Divine Appointments: The Tables Turn

Transcript

JROT 35
11/10/2024
Divine Appointments: Part 8 “The Tables Turn”
Esther 8:1-17
Jesse Randolph

We are back in the book of Esther this evening and if you are visiting and wondering what this is all about let me give you a real quick update. This will be the 30 second highlight reel of what we have been studying so far in the book of Esther. Esther is all about God’s sovereignty. His hidden hand. It’s a book in which He’s not named one time by name, but its’ clear he is guiding the whole process throughout. And is a book which it involves the preservation of God’s original chosen people, the Jews, and how he preserved them through the most dire of circumstances and of course the Messiah, Jesus would come through that line and then he became and is the Savior of the world. So it’s a very timely and relevant book as is all of Scripture.

But we are continuing on in our study of Esther this evening and specifically, we’ll be in Esther chapter 8. And the book of Esther, as we’ve seen again over the past many months, is a God inspired story of many unexpected turns and reversals in this narrative. It’s a section of Scripture involving the invisible but obviously very present hand of God. And I don’t know of a more dramatic set of turns and reversals than the ones we will see tonight in Esther chapter 8. I titled the message accordingly, “The Tables Turn.”

Now to refresh ourselves on where we have been so far or at least last Sunday night, in Esther chapter 7 last week we saw how wicked Haman, this high-ranking official in the court of King Xerxes in the country of Persia, this seething enemy of a man named Mordecai, and more broadly speaking, Haman was this enemy of the Jewish people as a whole who were then living as subjects in the Persian Kingdom. Well, this Haman fellow had been invited to attend not one, but two banquets at the invitation of King Xerxes and Queen Esther. And this second banquet was what we were focusing on in our study last time. And at this second banquet we saw that the floor completely fell out from under Haman, as Queen Esther finally pulled the figurative mask away from his face, exposing him for who he really was, and exposing him to the most powerful man on the planet at the time, her husband, King Xerxes.

In fact, take a look at Esther 7:6, where Esther says, speaking of Haman, “An adversary and an enemy is this evil Haman!’ Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.” Well, Haman had reason to be terrified because his whole ruse had been uncovered and now his fate rested not only in the powerful hands of King Xerxes but in the ruthless and unpredictable hands of King Xerxes. And we saw that King Xerxes stormed out of this second banquet in a rage, but then apparently after gathering himself outside in his garden he comes back in, only to find Haman, from Xerxes’ vantage point, now assaulting his wife, Queen Esther. In reality we saw what Haman had been doing was pitifully groveling before Esther, begging her to spare him when it was he who not only a few days before had begged King Xerxes to put her and all of her people, the Jews, to death. So from Xerxes’ vantage point as he walks in on Haman falling before his wife, he doesn’t see Haman as humbling himself before Esther. Rather, he thought he was assaulting Esther, his wife. And finally he’s had enough. The king has. So the men of Xerxes’ court, the royal eunuchs, they covered Haman’s face, probably in a black bag. They lead him to the gallows, the same gallows that Haman and his crew had gleefully built to hang Mordecai on the night before. And there he was hanged. Esther 7, verse 10. “So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had set up for Mordecai, and the king’s wrath subsided.”

So that’s where we left off last time, with Haman’s lifeless body hanging from the gallows. And one might assume that’s how the story ends. The villain is found out. He pays the price for his crime. Justice prevails. Everyone lives happily after. Roll credits. But the story here is not over. And that’s because though Haman did pay the price for his treachery with his life, he still left all sorts of problems and issues in his wake. Though he was now dead, his murderous memory lived on. And in a very specific way. Namely, his edict to exterminate the Jews in the Persian Kingdom. That edict still lingered. It still was in effect. It still had not been reversed. And unless there was some sort of intervention on both a human and a divine scale, the Jews in Persia would eventually be slaughtered and wiped off the face of the earth. So, though Haman was dead, there were still consequences associated with his evil actions during his life. And those consequences needed to be dealt with, which is our focus of Esther chapter 8.

Now Esther 8 is a lengthy chapter. We’ve got a lot to cover. We have seventeen verses, to be exact, so let’s get right into it, starting in verses 1 and 2. If you are a note taker here is our first heading for tonight. This would be “The King Reward’s.” Esther 8:1-2: “On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king removed his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.”

So this next scene here in chapter 8, begins on the same day that all of the events that we looked at last time, in Esther 7, took place. That’s what is meant by those first few words there in verse 1, “on that day.” On that very day. On that same day. With Haman just having been dragged out from the king’s presence, with a bag over his head, hauled away to face justice. Look what happens. On that day “King Ahasuerus,” Xerxes, “gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther.” In other words, King Xerxes didn’t waste any time. He gave the “house of Haman.” A term that is broader than just the physical dwelling of Haman. It includes everything that Haman owned. Real estate. Currency. Jewelry. All of his personal property. All of it. The king gave it all to Queen Esther.

