This evening Yom Kippur begins, the holiest day of the Hebrew Calendar, fasting food and liquids for 25 hours.
The account of Esther and all the Jews in Babylon continues in Esther 4 when Mordecai has received the news of the king’s order to destroy all the Jews (all of God’s people) throughout the kingdom.
4 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. 3 In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Esther 4
God’s people were in great danger and engaged in public mourning because of the threat to their existence. Mordecai sent word to Esther, including, ‘how much Haman had promised to pay (money is often part of it) the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews’. Esther 4:7
Mordecai urged Esther to go to the King and she said he hadn’t called her for thirty days. It was death to enter the king’s presence unannounced, unless he extended his royal sceptre and granted mercy.
13 he sent back this answer: ‘Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?’
Mordecai told Esther that if she didn’t act on behalf of her people that God would save them another way. I’ve heard it said that Reinhard Bonke, the great evangelist in Africa, was actually God’s third choice for that role. God is looking for those who will say ‘Yes’ to His call, but won’t override our free will.
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 ‘Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. (We can Fast and Pray on other’s behalf) Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’
Esther had made her decision, but she called on her people to support her in Fasting and Prayer. Derek Prince wrote a book called, ‘Shaping history through Prayer and Fasting’. He had a diagram of a triangle and he believed that the prayers at the peak or point of triangle could only be answered by Prayer AND FASTING. Many Jewish people will begin their fast this evening, the culmination of the ten days of Awe. They believe that at this time God decides our fate for the coming year. Believers can always seek the Lord and earnestly call out for those things which we need.
May God bless and keep you today.