Esther 8:6, commentary and pictures

Esther speaks in anguish and grief she cannot bear to watch evil, suffering and destruction come upon her people and kindred, and she gives this as her reason for pleading with the king to reverse Haman's decree against the Jews. The setting is Haman's plot under Ahasuerus to kill and destroy the captive Jewish people, and through her pleading came a counter-decree giving the Jews the right to defend themselves, bringing their rescue and the defeat of their enemies while Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. It shows God's care for His peculiar people and His providence frustrating and overruling the plot to destroy them, turning the wrath of man to His praise and proving Him able to deliver from every snare and to defend innocent people who stand for religious freedom. The decree against the Jews stands as the model and pledge of God's deliverance when a law seeks the death of His people, the same contest seen in Cain against Abel and in the Jews against Christ that will return in the final Sabbath controversy against those who will not keep the Sabbath according to man's command.

Esther's Plea and Context

Esther's cry is anguish and grief at the prospect of evil, suffering and destruction coming upon her people and kindred, which she declares she cannot endure to witness. She grieves at the threatened destruction hanging over them and shrinks from watching that evil come upon them. That unbearable prospect is her reason for pleading with the king to reverse Haman's decree against the Jews.

She speaks first fallen at the king's feet, weeping and begging him to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite against the Jews. Then, after he holds out the golden scepter, she stands to ask that the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces be reversed. Arising after the golden scepter is held out, she pleads that letters be written and sent to every province reversing Haman's letters to destroy the Jews. The king answers by directing Esther and Mordecai to write as they please in the king's name and seal it with the king's ring, because writing written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring cannot be reversed.

Wisdom enabled her to act together with Mordecai to confront the crisis under Ahasuerus and save the nation from massacre.

God's Deliverance of Jews

Esther's cry belongs to the crisis of Haman's plot under Ahasuerus, when a decree ordered the killing and destruction of the captive Jewish people, and the threatened evil and destruction hung over her people and kindred whom she could not bear to see perish. The danger was aimed at all God's people, and the decree called for the Jews to be killed. Yet God's providence reversed the threat and overruled the plot to bring about their salvation.

Through her pleading came a counter-decree giving the Jews the right to defend themselves against any who should attack them, bringing their rescue from their enemies and the defeat of their enemies and preserving the godly line. The book's account thus shows them saved from their enemies. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

The verse shows God's care for His peculiar people, turning the wrath of man to praise Him. God frustrated the purpose to destroy them and overruled the plot against them. He is able to deliver from any snare the evil one may set, and defends innocent people who stand for religious freedom.

It stands in the finish of the book showing the triumphant vindication of God's people and the utter and absolute defeat of wicked Haman as the devil's agent. The book gives the origin of the feast of Purim, and the name of God does not occur in English but is found five times in the original in the form of an acrostic. The Roman conquest of Judea and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple show the kind of calamity of evil and destruction that threatened the Jewish people.

Prophecy and Final Deliverance

Esther's anguish at the prospect of seeing her people destroyed drove her appeal to the king because she could not bear to witness their calamity. The crisis under Ahasuerus centered in a decree against the Jews, which Esther together with Mordecai acted to confront. That decree is a model for a future decree against God's people.

The anguish over threatened evil and destruction against God's people is the pledge of God's deliverance when a law seeks their death, and God will work deliverance for them. The death decree against the Jews who would not yield is the same contest between God's way and man's way seen in Cain against Abel and in the Jews against Christ over the Sabbath. It will return in the final Sabbath controversy when an effort is made to put to death those who will not keep the Sabbath according to man's command.