IN the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, there is frequent reference to God, and especially as “the God of heaven,” but in the book of Esther the names of God, Lord, or Jehovah do not appear. But though God is not openly alluded to, His acting’s, to a Spirit-taught mind, are clearly manifest in caring for His own, however low their condition and degrading the circumstances in which they are found.
The scene is the palace of a Persian king. With all its splendor it is man without God. Two Jews are found there, and so far sunken from the sense of their standing of blessedness, as the peculiar objects of God’s love and care, that they are hanging about the Persian court seeking its honor and favor’s. Besides these, multitudes of Jews are scattered throughout the king’s provinces. They had been left in captivity in weakness and reproach, and still are under the world’s power. They are not therefore now standing in open relation to God. It is no marvel then that the name of God does not appear throughout this little book.
Mordecai was a Benjamite. He had been carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He had brought up Esther, his uncle’s daughter, because she was an orphan. Her beauty was proverbial, and she was taken to the palace to be the king’s wife, because he had set aside Vashti, the Gentile wife. The king delighted in her, and she and Mordecai kept quite secret that they were Jews. The king made a great feast, and called it Esther’s feast. Mordecai was faithful to the king, and when he knew the king’s life was in danger through two of his chamberlains, he told Esther, the queen, and the facts being brought to light, both of the chamberlains were hanged on a tree. In all this we see nothing superior to heathenism. (chapters 2:5-32.)
The man, however, who was in the highest office in the empire, even above all the princes, was Haman, an Agagite, a descendant of Amalek. To him therefore Mordecai refused to pay any respect. This was faithful as a Jew. No doubt he remembered that God had sworn that He would have war with Amalek, from generation to generation. (Exodus 17:1616For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Exodus 17:16).) In this he firmly persisted, and it so wounded this Amalekite that he got the king to issue a proclamation, that on a certain day all the Jews in all the king’s provinces should be killed. (chapters 3:1-3.) But this was not all, Haman also ordered a gallows to be made fifty cubits high to hang Mordecai thereon.
At all this Mordecai and Esther were greatly distressed, and in fact Mordecai also rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and cried a loud and bitter cry; he came to the king’s gate, and sent word to Esther to make supplication for him and his people. In every province also there was great mourning and fasting among the Jews. (chapters 4:1, 3, 8, 16.) Haman’s hatred to Mordecai becomes intensified (chapters 5:13, 14), but when at its height, and before Esther had made supplication to the king for the Jews, the power of God is manifestly put forth on their behalf; for however sunken and degraded they may be, God is still Israel’s God. In a certain sense it is still true, that “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. God brought them out of Egypt.... Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel,” &c. (Numbers 24:21-2321And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 22Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive. 23And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this! (Numbers 24:21‑23).) Observe, therefore, that “On that night could not the king sleep,” and he orders the word of the chronicles to be read before him. In this way he heard of Mordecai’s faithfulness in saving the life of the king, and that nothing had been done for him. (chapters 6:1-3.) The result was that Mordecai was exalted to honor; and observe, Haman was commanded by the king to take “royal apparel and the king’s horse, and he arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor” (verse 11). But Haman was hanged on the gallows he had made for Mordecai. Haman’s sons also were hanged upon the gallows, because he had his hand against the Jews. Through the intercession of Esther the queen, a proclamation was sent through all the provinces, that the Jews were to “stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and cause to perish, all that would assault them.” (chapters 7:3-10; 8:1-11.) The result was that the Jews had rule over them that hated them, and the whole thing turned from sorrow to joy. Mordecai (no doubt a type of Him who was first hated and rejected, but will yet be ruler over Israel) was “great among the Jews, accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.” (chapter 10:3.)