And by the way that was normal. That was customary. In fact, secular historians like Herodotus and Josephus have written and confirmed that it was a common practice in the Persian Kingdom in these days, to confiscate the property of a condemned criminal like Haman, and give it to someone else. Not only that, in the case of treason, it was the custom in the Persian Kingdom, to give any property that was owned by the traitor back to the king. That’s what happens here. Haman’s property is confiscated. His wife Zeresh is not given any of it. Nor are his sons. They are dealt with later. It was all given back to the royal family. Xerxes takes Haman’s property and he gives it to his queen. “King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther.” And then Esther, we are going to see in verse 2, she then puts her relative Mordecai over Haman’s wealth, which must have been substantial. He must have been a wealthy guy. Remember he was the second in command in the entire empire at the time of his death. And recall that back in Esther 5:11, when he goes back to his home to boast to his relatives and his wife about being invited to two banquets, one of the things he does is boast in his riches. Well, it all belonged to Esther and eventually Mordecai now.

Now a couple of interesting details here in verse 1, both of which are related to the role of the Jews here in the book of Esther. First, we see here that Haman is again referred to as an “adversary of the Jews.” That’s a statement that we see multiple times here in the book of Esther. And of course he was. His whole biography really testifies to that fact. Second, we see here what appears to be first official record of Esther revealing to her husband, Xerxes, that she was a Jew. It’s captured at the end of verse 1. So the narrator says that “Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.” Now, that statement, “Mordecai came before the king,” that alone is very significant because it suggests that Mordecai came before Xerxes freely, without permission. Without having the king having to lower his golden scepter to allow Mordecai into his presence. Mordecai apparently already had some super, top secret level of clearance and permission and truly had replaced Haman in every respect.

And then note how Mordecai had obtained this level of clearance before the king. It was by virtue of his relationship to Esther. End of verse 1 it says, “for Esther had told what he was to her.” In other words, Esther had finally told her husband, the king, that she was related to Mordecai who is referred to in various other places as “Mordecai the Jew” which means that she, too, by virtue of her relationship to him, was a Jew. Now she has hidden this detail from her husband for a long time. Like throughout this book. She didn’t make her ethnic origins known back in the harem. Remember the harem of Esther 2:10. It says, “Esther did not tell anyone about her people or her kinsmen, for Mordecai had commanded her that she should not tell anyone about them.” Nor did she tell anybody about her Jewish nationality or origins when she entered the royal court in Esther 2:20. “Esther had not yet told anyone about her kinsmen or her people, just as Mordecai had commanded her.” Well, no longer. Not anymore as we get to Esther 8. Esther had already dropped some major hints about her Jewish origins in the text we studied last week, in Esther 7. But here in chapter 8 she reveals her identity even more clearly as she publicly identifies herself as being blood related to Mordecai the Jew.

Now, it’s really interesting to note, especially as we work our way through the remainder of this book, the last couple of chapters here, that Esther didn’t really face any negative consequences for eventually revealing her Jewish identity through Mordecai to Xerxes. Far from being disturbed in learning that his wife, Esther, was Jewish, Xerxes responded positively to this news. In fact, as we’re soon going to see, in response to learning of his wife’s Jewish identity, he promotes Mordecai into Haman’s former position as second in command. So you just have to ask the question… I raised this many months ago that not only was it morally questionable for Esther to conceal her identity the way she did earlier in this account, it wasn’t all that wise for her to do so. In fact, think about this for a second. Had Esther revealed her Jewish identity and her connection to Mordecai earlier in the narrative, back in chapter 2, it’s quite possible that this whole threat that was facing her Jewish community right now could have been avoided. Had she revealed her Jewish identity at that earlier point, earlier in this story, it’s very plausible that Xerxes could have promoted Mordecai to the position that Haman was in when he died. Because remember it was Mordecai who initially uncovered this plot against the king, this attempt on his life, so if Esther had identified herself with Mordecai the hero, way back when, and revealed that she was Jewish, it’s very possible that Haman would not have gotten as far as he got by the end of his story.

So she reveals her Jewish identity later here in chapter 8. And by doing so we see this actually helped Mordecai’s position before the king. As we see in verse 2, “And the king removed his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai.” That was a significant act to give him his signet ring because by doing so, he was transferring the authority that had been in Haman’s hands to act on behalf of the king, to Mordecai. That was the ring he had given to Haman earlier. In fact, go back to Esther 3:10. We are going to see how he gave the ring to Haman much earlier. “Then the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the adversary of the Jews.” And he did so, in that episode, in Esther 3, to authorize this edict that was issued against the Jews, which we see at the end of verse 12 was, “sealed with the king’s signet ring.” The one who sealed that edict, (we are going to be dealing with this a lot this evening) with the king’s ring, and seemingly sealed the fate of the Jews, was Haman. But obviously he’s now done for. He’s not wearing that ring anymore. That ring is now on Mordecai’s finger. And again, the tables are turning.

