“The nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined” (Isa 60:12).
Throughout the centuries, many reasons have been offered to justify the eradication of the Jews. Haman’s argument to the king seemed innocuous—“their laws are different from all other people’s” (Est 3:8)—but under the surface, he despised one man who “did not bow or pay him homage” (v 5). But whatever surface reason they may give, it always includes, “and to plunder their possessions” (v 13). Of course, the real reason is their diabolical passion to defeat God Himself. Now the day approached, the ticking time bomb set by the casting of “Pur” (v 7), or the lot, and determined to be the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. Here’s what we read: “On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them” (9:1). “And all the officials…helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces” (vv 3-4). In Shushan, 500 men fell to their swords, including “the ten sons of Haman” (v 10). But, as evidence their motive was purely self-defense, “they did not lay a hand on the plunder” (v 15). When the king gave Esther leave to further the Jews’ cause, similar to the Gibeonites’ request to David regarding Saul’s sons, she said, “let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows” (v 13). This public display, garish though it was, declared there was One who could use events as disparate as a beauty pageant, a roll of the dice, a chance conversation at the palace gate, a sleepless night for the king, and the seemingly random page-turning of a book, to orchestrate one of the greatest rescues in human history. Of course He was there—“a very present help” (Ps 46:1)!