CHAPS. 7-10.
So the banquet proceeds (chap. 7), and the king and Haman are found, for there was no time to lose. The chamberlain had come and summoned Haman to the banquet, and now the king, for the third time, demands from the queen her petition. “What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy request? and it shall be performed even to the half of the kingdom. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition.” What! was it come to this? the queen to be a beggar for her life! “Let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request; for we are sold, I and my people to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish: but if we had been sold for bond-men and bond-women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail, the king's damage.” She had struck the right chord. Not only all the affections of the king burst out at this insult that was done to the one that he loved above all the kingdom; but more: there was the audacious presumption that should attempt the destruction of the queen and all the queen's people—of all her people without even the king's knowledge. Who could be the traitor?
“Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who he, and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” “Then Haman was afraid” —as well he might be— “before the king and the queen. And the king arising from his banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden.” Well did Haman know that it was sentence of death that was pronounced upon him. “And Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.” And when the king returns he finds Hainan in his agony fallen upon the bed where Esther was, and the king willingly puts the worst construction upon it. The word goes forth from his mouth and they cover Haman's face for immediate execution. And Harbonah one of the chamberlains suggested to the king the gallows that was already made in Haman's own premises, and this also meets the king's wishes. “Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.”
But this was not all. It is not only that God thus completely caught in his own toils the cruel adversary of his people, but God would care for the Jews throughout the whole dominions of the king, where they were still under sentence of death. The deliverance was not yet complete. The prime enemy was destroyed, but they were still in danger; and so Mordecai, it is said, came before the king (chap. 8) “For Esther had told what he was unto her.” The king takes off his ring and gives it to Mordecai. The Jew accordingly comes now into the place of government in the earth. Their enemies are destroyed, but still they have to be vindicated and to be delivered completely throughout the empire. And Esther falls down at the feet of the king and beseeches him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman, and the king again holds out the golden scepter, and Esther explains that the posts that had gone forth with the king's letters were carrying destruction to the Jew throughout his provinces. The king answers, “Behold I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse” (vers. 7, 8).
How then was the thing to be met? In this way—that throughout the whole empire by a fresh post are sent out letters “wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.” So it was done. “And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king,” now with every sign of real honor. And “the Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor. And in every province, and in every city whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day.”
So accordingly it was done (chap. 9). The Jews did gather themselves together and laid their hand upon all that sought their life. No man could withstand them. It is the evident type of the day when the Jew will be again restored to his due and proper place throughout the earth. And “Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for this man. Mordecai waxed greater and greater. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.” And so we have the account given. But there is more. “The king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now, what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee; or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which, are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.”
There are many that cannot understand this. And no wonder! They take Esther as the type of the Lord's dealings with the church. One sees at once what profound confusion is made by that. Not so. It is the Gentile discarded, and it is the Jew called in; but righteousness will be the character of the reign of the kingdom by and by. Grace is what suits the church now. It would be perfectly unintelligible therefore to have Esther representing the church now. The execution of righteous vengeance would be altogether incompatible with the calling of the Christian—with the church's place. But with the Jew called in to share the kingdom by and by—called into the honors of the kingdom—it is exactly in season. Then—when Messiah shall reign, and Jerusalem shall be His queen—will be found that word verified, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.”
So it was in this day. Thus you see, whenever we get the truth, the word of God falls into its due place. We understand it, and we distinguish between things that differ; we rightly divide the word of truth. When, on the contrary, we in our anxiety apply things to that which concerns ourselves, we fall into great mistake, and destroy the proper place of the church of God, and our share of God's heavenly affections. Our proper place now is to act suitably to Him who is at the right hand of God. But when the Lord Jesus leaves heaven for the earth—when he comes to reign, then righteousness will be the character of His kingdom, and terrible things will be done in righteousness, according to the 45th Psalm. Thus the execution of the ten sons of Haman is not the smallest difficulty when this is understood, for the Lord will not only smite at the beginning, but there will be a repetition of the blow: there will be a thorough clearance of the adversary, and of all that render but feigned obedience. The Lord will deal with them in that day that is coming.
And so the king commanded, and the Jews gathered themselves for another day. Not only those in Shushan “but the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey.” So that joy and gladness then fill the heart of the Jew. And Mordecai writes and sends letters to all the provinces, and thus the joy is spread throughout the whole earth. Not only so, but the Jews, as we are told, founded a feast upon this remarkable intervention of the providence of God.
The book closes, in the next chapter (10.) with an account of the greatness of the realm of the king, and also of Mordecai his minister. “For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.” Thus worthily closes this most remarkable book. The Jew delivered from all his distresses is brought into the nearest place to the great king, and instead of being himself the victim of the hatred of the Gentile he has authority over all to execute vengeance upon all that would slay the seed of Abraham.
May the Lord give us to delight in the ways of God! May we read His word and profit by His word in all wisdom and spiritual understanding! We shall not find the less profit from the book because we understand it. To apply it to ourselves is only to deceive ourselves. We see the place of the ancient people of God when the proud Gentile will be put down because of his disobedience, and when the Jew will be brought in all the loveliness that God can put upon him, into his own proper place before the earth. These are the prospects that this book gives us. Yet not this only, but the beautiful feature, I think, you will see completely preserved from first to last—that all this was given during the day of the cloud—of the darkness—of the dispersion—of the non-recognition of the Jew. The name of God is entirely absent from it. It is the secret power of God working through circumstances that, might seem awkward. But what a comfort to us! We, too, have to do with the same providence of God—not indeed working to the same end; for God's object is not to give us vengeance upon the foe, is not to exalt us into earthly greatness, but we have got to do with the same God; only—thank God! He does not disown us. He has brought us into a relationship which never can be lost—a relationship which depends upon Christ and which is sealed by the Holy Ghost. Consequently, He never refuses that we should call upon Him, “Our God and Father"; nor does He ever refuse to own us as the children of His love.
Thus you see the book does not in the smallest degree apply to us in what is meant by Esther; but we are, surely, justified in taking all the comfort of God's mighty hand. Where men see but circumstances passing around us, we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to hid purpose.” We may not see the way, but we know the God, we see the God, we can draw near to the God that controls all things in our favor. In short, therefore, the providence of God is a universal truth, till the day come when the dealings of God will be public and manifest, and His name will be named upon His people. Meanwhile we can count upon this for Israel. We know that now they are dispersed—that now they are in a wholly anomalous condition, but the day will come when God will set aside the Gentile, and bring in Israel once more, and our hearts can rejoice. It will be no loss to us even if that were the motive. But, in point of fact, it will be no loss to us. We shall be with the Lord Jesus on high, and it will be only after that that God will judge the Gentile and call back the Jew.
[W.K.]