Esther 7:5
Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?
Ahasuerus is the great Persian king Xerxes, and the question is asked after a Jewish maiden had by God's providence been brought to the throne of Persia. Haman was the prime minister, at the head of the Amalekites, the wicked and sworn enemies of God's children, who stood in the favor of the king. The question confronts Haman's plot to destroy all the Jewish people, Esther's people, God's people. The king speaks at Esther's second feast, in response when she asks for her own life and the lives of her people. That second feast was the proper occasion for the request because the events of the preceding night had prepared the king to decide rightly, whereas if she had petitioned the day before a different decision might have been given, and Haman's plan to hang Mordecai on the gallows would very likely have been granted if the king's attention had not first been providentially called to Mordecai's faithful service in saving his life. The king asks who has dared to presume in his heart to devise such a thing, and where he is.
Deliverance comes through Esther, whose wisdom helps save her people from massacre, with Mordecai overcoming Haman, so that the malice behind the cruel decree is defeated and darkness gives way to hope. By overruling providence God frustrates the plot to save the Jews from their enemies, bringing triumphant vindication of His people and utter defeat of Haman their enemy. That frustrated attempt was aimed at destroying the people through whom the promised Man-child would come.