Sermon: If I Perish, I Perish (Esther 4:1-17)

If I Perish, I Perish
Sunday, February 9th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Esther 4:1-17
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the king’s gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with 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? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

Prayer

All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; And thy saints shall bless thee. Please give us now such hearts to praise you and bless you at all times, so that whether we are enjoying good or enduring evil, we might know Your good purpose which cannot be thwarted and your reasons which far surpass our ability to understand. Help us now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Last week we encountered in Esther chapter 3, the great crisis moment of this book. Haman has devised a plan to exterminate the Jews, but as the Pur—the lot would have it, that day of destruction is still 11 months away.

• We are told that the news of this death sentence, goes forth on the 13th day of the 1st month, which according to the Hebrew Calendar was the day before Passover (the day of Preparation). And so you can imagine the bitter irony of the Jews preparing to celebrate God’s deliverance, the birth of their nation, at the same time their own destruction has been announced. They are the lamb being prepared for the slaughter.
• We are given a description of this death sentence in Esther 3:13 which says, “the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.”

So how would you respond to such news? Or to ask a better question, how should you respond, when it seems that God has permitted the wicked to prosper, and evil to have its day? In the words of Psalm 11:3 which gives voice to our cry, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

If the foundation of justice are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

In our text this morning, we are given an answer to that question. For it is here in the Jews response to God’s permission of evil, that the whole story turns. This chapter, this moment, these actions of Mordecai and Esther are the response that precipitates all the good that will follow. And so while Esther chapters 5-10 will describe many great reversals, and the triumph of good over evil, we must not forget when we get to those chapters, how that great salvation came about. For it is here in chapter 4 that we have the prelude to God’s deliverance, and the pattern for how we should respond in our times of crisis.

Division of the Text

Our text divides into three sections which could also be described as three stages in crisis response:

• In verses 1-3, we have repentance.
• In verses 4-9, we have a request for intercession.
• In verses 10-17, we have courage and sacrifice.
  • So let us consider these three stages in depth.

Verses 1-3

1When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; 2And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

• Stage 1 of responding to your own death sentence is to grieve and lament.
• And in Mordecai’s case, his suffering is unique in that he knows that he is the cause of Haman’s wrath, and thereby an indirect cause and occasion for all the Jews to be threatened.
  • Mordecai’s personal decision not to bow is having consequences far beyond his own person. What might have been intended as an isolated act of rebellion and pride, or an isolated act of faithfulness to God, (whichever position you take), one man’s actions are now affecting an entire nation (all the Jews throughout the whole Empire).
  • And so add to Mordecai’s lamentation, this knowledge that he is in some way responsible for this threat. If he had bowed, this would never have happened. If he had obeyed the king, this decree would never have gone forth.
• This practice of tearing one’s clothes and putting on sackcloth and ashes, is a way of outwardly expressing that you are already dead. And by choosing to die before you die, to choose to suffer before you suffer, there is in this action a hope that mercy might be shown.
  • We see this practice amongst the Ninevites in the book of Jonah. Jonah comes preaching, “Yet forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown.” He announces their immanent doom. And how do the people of Ninevah respond to such a death sentence?
  • It says in Jonah 3:5-9, “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”
• When you choose to die before you die, you are accepting God’s judgment and pleading for mercy. There is the hope that by voluntarily dying in advance, God might relent from the destruction He announced. Why kill someone who is already dead? This is what righteous Job does when he is struck by disaster, and it is what God Himself exhorts His people to do when disaster threatens them for their sinful lifestyles.
  • It says in Joel 2:12-14, “’Now, therefore,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him—’”
  • So it is not enough to simply go through the external ritual of tearing your clothes and wearing sackcloth and ashes (Pharisees and hypocrites can do that). What God is looking for is a torn heart, a repentant mind.
    • As it says in Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.”
    • Likewise in Psalm 51:17 it says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”
• So the proper response to the threat of death, whether justly or unjustly threatened, is to voluntarily die before you die, to tear your heart before the Lord and say with David in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
  • Humility and repentance are always appropriate for us who sin. And this action of mourning our condition is to put into practice what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
• Stage 1 of crisis response is godly sorrow that leads to repentance. You must humble yourself in the eyes of God.
• Now if repentance is Stage 1, what is Stage 2? Stage 2 is searching for someone to intercede.
  • I won’t read again all of verses 4-9, but here Mordecai makes known to Esther the decree against the Jews, and we read in verse 8.

Verse 8

8Also he gave Hatach the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.

• Mordecai charges Esther to make supplication and make request before the king for her people.
• This is a change in the command that Mordecai has been giving to Esther. Up to this point, Mordecai had charged Esther to conceal her people and her kindred, even from her own husband and king, and she complied. And so for almost 5 years of marriage, Esther has hidden her Jewish identity, and we saw back in Esther 2:20, that the text goes out of its way to tell us that even after her marriage to Ahasuerus, “Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.”
  • So whatever reasons for that concealment (whether justified or not), they are now overthrown by this mortal threat. And Mordecai gives here the last charge he will give to Esther in this book. And in fact, by the end of the chapter we shall see that the roles will have reversed. It will be Queen Esther commanding Mordecai. Verse 17 says, “So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.”
  • So Mordecai’s last charge as father of Esther, is a charge for her to intercede on the Jews behalf, to reveal her identity and plead for the king to relent.
• After sorrow, after repentance, the next action is to seek for an intercessor, a mediator, someone who can go where we cannot go, someone who can gain the favor of the power on high and obtain for us the salvation and mercy that we seek.
  • Who is Esther in this moment but a forerunner of Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man? Esther is also a forerunner to the bride of Christ, the Christian church, the kingdom of priests, whose prayers are heard in the heavenly court.
  • It is not enough to simply mourn and lament your sin. You cannot enter the king’s gate in sackcloth and ashes. Mordecai needs what you and I need, namely, to be clothed with the king’s garments.
    • Or as Paul says in Romans 13:14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
• Stage 1 is repentance; Stage 2 is finding a mediator who will plead your cause.
  • How does Esther respond to Mordecai’s charge?
    • We have here in verses 10-17, the first words of actual dialog between Esther and Mordecai. And at first Esther is hesitant to comply. She explains to Mordecai that he is asking her to risk her life.

