(1) В¶ And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea. (2) And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
The greatness and power of this Persian prince would not, I venture to believe, have been noticed in the scripture, had it not been from the situation of the church of God connected with it. The Bible is only careful to carry on the thread of history, respecting the several kingdoms of the world, as they succeeded each other, by way of showing how they ministered to the introduction of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel was commissioned to tell the king of Babylon, that the God of heaven, in the days of these kings, would set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed. Therefore the Reader of the sacred scriptures is led by the hand to observe just so far, and no further, as might enable him to trace the divine footsteps marking the way through these temporary kingdoms, in which the Lord setteth down one, and putteth up another; all ministering, though they thought not so, neither did they intend it, to the bringing in that kingdom of our Lord Jesus, which shall stand forever. Hence, the Persian succeeded to the Babylonian; and the Roman (which about this time began to make a little appearance in the world) was to succeed the Persian; in the most peaceable and flourishing part of which, Christ was to Come. Daniel 2:44.