As the news of the edict spread, the Jews in all the provinces reacted as Mordecai had. Many even went to sleep with their mourning clothes on.
The Jews’ reaction was proof of the severity of their distress, but also of the direction of their trust. Fasting was a way of humbling oneself in prayer (see 2 Samuel 12:22; Ezra 8:21). Through their fasting and weeping and lamenting,
the Jews displayed the same attitude as that of King Jehoshaphat, when he and the people of Judah prayed, We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you
(2 Chronicles 20:12).
Today God’s church is still confronted by many enemies who seek to destroy it. The threat is not always that of the sword. As Paul writes: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the powers of evil in the heavenly realms
(Ephesians 6:12). When these times come, do we respond as the Jews did, by humbly seeking God in prayer?
3 And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.