Day 33 - Lent 2026
Fasting with Purpose
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “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. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
Esther 4:15-16 (NKJV)
Queen Esther realized that her life and the lives of her people, the Jews, were in great danger. At the prodding and plotting of Haman, a wicked official in the king’s court, King Ahasuerus had issued a decree, and letters had been sent in his name into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, and to plunder their possessions. This was to happen in one day, determined by lot, on the thirteenth day of Adar, which is the twelfth month of the Jewish calendar.
Esther was the young, beautify cousin of Mordecai, who had been among the Jews exiled from Jerusalem under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter. He watched over her and gave her advice, even after she had become queen in the palace. He advised her to keep her identity as a Jew hidden. Mordecai was loyal to the king, even exposing a plot to assassinate him. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow and pay tribute to him like other men did. In a rage, he sought not only to have Haman killed, but all of the Jews throughout the king’s empire.
After hearing of Haman’s plot to have the Jews killed, Mordecai urged Esther to go to the king and plead with him on behalf of her people. She was reluctant to go, because it was against the law for any person to go into the king’s inner court without first being summoned by the king. This “crime” was punishable by death, except only if the king held out his golden scepter, that they might live. Esther had not been called into the king’s presence for 30 days.
Receiving word of her reluctance to go to the king, Mordecai sent word 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? Esther 4:13-14
Challenged by the words of Mordecai, Esther told Mordecai to go gather all of the Jews who were present in Shushan, the capital city of ancient Persia, and fast for her, to neither eat food nor drinking water for three days. She and her maids would fast, too. And then she famously said, “I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish!”
After fasting for three days, Esther went to the king and found favor in his sight. He held out to her the golden scepter that was in his hand and granted her requests. The plans of wicked Haman were overturned and the Jews were delivered. In the end, Haman and his sons were hanged from the very gallows that Haman, in bitter rage, had prepared for Mordecai. The king gave Esther Haman’s house. The king’s ring, which had been given to Haman, was taken from Haman and given to Mordecai, and Esther appointed Mordecai over the house of Haman. The letters devised by Haman to annihilate the Jews were revoked, and at the command of Mordecai, letters were sent out in the king’s name permitting the Jews to gather together and protect themselves, to annihilate all the forces of any people that would assault them, and to plunder their possessions. On the very day that had been appointed to annihilate the Jews, the Jews overpowered their enemies. To this day the Jews annually celebrate their deliverance at Purim, a victory occasioned after the fasting of Esther and the people of God.
Esther had called for the Jews to fast, and she and her maidens fasted, too, because they desperately needed help from God. They needed God to intervene in their circumstances to avoid their destruction. Esther herself needed strength and courage to go before the king, who had the power of life and death in his hands. She believed that, if the people of God fasted with one heart and mind, and with one purpose, God would hear their cry, answer their prayers and bring deliverance.
In these troubled times that we live in, we too need God to intervene in our circumstances, to cancel the plans of wicked, greedy, corrupt, bloodthirsty, power-hungry men, who disregard the poor and the strangers and seek to weaken any institutions that would seek to restrain them. We need God to rise up and turn the hearts of wicked men toward justice, to bring true peace into a world torn by violence, war and strife.
We learn from Esther that, If the people of God humble ourselves in fasting and prayer, with unity and purpose, God will move with great power on our behalf. As He did with Esther and the people of God in the days of ancient Persia, and He has not changed. He can cancel the plans of the enemy and cause the people of God to overwhelming triumph. Psalm 50 verse 15 says “in the day of trouble you will call upon me, and I will answer you and you will glorify me.” Today is certainly a day of trouble. Let’s call on God by fasting and praying, united with one purpose—to see God arise, His enemies scattered and His people delivered from every evil plan of the enemies of our souls. He will hear our prayer and move mightily on our behalf and on behalf of all of those who love Him.
My prayer:
Eternal God, our Father, You who hear and answer prayer. Come now with your strength and power and cancel every plan of the enemy of our lives and of the church. Turn our mourning because of the state of this world into dancing, as you put down evil men and women, raise up Godly ones who truly know and love You, and strengthen, protect and prosper your church. Help us to fast with unity and purpose, so that we may see your power unleashed and give You all of the glory, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
SUBMITTED BY REV. DENNIS HENDERSON