MORDECCAI INSTIGATES ESTHER When Mordeccai heard what Haman did, He committed himself to the wise spiritual behavior: “He tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth and ashes”, humiliated himself before God, and prayed. He also asked Esther to fast and prostrate herself before God, and to encounter the king to expose Hamman’s evil plot to him. … This way, praying with a contrite heart would support the work with the edifying spirit of wisdom. 1-The humiliation of Mordeccai 1 - 3 2-Deeply distressed, Esther sent Hathach to learn what happened to Mordeccai 4 - 9 3-Messages between Esther and Mordeccai 10 – 17 1- THE HUMILIATION OF MORDECCAI: “When Mordeccai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. He went as far as the square in front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (4: 1-3). When Mordeccai heard what Haman did, he tore his clothes, a sign of great distress, like what Reuben the son of Jacob did when he returned to the pit and saw that his brother Joseph was no more there (Genesis 37: 29). … Mordeccai put on sackcloth, a sign of his broken down heart, and of his humiliation; he cried out with a loud and bitter cry, perceiving that what would dwell upon his people will be because of him…. Mordeccai’s behavior was like that of Nehemiah, who, hearing the painful news about Jerusalem, he said: “I sat down, wept, and mourned for many days, I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1: 4); And like the apostle Paul who, bearing the same heart, said: “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9: 1-3). If Mordeccai was a symbol of the Lord Christ, the way to salvation started by tearing his clothes, putting on sackcloth and ashes, and going out into the midst of the city, to cry out with a loud and bitter cry, which has shaken the gates of heaven, to save Esther and her people from destruction. The Lord Christ, likewise, took off His glory, emptied Himself for our sake (tearing the clothes), put on our body (the sackcloth), came down to our earth (going out into the midst of the city); cried out on the cross, and delivered His Spirit for the sake of our salvation. … According to father ‘Aphrahat’: [Having sat, clothed in sackcloth, Mordeccai saved Esther and her people from the sword; And, having been clothed with a human body, the Lord Christ saved the church and her children from death1]. “And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (3)… It is a living portrait of the believers who, meditating in 1 Dem. 21. On Persecution 20 31 the great day of the Lord, and perceiving the work of sin in them, they wail presenting a true repentance, to draw the mercy of God. Ultimately, Mordeccai came before the king’s gate, but did not enter because of being clothed in sackcloth…. The kings, living in their palaces, cared only for their own comfort, and did not intend to encounter the suffering and the oppressed. … They have closed their gates before those clothed in sackcloth, until the King of kings, Himself, came down, incarnate (clothed in sackcloth), to partake of their sufferings, and to bring them forth by His Holy Spirit, not to the king’s gate, nor into his palace, but to the bosom of God the Father; … When the great closed the gates of their palaces before the needy, the Greatest of all came down to carry them up to His heavens. 2- DEEPLY DISTRESSED, ESTHER SENT HATHACH TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MORDECCAI: Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, to go to Mordeccai and learn what and why this was; and gave him garments to clothe Mordeccai, and take his sackcloth from him, but he would not accept them. … (It so seems that Hathach was a Jew, as, about him in the second ‘Tergom’ it came that his real name was ‘Daniel’). That was why Mordeccai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, to show to Esther, and to tell her to go in to the king to make supplication, and to plead before him for her people. 3- MESSAGES BETWEEN ESTHER AND MORDECCAI: Returning to Esther and telling her the words of Mordeccai, she sent Hathach back to Mordeccai to say to him that she has not been called to go in to the king these thirty days; and if she does, according to the law, she will be put to death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter to her, that she may live. In response, Mordeccai sent to Esther, saying: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (4: 13, 14). If Mordeccai tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and cried out with a loud and bitter cry in the midst of the city, that was not out of despair, nor of a loss of hope, but of humiliation before God, in complete faith that He is capable of intervention; and to instigate the Jewish people to supplicate to God with contrite hearts. … His words to Esther revealed how he truly believed that deliverance would definitely arise, through Esther or any others; saying to her: “For if you remain completely silent at that time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place” It is as though he is telling her that God would find another way to deliver His people, but you would lose the crown He meant for you to have. I wish, in the time of temptation, we would, like Mordeccai, believe in God’s might, that deliverance will definitely arise, that God will certainly act; that we will come out of the temptation, conquerors and victorious, and not losers and defeated, and that we would be crowned, and acquire for ourselves a profit on a heavenly level. 32 Mordeccai confirmed to Esther, that the events of her life are not just mere chances, nor the fruit of human strife; but constitute a divine plan for the sake of the glory of God, for the edification of the church, and for the growth of her spiritual life…. That was how ‘Joseph’ the son of ‘Jacob’ believed, when he said to his brothers: “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45: 5); … So, if Esther became a queen, or Joseph was sold as a slave, God, the Lord of history, meant to bring them forth to where they would glorify Him to the account of the whole congregation. Instigating Esther to come out of the circle of her narrow thinking; not to think just of her life and death; for what would happen to her people would reflect on her life and that of her father’s house; Mordeccai said to her: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace”. He also revealed to her that, even though she might stretch her hand to work; she should have no fear, for it is God Himself, as a Father, who will work through her. I wish we, likewise, would set forth out of the circle of the ‘ego’, and perceive that God’s spiritual work would never fail, and that He is capable of salvation, if we deliver our life in His hands. If Mordeccai has confronted Esther with such utter courage and frankness, to take fear out of her heart, She, in her turn, humbly received his message, and her response to it revealed a heart, wide with exalted love; saying: “Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; My maids and I will fast likewise. So