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Fasting – Sackcloth and Ashes

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February 15, 2009

Lesson: Esther 4:1-4

Key Verse: Esther 4:1

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Introduction

Paul and Barnabas had felt the persecution of the unbelievers, both of Jew and Gentile, as they preached the Gospel of Christ Jesus. As in Iconium where they faithfully gave “testimony unto the word of grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3). They had to flee to the cities of Lycaonia because of “an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully, and to stone them” (14:6). At Lystra there was a man who was crippled from his mother’s womb. With faith this man heard the preaching of Paul, who saw him and “said with a loud voice, Stand upright an thy feet.” The man “leaped and walked.” The people’s response was “The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.” The people and their priest would have offered a sacrifice, but Paul and Barnabas cried out, testifying that they were men like them, calling them to “turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” Having restrained the people from their sacrifices, continued persecution came from certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people to join them in stoning Paul (14:19). They then dragged Paul out of the city thinking he was dead. However, the Disciples of Christ stood around him and he rose up, and on the next day Paul departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

The testimony that we preach of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior comes with persecution. It comes because of their hatred of God and of his Son. These times of persecution reveal for us the importance and depth of seriousness of the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, of our stand in this world as subjects of the King of kings in his Kingdom here on earth. The enormity of obeying our King’s commission to go and make disciples of all nations is seen in these words of faithfulness of Paul and Barnabas who exhorted the disciples to “continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God;” taking seriously the ordination of “elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed” (Acts 14:23). “Hence the fastings and prayers which Luke narrates that the faithful employed when they elected presbyters. For, understanding that the business was the most serious in which they could engage, they did not venture to act without the greatest reverence and solicitude. But above all, they were earnest in prayer, imploring from God the spirit of wisdom and discernment” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).

We approach Esther with this same understanding that, having been chosen of God as his emissary in the kingdom of Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia, who fasted and prayed for the wisdom of God. Though the book of Esther does not mention the word ‘God’ it can be clearly understood that it is the Lord who is providentially caring for his people.

Discussion: Why is the gospel of Jesus Christ accompanied by persecution and fasting?

Sackcloth and Ashes –Esther 4:1-4

In the seventh year of the reign of King Ahasuerus of Persia (or Xerxes son of and successor of King Darius) Esther (meaning star) was chosen to be his Queen: “And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made he queen instead of Vashti” (Es. 2:17). Queen Vashti had been deposed as queen for refusing the king’s request to show herself at a royal banquet. Esther was an orphan, who was brought up by her cousin Mordecai who loved her as a daughter (2:7). Mordecai had counseled Esther to keep quiet about her being a Jew. For five years she enjoyed the court of the king. Mordecai also finds favor with the king after he discovered a plot to assassinate the king.

The king promotes Haman “above all the princes that were with him” (3:1). All of the king’s servants bowed before Haman, except for Mordecai who refused to do so. The king’s servants told Haman of Mordecai’s refusal, and that he was a Jew. Haman was full of wrath when he saw that Mordecai refused to honor him. From that time Haman “sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai” (3:6). Haman spoke to the king of the Jews whom he called “a certain people,” who lived in “the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep the kings laws” (3:8). Haman appealed to the king: “If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver … to bring it into the king’s treasuries” (9). The king took pleasure in receiving the silver and gave authority to Haman to carry out his edict “to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old” (13).

Mordecai, hearing about the king’s edict, rest his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes. Fasting reveals that there are times when we should go to the Lord with prayer and a desire to be fed by his Word, forgetting the needs of the body to that of the soul, especially of others. Mordecai went into the city and cried aloud before the king’s gate. And there was “great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.” Matthew Henry notes that the Jews “They denied themselves the comfort of their tables (for they fasted and mingled tears with their meat and drink), and the comfort of their beds at night, for they lay in sackcloth and ashes. Those who for want of confidence in God, and affection to their own land, has staid in the land of their captivity, when Cyrus gave them liberty to be gone, now perhaps repented of their folly, and wished, when it was too late, that they had complied with the call of God.”

In response to the reporting of her maids, Esther was “exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth.” But Mordecai would not take the new clothes. Our prayers of grief for others, especially for those Christian brothers and sisters in persecution, should be persistent until the time comes that they know the peace of Christ, and victory known in their deliverance. “Esther sent change of raiment to Mordecai, the oil of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; but because he would make her sensible of the greatness of his grief, and consequently of the cause of it, he received it not, but was as one that refused to be comforted” (M. Henry).

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Discussion: Why did Mordecai and the people of God put on sackcloth?

Lessons are based on the International Sunday School Lessons for Christian Teaching, copyright © 2009 by the Committee on the Uniform Series.
 
 

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