(6) And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. (7) Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; (8) If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king hath said.
It should seem that Haman had no consciousness that Esther was a Jew, for if he had it would have struck him, that Esther was implicated in the warrant of the king, for the general execution of all the Jews. Probably, the LORD overruled this to his more sure destruction. And I cannot but think, that the same gracious LORD overruled the mind of Esther, from some cause which she perhaps could not even to herself explain, why she postponed making known what her request was, the first day of the banquet. The opening of the next chapter informs us, that the same night, which was the night preceding the second banquet, the king's sleep departed from him, and by a providence he had no consciousness of, he was led to the perusal of the chronicles of his kingdom, where Mordecai's loyalty was brought to his recollection, in saving the king's life from a conspiracy, as mentioned in the second chapter. Hence, therefore, this became a great strengthening to promote the gracious designs of GOD, in the deliverance of his church and people from Haman's cruelty. Reader! nothing is more profitable than to watch even the smallest leadings of GOD'S providences. The least token, the least word sometimes dropped, when it is to accomplish the designs of GOD, become the introduction to a train of the greatest events. Esther's postponing her request no doubt was productive of great mercy. Reader! do not fail to recollect, how enhanced the LORD'S blessings frequently are by their delay. We are, like children, all in haste to gather the fruit, though unripe, and would be injurious. GOD keeps it till it is more suited for us, and our hearts more suited to receive it.