Redemption and Rejoicing

Esther 8:1-17

Today we continue our study in the book of Esther at the point at which King Xerxes realizes who Esther really is. We have seen how God took this young Jewish girl from her humble beginnings as an orphan and an alien in the society and raised her up to be queen of the entire enormous Persian Empire. God did this for a very specific purpose: so that she would be in a position of influence to save her people from being destroyed by the wicked plot of Haman, an arrogant official who was very close to the king. Because Mordecai the Jew had refused to bow to Haman, Haman was offended and decided to annihilate all the Jews. Mordecai was Esther’s cousin, who was like a father figure to her. Haman had convinced the king to issue a decree that all the Jews would be killed on a particular day. It was a law that could not be changed. Esther had hidden the fact that she was a Jew, but she took it upon herself to confront Haman, in the presence of the king, pleading for the king to spare her life and the lives of all her people. The king realizes what has happened, and he is incensed that Haman has tricked him, putting the life of the queen at risk, so he has Haman summarily executed on the pole that Haman had set up to impale Mordecai on. That brief recap takes us to the end of chapter 7.

The immediate danger is past. Haman is gone, publicly executed as an example to anyone who would try to deceive the king. The king is favorably disposed toward Esther and after about 4 years of marriage is finally beginning to put two and two together about her heritage. The other part of the story that I left out earlier was how Mordecai had effectively saved the life of the king earlier by uncovering a plot against him, and so the king had honored Mordecai and was favorably disposed toward him, too, even as Haman had sought to kill him. But now Haman has been removed as a threat. Esther and Mordecai are safe. We pick up our story for today at the start of chapter 8, just after the execution of Haman:

That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.—Esther 8:1-2 NIV

That same day the king gave Esther all of Haman’s authority and wealth. And when Mordecai came into the court, the king gave him Haman’s royal ring. Mordecai assumed Haman’s position as prime minister. – Esther 8:1-2 HSP

The property of a traitor such as Haman would revert to the king, so he gives it all to Queen Esther. Mordecai is also honored, brought into the presence of the king for the first time. The king essentially assigns Mordecai the position that Haman had just held, giving him a status similar to that of prime minister, as the Honor Shame Paraphrase of this passage points out. The signet ring will allow Mordecai to act with the king’s authority in what he decrees. Esther puts him in charge of Haman’s estate, to manage it on her behalf. Haman had acted selfishly, wanting to enhance his own status by destroying the Jews. In contrast, Mordecai had never put himself forward, but he had lived in submission to God. So here he is rewarded by the king for his loyalty and by God for his faith.

This could almost be the happy ending of the story, except for one thing: the law requiring the destruction of the entire Jewish people still stands. What can be done about that? The law itself cannot be changed. Even the king is not allowed to rescind or cancel it. (It was considered impossible for the king to have made a mistake in creating any law.) Therefore, on a particular day a few months hence, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, all across this vast empire, the Jews will be attacked and wiped out. So Esther again appeals to the king, as she had done earlier, but even more passionately.

Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him.—Esther 8:3-4 NIV

Even though Esther and Mordecai were now exalted in the king’s palace, Haman’s prior decree to destroy all the Jews was still in effect. So Esther approached the king and begged at his feet… – Esther 8:3-4 HSP

Here we see Esther’s emotion finally starting to come out. She had kept it bottled up inside herself for so long. In humility and anguish she is weeping at the feet of the king, begging him to intervene in this desperate situation. Once again she finds favor him, and he has her stand up.

“If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”—Esther 8:5-6 NIV

“As you please, if I have found favor in your eyes, and if my loyalty has found your approval, then issue another decree to revoke Haman’s prior decree. My heart could not endure the death and destruction of my people. To not ask this favor of you would betray my family.”  – Esther 8:5-6 HSP

Notice how she speaks very formally here, doubling up her phrases in an “a-b-a-b” pattern. “If it pleases the king” goes with “[if he] thinks it the right thing to do,” and “if he regards me with favor” goes with “if he is pleased with me.” She asks the king to overrule the previous law. She pleads for the lives of her people and her family. The irony here, of course, is that she has already lost her immediate family. But she unselfishly speaks out on behalf of all the Jews, identifying with them in a very real way.

We can speculate as to what this cost her. She has now revealed who she is as a Jew and as the adopted daughter of Mordecai. Would she now be marginalized in the palace community? She was not only a foreigner, but she followed a different religion. There is no indication in the text of how the king reacted to this revelation, but it does not seem to have bothered him. Did it matter that the queen was a Jew? Had Esther been actually afraid for nothing in hiding her identity earlier? Could she have been more outwardly observant as a Jew as she grew into her role in the palace? Could she have spoken out about her faith earlier?

