Esther 8:7, commentary and pictures

The verse records the king giving Esther the house and estate of Haman and declaring that Haman had been hanged upon the gallows because he laid his hand upon the Jews, marking the reversal by which royal power was turned to save them. It answers Esther's tearful plea to reverse Haman's letters to destroy the Jews, and it prepares for the king's grant of authority to Esther and Mordecai to write to the Jews as they pleased in the king's name and seal it with the king's ring, since a sealed royal writing cannot be reversed. It shows God's overruling power and providence in saving the Jews from destruction, defeating Haman's malice and plot, and bringing deliverance and relief out of darkness. It means God had a care for His peculiar people and made the wrath of man to praise Him, vindicating them in triumph while wicked Haman as the devil's agent was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, proving God is able to deliver from any snare through Heaven's intervening counter decree to preserve the godly line. It belongs to the Medo-Persian phase of the satanic church-and-state beast, in which Satan worked through Haman under Ahasuerus to destroy all the people of God as the woman through whom the promised Man-child should come, but God frustrated that purpose, and the crisis in which Esther and Mordecai brought Haman to his own gallows stands as a precedent for a future decree against God's people like the decree against the Jews in Esther's time.

Context and Royal Action

The king's words come in answer to Esther's tearful plea to put away Haman's mischief against the Jews, after he had received her with the golden scepter and heard her request to reverse Haman's letters for their destruction. He tells Esther the queen and Mordecai the Jew that he has already given Haman's house to Esther and had Haman hanged because Haman laid his hand upon the Jews. This answer prepares for his grant of authority to them to write to the Jews as they please in the king's name and to seal it with the king's ring, since a sealed royal writing cannot be reversed. Ahasuerus is the great Persian king Xerxes, called Ahasuerus in the Bible, and in the providence of God a Jewish maiden was brought to the throne of Persia. At that time Haman the prime minister, at the head of the Amalekites as the wicked and sworn enemies of God's children, stood in the favor of the king and plotted to destroy the Jews.

The verse records that Ahasuerus gave Esther the house and estate of Haman and declared that Haman had been hanged and executed upon the gallows because he laid his hand upon and plotted against and attacked the Jews. That giving of the house and hanging of Haman is God's overruling to save His people from destruction and part of His deliverance of them from those seeking to destroy them. It marks the reversal of Haman's attack and the means by which Mordecai and Esther could help save their people, with Esther and Mordecai acting in the crisis to meet the threat and bring Haman to his own gallows. It is the triumphant vindication of God's people and the utter and absolute defeat of wicked Haman, showing the king using his royal power on their behalf. Through Esther's pleading for her kindred and her people, the Jews were given the right to defend themselves against any who should attack them.

Divine Deliverance and Significance

The verse displays the overruling power and providence of God in saving the Jews from destruction under the great Persian king Xerxes, called Ahasuerus in the account. In that providence a Jewish maiden was brought to the throne of Persia while Haman the prime minister, at the head of the Amalekites as the wicked and sworn enemies of God's children, stood in the king's favor and plotted to destroy the Jews. The king's giving to Esther the house of Haman and declaring that Haman had been hanged upon the gallows because he laid his hand upon and plotted against the Jews was God's overruling to save His people from those seeking to destroy them. Haman's malice was defeated and darkness gave way to deliverance and relief through Esther, marking the reversal of his attack and the means by which Mordecai and Esther could help save their people.

It is the triumphant vindication of God's people and the utter and absolute defeat of wicked Haman as the devil's agent. Haman, who had secured a decree to destroy them, was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Through Esther's pleading for her kindred and her people the Jews were given the right to defend themselves against any who should attack them. The verse means God had a care for His peculiar people and made the wrath of man to praise Him, proving He is able to deliver from any snare the evil one may set.

Heaven intervened through a counter decree to preserve God's people, the godly line, from destruction and to overthrow their enemies, so that God's purpose to preserve that line could not be defeated. The verse belongs to the Medo-Persian phase of the satanic church-and-state beast, in which Satan worked through Haman under Ahasuerus to try to destroy all the people of God. Those people are the woman through whom the promised Man-child should come, but God frustrated that purpose and delivered them and the attempt failed. Wisdom enabled Mordecai to overcome Haman and Esther to save the Jewish people from massacre.

God in this reversal defended innocent people who stood for religious freedom. His supremacy was made known through foreign kings, with Xerxes protecting the Jews by using his royal power on their behalf. The crisis in which Esther and Mordecai acted to meet the threat and bring Haman to his own gallows is a precedent for a future decree against God's people similar to the decree against the Jews in Esther's time. The chapter is also connected with Rome's overthrow of the Jewish place and nation, when Ahasuerus gave Esther Haman's house and estate and affirmed that Haman had been executed because he had attacked the Jews.