And then this, at the end of verse 2, “And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.” So Xerxes gave all of Haman’s property and possessions to Esther and then she gave it into the hands of Mordecai. Which meant that Mordecai was now not only the king’s new right-hand man and now ruling from Haman’s old home, but now suddenly he is the second wealthiest person in the kingdom. Again just this major turn of events. Think about this. The Queen of Persia now and the Prime Minister of Persia now, aren’t even Persian people. They are Jews. The very people who in recent months had been condemned to die by the most powerful person in the Persian Empire, the king. That is quite the reversal and quite the turn of events. And again it’s all orchestrated by the hand of the God who is never even named in this book.

Now, if the Book of Esther were merely a story about this conflict between these three, Haman and Esther and Mordecai, this right here again, would be a fitting end to the whole story. Haman’s riches are taken away and he’s hanging on the gallows. Mordecai receives those riches. The good guy wins. “The End.” But again, there is still this very serious issue at hand. Because even though Haman is officially out of the way and doesn’t have a pulse, this destructive plot that he hatched is still in motion. And there is still great cause for concern which comes out in this next section of the narrative.

If you’re taking notes, here is our second heading, “The Queen’s Request.” Esther 8:3-6, it reads, “Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, and implored him to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews. And the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king. Then she said, ‘If it seems good to the king, and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am good in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces to perish. For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?’”

Once again Esther appears before the king, this time without an invitation, to beg the king on behalf of her people to put an end to Haman’s evil plan. Verse 3 gives us the gist of her plea. “Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, and implored him to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews.” This is the second time in two weeks now, where we’ve seen Esther flooded by emotion. We saw her emotions on display last week in chapter 7, where after telling the king about this decree by which her people had been consigned to death, the king asks her who was responsible for this degree. An ironic statement, since he was technically the one who was responsible for this decree. To which Esther replies, seemingly in this emotional outburst. She says, “An adversary,” verse 7:6,” and an enemy is this evil Haman!” Well, now in Esther 8:3, her emotions are overtaking her once more. The events of the past couple of days had proved fatal to Haman. They were puzzling to King Xerxes. And for Esther, she was not only seeking to entrap Haman to make sure he got what he deserved, she was looking to protect her husband Xerxes from all that he had foolishly overlooked and allowed. And now she’s also experiencing overwhelming sorrow and urgent concern on behalf of her people. Which she lets out now as she lays at the king’s feet weeping.

She, verse 3 we see, not only wept before the king, she made this request. She had something to ask him. Look at verse 3. She “implored him to repeal the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his scheme which he had devised against the Jews.” Now, sometimes when we think of someone being emotional, we think of somebody who is out of control. Off the rails. Not thinking clearly as their emotions flood and overwhelm their thoughts. That is not the case with Esther here. Even in her emotional state, she is still quite the tactician. She was bright. She was shrewd. She knew what she was doing. Note the language here. While her appeal was being made to King Xerxes, note where she’s clearly laying the blame. The decree, the “scheme” she calls it, she calls it “the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite.” Then she doubles down and refers to it as “his scheme,” still talking about Haman. Then she goes for the trifecta by again referring to Haman when she says, “which he had devised against the Jews.” So what she’s doing with her language here, notwithstanding her state of emotion, is she’s skillfully exonerating King Xerxes from all of his responsibility for this evil edict and she refuses to lay responsibility at her husband’s feet. But instead, at Haman’s.

Now in verse 4, we see the first part of Xerxes’ response. And it’s a non-verbal response. It says, “And the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king.” Now you will recall that the law of the kingdom generally speaking was that anyone who entered the king’s presence unsummoned, without being given permission, was liable to death. In fact, over in Esther 4:11 we see that Esther herself quotes that law about entering the king’s presence unsummoned. These are Esther’s words, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live.”

And when we looked at Esther 5:2, we saw that she was the beneficiary of that law. “Now it happened that when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she advanced in favor in his eyes; and the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther came near and reached out and touched the top of the scepter.” Now some have stated, almost reflexively, that Esther back in our passage, was once again risking her life in approaching the king and speaking to the king. I actually don’t think that’s the strongest interpretation of what we see happening here in context. And that’s because in verse 3 and 4, that’s really just a continuation of the scene in verses 1 and 2. Meaning by the time we get to verses 3 and 4 here in Esther 8, she was already in the king’s presence. And how do we know that? How do we know that verses 1 and 2 on the one hand, and verses 3 and 4 on the other hand, are part of the same scene?

