Reproved.
(Galilee on the Same Day as the Last Section.) ^A Matt. XII. 38-45; ^C Luke XI. 24-36. ^c 29 And when the multitudes were gathering together unto him, ^a 38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. [Having been severely rebuked by Jesus, it is likely that the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign that they might appear to the multitude more fair-minded and open to conviction than Jesus had represented them to be. Jesus had just wrought …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Esther
The spirit of the book of Esther is anything but attractive. It is never quoted or referred to by Jesus or His apostles, and it is a satisfaction to think that in very early times, and even among Jewish scholars, its right to a place in the canon was hotly contested. Its aggressive fanaticism and fierce hatred of all that lay outside of Judaism were felt by the finer spirits to be false to the more generous instincts that lay at the heart of the Hebrew religion; but by virtue of its very intensity …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Esther 4:3 NIVEsther 4:3 NLTEsther 4:3 ESVEsther 4:3 NASBEsther 4:3 KJV
Esther 4:3 Commentaries
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