31 May

Bible In 365 Days                                            

Esther 6-10 

Esther 6

In the economy of God vast issues follow apparently trivial things. A sleepless night is in itself transient and almost trivial. Yet it has often been a time of revelation and surprise, affecting the after years. In the case of Ahasuerus it was another of the forces by which God moved to preserve His people. To while away its hours, the records were read to the king, and a deed of Mordecai which had passed from his memory led to hasty and strange happenings, which must have filled the heart of Haman with new anger and terror. His enemy was suddenly lifted from obscurity to the most conspicuous position in the kingdom - he had become a man whom the king delighted to honor. In the words of Zeresh, wife of Haman, there was manifest that strange fear of God's ancient people which had wrought so much in their history.

Esther 7

Events now moved rapidly forward. By the way of the banquet Haman passed to the gallows. It was a fierce and terrible judgment, and yet characterized by poetic justice. The man who for no reason other than his pride had prepared the gallows for Mordecai found himself suddenly stripped of all authority and ending his career by the very instrument his brutality had prepared for another.

The very core of Haman's hatred for Mordecai was his own self-centered and self-consuming pride and ambition. This was of so masterful a nature that one man's refusal to render homage to him inspired in him such hatred that he was determined to encompass, not the death of that man only, but also of all those who bore blood relation to him. The nets of evil plotting and malicious enterprise swing far out in the tides of human life, but never far enough to enmesh God. He remains beyond them all, and gathering them in the hands of His power He makes them include the men who weave them to destroy others.

Esther 8

The deposition and death of Haman issued naturally in the promotion of Mordecai. However, the peril to his people was not yet averted. The royal proclamation had gone forth that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month the Hebrew people should be exterminated. Under the constitution no royal proclamation could be reversed. Something else must be done to save the people. The king permitted Mordecai to write to his people, allowing them to arm and defend themselves.

It is a wonderful picture of the king's own messengers hurrying through the country with letters, urging the people to be ready against what had been intended to be the fateful day of their slaughter. So strange a happening was it that the Jews were filled with gladness and joy, while a new fear of them fell on the native people, and many of the "people of the land became Jews."

Esther 9

In this final section of the Book we have an account, first, of the arrival of the fateful day and all that happened thereon. It was a day when the changed conditions in the case of Haman and Mordecai were revealed throughout the whole of the provinces. Men who had persecuted the Jews and were looking for the opportunity of wreaking their vengeance by royal decree found themselves filling the places which they had intended their foes to occupy.

In memory of the great deliverance the feast of Purim was established. According to Jewish tradition, "all the feasts shall cease in the days of the Messiah, except the feast of Purim." It is a remarkable thing that while there have been breaks in the observance of' the other great feasts, and some of them have been practically discontinued, this one has been maintained. It is always a time of rejoicing. The first part of the day is spent in the study of the Book of Esther and its exposition; the second is wholly given over to keeping holiday. Whatever view we may hold of the Book, it is certain that Jewish leaders have treated it as an exposition of the method by which God wrought deliverance for His people even while they were in exile.

Esther 10

Here we have the last picture of this man Mordecai. It is a singularly fine one. Whatever may have been questionable in some of the methods he adopted with regard to Esther-and here we are not able to be dogmatic - it is evident that he was of fine character. Probably all the experiences of the goodness of God had brought him to finer life. Evidently he retained the favor of Ahasuerus, for his position was next to the king. This did not alienate him from his own people. He continued to seek their good, and to speak peace to them; and therefore was held in highest honor among them, as well as trusted where he exercised authority.

Perhaps there is: no more severe test of greatness of soul than advancement in the favor of kings. Too often it has meant the undoing of men who, though poor or in disfavor in high places have remained true. The man who can pass to wealth and position among the great ones of the earth, and still maintain his integrity and his loyalty to his own kith and kin, is ever a great man, and the secrets of such greatness invariably are that the man's roots are in God.