Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king,
Ver. 4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre] It appeareth by this, that she once more put her life in her hand; hazarding it for her people's safety (as Arsinoe interposed her own body between her children and the murderers sent to slay them), and so performing her promise made to Mordecai, Esther 4:16. God's children are all such as will not lie, Isaiah 63:8; if they swear to their hurt, yet they dare not change, Psalms 15:4, dare not say and unsay, 2 Corinthians 1:18,19. Of many promises it may be said, as Tertullian doth to the peacock, that they are all in changeable colours; as often changed as moved. Holy Esther was none such; no more was that blessed martyr of Jesus Christ, Mr Hawkes, when in the flames remembering his promise to certain friends (to give them a sign whether the rage of the pain were tolerable), be reached up his hands burning on a light fire, and clapped them over his head three times together, to the great astonishment of the beholders, but especially to them who understood the matter.
So Esther arose, and stood before the king] Experience had bred confidence. They likewise that humble themselves under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted in due time, 1 Peter 5:6. And as the lower the ebb the higher will be the tide; so the lower we descend in humiliation, the higher shall we ascend in exaltation.