Verse 11

11All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.

• There is an important parallel here between Esther’s relation to Ahasuerus, and the Jews relation to God.
  • First, both relationships are covenantal. There is a covenant for marriage, and covenant between God and Israel.
  • Second, just as Ahasuerus has a throne and palace with inner and outer chambers, so also God’s temple has a throne with an inner and outer court. And these grades of separation from God are a spatial illustration of what God says to Moses in Exodus 33:20, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
  • In order to see the king’s face, in order to come before the Lord, you have pass through the sword and be granted mercy.
    • We see God embed this principle in the Hebrew Festival Calendar. How often could the priest enter God’s throne room? Only once a year, on the day of Atonement, and that with much sacrifice, cleansing, and the putting on of holy garments. If you tried to enter God’s house uninvited, or in an unclean and unholy state, there was one law for you, death.
• So Esther is being portrayed here as a kind of high-priest for the Jews. Mordecai wants her to enter the “most holy place,” the throne of Ahasuerus, and plead for mercy. But that means risking her life. That means hoping and praying the king is favorable and extends to her the golden scepter.
  • Again, we see the parallels between Esther and Christ, of whom it says in Hebrews 9:12, “by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
• So Esther must risk her own blood to enter. Mordecai knows this risk and thus he gives her a word of persuasive encouragement. And these are the first words of dialog that come directly from Mordecai’s mouth.

Verses 13-14

Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. 14For 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?

• Here we get a rare glimpse into the mind of Mordecai. And we find that there is in him a belief, a conviction, that God will not let Haman’s decree go uncontested.
  • If Esther does not intercede, Mordecai reasons, “then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.”
  • Where is Mordecai getting that idea? How can he be so optimistic, so postmil, in this moment of crisis?
  • Well, the only reasonable explanation is that Mordecai knows the Scriptures. He knows what God had promised to Abraham, to make his seed as numerous as the stars. He knows that God had promised David a son to sit on his throne forever. He knows the law of God’s covenant, that even if they disobey and break covenant, God will eventually turn them back to Himself. He almost certainly knows the prophesies of his contemporaries, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah. And what all of these prophets foretell, is that although God will punish his rebellious people, he will bring them back to Jerusalem and have mercy on them.
  • So as the father of Esther, whose Hebrew name remember is Hadassah/Myrtle Tree, Mordecai knows (and perhaps even named Esther after this verse in) Isaiah 55:13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: And it shall be to the Lord for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
  • If God has promised to plant the myrtle tree and remove the thorns and briers (evil men like Haman), then either God’s Word is false, or Haman’s plot will not go as planned. As Paul says in Romans 3:4, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
• Perhaps Mordecai will die in battle. Perhaps Esther will be found out as a Jew and executed as well. But this kind of wholesale wide-scale extermination of all Jews cannot succeed, because God has promised to preserve a remnant, plant that remnant, and make that remnant to flourish. “For if thou altogether hold thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place.”
  • So Mordecai, now the man of faith, exhorts Esther to take this truth and moment to heart. And without presuming to know how deliverance will come, or if it will come through her, he places before her in the form of a question, a rhetorical question that is, “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
  • Who knows? God knows and only God.
  • And here Mordecai is being a good theologian. He does not presume to see into the secret will of God. He does not presume to know if Esther will succeed or not. He makes no promise that she will live. He does not pretend to be a prophet. He does not give her false hope. Instead, He soberly communicates to her the promise of God, and the possibility that God might use her to bring about a great deliverance. Deliverance is certain, but the means of deliverance are yet unknown.
  • This is how you read the story while you are in it. You must be sober, you must be prayerful, you must be humble, you must have faith. None of us are the Ultimate Author of our own story, but we can study God’s wisdom and ways in the lives of the saints and see certain patterns, certain themes and trials that recur, and while every story is unique, we should all desire to be Romans 8:28 Christians, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
• So how can Esther love God in this moment? As Queen of Persia, love looks like seeking justice for all the innocent Jews throughout the Empire. As wife of Ahasuerus, love looks like keeping her husband from being deceived by a wicked adviser in Haman. And as adopted daughter of Mordecai, love looks like listening to him, and then seeking the courage to lay her down her life for her people. We hear in her own voice the fear and resolve.

Verse 16

16Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

• Jesus says there is “No greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
• And so Esther now joins Mordecai in choosing to die before she dies. She counts the cost, she calls for a fast, and she resolves that “If I Perish, I Perish.”
• What is signified here by this three day fast, but the same three days of Christ’s death and burial. No food. No drink. Cut off from any natural source of life, and all in the hope that supernatural life, resurrection might come.
• Where does that kind of courage come from? It comes from a heart that has truly died to this world, and desires nothing less than God. Of this singular and exclusive desire, we read in Psalm 73, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
  • Is God the exclusive and sole desire of your heart? And if not, don’t you know that every good thing you desire has its source and surpassing goodness in Him?
  • The way we conquer death is not by pride, or ignorance, or by trusting in flesh. It is by dying so that we might see God, and desiring Him above life itself. That is how you can say with Esther, If I Perish, I Perish.
• May God grant you such courage and desire, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.