Bible Commentaries
Esther 4

Verses 1-17

The news of the intended slaughter reached Esther in the royal palace, and she sent to make inquiries. Thus between the extreme need of her people and the king she became a direct link. The custom and law of the court forbade her to approach her lord save at his command. Still, the urgency of the case appealed to her, and with splendid heroism she determined to venture.

Conscious of her need of moral support, she asked that the people might fast with her. There is a note of sacrifice and abandonment in her words, "If I perish, I perish." Her decision was arrived at after strong pressure from Mordecai; and in all probability there is evident in it a desire to save her own life, for he had warned her that she was as greatly in peril as were the rest of her people. Granting all that can be said concerning the motive of her action, the supreme teaching of the story moves on, namely, of the care of God for His people, and of His use of a natural means to deliver them.