CRITICAL NOTES.]
Esther 8:15. Crown of gold] Not a crown like the king’s, but a mere golden band or coronet—Atarah.—Rawlinson. Royal apparel of blue and white. State garments such as became the grand vizier; royal robes of royal colours.—Whedon. It is well to compare this description of Mordecai’s appearance on leaving the palace with Xenophon’s description of the attire in which Cyrus himself appeared in public. “Cyrus himself then appeared, wearing a turban, which was raised high above his head, with a vest of a purple colour, half mixed with white; and this mixture of white none else is allowed to wear. On his legs he had yellow buskins; his outer robe was wholly of purple; and about his turban was a diadem or wreath” (Cyrop. viii. 3, 13). Every one of these things occur in the description of Mordecai’s royal attire, except the yellow buskins. Xenophon, however, adds, that the diademed turban was not peculiar to the king, but was allowed to his relations. This doubtless answers to the “great crown” which Mordecai wore. The description does not correspond with the appearance of the cap which the king wears in the sculptures of Persepolis. This difference, which has perplexed antiquarians, is probably owing to the fact that the sculptures represented the king as he usually appeared in his palace; whereas the description refers to his appearance when he went abroad, or on occasions of high state within-doors.—Kitto. The garments in which Mordecai left the king are evidently the State garments of the first minister, which Mordecai received at his installation to his office; and, as such, no fresh token of royal favour, but only his induction in his new dignity, and a sign of his induction to all who saw him issue from the palace so adorned.—Keil. City of Shushan rejoiced] That is, the inhabitants as a whole. They had probably deprecated the massacre awaiting the Jews, and perhaps apprehended with fear the great disorders and dangers that would ensue.—Lange.
Esther 8:16. The Jews had light] Light (this particular form of the noun occurs only here and Psalms 109:12) is a figurative expression for prosperity.
Esther 8:17. And many of the people became Jews] This must not be explained only, as by Clericus and Grotius, of a change of religion on the part of the heathen that they might procure the favour of the queen, and avert the wrath of Mordecai. This may have induced some; but the majority certainly acted from a conviction, forced upon them by the unexpected turn of affairs in favour of the Jews, of the truth of the Jewish religion, and the power of that faith and trust in God manifested by the Jews, and so evidently justified by the fall of Haman, and the promotion of Mordecai,—Keil.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Esther 8:15-17
DAYS OF REJOICING
AFTER a dark and stormy night, when the clouds have hidden every star, and the fierce winds have been howling over hill and dale, what gladness fills all animated nature as the sun arises in the East. He floods the valleys with his cheerful light, and kindles a blaze of glory upon the mountain-tops. Then the thief and assassin, with every unclean and loathsome creature, seek their hiding-place; then the honest artisan goes forth to his task until the evening; and then sweet concerts are heard in every grove. So after the days of national gloom came the morning of gladness to the Jews. Man’s extremity once again proved to be God’s opportunity. As when the breath of heaven sweeps onward through the open sky, and meets there with an easy reception, it creates little commotion; but when it meets the strength of a forest, the same wind grows mighty, and dwells there till it compels the tall trees to bow, and yield a triumphant passage over the top of all their glories. So in days of quiet, men pass easily along, and are barely conscious of the presence of God; but when affliction or persecution ariseth because of the Word, then God wonderfully interferes to save his chosen people, and even his foes are constrained to cry, “Galilean, thou hast conquered.” So had Jehovah vindicated the rights of his people, and compelled even the heathen to acknowledge that his ways were wonderful Days can never be so dark but that the sun may burst through the cloud; our difficulties can never be so great but that our Master can lift us above them all; and often “where sin has made a difficulty, grace has made a triumph.” Now Haman’s devices end in the exaltation of Mordecai, and the threatened destruction of the Jews leads directly to the enlargement of their nation.
I. Honour paid to a wise minister. The once despised Mordecai now issues from the palace clothed in royal apparel, and wearing a crown of gold. It is not always that a wise minister wins national honour. Every age has seen examples of great statesmen hurled from power by the vices of the great, or by the folly of the crowd. But happy is that country in which the poor wise man is not despised. (α) Such a man, placed at the head of the state, will not be blinded by personal vices. Frequently the dearest interests of a nation have been sacrificed to the luxury of the minister; but a man of virtue will always be on the watch for opportunities to serve his generation. (β) A great statesman, again, will not be biassed by selfish motives. To increase his own wealth or prestige, to promote the prosperity of family or party, or to injure the power of a rival, are desires never cherished in such a breast. It should be easier to turn the sun from his path than a statesman from the path of duty. (γ) A great statesman will recognize the supremacy of virtue. The will of God is his supreme law, and his final reward is the approval of that unseen Master. (δ) A great minister, once more, will live for the welfare of others. To raise the fallen, to vindicate the oppressed, to afford an asylum to the slave, to increase the food of the poor, to care for the education of the child, and to promote the glory of God—such is the noble vocation of a truly wise minister of state.
