Esther 8:3-8

2. Esther’s request for her people 8:3-8

Esther again had to argue her case, this time for clemency for the Jews. Her request involved expense to the king. Esther would not have been sure he would grant it. Ahasuerus could have spared the life of the queen and Mordecai and let the rest of their fellow Jews perish. Esther’s commitment to her people, which jeopardized her own safety, was very selfless and accounts for the high honor the Jews have given her since these events transpired. Mordecai witnessed her plea (Esther 8:7).

"The Book of Esther is set in the reign of Xerxes, who was heavily committed to Zoroastrianism of an orthodox variety and who reversed the practice of religious tolerance of his predecessors. He destroyed the main idol of Bel Marduk, the temple of Marduk, Esagila, and many other Mardukian temples." [Note: Robert J. Littman, "The Religious Policy of Xerxes and the Book of Esther," Jewish Quarterly Review NS65:3 (January 1975):155.]

In view of the king’s religious intolerance, it took great courage for Esther to request mercy for the Jews.

"It is very moving to see the extent to which this young girl, who has everything money can buy, identifies herself with her own kith and kin, and is prepared to risk everything in an attempt to prevent the disaster that threatens them." [Note: Baldwin, p. 95.]

"At the beginning of this story, Esther and Mordecai were hardly exemplary in the way they practiced their religious faith; but now we get the impression that things have changed. Both of them have affirmed their Jewish nationality and both were the means of calling all the Jews in the empire to prayer and fasting. In one sense, they spearheaded a Jewish ’revival’ and made being Jewish a more honorable thing in the empire." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 742.]

The king did not have authority in his government to cancel decrees (cf. Esther 1:19; Daniel 6:17). This awkward policy tended to lend weight to the king’s official pronouncements (as when the pope speaks ex cathedra for Roman Catholics).