Well, we know that because there’s this time reference at the beginning of verse 1. “On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther.” And we also know that in verses 3 and 4, there is no new time reference to indicate there is a different scene here. Rather one encounter flows right into the other. It’s all part of the same scene. So I actually think a better interpretation of what’s happening here in verse 4 where it says the king “extended the golden scepter to Esther” is not that he was pardoning her or commuting a death sentence, because she’s already there. Rather, he’s signaling to her that it’s now ok for her to rise and to speak.

And she does. Look at the end of verse 4. It says, “So Esther arose and stood before the king.” And then, having witnessed her husband, the king, extend that golden scepter in her direction, having now received royal permission to speak, that’s what she did. She spoke. And note as we get into this, how careful she is with her words here. Though she now had this opportunity to speak before the king, she still knew and was very aware. Again she was one smart cookie. She knew that she had to do so with caution, and decorum, and propriety.

Look at verses 5 and 6. These are the recorded words of Esther now as she seeks to lead the king, cautiously, in the direction of what she hopes he would do. Verses 5 and 6, “Then she said, ‘If it seems good to the king, and if I have found favor before him and the matter seems proper to the king and I am good in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces to perish. For how,” verse 6, “can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?’”

Now this isn’t, by the way, the first time that Esther spoke in this manner to her husband, the king, in this type of careful and respectful language. This wasn’t her first rodeo. In fact, look back at Esther 7:3, which we were in last week. Remember the king asks her at this second banquet, that’s the scene here, what her request is “even to half of the kingdom.” And she answers this way in verse 3, “Then Queen Esther answered and said, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition, and my people as my request.’” So you see it there. She says “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, if it seems good to the king.”

But now over in our passage, Esther 8:5, she is doing something similar but she’s ramping it up even further. In Esther 7 she gave kind of this twofold condition before she made her request. Now in Esther 8:5, it’s a fourfold condition. “If it seems good to the king,” “if I have found favor before him,” “if the matter seems proper to the king,” “if I am good in his eyes.” I mean with a set up like that, how could he possibly say “no” to whatever it was she was going to ask him. It was so deferential and so complimentary and clever. It was clever because Esther here is not only framing this request she is about to make in terms of how wise and brilliant the request itself is going to be. She is framing it in terms of the king’s own feelings for her. I used this expression last Sunday night in Esther 7, she was verbally batting her eyes at the king. The same is happening here though. She’s like fluttering those eyelids verbally at him.

You know, I can’t think of any specific titles right now. But I know I’ve seen a movie scene or a TV scene. There is this scene where there’s like a “bad” girl who wants to get something from her boyfriend. And she says something like, “how much do you love me?” And he says, “a lot.” And she says, “no, really, how much do you love me?” And he’s like “really a lot.” And then she says, “so if you really love me, you’d do anything for me, right?” And he like, “yeah, of course.” And then, having him against the ropes, right where she wants him, she lands the punch and says, “Prove it, by robbing that guy or punching that guy on the airplane or robbing that jewelry story.” And then as a sign of his love for her, his stupidity, he goes on to do what she asks and gets himself into trouble.

I’m not saying here that Esther was trying to get Xerxes to commit a crime here. Not at all. In fact, if anything, she was trying to get him to undo Haman’s criminal deeds. But what I am saying is that she was trying to “butter him up” with her words. To “prime the pump” by laying out all of these conditional statements here in verse 5. “If it seems good to the king,” “if I have found favor before him,” “if the matter seems proper to the king,” “if I am good in his eyes.” As one commentator noted, “She is her own trump card, and she plays it all gallantly.” That’s right.

And then out comes her request finally. Verse 5, she said, “let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces to perish.” Now, something is subtly happening here. She is actually ramping up and escalating her request. In verse 3, she asked more generically that her people be spared. She said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition, and my people as my request.” But now in verse 5, she takes it up a notch. She takes it a step further by expressing to the king that if her life and the life of the Jews was to be spared, something would have to be done to avert Haman’s wicked plan. Which is why she says, “let it be written to turn back the letters devised by Haman.”

Now we have seen this throughout this book of Esther, but she was bright. She knew what she was doing. And she knew under Persian law that laws of kings could not just be revoked or repealed. In fact, she seems to know that, because she doesn’t use the word “law” there in verse 5. Instead, she uses a different word, “letter.” She says, “turn back the letters devised by Haman.” Which might be a subtle way of indicating that she’s suggesting to the king that Haman’s evil decree does not have the force of law, whether that’s right or wrong. We can’t say. It looks like a decree to us but she’s changing the language here to letters. What we can say is that Esther here is asking the king to do something. And what we are going to get into is that she is going to ask him to issue a second decree, a passage of a new law, which would then “turn back” or override the initial decree.

And again, what’s also very clear, and we see this at the end of verse 5, is that just like we saw in verse 3, she goes out of her way to avoid placing blame on the king for the issuance of that first decree. Instead, she goes out of her way to put all of the blame again on Haman. The “letters” she mentions in verse 5 were “devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to cause the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces to perish.” She’s putting on a master class of communicative brilliance here. She’s grounding her request in the king’s feelings for her. And she’s also making it clear that the decision he would make wouldn’t be to undo some wrong decision he had made earlier. But again it was all Haman’s fault. The same Haman whose lifeless body at this very moment was swinging from the gallows.

