High Motives Necessary
Esther 4:13
Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with yourself that you shall escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.


Mordecai's answer is tragical and grand. Esther's womanly caution brought out his courage and his faith. In his consuming zeal for God and God's people, he left the domestic affections far below him. Though loving Esther more than he loved any one else on earth, he never scrupled about risking her life. For the same reason he made no allusion to the obligations under which she lay to his kindness, He had nursed her on his knees, he had taught her to walk and speak, he had fed and clothed her, he had surrounded the perilous steps of her maidenhood with the shield of his watchful and wise affection; but he neither remembered these things now nor wished her to remember them. As none of them moved him to spare her the risk, so neither will he urge them as reasons why she should undertake it. This great thing must be gone through under the influence of higher motives than these, and in obedience to a higher will than his.

(A. M. Symington, B. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.

WEB: Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, "Don't think to yourself that you will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews.




False Hopes of Safety are One Fruitful Source of Delusion
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