Esther 8:3
And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.
The verse belongs to the history of the Jews under the great Persian king Xerxes, called Ahasuerus in the Bible. In it a Jewish maiden brought by the providence of God to the throne of Persia pleads before the king against Haman the prime minister. She speaks before the king yet again, falling down at his feet and beseeching him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman and his device that he had devised against the Jews. In doing so she again risks her life by approaching him without being summoned.
Haman the Agagite, a descendant of Agag, was head of the Amalekites, the wicked and sworn enemies of God's children who were in the favor of the king. His plot aimed to destroy all God's people under Medo-Persian rule. He acted as the devil's agent. Esther's pleading is part of Heaven's intervention and God's overruling providence and power in saving them from their enemies. That providence frustrated Haman's scheme to preserve His people from destruction and protect the godly line, showing God's eternal purpose cannot be overthrown.
Through that pleading the decree was reversed in effect, for the Jews were given the right to defend themselves against any who should attack them. This brought vindication to God's people and utter and absolute defeat to wicked Haman, who was hanged on the gallows he had prepared, thus defending the rights of innocent people. The verse shows wisdom enabling Esther to save the Jewish nation from massacre and Mordecai to overcome Haman. It teaches that God cares for His peculiar people, turns the wrath of man to praise Him, and is able to deliver from any snare the evil one sets, and that committing the way to the Lord and trusting in Him brings deliverance to pass.
The account presents God's providence as defending religious freedom for those who stood for it. It illustrates the final controversy over the Sabbath, in which God's people are under a death decree because they will not keep the Sabbath according to man's command, with earnest intercession made for them and God working deliverance for His people. The decree against the Jews is thus a precedent for a future decree against God's people.