II. A nation rejoicing under the good minister’s shadow. “The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honour.” The Jews had (α) the joy of deliverance. The poet Spenser writes:—
Ease after war, port after stormy seas,
Rest after toil, death after life, doth greatly please.
So there is always joy in a sudden change from danger to safety. As a gentle mother prepares pleasant surprises for her child, so God’s providence frequently delights his people with a sudden change of prospect; and he who was in darkness now finds the light doubly precious. There was also (β) the joy of safety. The danger was not only postponed, but removed. Hitherto they had lived as strangers in a strange land, liable at any time to plots like those of Haman. Such has been the history of the Jews in every nation under heaven. Now, at least for a time, they were safe under the shadow of Esther the queen, and Mordecai the statesman. Every history tells how the liability to a crushing disaster unsettles the morals of a people, and drives men headlong into vice. Every man knows, also, from his own experience, how completely a sense of insecurity detracts from happiness. Hitherto the Jews had been like a man stood on a narrow plank over a yawning chasm. A false step, a sudden breeze, or a weak spot in the board, will precipitate him into the abyss. But now the Jews were standing on a massive rock, and were able to look back on the danger from which they were escaped. (γ) They had also the joy and honour of large accessions. A man’s faith redoubles in intensity when he can persuade others to believe it; and the Jews’ confidence in their national glory would wonderfully increase when they saw the heathen offering themselves as converts to the true faith.
III. The triumph of religion. “Many of the people of the land became Jews.” So always wise rulers may be as nursing fathers to the Church. Multitudes are led by the example of the great; many may be only influenced by the desire for worldly prosperity, and some will be genuine converts. Without the imputation of any sinister motives, two valid reasons can be assigned for this sudden development of Judaism. (α) Many are influenced only by visible signs. Now this wonderful interposition of providence on behalf of the Jews would be to many a sufficient proof that God was on their side. (β) Others, of a nobler sort, might first hear of Judaism as a power in the State through the very tumults excited by Haman. They would then inquire into the history and claims of this strange religion, and become convinced of its truth. Thus the wrath of man is made to praise God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Esther 8:15-17
This narrative may teach us that in the darkest and most unpromising circumstances there is nearly always some way of relief and improvement. How seldom are things so in human life that literally nothing can be done! There is something unrepealable in all important human action. But there is also much that may be practically repealed. I think we may say that never, at any one time, in the history of a nation; never, in the life of an individual, are things so dark and bad that nothing can be done to amend and lighten them. On the contrary, this world, and the social and individual spheres of it, this whole mundane system, is constructed on the plan, so to say, of admitting, suggesting, prompting to, and furnishing, the means of continual recovery.
If this were not so, the world would soon be full of the most pitiable spectacles that could be conceived; communities and individuals sitting hopelessly amid the gloom of their own failures, amid the consequences of their own mistakes, amid the deepening unhappiness arising from the memory of their own sins—the strokes of penalty heard resounding on every side, the waters of misery rising silently and coldly within, while the long night of despair is deepening and settling without. Such pictures are not to be seen. There is indeed much suffering in the world; some of it penalty, and much of it not. And there are all kinds of calamities, and mischances, and unexpected and unsuspected griefs, and things that ought never to have happened, and things which fill you with sympathy, and pain, and profound regret, and perhaps indignation, as soon as you know them. And there are many mournful people who make the worst of them; or shall we say the best of them, for they really seem to find a kind of dismal enjoyment in seeing how bad they are, and in anticipating that they are going to be still worse.
But who knows not, also, that calamities and misfortunes are retrieved, that injuries are redressed, that mistakes are rectified? Who knows not that oppressions come to an end, and bloody wars, and other evil works? Yes, and those things are accomplished sometimes just when everything appears almost hopeless, and by means which do not seem at all sufficient or equal to the end.—Raleigh.
