Deliverance and Delight (Esther 9–10)

The scene now moves on to describe what took place on the day when Haman had planned to exterminate the Jews throughout the Persian empire. It is obvious from the account that although Haman had been executed, there were still those who wanted to carry out his intentions, because over 75,000 of them were slain on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. The strength of the opposition, therefore, throughout the empire was quite substantial. In the capital Susa itself, there were over three hundred people in the government headquarters, including the ten sons of Haman, that had to be dealt with. So obviously, the plan of Haman was not just the policy of an individual, although he was the architect of it.

Why did the Jews win?

Why did the Jews enjoy success on this day? We need to bear in mind that although God is not mentioned in this book he is everywhere in it. So the question ‘why did the Jews win?’ is only another way of asking ‘what were the methods God used to give victory to his people?’ It looks as if there were three basic reasons.

The first reason is that the Jews were united in their determination to oppose those who sought to destroy them. Maybe they had failed to be united before as they faced the various changes that occurred in their circumstances. Perhaps they had placed too much confidence in the consistency of the Persian authorities to favour them, a policy that had begun with Cyrus after he had conquered Babylon. Whatever may have been their previous responses, the reality of impending disappearance caused them to come together throughout the empire and face the danger together.

The second reason is that other peoples recognized their importance. While it was within the reach of the Jews to come together, it was impossible for them to create a powerful influence on the peoples of the empire. Yet we find that fear of the Jews came on the peoples. The fear was comprehensive and specific. It was comprehensive in the sense that it occurred everywhere, and it was specific that it happened in all areas of life. Even those in places of power had a fear of Mordecai. In providence, he was rising quickly in the corridors of power and inevitably people wanted to identify with him. 

Was the fear one of respect or one of terror? I suspect that the answer was probably both. More importantly, we should ask where this fear came from. Who is big enough to influence an entire empire simultaneously? The king was not able to do so. But God was and is. Here we see an example of how he can turn the hearts of millions of people without them realising that he is at work in their lives. While it was good that the king had reversed his previous policy, more than that was needed in order for his new policy to work. No doubt people like Esther and Mordecai were praying for divine influence to occur because they would have known about the extent of the opposition. But we see hear how God can influence an entire society composed of a wide variety of outlooks.

The third reason is that God was engaged in acts of judgement. Haman and his supporters were not only attempting to remove a particular people from the earth, although that attempt in itself was an appalling one. In addition, they were planning to remove the worship of the true God from the earth. Haman was not only arranging a dastardly political form of ethnic cleaning, his plan also would prevent salvation from taking place because if all the Jews were killed then the promises connected to a future Saviour coming from among them would not be fulfilled. Of course, Haman may not have fully realised the implications of his actions. But the one who had influenced him, the devil, was alert to the possibility and reality of using Haman and his supporters to bring about the destruction of the kingdom of God.

The Jews realised that they were involved in a mission that was not primarily about promoting their own welfare, although they were obviously concerned about what could happen to them. We get a clue to how they thought in the phrase in verse 15: ‘but they laid no hand on the plunder.’ This is similar to how the Israelites had responded to the plunder that was available in Jericho. They realised that the main reason for their actions was to serve God. It would have been easy for the Jews in Susa to do what Achan had done, but they didn’t. The same was true of all the Jews throughout the empire (v. 16). It would be a solemn sin to break the eighth commandment while God was engaged in acts of judgement on those who opposed his kingdom.

Some find fault with Esther for asking that the dead bodies of the sons of Haman should be hanged on the gallows. It is better to see her response as a realisation that God was judging his enemies. It was a common practice in the history of Israel for this to occur when someone who had opposed God had already died. People who saw their dead bodies were reminded that they had fought against the Lord and had been judged by him.

The inauguration of the feast of Purim

The initial response of the Jews was to celebrate their deliverance on the day following the date that had been planned for their destruction. Then Esther and Mordecai issued a decree saying that the Jews should keep a two-day feast annually in celebration of the amazing divine deliverance that the race had experienced. The author of Esther regards this inauguration as important because he records the matter in some detail, even telling us where its name comes from (the lots that Haman used for choosing the day of destruction). What can we say about this feast?

