April 13, 2023

Esther 7, 8 (HCSB)
1 The king and Haman came to feast with Esther the queen. 2 Once again, on the second day while drinking wine, the king asked Esther, "Queen Esther, whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek, even to half the kingdom, will be done." 3 Queen Esther answered, "If I have obtained your approval, my king, and if the king is pleased, spare my life-[this is] my request; and [spare] my people-[this is] my desire. 4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and extermination. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn't be worth burdening the king." 5 King Ahasuerus spoke up and asked Queen Esther, "Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?" 6 Esther answered, "The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman." Haman stood terrified before the king and queen. 7 Angered by this, the king arose from where they were drinking wine and [went to] the palace garden. Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him. 8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the house of wine drinking, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, "Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palace?" As soon as the statement left the king's mouth, Haman's face was covered. 9 Harbona, one of the royal eunuchs, said: "There is a gallows 75 feet tall at Haman's house that he made for Mordecai, who [gave] the report that saved the king." The king commanded, "Hang him on it." 10 They hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's anger subsided.
8
1 That same day King Ahasuerus awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai entered the king's presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai. 2 The king removed his signet ring he had recovered from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put him in charge of Haman's estate.  3 Then Esther addressed the king again. She fell at his feet, wept, and begged him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite, and his plot he had devised against the Jews. 4 The king extended the golden scepter toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king. 5 She said, "If it pleases the king, and I have found approval before him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his sight, let [a royal edict] be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews who [reside] in all the king's provinces. 6 For how could I bear to see the evil that would come on my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?" 7 King Ahasuerus said to Esther the Queen and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have given Haman's estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews. 8 You may write in the king's name whatever pleases you concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. A document written in the king's name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked." 9 On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is, the month Sivan), the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai ordered for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. [The edict was written] for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language. 10 Mordecai wrote in King Ahasuerus' name and sealed [the edicts] with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses bred from the royal racing mares. 11 The king's edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war. 12 [This would take place] on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar. 13 A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province. It was to be published for every ethnic group so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day. 14 On their royal horses, the couriers rode out in haste, at the king's urgent command. The law was also issued in the fortress of Susa.15 Mordecai went out from the king's presence clothed in royal purple and white, with a great golden crown and a purple robe of fine linen. The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced, 16 and the Jews celebrated with gladness, joy and honor. 17 In every province and every city, wherever the king's command and his law reached, rejoicing and jubilation took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday.  And, many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.

Marliss O'Neal
In these chapters, a lot of the story concludes as Haman is dead, Esther has been given his estate and Mordecai is elevated to a new position. Esther has delivered her request with wise and patient restraint waiting on God’s timing. But, the problem still remains that the royal edict cannot be revoked. Esther is wise once again with a solution to request a new edict be written to allow the Jews to assemble and protect themselves from any attack. We are similarly under two edicts in our lives. Our first is that because of our sins we will die. But God, in His sovereign grace, has written another edict for us. He has won the victory over sin and death and given us all the opportunity to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be saved! But just like they had to deliver the news of the second edict for it to be received and believed, we also must deliver the good news of salvation and life that is found in Jesus Christ.