The joy felt by the Jews was greatly enhanced by the distress into which they had lately been plunged, and by the suddenness and strangeness of the transition. They felt like a sick man at the point of death, when he hears the voice, Deliver from going down to the pit; or like a criminal expecting the hour of his execution, when a pardon is put into his hand. They felt like their fathers when the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion; “they were like them that dream; their mouth was filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing.” And such, my friends, will be the feelings of the ransomed of the Lord, when they shall come to the heavenly Zion; the recollection of all that they have suffered here shall only serve to accent their happiness, and convert it into a joy unspeakable and full of glory. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
The deliverances experienced in time by the Church and people of Jehovah are earnests of that felicity and glory which shall be enjoyed in the future world. But they are also productive of benefits in this life, which make them sources of joy and thanksgiving to all well-affected minds. Besides confirming weak disciples, and adding alacrity to the strong, they are often blessed for making converts, and inducing strangers to join themselves to the people of God. Thus it is written, “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.”*
These promises were partly fulfilled in consequence of the visible interposition of Divine providence, on the occasion referred to in the text. “Many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” They became proselytes to the Jewish religion (for no other meaning can be applied to the words, when the Jews were foreigners), renounced idolatry, and worshipped the true God. “When the Church prospers, and is smiled upon,” says a pious commentator, “many will come into it that will be shy of it when it is in trouble.” But we must not altogether despise such conversions. Though nothing but willing and cordial submission will advantage the souls of individuals, God can glorify himself, and Christ is glorified in the “professed subjection” of men. “Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me;” or, as it is in the margin, “shall yield feigned obedience unto me.”† Not fear, but love, is the principle of genuine and evangelical obedience. But the Spirit of God makes use of the natural principle of fear, in awakening persons to a concern about salvation. “Save yourselves from this untoward generation,” was an apostolical exhortation; and among the effects produced by the preaching and miracles of the primitive Church, this is particularly specified, that “fear came upon every soul;” and again, “great fear came upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these things;” after which it follows, “and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” Amen.—McCrie.
Who could have believed that the contrivances of Haman for the destruction of the Jews would have terminated in the increase of their nation? The lovers of the name of the God of Israel would tremble at Haman’s devices, lest the name of Israel should be put out, and the worship of the God of Israel should be extirpated from the earth. But the revolution of a few weeks convinced them that their God was the same God that he had ever been; and that wherein his enemies dealt proudly, he was still above them. Death and destruction are in the hand of the Lord, and he can make them instrumental for the life, and for bringing about the safety, of his people. “Before him darkness becomes light, and sorrow is turned into joy. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and carrieth the devices of the froward headlong. So the poor have hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.”—Lawson.
And many of the people of the land became Jews.—That is, they were proselyted, professing the Jewish religion, and siding with them; some in sincerity, doubtless, and some out of sinisterity, and for self-respects, because they saw the king favoured them, the queen and Mordecai were altogether with them and for them. So that mixed multitude (Exodus 12:38), moved with miracles, removed out of Egypt with the Israelites, took hold of the skirts of these Jews and said, “We will go with you.” So in David’s days, whilst he dealt prudently and prospered, so that he became the head of the heathen, a people whom he had not known submitted themselves unto him. The like they did in Solomon’s days, as Josephus relateth, as also that the people were then very careful how they received such prosperity-proselytes. So, many strangers followed the captives returning out of Babylon under the conduct of Zerubbabel; and many heathens joined themselves to the Christian congregations under Constantine, the first Christian emperor. The Huns, well-beaten by the Christians, concluded that their God was the true God, and received the gospel. Thus, whether it be in pretence or in truth (as St. Paul hath it) that people come in, God is glorified and his Church amplified, and the saints therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.—Trapp.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Esther 8:17. House of joy.
I see a forest, dark, dim, deep, and dread,
Whose solemn shades no human foot or eye
Can penetrate; but now, oh, see! a veil
Falls from my strengthened eyes; and now
Even in its deepest centre I behold
A spot more beautiful than human heart
Can comprehend; it is the home of joy;
And there the blessed spirit broods for ever,
Making her dwelling-place a heaven; there
The skies are pure as crystal, and the eye
Looks through their clear expanse direct to God.
No sun is there; the air itself is light
And life; a rainbow spans it like a crown
Of tearless glory, and the forest trees
Sweep round it in a belt of living green.
Colour, that wayward sprite of changeful mien,
Is here subdued to an intensity
Of burning lustre. Sound has but one voice,
And that is joyous song; sight but one object,
And that is happiness; mine eyes are strained
To catch the lineaments of the bright queen
Whose dwelling-place I see; but tis in vain;
Nowhere distinct, yet felt in all, she glides,
A shape of light and colour, through the air,
Making its pure transparency to thrill
With the soft music of her viewless step.
Reddal.
A feast and a good day. These Jews had a feast and a good day, for they were delivered from the fear of their enemies. But surely we may go further, and picture them rejoicing because the righteous are vindicated, and the holy ones are now delivered from the hand of the oppressor. The nation may well rejoice when the righteous are exalted. God often gives to his people on earth a feast and a good day. Every Sabbath should be such a day. Every good day on earth should be a type of the unending feast and uninterrupted good day of heaven. And how transcendent the glory of that world where there shall be no more sin or imperfection, where we all unite in the song, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” “The glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” The idolatrous temple of Diana was so bright and splendid that the door-keeper always cried to them that entered it, “Take heed to your eyes.” But what faculties of vision must we have to behold the glory of the temple above! If it is said that the righteous themselves shall shine forth as the sun, what will be the splendour of the Eternal Throne! What a delightful change from this world of darkness and imperfection to that where all shall be light and glory!