First, at a basic level, it is important for individuals to have ways of recognising important incidents or experiences. An individual may choose to do something to recognise the date of his or her conversion, if the date is known. A church may choose to recognise the date when it commenced. Obviously, such things are voluntary, and individuals and churches are free to do them if they wish.

Second, the celebration of the feast of Purim was not voluntary but prescribed. It is worth noting that the king was not involved in this arrangement, but that it was done on the authority of Esther and Mordecai. Nor was the feast to involve other people groups within the empire – only Jews were required to keep the feast. So it looks as if this was an arrangement made by Jews and for Jews.

This reality leads, however, to another matter. On whose authority did the feast commence?  There are only two options – either Mordecai and Esther thought it would be a good practice to initiate or God told them to initiate the feast. This decision by Mordecai and Esther has influenced subsequent discussions about what can be used in the worship of God, because that is what a feast was among the Jews. On the one hand, some say that Mordecai and Esther initiated a good practice and, on the other hand, some say that God told them to do it because he wanted his people to remember his act of deliverance. Personally, I would say that since the requirement was binding on all Jews everywhere and at all times they must have had divine guidance for insisting on it. And since it is likely that this was the feast recorded in John 5 that Jesus attended, he must have approved of its existence. 

The best explanation that I have read is that Mordecai was a prophet as well as a politician and that God would have guided him to inaugurate this feast. The absence of a specific divine command concerning this is not surprising in the Book of Esther which does not mention anything that God does, yet it is obvious that he is always present.

The service of Mordecai

The Book of Esther closes with a brief summary of the service of Mordecai. He was a prominent man, second in the empire to the king, and obviously we should pray that the Lord would raise up godly politicians and national statesmen and women. He was a popular man among God’s people, and the author tells us why this was the case. It was connected to his actions and to his words. The description given of him should mark all the leaders in Christ’s church – ‘he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.’ Truly he is an example of a person about whom a lot can be said in a few words.

Applications

There are many applications that can be taken from this closing section of the Book of Esther. Here are some and they are not mentioned in order of importance. First, when we are fighting for God we must fight according to his ways. We saw this was the case in the Jews refusal to abuse the plunder. It is easy to sin when engaged in spiritual warfare, so therefore we have to be careful.

Second, we should not imagine that God cannot influence a whole society when he chooses to do so. He led the peoples and politicians of Persia to have a respect for the Jews that would not have been the everyday outlook of those persons. The Lord did this simultaneously on all of them, and he did not need to convert them before he could control them. They did not realise that he was doing this, nor did they sense that they were fulfilling his purpose. But the hearts and minds of everyone are in the Lord’s hands.

Third, we need to acknowledge that acts of divine judgement occur before the day of judgement. This does not mean that we should specify which events are divine judgements. An event could be an act of judgement on one person and an act of blessing for another person. We cannot say, but we can affirm that God judges at times.

Fourth, it is good to remember acts of divine deliverance. In order to do this, we have to know what they are. As far as personal events are concerned, we should know what they are. Sometimes with national events we have to read about them in order to discover their significance.

Fifth, it is amazing what God can do through one man such as Mordecai. We can think of what he did through the lives of many biblical heroes such as Moses, David and Paul. We can also consider what he did through the lives of countless people since then such as theologians like Calvin, preachers Spurgeon and missionaries like Hudson Taylor. This does not mean we cannot think of what he did through church members who quietly and persistently influenced others by words of encouragement. Yet it does seem to be the case that he does great things through specific individuals, and we should ask him to raise up another Knox or another Chalmers.

Sixth, if the incidents in Esther had not occurred, the crippled man in John 5 would not have got the blessing he received when Jesus attended the feast of Purim. Whether that man used his blessing wisely seems doubtful from the passage because he reported Jesus to the Jewish authorities who then opposed the Saviour. But we can see a link in God’s purposes between what happened in Persia when Esther was queen and what happened in Jerusalem when Jesus attended the feast that she and Mordecai, under God’s guidance, inaugurated. And that is a reminder that God uses innumerable chains in his providence to bring his grace in surprising ways to countless believers. All of them are included.