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Context No. 3400 of 4322 · Esther (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Esther (Greek) 9:1-11: in context

1Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the month, which is Adar, the letters written by the king arrived. 2In that day, the adversaries of the Jews perished; for no one resisted, through fear of them. 3For the chiefs of the local governors, and the princes and the royal scribes, honored the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai was upon them. 4For the order of the king was in force, that he should be celebrated in all the kingdom. 6In the city Susa the Jews killed five hundred men, 7including Pharsannes, Delphon, Phasga, 8Pharadatha, Barea, Sarbaca, 9Marmasima, Ruphaeus, Arsaeus, and Zabuthaeus, 10the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha the Bugaean, the enemy of the Jews; and they plundered their property on the same day. 11The number of those who perished in Susa was reported to the king.

The day fixed for the destruction of the Jews arrives, but the tables have turned. Through Esther and Mordecai's courage, and through the hidden providence of God, the decree of death has been met by a counter-decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves. And so their enemies, those who had gathered to destroy them, fall instead.

This is not aggression but self-defense against a planned extermination, the deliverance of a people who had been marked for slaughter. Behind the reversal is the quiet hand of God, who is never named in the book of Esther and yet works through every turn to preserve his people. What was meant for their destruction became the very occasion of their rescue. God's providence can overturn even a sealed decree of death, protecting his people when all seemed lost, and often he works it through the courage of ordinary faithful people willing to act at the right moment. No plot against his purposes finally stands.

Do I trust that God's providence can overturn even what seems a sealed doom, working, often unseen, through faithful people to preserve and deliver?

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