Esther 8:1
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.
The verse belongs to the history of the Jews under Medo-Persia, under the king called Ahasuerus in the Bible, identified as the great Persian king Xerxes, and in God's providence a Jewish maiden was brought to the throne of Persia. Haman the prime minister stood at the head of the Amalekites, the wicked and sworn enemies of God's children, and under Ahasuerus he plotted to destroy the Jews, all of God's people. Haman was the devil's agent in that attempt, and the plot struck at the people through whom the promised Man-child would come, but God frustrated Satan's purpose to destroy them.
The verse comes after the king's grant to Haman and the royal decree to destroy the Jews on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar. It comes after the perplexity of Shushan while the king and Haman sat down to drink, and after the weeping and mourning of the Jews. It comes after Haman's plotting and exaltation, after the honoring of Mordecai, after the exposure of Haman's treachery, and after Haman's death on the gallows he had erected for Mordecai.
On the day Haman was executed the king gave the house, estate and property of Haman the Jews' enemy to Esther the queen, marking the turn from threatened destruction to deliverance for the faithful Jew. Mordecai came before the king after Esther had told what he was unto her, revealing their relationship. The king gave Mordecai his signet ring, and Esther placed Mordecai in charge of Haman's household.
The verse shows God's overruling power and providence saving the Jews from their enemies and turning the threat at the Persian court into their deliverance and vindication, though God is at work in the events without being named. By a counter decree in Esther 8 God saved His people from destruction and helped bring about the complete and absolute overthrow and defeat of their enemies, preserving the godly line. It stands in the triumphant close of the book that shows that vindication and that utter defeat of wicked Haman.
That book in its English text never contains the name of God, and in its original text contains it only five times in the form of an acrostic, and it gives the origin of the feast of Purim. The deliverance illustrates God's working to save His people when they are threatened with death for refusing to yield to man's way of worship. The story in Esther, especially chapters 3, 8 and 9, illustrates the ongoing controversy between God's way and man's way over keeping the Sabbath according to man's command, as seen when Christ was persecuted for refusing to keep the Sabbath according to men's ideas, and as will recur at the end when an effort is made to put to death those who refuse to keep the Sabbath according to man's command, but God will deliver His people. Esther 8 is evidence that Rome overthrew the Jews' place and nation, in fulfillment of the little horn's conquests toward the pleasant land, identified as Palestine.