And then this, as if she hadn’t been compelling and persuasive enough up to this point, verse 6, “For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?” Now, this isn’t manipulation by Esther. This is a tender plea. And, in fact, this is so fascinating. When she says that question in verse 6, she’s actually completing the thought she started back in Esther 7:2. Go back to Esther 7:2. This is that scene involving that second banquet between Haman and Xerxes and Esther. The king asks the question, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be given you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” In verse 3 we get her answer. She says, “‘If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition, and my people as my request; for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be caused to perish. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the adversity would not be worth the annoyance to the king.’” Now, we didn’t get into this in, in a ton of detail last week. But it’s almost like you could put like three dots for a pause, because King Xerxes’ response in verse 5 when he gets angry and says, “Who is this one, and where is this one, who fills his heart to do thus?” -- that is actually him interrupting Esther’s thought in verse 4. She wasn’t able to complete the thought related to the well-being of her people in verse 4. She had more to say but he’s so mad he cuts her off.

Now here in our chapter, Esther 8:6, she’s finally about to complete that thought, about the pain and the agony and the grief she was experiencing over this decree that has hanging over the head of her people. And it comes through in this question, “For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?” In other words, it would cause her crushing pain to know that they were going to experience that sort of disaster. It would cause her pain to see that kind of calamity falling upon her countrymen. That’s what she is saying through this question. She’s also saying through this question, “Xerxes, oh hubby, if you love me and care for me so, like you say you do, you’re not going to allow me and us to go through this, right? You’re going to do something about this, right?” This is really the climax point of their interaction. And at this point the fate of her people, the Jews, hangs in the king’s response to what she asks him there in 8:6.

Well, we get his response to her question and her requests in verses 7 and 8, “The King’s Reply.” Esther 8:7-8, “So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, ‘Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews. Now you write to the Jews, according to what is good in your eyes, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a written decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be turned back.’”

Now, a few things to note here. First of all, Mordecai is suddenly back on the scene. He’s mentioned again. Now there is no sense here that he’s left the room for any part of this. He’s been there the whole time, but he hasn’t been doing any speaking just yet. It’s been all Esther. The queen has been the one addressing the king. But now, in verse 7, King Xerxes addresses both of them. He addresses his Queen Esther and he addresses his second in command, his chief of staff, Mordecai. And he says, verse 7, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews.” In other words, as he is addressing both now, he is reminding them, Xerxes is, of all that he has done for them. And he's basically saying, my work here is done. My hands are clean. He’s saying, “Haman is done. Haman’s been hanged. Not only that, I’ve already transferred all of his wealth to the two of you. What more do you want me to do?” There is a sharpness and exasperation to his words here.

Now, technically it should be noted that Xerxes here isn’t being exactly accurate when he says that Haman was “hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews.” Technically, the eunuchs put that black bag over Hamans’s head immediately after Xerxes walked in on Haman assaulting his wife, or so he thought. But by phrasing his answer this way, in verse 7, that Haman had been “hanged on the gallows because he had sent forth his hand against the Jews.” Xerxes is basically making himself sound good here. Like I have already taken action against that guy for the very thing you wanted me to take action against him for.

Even then though, Xerxes continues to play this part of the beneficent emperor. The reasonable king. The good guy in verse 8. So after reminding them in verse 7 that he has already caused Haman to be hanged, he still gives them permission to do something more in verse 8. He says, “now you write to the Jews, according to what is good in your eyes, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring.” This is one of those classic tactics of leadership. “Oh, you have a good idea? Great, it’s yours, the project is yours. Knock yourself out.” He’s doing some version of that here. He’s saying to Esther and Mordecai that they are welcome to do whatever they’d like concerning the Jews. They can even sign his name to it. They can even use his own signet ring to seal whatever they are going to do. He’s just that reasonable.

But look at the second half of verse 8. We’re given this reason for why he was suggesting that they go down this path. He says, “for a written decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be turned back.” Here’s the deal. As the narrator of this account in Esther is laying this out, what he is actually doing here is he is pointing out playfully the lunacy of the whole Persian legal system. He’s really jabbing at it very subtly with his words. See, we have the king’s first decree ordering the destruction of the Jews. And it can’t be repealed or revoked. It can’t be as it says in verse 8, “turned back.” Why? Well, because Persian kings had prided themselves on being infallible. They didn’t make mistakes. They didn’t make errors. They didn’t ever pass laws which would ever need to be revoked or repealed. Why would an infallible, perfect king have to repeal one of his edicts? Whatever he did, whatever he said, whatever he decreed, was always right. The voice of the king was the law of the land and the king could do no wrong. And if a king were to repeal or revoke a law later, that would be an admission that he was wrong and mistaken. And Persian kings never admitted that they were wrong or mistaken.

