Esther 8:3-8; 9:18-23
“And Esther spake yet again . . .” (v. 3). Esther’s first appearance before Ahasuerus is recorded in Esther 5:1. On that occasion, the king extended the golden scepter to her and she asked his and Haman’s attendance at a feast of wine where she would make her petition known. Following the feast, Esther asked the king to spare her life and the lives of her people (Esth. 7:3).
Esther’s request resulted in the exposure of Haman and his evil plot against all the Jews throughout the kingdom. The king ordered Haman’s death by hanging upon a gallows which Haman had constructed to execute Mordecai. The king, however, did not act upon Esther’s request to save the Jews. The king’s order authored by Haman to slay Jews and to seize their property remained in effect. Esther approaches the king and repeats her request to save her people a second time in the text before us. The specific details of Ahasuerus’s answer and the manner in which the Jews were saved is revealed in the scripture that follows.
Esther asked the king to let “it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman” (v. 5). Ahasuerus responded by directing Mordecai to write “as it liketh you” in the king’s name and to seal that which he had written with the king’s seal (v. 8). While “as it liketh you” might seem to include rescinding the order which Haman had written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring (Esth. 3:12), it did not. No one, including the king himself, had the power to undo that which had been written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring. The authorization authored by Haman to destroy every Jew and to seize their property on a specific day remained in effect.
In response to Esther’s request, Ahasuerus gave Mordecai the same authority which he had previously granted to Haman. Mordecai could not reverse that which Haman had authorized but he could authorize measures which might counter them who sought to harm the Jews. Mordecai authorized the Jews throughout the empire to arm themselves and band together in defense against would-be attackers on the day designated for their destruction. When the day of destruction arrived, 75 thousand enemies of the Jews throughout the kingdom were slain (9:17) when they sought to kill Jews and seize their property. Mordecai’s plan succeeded because his letter in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring was delivered to every locale within the kingdom well in advance of the 13th day on the twelfth month, the designated day of destruction. Many of the enemies of the Jews refrained from acting upon Haman’s letter because they feared the resistance which Mordecai’s letter would generate.
The second excerpt of scripture before us records the letter which Mordecai wrote in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring following the failure of Haman’s plan. In this letter, Mordecai wrote that the Jews throughout the kingdom should keep the 14th and 15th days of the twelfth month as days of feasting and giving. The celebration served to commemorate their deliverance from destruction. Their deliverance was made possible because Mordecai’s letter authorizing counter measures was distributed to every corner of the empire well before the designated day of destruction which Haman had specified. Haman’s date provided Mordecai ample time to distribute his letter. The date which Haman selected was determined by the casting of Pur or lots (see v. 24). The Pur was cast prior to the 13th day of the first month of the year (see Esth. 3:12). The lot determined that the Jews should be slain upon the 13th day of the twelfth month, more than eleven months to the future and a date that would later prove to be eight months and twenty days following Mordecai’s replacement of Haman as the most powerful official in the empire.
The observance of the Jews’ deliverance was named Purim because it celebrates a date determined by Pur, the casting of lots. While Purim commemorates a deliverance linked to a date determined by lots, it is, in fact, a declaration of God’s saving power. Proverbs 16:33 reveals that the Lord chooses to direct or not to direct the lot: “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” God’s disposing caused the lot to produce more than eight months and twenty days for Mordecai to prepare the Jews to stand in resistance against the day of their would-be destruction.
Throughout the book of Esther, God reveals Himself to all who have the ears to hear and eyes to see as a God who makes timely preparation for the future needs of His people. The New Testament, likewise, reveals God’s timely provisions in that the plan of salvation was in place and waiting for men to call upon the name of the Lord before the foundation of the world was lain (see I Pet. 1:20). The Lord provided the means by which all men might be delivered before He made man. The Old Testament serves as a preview of things clearly stated in the New Testament.
It is through the Holy Spirit that Old Testament scripture comes alive in that the seed of woman has bruised the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). The Comforter (Jn. 14:26) also reveals that we are of the families of the earth who shall be blessed through Abraham (Gen. 12:3). New Testament believers rejoice because the Lord counts believing Him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Our salvation is as certain as the deliverance of the Jews which has been past tense for more than two thousand, five hundred years.
