Esther 8 And the Walls Come Tumbling Down
“And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Esther 8
We left the King and Queen in the banquet room of the palace.
Haman has been taken out at the king’s command and hanged on the very gallows Haman himself had prepared for Mordecai.
Now that the horrible business that Esther had revealed to him was now over, the king’s anger has abated. He turned to Queen Esther and gave to her all his suddenly acquired properties of Haman. Any criminal that received capital punishment by the state had their properties handed over to the king.
Esther then revealed to the king her relationship with Mordecai. She would have told him that when her parents died, he took her into his home as raised he as his own daughter. Who she was to the king was directly related to what Mordecai taught her. He was a father to her.
King Exerses admitted Mordecai into the status of those who have access to the king without specific summons similar to the position Haman had held.
Then the king gave him his signet ring, which had been taken away from Haman, thus transferring to him the power to act with the king’s full authority that was Haman’s.
Finally, Esther appoints him to be the administrator of Haman’s property, thus giving him the resources appropriate to his new status.
Haman may be gone – the king may be in peace, Mordecai may have new authority, but Queen Esther is not finished.
There is still an edict, written by Haman and enacted into law by the king’s own decree, which is still very much in place.
Once an edict was passed into Medo-Persian law it could never be rescinded. It could never be changed.
Haman may be dead, but the edict is till very much alive.
It has been written, it will be done! It is irrevocable and unchangeable. The Jews will die in December.
We who live in a culture where things are reversed and altered with a measure of regularity, hardly raise an eyebrow when someone in authority changes his or her mind.
But back then, it was something unheard of in the land of Persia.
And Esther knew that. And Esther broke down before the king in tears.
I had a hard time attempting to fit what I was learning about this chapter and from this chapter into the title that Chuck Swindoll assigned to this chapter.
Instead I see striking parallels between the story of the Babylonian exile and the crisis that Haman created for the Jews.
Within that comparison this chapter more closely relates to the book of Nehemiah when many Jews returned to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the walls began.
There are two main scenes in this chapter.
In the first, the king gives his queen the property of Haman, and welcomes Mordecai into the privileged status of one who may enter the king’s court without being summoned, etc…
The queen asks the king to revoke Haman’s edict.
The Hebrew would indicate that the king becomes exasperated and says in effect, “Look, I’ve done all I can for you, you go and write and new edict if it pleases you. Don’t bother me any further with this matter.”
The king’s heart has not changed. He has simply changed his prime minister.
It is the second scene that the story teller gives clue to the story’s interpretation.
The parallels between Haman’s first edict and the edict that Mordecai now writes are striking.
With the two parallel edicts, the differences become highlighted.
1) Instead of the Jews being the victim of the edict, the Jews are now the ones given the power.
2) Instead of attacking, the Jews are only given the right to defend themselves against any attack.
3) In the second edict, the Jews are addressed first subtly giving them honor in the kingdom above the satraps, governors and rulers who are now grouped together and in the first edict were named separately and the satraps were even called royal.
4) The couriers sent to dispatch the edict now were given the kings own riding horses.
After Haman’s edict was announced, Haman and the king sat down to dine while all the city was in confusion and panic.
After Mordecai’s counter edict, the city was full of gladness and rejoicing.
But the key, I believe is the dating of the two edicts.
Haman’s edict was written the 13th day of the first month.
Mordecai’s was written the 23d day of the third month.
To our ears there is nothing striking here. But when we count the days, there are 70 days between the edicts. There are 70 days between the edict that spelled the end of the Jewish people and the edict that set them free.
There are 70 days between the day that the Jews began to tremble and fear for their lives and the day that they took courage and began to see hope for the future.
There are 70 days between the time of mourning and fasting and praying to the time of rejoicing and celebration.
Numbers were often used in Hebrew stories not for their literal value but for their symbolic value.
It is probable that our storyteller is not interested in actually calendar dates but in the significance of the number 70 to his listeners.
They have just come through the 70 year Babylonian exile.
They have just experienced the destruction of their capital city and of the beautiful holy temple.
They have been taken as captives from their beloved Promised Land. Although they were now living in relative freedom, they still did not fit into this foreign pagan society. They always dreamed of going back home.
Now the story of Esther is added to their heritage and is passed down through their gifted storytellers in striking parallel form to the exile.
They would remember that God chose to punish them for their sin, using the foreign nation to destroy their city and to wrest them from their land.