Xerxes here wasn’t about to change any of that. He was not about to set a precedent here of admitting that the first decree was wrong. So he found a way to preserve his own claim of royal infallibility, while at the same time telling his wife, the queen and his right-hand man, Mordecai, that there was a solution to be had here. And the solution was that they could write up a new edict, a new decree which would then countermand and counteract and supersede the first decree. In this second decree they could use his name, we see in verse 8. They could use his signet ring. It’s exactly what we see happen over in Esther 3 when Haman does the same thing and goes through the same process to actually eradicate the Jews. In this second decree Esther and Mordecai could even have comfort and assurance in knowing that like the first decree, their decree could not be revoked. In the end though I’m not sure how much comfort of assurance that would have given Esther and Mordecai because they surely would have figured out that a third decree could override their second decree and the fourth could override the third and it could go on and on.

So, again, what we see here in verse 8 is Xerxes authorizing the writing of this second decree. This counter-decree which would essentially override the first decree, Haman’s decree, while not formally revoking that decree. And that counter-decree, Esther and Mordecai could put whatever they wanted in it. He gave them carte blanche, so long as they understood that the first decree still stood.

Now, as we turn to verse 9, having been given that authorization by King Xerxes, we see that Mordecai got to work. And here’s our next heading, which will take us all the way to verse 14, “The Law’s Reach.” We’ll start in verse 9. By the way, verse 9, fun fact, by number of words. is the longest verse in the Bible. So, the next time your kids say, “Mom, dad, I want to try to memorize a Bible verse,” and they try to give you John 11:35, “Jesus wept” – say, “No. You memorize Esther 8:9.” Which reads this way, “So the king’s scribes were called at that time in the third month (that is, the month Sivan), on the twenty-third day; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to their tongue as well as to the Jews according to their script and their tongue.”

So apparently since Mordecai was now the new second-in-command, this new prime minister, having replaced Haman, it was now Mordecai’s job to draft this new decree. And he did as we see here. He called all the “king’s scribes” together for the task. He did so on a specific day. It says, “the third month (that is, the month Sivan), on the twenty-third day.” That’s a really specific detail. That month Sivan corresponds to our months of May and June. And because the first decree, according to Esther 3:12 went out “on the thirteenth day of the first month,” somewhere around mid-April on our calendars, to be in the “twenty-third day” of the “third month” means that two months and ten days (70 days) had passed since the issuance of Haman’s wicked decree. Two months and ten days would have been a long time for the Jews of the Persian Kingdom to be just waiting around twiddling their thumbs, expecting, and anticipating with anguish their impending doom.

On the other hand, here’s the silver lining, there were still eight months left until the Persians would have the authorization to begin exterminating the Jews. So there still was time to make sure that the second decree was not just sloppily thrown together. But rather was carefully constructed. The rest of verse 9 lays out the scope of this edict. “It was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to every province according to its script, and to every people according to their tongue as well as to the Jews according to their script and their tongue.” And the most noteworthy thing to point out here, is how what we see here in verse 9, nearly perfectly parallels the process by which Haman constructed his decree, the evil edict back in Esther 3. I won’t take you there now but if you have some free time later, look at Esther 3:12. The language of that first decree parallels so closely what we just read.

These connections between Mordecai’s second decree and Haman’s first decree keep going on into verse 10. where we are told, speaking of Mordecai, I’m in verse 10 now, “he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring and sent letters by the hand of couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud.” Now that first part of verse 10 again parallels Esther 3:12, where Haman issues his decree. It says, “he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.” Just like we have here. The second half tells us in verse 10 that these letters were sent “by the hand of couriers on horses, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud.”

In the original Hebrew of this passage, there is a whole lot of uncertainty about some of the meanings of the words in that part of verse 10. And it’s such a source of confusion for many scholars that the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint, they don’t even bother to translate some of those words from Hebrew into Greek. They just leave it there in the Hebrew. It’s a source of contention. But the sense here appears to be that these horses by which this second decree goes out, were the best royal-bred horses. From pure stock. Very strong and very swift. The main idea is that this new decree would get to the far expanses of the whole Persian Empire, from India to Ethiopia, in good time. Within that eight month window.

So in verse 9, we’ve seen the process by which this second decree was written. Through “the king’s scribes.” We have seen the scope of the second decree. How it went out to all 127 provinces of the Persian Kingdom. What we’ve yet to see, though are the contents of this decree. What did the decree say? Well, that information is given to us in verses 11-12. It says, “In them,” the letters, “the king gave the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to make a stand for their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish the entire military force of any people or province which would act as their adversaries, including little ones and women, and to plunder their spoil, on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar).”

