Esther 7:10 - Homiletics

Wrath pacified.

Ahasuerus, unlike Jonah, "did well to be angry." Haman had plotted against the life of his favourite queen, and one of his most serviceable friends, and against an unoffending community. And he had all but usurped the royal authority in causing the gallows to be reared on which be intended that Mordecai should be put to death. A righteous anger led to what would have been deemed in him, an arbitrary sovereign, a just act of retribution. And only when the judicial sentence was carried out against the offender was "the king's wrath pacified."

I. HUMAN ANGER .

1 . This is sometimes righteous. "Be ye angry and sin not." Indignation against wrong and wrath with the oppressor are virtues, without which man is scarcely human.

2 . Anger is always to be treated with suspicion. We are all prone, like Ahasuerus, to be angry with what hurts ourselves, and our sense of our rights and dignity, rather than with what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Let us ask ourselves whether our anger is justifiable—is sympathy with the Divine righteousness, or is mere selfish passion.

3 . Anger should not be confounded with personal revenge. Wrath may be pacified by malevolent action, and then "sin lieth at the door."

II. DIVINE ANGER .

1 . God is angry—with the wicked—every day. The Scriptures represent him as regarding the evil-doing of men with displeasure and with wrath.

2 . In the midst of wrath God remembers mercy. This is the message of the gospel, which does not conceal God's indignation at sin or his displeasure with the sinner; but shows that he is just, and the Justifier of the believer in Christ. He condemns the sin in pardoning the sinner. "Thou wast angry; but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst us."

Lessons:—

1 . Rejoice that God is pacified and reconciled.

2 . Accept his offers of mercy.

3 . Seek to share his placable and forgiving spirit.