The Book of Esther

Word Study

"let my life be given me," Hebrew tinnathen-li naphshi (תִּנָּתֶן־לִי נַפְשִׁי). The moment of revelation arrives. When the king again asks Esther's petition, she pleads first for "my life" and then for "my people." Note how she has fully identified herself with her people; she does not seek to save only herself but says "we are sold, I and my people." The queen risks her own royal safety by publicly declaring herself a Jew, one of the very people condemned.

"to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish," le-hashmid la-harog u-le-abbed (לְהַשְׁמִיד לַהֲרוֹג וּלְאַבֵּד), the very three verbs of Haman's decree (chapter 3:13). She quotes Haman's decree back, "to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish," the exact language of the death sentence. And she adds a shrewd point: had they merely been sold into slavery, she would have kept silent, but this was annihilation, a loss the king himself could not afford. Esther's plea is a model of courageous, self-forgetting intercession: she stands with her people in their peril, identifies fully with them, and pleads for their lives at the risk of her own. This is the heart of an intercessor, one who so identifies with those in danger that their cause becomes her own, and who pleads for them before the throne. Esther could have saved herself by silence (Haman did not know she was a Jew), but she cast her lot with her people and spoke.

Explanation

When the king asked her petition, Esther pleaded for her own life and the life of her people, fully identifying herself with the condemned Jews, "we are sold, I and my people." She publicly declared herself one of the very people marked for destruction, risking her royal safety. She quoted Haman's decree back, "to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish," and noted that this was not mere slavery but annihilation. Esther's plea models courageous, self-forgetting intercession: she stood with her people in their danger, made their cause her own, and pleaded for their lives at the risk of her own.

Gospel Focus

Esther's plea, "let my life be given me... and my people," identifying fully with her condemned people and interceding for them at the risk of her own life, is a beautiful picture of intercession, and a shadow of Christ. Esther could have stayed silent and saved herself, but she cast her lot with her people and pleaded their cause before the throne. In this she foreshadows the Lord Jesus, the great Intercessor, who did not merely risk His life but gave it, fully identifying with His people, "he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12). He "ever liveth to make intercession" for us (Hebrews 7:25), and pleads our cause before the Father, "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). Esther's example also calls us to intercede for others, to so identify with those in peril, physical or spiritual, that their cause becomes our own, and to plead for them before God. Paul had such a heart: "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren" (Romans 9:3). Do not stay silent to save yourself when others are perishing; stand with them, take up their cause, and plead for them, following the greater Intercessor who gave Himself for His people and ever lives to plead for them at the throne of grace.

Word Study

"adversary and enemy," Hebrew ish tzar ve-oyev (אִישׁ צַר וְאוֹיֵב), a man who is a foe and enemy. When the king demands to know who would dare to plot such a thing, Esther points directly at him: "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." The exposure is total and public. The man who had risen to the second place in the empire, who had built a gallows for Mordecai and planned the extermination of a people, is unmasked before the king and queen as "this wicked Haman." His mask is off; his scheme is exposed; his doom is at hand. The exposure of "this wicked Haman" is the beginning of his end.

"was afraid," nivath (נִבְעַת), was terrified, struck with dread. And the result: "Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen." The terror that seized Haman is telling. The man who had struck fear into an entire people, whose decree had thrown a city into perplexity and a nation into mourning, is now himself gripped by dread. The tables have turned completely. The proud oppressor, so confident and arrogant just hours before, now trembles in fear before the very people he despised. This is the fate of the wicked when their hidden schemes are brought to light: "the wicked flee when no man pursueth" (Proverbs 28:1), and when exposed before the judge, they are seized with terror. Haman had made others afraid; now he is afraid. Sin, so bold in the dark, is terrified in the light.

Explanation

When the king demanded to know who would dare such a plot, Esther pointed directly at him: "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." The second most powerful man in the empire was publicly unmasked as a wicked schemer, and "Haman was afraid before the king and the queen." The man who had terrified an entire people was now himself gripped by dread. The tables turned completely: the proud, confident oppressor now trembled before those he despised. Exposed and doomed, the bold sinner was seized with terror the moment his scheme was brought to light.

Gospel Focus

Haman, exposed as "this wicked" man and seized with terror, shows the fate of hidden evil when it is brought to light. The bold oppressor who terrified others trembles the moment he is unmasked before the judge. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1). Sin thrives in darkness but is terrified in the light, "every one that doeth evil hateth the light... lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). This points to a final and universal exposure, for "there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known" (Matthew 10:26); "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16). Every hidden scheme, every secret sin, will one day be brought before the throne, and the unrepentant will stand in terror, as Haman did. This is a solemn warning to turn from secret sin now, while there is time for mercy, rather than to be exposed and terrified in the day of judgment. But for those who bring their sins now into the light and confess them to God, there is forgiveness, not terror: "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light... the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Do not be a Haman, bold in hidden evil until the day of exposure; walk in the light, confess your sin, and find mercy in Christ before the day when every secret is revealed.

Word Study

"the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai," the seventy-five-foot gallows of chapter 5:14. The poetic justice is complete: "So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai." The gallows Haman built the day before to destroy Mordecai (chapter 5:14) became the instrument of his own death. The enemy fell into the very pit he dug; the trap he set for another sprang shut on himself. This is one of the clearest illustrations in all Scripture of the principle that evil recoils upon its author. Haman spent his last day of freedom building a gallows for a righteous man, and God saw to it that he hanged on it himself. "He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made" (Psalm 7:15). Note the exquisite completeness of the reversal: Haman had wanted Mordecai dead and himself honored; instead Mordecai was honored (chapter 6) and Haman is dead, on his own gallows. The unnamed God has brought the wicked man's schemes down upon his own head, exactly as He promised: "whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him" (Proverbs 26:27). The gallows meant for the servant of God became the gallows of God's enemy.

"was... pacified," Hebrew shakhakhah (שָׁכָכָה), subsided, was appeased. And "then was the king's wrath pacified", the danger to Esther and, through her, to her people, is turned aside. The royal fury that had blazed up against Haman's treachery subsides once the traitor is gone. The chief enemy is destroyed, and the deliverance is secured (though the decree still stands, to be dealt with in chapter 8).

Explanation

The poetic justice was complete: Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had built the day before to destroy Mordecai. The trap he set for another sprang shut on himself; the enemy fell into the pit he dug. Haman had wanted Mordecai dead and himself honored; instead Mordecai was honored and Haman died on his own gallows. And "the king's wrath was pacified", the danger was turned aside and the deliverance secured. The unseen God had brought the wicked man's schemes crashing down upon his own head, exactly as Scripture promises evil will recoil upon its author.

Gospel Focus

"They hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai" is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of evil recoiling upon its author. The trap Haman built for a righteous man destroyed him instead. "He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head" (Psalm 7:15-16); "whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein" (Proverbs 26:27); "be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). The schemes of the wicked against God's people become the instruments of their own downfall, for God overrules them. And this points to the ultimate reversal at the cross. There the enemy, the devil, meant the death of Christ for the destruction of God's purposes; but God turned that very "tree," that instrument of death, into the defeat of the enemy and the salvation of the world. "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14); Christ, on the cross, "spoiled principalities and powers... triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). The enemy's own weapon, death, became the means of his defeat. So Haman's gallows is a shadow of the cross: the very device of destruction, turned by God into deliverance. Take comfort, people of God: the schemes of your enemies will recoil upon themselves, and the God who hanged Haman on his own gallows has, in Christ, turned the enemy's greatest weapon into his final defeat.