Now, we need to spend a little time here because as you can imagine this verse is a common source of objection for those who want to question the authority of the Bible and those who want to question the existence of the God who stands behind the Scriptures. And you can see why, right? This second decree where Xerxes authorized Mordecai to craft this decree. This one where he has Mordecai commissioned the king’s scribes to write. Seems to be authorizing the Jews of this day not only to destroy and kill adult male fighting forces, but also women and children. I know this is a hot topic. Especially as we consider all the fighting that is happening on the other side of the world even today between Israel and Hamas. But if I may, I’d like to point out a few things here, which I trust will help us understand what is happening in our text.

For starters, the language of Mordecai’s decree was plainly defensive. The language here isn’t saying that the Jews could go on the offensive and suddenly just start slaughtering and massacring non-Jews. No. They were given, verse 11 says, “the right to assemble and to make a stand for their lives.” That’s defensive language. And they were also given in verse 11 permission to “destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish the entire military force of any people or province which would act as their adversaries.” That word “adversaries” means aggressors. The Jews in Persia then weren’t being told that they could go on the offensive, preemptively, as mercenaries. Rather, they were told that they could assemble, make a stand for their lives, and defend themselves. Of course, that doesn’t answer the question that is rattling around in everyone’s mind, what about this mention of “little ones and women.” And the authorization it gives “to plunder their spoil.”

Well, in response to those being grounds for a possible moral objection to Mordecai’s second decree, let’s not forget again the context here of this second decree. It is plainly designed as a counter-measure against evil Haman’s first decree. These weren’t, in other words, some out-of-the-blue, bloodthirsty words to wipe out men, women, and children without regard for life. Or just to plunder the spoil of random non-Jews in the land. This was a direct counter-measure against Haman’s decree. In fact, go back to Esther 3:13 where we see Haman’s decree. Which said this, “And letters were sent by the hand of couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause all the Jews to perish, both young and old, little ones and women, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their spoil.” That’s important to keep in mind. That Mordecai’s second edict is totally intended to isolate and counterbalance that first edict. He was counterbalancing everything Haman had established in the first decree so that everything the Persians were told that they could do, the Jews could now do.

One more note on this. And I think it’s worth mentioning, since I kind of blew through this earlier. Let’s not forget, and we covered this months ago, that Haman was an Agagite. Esther refers to him that way in Esther 8:3 and Esther 8:5. We saw in an earlier message in this series, that Agag was an Amalekite. Meaning, Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites. And recall that when King Saul, back in 1 Samuel 15, went to war against the Amalekites, one of the major gaffes he committed, was by not heeding God’s command to do what? To wipe out the Amalekites completely. 1 Samuel 15:3 says, “go and strike Amalek,” this is God to Saul, “and devote to destruction all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Saul, we know, failed to follow through with that command. That then led to the prophet Samuel finishing the job for Saul as he goes on and hacks Agag to pieces. That then leads God to declare in 1 Samuel 15:35 that He “regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.”

Well, now in Esther’s day, getting back to Mordecai’s decree here in the book of Esther, there was a sense in which through the comprehensiveness of this decree, God was authorizing His people there in Persia to wipe out the remainder of the line of Amalek and Agag through Haman. But also, all like Haman who stood in opposition to His people. It was kind of a finishing the job kind of decree. By the way, doing so would would have been fully in line with various covenants God had made with Israel earlier, like in Genesis 12:3. “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” Or what God said to Moses in Exodus 23:22, “I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” There’s a whole lot more that could be said about the moral components to this decree, but for time’s sake, we’ll have to leave it there.

So Mordecai’s decree was signed and sealed. It’s declared in verse 12 that it will be operative the very same day as Haman’s decree, “the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (the month Adar).” Meaning both decrees would take effect simultaneously. And then, in verses 13 and 14, we see these words, concerning the distribution of the decree. It says, “A copy of that which was written down to be given as law in each and every province was revealed to all the peoples, so that the Jews would be ready for this day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers, hurried and hastened by the king’s word, went out, riding on the royal steeds; and the law was given out at the citadel in Susa.”

A couple of things here. Those words “avenge themselves on their enemies” in verse 13, in context is not referring to some generic right to attack whomever they pleased. But instead it’s granting them a specific right to defend themselves against anyone who would seek to attack them, which we will see come to fruition in chapter 9. And then in verse 14, there is this sense of urgency here as these mounted couriers are carrying the word of this new decree, to all corners of the kingdom on these swift and strong steeds. Just two months before this, we saw in Esther chapter 3, that the Jews of the Persian Kingdom had received their death warrants in a very similar manner. But now an entirely different message is being relayed to them. Now it’s not a message of death but of deliverance. Total change of circumstance. Total turn of the tables.

Now look at the response of the Jews. And here’s our final point, “The Jews Rejoicing.” Look at Esther 8:15-17, “Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and fine white, with a large crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa cried aloud and was glad. For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor. And in each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s word and his law reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.”

