Esther 9:1-16 - Homiletics

Deliverance and victory.

The history of "the chosen nation" is full of Divine deliverances. The present is only one of the many instances in which, by faith, the Israelites "escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

I. THE MEANS of the deliverance and victory here related. Royal authority primarily accounts for it. Only by the sanction of the king could the Jews dare to draw the sword and withstand their foes. Ministerial encouragement supported this sanction. It was known that Mordecai, the chief minister of Ahasuerus, was thoroughly earnest in the matter, and would countenance his countrymen in their proceedings. Official help was given. Probably the enemies of the Jews were among the idolatrous tribes, and the Persian officers and rulers were instructed to favour the Jews against their heathen foes. National courage explains the valiant stand which was made by the children of the captivity. "A good cause, a good conscience, and a good courage" secured the victory.

II. THE COMPLETENESS of the deliverance and victory. Fear, panic, dread of the Jews seized their enemies, and the oppressed "had rule over" the oppressors. The enemies were slain in great numbers wherever an encounter took place. Mordecai and his party triumphed over their foes in the public hanging on the gibbet of the dead bodies of Haman's ten sons. The magnanimity of the victorious was shown in their not laying hand upon the spoil, which was wise, inasmuch as it was thus made apparent that their only aim was security, and that they sought not plunder, and also that they did not wish to avail themselves of the king's generosity, but to replenish his treasury rather than their own.

III. THE MARVEL of the deliverance and victory. How contrary to the designs of Haman, the most powerful personage in the realm! How contrary to the expectations of the Jews themselves, who were naturally enough oppressed with the sense of their danger, and the prospect of their extermination! How contrary to the forebodings of the neighbours of the Jews, who had joined in their distress and lamentations with true and friendly sympathy. "God's ways are not as our ways, neither our thoughts as his thoughts." This is the appropriate benediction which the reader of the Megillah, at the feast of Purim, pronounces at its close: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast contended our contest, judged our cause, hast avenged our wrongs, requited all the enemies of our souls, and hast delivered us from our oppressors. Blessed art thou, who hast delivered thy people from all their oppressors, thou Lord of salvation."