We all face this question, don’t we? When should we speak out about what we really believe? How open should we be as Christians? What is an appropriate way to demonstrate our faith in our behavior? Do you pray when you are in a restaurant? Do people around you know what Jesus means to you? Or do you keep quiet like Esther did initially, trying to blend in with the crowd? It can certainly seem like the easy way out sometimes. We don’t want to make things awkward. We want to avoid unnecessary confrontation. But Jesus tells us to be his witnesses, doesn’t he? What does it mean to be a witness? In a court case it means being responsible to tell the truth about what one has seen and heard. I remember hearing a sermon as a kid where the preacher asked, “If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That question has come back and challenged me over the course of my life.

Ian mentioned the other day that he had spoken with a Buddhist professor at Stanford about the possibility of studying Tibetan. The professor asked him why he was interested, since it is not a common language. Only one or two people sign up for it each year. Ian mentioned being the son of Christian missionaries and that learning the language would make it easier to share the gospel with Tibetans. He said that the conversation went okay, but it can be an intimidating thing to stand out as a believer and risk being stereotyped as an intolerant fanatic or identified with all the harmful things that have done in the name of Christ over the centuries.

We shouldn’t dismiss Esther’s witness, of course, just because she didn’t speak out about her relationship with the one true God. She was certainly recognized as being different. Something attracted people to her and granted her favor with them. We saw that at the beginning of our story. What did Jesus say about being a witness? Many things of course! One of the more familiar passages is from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.—Matthew 5:14-16

Jesus was talking to his disciples here, comparing them to a light shining in a dark place or to a town on a hill that can be seen from all around. They would be a witness to the power and grace of God just because of who they were. Their lives as well as their words would bring a message of hope and salvation. We, too, can be a witness in the same way. We can shine as lights through our good deeds, done in love. Our words and our actions need to be marked by unselfish love. Jesus also said that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The love of God in us needs to touch other people in practical ways. That should be the first thing that they notice about us. Then when we tell them that the good deeds are because of God’s love they will be able to give glory to our Father in heaven, as Jesus said. If we are truly loving then they will be open to what we say, even the things that might be hard to hear, like the fact that everyone is a sinner and our only hope for salvation and reconciliation with God is to accept by faith that Jesus took the punishment for our sins when he died on the cross and rose to life again. This is good news when people are able to receive it and make it their own. But the new life that Jesus gives needs to be evident in us before others will realize that that life can be theirs as well.

Esther knew the true God. But it seems, at the beginning at least, that she didn’t want to stand out, she didn’t want to rock the boat. Her religion could be a private thing, like so many people seem to think today. But in the crisis, she had to take a stand. She had to take the risk of being identified as a Jew in order to save her people. In our day as well, the salvation of others is at stake, and we need to risk rejection and ridicule to be faithful witnesses for God.

Esther never mentions the name of God, but the king can recognize something different about her and about Mordecai, especially in contrast to the scheming Haman. He responds favorably to Esther’s plea.

King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”—Esther 8:7-8 NIV

The king said to Esther and Mordecai, “Every royal edict is irrevocable. However, Haman is gone and you have all his authority. You may issue a counter-edict in my name and seal it with my ring.” – Esther 8:7-8 HSP

We are reminded again of the unchangeable nature of the law. Once a decree was signed with the king’s name and sealed with his ring it could not be revoked. So the king here is giving Mordecai an astonishing level of authority and freedom, basically giving him the opportunity to give whatever legal advantage he might want to the Jews. The king clearly has a high level of trust for Mordecai. Perhaps he is still regretting the misplaced trust that he had had in Haman.

At once the royal secretaries were summoned—on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai’s orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. –Esther 8:9 NIV

So Mordecai dictated an edict through the king’s lawyers… – Esther 8:9 HSP

From the date we can see that it would be a little less than 9 months until Haman’s decree against the Jews would come into effect. This might seem like plenty of time to take action to counter it, but we need to keep in mind the vast extent of the empire: 127 provinces from India in the east to Cush in the west (which is the upper Nile region in Africa). Many secretaries were employed to communicate in all the necessary languages represented in this huge, diverse area.

Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king’s signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king.—Esther 8:10 NIV

[Mordecai dictated an edict]…and signed it in the king’s name. Then couriers delivered copies on the king’s fastest horses to Jews and governors in every province of Persia.  – Esther 8:10 HSP

Even with fast horses it would take some time for the couriers to reach all corners of the empire. The procedure mirrors just what Haman had done earlier.

The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies. The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. –Esther 8:11-12 NIV

The king’s new edict allowed the Jews to organize and defend themselves. The Jews could kill, destroy, and plunder anyone who attacked them on the 13th day of Adar (which was still 8 months away). – Esther 8:11-12 HSP

So on the very day the previous edict would take effect “to destroy, kill, and annihilate” the Jews and to plunder their goods – on that same day the Jews were given authority to defend themselves and “to destroy, kill, and annihilate” anyone who attacked them and to plunder their property. (Some have calculated this to be June 25th, 454 B.C.) By leveling the playing field, the hope would be that the Jews would not be taken advantage of. The Jews obviously had enemies wherever they were who resented them as foreigners and who were waiting for the opportunity to steal their property.