I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (16). Loving her people, Esther delivered her life to death for their sake. Although she was a great queen, beautiful, young, and beloved by her man; yet she was also aware that, in his ferocity, he knows no mercy. She knows how, when his closest friend Lysias begged him to relieve his older son from going to war, and presented to him his other five sons in his place, he did not hesitate to cut the boy into two pieces by the sword, and to command his guards to tread with their feet over his corpse, to let everyone know how firm he is. She did not blame Mordeccai nor accused him of insolence, for not paying homage to Haman, but with faith, she delivered her life to death, perceiving that her own sins, and those of her people, were the real cause of their tribulation. In her prayer we read in the annex to the book of Esther, we hear her say: “Now we have sinned before You, and You have handed us over to our enemies because we glorified their gods. You are righteous, O Lord” (14: 6). … By faith, she knew that the key to salvation is the confession of sins, and the return to the Savior God. She did seek a human temporal solution; … She did not adorn and perfume hertself to draw the heart of the king; Nor asked Mordeccai to think of a contrary way against Haman; But, perceiving that salvation is only from God, she resorted to prayer and fasting, and asked Mordeccai to join her and her maids, together with all the Jews who were present in Shushan the citadel (Susa); … Here, let us meditate in how her maids partook of her praying and fasting, neither ate nor drank for three days. For this would reveal the way she used to treat them, not as a haughty mistress, but as a mother figure who cared for their salvation; that they got the spirit of piety, and readily partook of her anguish with a befitting spiritual mind! … I wish we, as well, would care for those 33 who serve us, for we are responsible for their salvation as brethren, who partake of our fellowship in the one body of Christ. Esther intended to go into the king’s heart by God, for: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord” (Proverb 21: 1). She resorted to prayer and fasting, to let God change the stony nature of the king’s heart, and to open it up for her, to enter into it together with the Lord, to deliver her and her people. About this, St. Ambrose says: [By her fasting, Esther moved the proud heart of the king1].; And St. Clement the Roman says: [Having been perfect in faith, Esther faced danger, not less than that faced by Judith, to save the twelve tribes of Israel from sure perdition. By fasting and humility, she beseeched the eternal God who sees everything2]. In the book of the laws of the apostles it came as: [By fasting, Esther, Mordeccai, and Judith, were delivered from the evil plots of ‘Holofernes’ and ‘Haman’3]. By a perfect love and trust in God, who works in the life of the humble, Esther fasted, and set forth with courage to work, saying: “If I perish, I perish”; not out of disbelief in the salvation of God, but in love and readiness to die for the sake of the salvation of her people and brethren. And according to St. Ambrose: [Why did Esther deliver her own life to death, and did not fear the wrath of the vicious king, but to save her people from perdition, a sign of utter virtue4!]. Esther carried the spirit of the three young men, who said: “God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king! But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3: 17, 18). She requested fasting, neither eat or drink for three days; as though she intended to enter together with the Lord into His tomb, to rise together with Him on the third day, believing in Him, who is able to raise her and her people from the dead; And as though she intended to go together with Jonah, the symbol of Christ, into the belly of the great whale, to partake of the burying and death of the Lord Christ for His people, to come out to preach the good tidings of life. In the annex of the book of Esther (Chapter 14), it came that “she took off her splendid apparel, and put on the garment of distress and mourning; and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, utterly humbled her body with fasting, plucked the hair from her head, stood supplicating to God, confessing her sins and those of her people, reminding Him of His promises to her fathers, and beseeching Him to look down on the humiliation and affliction of His people by the hands of the idol-worshippers. Believing that it is God who speaks on her tongue, to pierce the heart of that vicious king, she said: “Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him” (14: 13). She did not attempt to seize the heart of that vicious king by her beauty, nor by her self-wisdom, but by God who speaks on her tongue. According to St. John Chrysostom: [Esther saved the entire Jewish people from utter 1 Ep. 63: 26. 2 Ep. 1: 55. 3 Constitution of the Holy Apostles 5: 20. 4 Duties of the Clergy 3: 2. 34 perdition by her prayer! She beseeched the merciful God to go with her to the king, and to put eloquent speech in her mouth1 …]. In her prayer, Esther revealed her inner feelings; … Although she lived her life as a great queen, with glory and honor, yet her heart remained perfectly simple, and free from any deceitful pleasures of this world; saying: “O Lord, You have knowledge of all things, and You know my necessity, and that I hate the splendor of the wicked, and abhor the sign of my proud position which is upon my head on days when I appear in public; I abhor it like a filthy rag, and I do not wear it on the days when I am at leisure. And that Your servant has not eaten at Haman’s table, and I have not honored the king’s feast, or drink the wine of libations. Your servant has had no joy since the day I was brought here until now, except in You, O Lord God of Abraham” (14: 16-18). That was how she lived in the palace as a queen, yet she perceived that she was actually a captive, her crown, in her eyes was like a filthy rag which she abhors. That explains to us that, when it was her turn to go in to the king, before she was chosen, “she requested nothing but what Hagai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised” (2: 15). Her heart longed for nothing, even the royal crown. According to St. Augustine, Esther was a role model for those who occupy exalted positions of public service, but their hearts remain open to heaven; saying: [Esther, although she was the queen, wife of the king, yet that did not keep her from risking her own life to intercede for the sake of her people; and when she prayed to God, she said that her crown to her was no more than a filthy rag2]. Commending a woman, newly dedicated to the Lord, St. Jerome said: [She came to hate every splendid attire, and, like Esther, she cried out to the Lord, saying: “You know my necessity, and that I hate the splendor and sign of my proud and glorious position, namely, the crown she had to wear as a queen, I hate it like a filthy rag” 3]. 1 Conc. Statues 3: 6. 2 Pn Ps. 53. 3 Ep. 130: 4.
Welcome