First, you see Mordecai’s response in verse 15. Just to point out a contrast here, in Esther 4 as word of Haman’s decree began circulating around Persia, Mordecai was donning sackcloth and ashes. But now he’s wearing these robes of splendor that testified to his royal position. Blue and white were colors of royalty in the Persian Kingdom. And then these other elements, the gold crown, the garment of fine linen and purple. Those also testified to his exalted status and position.

Not only is there exaltation and elevation of Mordecai throughout the Persian Kingdom, there is elation. We see that in verses 16 and 17. “And the city of Susa cried aloud and was glad. For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor. And in each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s word and his law reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday.” This speaks to the total reversal of circumstances and fortunes. Back in Esther 4:3, when the decree to exterminate the Jews went out, we see the Jews reaction described this way. “Now in each and every province where the word and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes.” But now note this response in Esther 8:16-17. Now there is “light and gladness and joy and honor.” And not only that, there’s “a feast and a holiday.” So fasting is replaced with feasting. And then mourning is replaced with rejoicing and grief is replaced with gladness. Again, this complete turning of the tables.

And then our text for tonight ends this way in the last part of verse 17. “And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.” Some have argued that this can mean only that there’s a change of political allegiance or people became Jews militarily. They began forming political alliances with the Jews but there was not an actual conversion of sorts. I’m not so sure of that. I’m not so ready to concede that there weren’t non-Jews during this time who committed themselves to Yahweh, the God of Israel. We have to remember that Israel was told that they were to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In Isaiah 42:6, Israel is called to be a light to the nations. To attract the nations. And we know, from their other history, that they were in certain cases. In many cases they weren’t with their reprehensible behavior, but in many cases they were.

We think of Rahab as she is speaking to the spies in Joshua 2:11, she acknowledges, “Yahweh your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” And her name appears in Hebrews 11:31, in the hall of faith. So I don’t think it’s at all out of the realm of possibility to take this text, Esther 8:17, at face value, that many in the Persian Kingdom -- how many we are not told -- began around this time to start following the one true God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they did so it says because “the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.” Meaning they regarded the Jews with awe and respect as they saw the hidden hand of God governing and blessing the Jews in various ways.

Well, eight chapters into this book. A lot has been resolved in terms of the elimination of Haman and the elevation of Mordecai and the passage of this decree which ultimately would spare the Jewish population there in Persia. But this resolution is not complete because, and we went through this very quickly, that fateful day, that “thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar,” still loomed on the horizon. Where these competing decrees from these competing groups of people were still primed to clash. So, much of this dramatic tension in the story has been resolved. But the ultimate outcome has not yet been reached. That will come in the next couple of weeks as we study chapters 9 and 10.

Now we don’t have to be anxious. We know about how this will all end. The momentum in this story is clearly on the side of the Jewish people. God’s timeless promises to Israel will surely be fulfilled. And it’s a sure bet that the Jews in this context will prevail. As I was finishing up my preparation for this message I recalled a quote from J. Vernon McGee. I had to look it up to see that I got the words right. But I thought it a fitting way to really put a cap on this turning of the tables here. J. Vernon McGee once said this, “The Jew has attended the funeral of every one of the nations that tried to exterminate him.” It’s absolutely right. We study a book like this, of course, because it is inspired, it’s breathed out by God, it is in the Scriptures, it is good and profitable for us. But we also study it knowing that God’s hidden hand is working through it and we also study it to know that this is God’s preservation of the Jews, the Israelites. It was going to be the way He was going to introduce His Messiah, the Savior into the world. That’s the Savior Jesus Christ in whom we have hope.

And again I don’t know who is here that may not know the Lord but I just want to make sure that if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you make sure that you understand that it’s only by putting your faith in what He did on the cross, and by rising from the grave three days later, that any human being can be made right with the Holy God. It isn’t based on what you do or how many church services you attend or how many concerts you perform in or how much Bible you have read. It has everything to do with what Jesus Christ did on the cross and through His resurrection. So if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, I would be remiss not to mention that the only way a person can be saved is by believing upon Him. Believing in His death and His resurrection. I, other pastors, elders here, would be happy to chat with you tonight if you would like to give your life to Christ. But I’m out of time. We need to pray.

Let’s pray. Father, thank You for this time together tonight in Your Word. Thank You again that we can go back centuries before us and read a book like Esther and mine out so much important truth about You and Your character. About You and Your promises. About You and Your provision of salvation, ultimately through a Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. God, I pray that we would take these truths to heart. That we would be encouraged by Your faithfulness and Your character. And that reflection and that reflecting on who You are would motivate us and spur us on to holy lives in Christ Jesus. We thank You for this day of worship. We ask that You would be honored in the rest of this week for Your glory. In Christ’s name, amen.