Esther 2:21
In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.
The verse belongs to the time of the Jews under the Persian king Xerxes, called Ahasuerus in Scripture, when a Jewish maiden was being brought to the Persian throne as events unfolded under God's providence.
Two of the king's chamberlains, keepers or guards of the door, became wroth and plotted to lay hand on King Ahasuerus and kill him.
While Mordecai sat or served at the king's gate he discovered or learned of the plot by the two royal officials.
Mordecai reported the plot through Esther, it was investigated and found true, the officials were executed, and the event was recorded in the royal chronicles.
The plot stands as an example of a wicked scheme to assassinate a ruler, like the plot Artaxerxes suspected when he saw Nehemiah's changed countenance.
The incident comes before Haman's rise in the story.
Mordecai's exposure of the murder plan showed his loyalty to the king, after which the plotters were executed and the act was entered in the royal chronicles.
God's providence used Mordecai to save the king's life by exposing the conspiracy.
This seemingly ordinary incident was ordered by Providence and became an important and pivotal part of the eventual deliverance of Mordecai and the Jews, and the king's later sleeplessness and the reading of that record were God's providential work, not chance.
Mordecai sitting at the king's gate is a figure for Sabbath keepers who are viewed as unwelcome intruders by those seeking to remove them.
The same image of Mordecai sitting at the king's gate applies to defenders of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
Sunday-law advocates regard them as enemies obstructing their effort to impose Sunday observance by law.