1. Fighting the Good Fight
In ch.8 we read of the counter-decree issued by Xerxes at the request of Esther and Mordecai. This decree authorises the Jews to protect themselves against any who attack them under the terms of the first decree. It is, essentially, a defensive decree and one that, if enacted, will preserve the Jewish nation and, hence, God’s purposes through them to bless the world.
The future of the Jews was secured by the decree but the fight still needed to be fought on the ground, on the 13th of Adar. As we noted last time, this captures an essential feature of Christian life and experience: Jesus has overcome sin and evil and in him we are saved. Yet, at the same time, that salvation needs to be worked out ‘on the ground’. Just as the Jews needed to take up arms to defend themselves in the battle recorded in ch.9 so too we need to be active in the spiritual warfare that marks the Christian life.
That the battle waged against the Jews was also spiritual in its nature is indicated by the naming of Haman’s sons. Evidence suggests their names were associated with demonic powers in Persian times. This is not just one more instance of nation against nation but this is another instalment of the long battle waged by Satan against the Lord and his people.
Our battle against spiritual foes is real and intense. Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 6 to get ready for battle and to stand strong in the Lord and in his might. But how do we know that we’ll be successful in the battle? Who’s to say we won’t be lost somewhere along the way? Just as the decree of Xerxes is effectively worked out, so too the word of the Lord will stand; it will not return to him empty and fruitless but will do all he sends it out to do.
And that word is for us in Christ, who has triumphed over all the powers of evil and is seated in the highest of all places, far above every other power or name. There is our confidence; there is our hope. Death has no hold on us, evil cannot claim us, because Jesus died and rose again.
But we do need to make sure we fight as God wants us too. We’re told 3 times here (vv.10,15,16) that the Jews refused to take plunder from their enemies, even though the decree specifically allowed for it (remember, it was ‘line for line’ with the original decree). Why did they refuse to what they were permitted to do? Because that wasn’t how the Lord had instructed them to fight holy war. And when they disobeyed his command, it had only brought them trouble (as with Achan).
We need to listen very seriously to what the Lord says about fighting for him. It is not a fight that can be waged with weapons of steel, nor with words that wound. We aim to take every thought captive to Christ in order that blessing may follow.
But was it right for Esther to ask for and get an extra day to finish off the Jews’ enemies? That’s quite a tricky issue and commentators divide on it. It might be that this is evidence that Esther goes too far, that she is overcome in her thinking by worldly ways.
Or it might be that there was a need to do so which is not specified in the text. Certainly, there is precedent for the Lord extending the time for Israel to deal with their enemies (cf. Josh 10:12ff), a parallel which may well indicate approval for what Esther does here. I think that is the case but perhaps the best solution is to say with one writer, “Rather than attempting to resolve [the issue], we should reflect upon it”.
2. Recalling the Victory
With the victory won, the Jews celebrate with great joy and gladness. The story of this great deliverance is written up for future generations to keep the feast and recall the mercies of God. Feasting and joy are always appropriate responses to the salvation God has worked for us as his people and, indeed, Jesus instituted that in the meal he gave us, a eucharistic meal.
What is interesting about this scene in Esther is that a new tradition is started, one that the Lord has not authorised in the law and one that is set in place by a man (Mordecai) who is neither a priest nor an appointed leader of the Jewish people.
Does that make the celebration wrong? Not at all. This is very much in keeping with what Paul writes in Romans 14:5ff where he recognises that, for some, particular days are special and they choose to keep them as such; others choose not to. Who’s wrong? Neither are wrong; both are right. What matters is that whatever is done is done from faith.
Notice, too, the name that this new feast is given. It is known as ‘purim’ because of the ‘pur’ (‘lot’) that Haman has cast “for their ruin and destruction” (9:24). But the Hebrew term for ‘lot’ had a second related meaning, signifying the thing that the casting of the lot obtained.
As such, there is great irony and encouragement in the naming of the feast – listen to how one writer puts it: “the name of the feast, Purim, is a double entendre, signifying that the lot, or destiny, of God’s people would not be determined by Haman’s casting of lots before his gods. Only Yahweh determines the roll of the lot, and only Yahweh determines the lot of his people.” (Jobes)
When we come to the table or whenever we recall the goodness of God to us in Jesus, we can thank him that our lives are not in the balance of fate but held in his powerful grace, revealed in Jesus.
3. God’s People in God’s World
As we come to the end of this remarkable story, I want us to notice that the two great heroes in the story (humanly speaking) are just what we would think of as ‘ordinary believers’. They were not appointed leaders of the Jewish nation; they weren’t priests or prophets set apart by the Lord. They were just a couple of everyday Jews who happened to be in the wrong/right place at that time, who stood up to be counted.
You don’t need to have great and spectacular gifts for your life to count for God and for his kingdom. What counts is God and his ability to take and use people like us, broken and baffled, frail and fallible. Not all of their decisions and actions were necessarily wise but we can say that their overall response to the events that surged around them was God-honouring and kingdom-extending. Wouldn’t it be great if the same thing could be said of us one day too?
In the course of their story, as it is retold here, the absence of God is striking. We’ve suggested it is the writer’s way of making the point that the Lord is behind and underneath everything that happens – nothing is beyond his sanction and control. But maybe it serves a further purpose: Esther and Mordecai may not have been especially conscious of God leading them as the story unfolded; he may have seemed, at times, strangely absent to them, just as he sometimes does to us.
We can’t always say we know what the Lord is doing with us or through us. But that’s what the life of faith looks like – faith is being certain of what we do not see. And so Esther and Mordecai teach us a valuable lesson, as they walk by faith and not by sight. They can’t see the end from the beginning but their hands are in the hand of the one who can and who does.
And the God whom they trust may choose to work through mighty miracles or he may not, as in this case. Do we only trust God if he will work miracles on our behalf? Maybe one of the lessons of this book for the Jewish people was that their God was also active to deliver them not only in mighty miracles like the escape from Egypt but also in unseen ways and through unlikely people. Maybe it’s a lesson for us to learn, too.
“As we continue to live faithfully in Christ, we can be sure that whatever happens to us – the decisions we make, the mistakes we regret, and even the sins that shame us – are all links in God’s plan not only for our individual lives but for his greater work in history. Through his inscrutable ways, along paths that are sometimes dark and treacherous, he brings his people to that day when all creation will rejoice that our sorrow has been turned to joy and our mourning into celebration.” Jobes p.231