A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. The couriers, riding the royal horses, went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa.—Esther 8:13-14 NIV

This royal decree was announced to all peoples, and Jews prepared to overcome their opponents. – Esther 8:13-14 HSP

Since Susa was the capital, that was the most important place for the edict to be enforced:

When Mordecai left the king’s presence, he was wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration. For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. –Esther 8:15-16 NIV

After issuing the decree, Mordecai walked out of the palace clothed in king’s splendor: royal blue robes, a magnificent golden crown, and fine purple linens. The entire city of Susa erupted in joy to celebrate their new prime minister. All of the Jews rejoiced and experienced newfound honor. – Esther 8:15-16 HSP

Mordecai was honored by the king, and everyone in the city would be able to see that by what he was wearing. With both Mordecai and Esther now in top positions all the Jews would enjoy a higher status in the society. The honor would in effect rub off on them all.

In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.—Esther 8:17 NIV

They celebrated the new social order with a grand festival. Even many Gentiles in Persia claimed to be Jewish to enhance their own social standing. The people who were once destined for destruction were now celebrated and admired. Their status was reversed, from shame to honor. – Esther 8:17 HSP

The fortunes of all the Jews are reversed, so it is a time for gladness and celebration. This time of joy after sorrow reminds me of Psalm 126.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.—Psalm 126:1-6.

The Jews had, in effect, sown in tears. They had fasted and prayed, seeking God’s deliverance from the predicament that they were in. Now they were reaping with songs of joy, as they were honored and blessed by the people that they thought were their enemies. Although it doesn’t say it in the Esther passage, because of the whole book intentionally avoiding any reference to God, the people around would have recognized the role that the Lord God had played in delivering His people. The nations would indeed be saying, “The Lord has done great things for them.” God would receive the glory that He deserved.

The chapter in Esther ends with the surprising statement that “many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.” The HSP suggests that this was a status consideration: that “many Gentiles in Persia claimed to be Jewish to enhance their own social standing.” I suppose this is one possibility. Perhaps some realized that the Jews would be getting the upper hand in the coming confrontation and wanted to be on the winning side for their own self-protection, with the chance to even gain some plunder of their own.

Still, I wonder if the fear of the Jews in some cases could actually have been fear of God, leading to a genuine conversion. The story of miraculous deliverance through the faithful commitment of Esther and Mordecai could have spread through the general population. God was clearly powerful enough to care for His people, and indeed He is worthy of honor and worship. The main focus in Persian culture may have been honor and shame, leading the people to want to increase their own honor by associating with the Jews who had been honored by the king. But there is also the power-fear aspect of culture, stronger than the sense of honor-shame in various places around the world. People look to see where true spiritual power lies, and they submit themselves to whatever forces will be able to deliver them from sickness, adversity, and fear. People with that kind of mindset turn to Jesus on this basis, too, when they realize the power of His name, His ability to help them in whatever they are facing. In Acts 3 we have the story of Peter and John being confronted by the lame beggar at the entrance of the temple.

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.—Acts 3:6-8

Peter then explained what had happened to the astonished onlookers.

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.—Acts 3:16

Peter was not claiming any special power himself. He was recognizing and claiming the victory of Jesus on the cross over sin and sickness. The name of Jesus is clearly more than just the word that identifies him. His name represents his authority and power. In the next chapter, Acts 4, as Peter addresses the Sanhedrin, he again notes the supremacy of Jesus and His unique role in saving the world.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.—Acts 4:12

Essentially what he is saying here is that Jesus is the only person we can call on for salvation. He is the only one authorized to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

So why did the Persian neighbors of the Jews in Esther’s day want to become Jews? We see these three possibilities:

First, it could have been purely for self-protection. People realized that the Jews were gaining political power and had been given permission to take the property of others, by force. Many of the non-Jews would have felt vulnerable in that situation. But by claiming to be Jews themselves perhaps they would be protected?

The second possibility is the position taken by the HSP. People of other nationalities wanted to be honored along with the Jews. Their own status in the society would be improved. So these first two possibilities involve an element of deception. People would be doing something for their own advantage without an actual change of heart. With no real conviction or commitment these people likely would stop pretending to be Jews once that advantage disappeared.

But then there is the third possibility. Perhaps some did recognize the power and authority of the one true God, the God of the Jews. He had demonstrated His supremacy in miraculously delivering His people. He is the only one worthy of honor. Then if those people called on His name by faith, committing themselves to Him, they could be truly saved: obtaining forgiveness, a right relationship with their Creator, and eternal life. This would be a permanent heart change, a complete commitment, regardless of what would happen in the future. And as we have said before, such faith would have been looking ahead to Jesus, whom God would send 500 years later to be the savior of the world – for all time and for everyone who will receive Him.