CRITICAL NOTES.]
Esther 8:3.] Haman was dead, but the edict which he had issued remained in force: therefore Esther “wept and made supplication” to Ahasuerus.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Esther 8:3-4
SIN SURVIVES THE SINNER
When Haman was executed Ahasuerus doubtless expected to be left at peace. He would suppose that by one strenuous effort he had delivered himself from the encircling confusion; and, unaccustomed to personal effort and responsibility, he would overrate the good he had accomplished. So men are continually surprised if a little virtuous effort is not considered a full compensation for a long course of sin. But evil is not easily rooted out of a heart, or out of a state. Bad habits once formed in the heart soon become inveterate; and bad institutions once founded in a state tend to perpetuate themselves for ever. It is written in the Psalms, “Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” So, frequently, sin bears painful fruits long after the sinner himself has grievously repented. Thus David received Divine forgiveness, and yet along with Uriah’s life the splendour and happiness of his reign faded away for ever. As he sinned with Bathsheba, so Amnon sinned with Tamar; as he murdered Uriah, so Absalom murdered Amnon; and as his pride numbered the people, so Adonijah’s pride, and Absalom’s pride, rebelled against his authority. Let no man fancy that by a little repentance he can undo the effects of a great sin. As some weeds are hardly to be eradicated from a favourable soil, so sin finds a congenial lodging in the heart, and is slow to leave. Ahasuerus, who looked to spend his days in idle dalliance, now learnt that Haman’s death had not delivered him from his troubles, for Esther came to him to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite.
I. Evil outlives its first contrivers. (a) Haman is dead, but the mischief he devised still hangs over the Jews. The laws of Persia could not be reversed, and therefore Haman’s edict had to stand; the laws of nature will not be reversed, and therefore a thing done once is done for ever. A passing stranger may loosen a stone in an embankment, and go on his way; but a whole province will bewail his folly. An infidel father trains most carefully an infidel son; the son becomes an eminent and influential writer, and spreads through a whole generation the fatal poison he imbibed on his father’s knee. An English colonist, filled with pity for the Caribbæans, introduces negro slavery into the West Indies,—doing evil that good may come,—and for centuries those fair islands are cursed by his device. Always men perish, but their work remains. As he who scatters thistledown in a field of wheat does an evil which years may be needed to cure; so every sinner scatters bad seed into a prolific soil. (b) Evil tends to permanency, because of the natural corruption of the heart. As acids and alkalis have a mutual affinity, so that they rush together with violence, and can only be separated by force; so is there an affinity between the heart and sin. Hence, when evil is once published there are many ready to embrace it. Certain constitutions of body will take every infectious disease that they approach; and every form of evil finds somewhere a congenial home. This principle is assisted by the solidarity of our race. The whole universe is bound into one system, with a mutual interdependence among all its parts: the meanest and the noblest parts of creation are indissolubly bound together. Especially is this true of man. No man liveth to himself. We are all so closely locked and interlocked together that what affects one affects all. Now if man were not liable to disease, or if, being liable, he could live alone, there would be no epidemics; so if man were not liable to sin, or if, being liable, he could be set free from his fellow-sinners, evil might soon cease. But as the case is, sin ever tends to spread widely, and to stand permanently.
II. Evil yields before holy self-sacrifice. Esther, having had formerly so free an access and so good success in her appeals, ventures to draw near again. (α) Esther was intensely solicitous, for we read, “she wept and besought him.” The welfare of the people was dearer to her than her own. The mere dilettante accomplishes nothing, for evil grows naturally; while virtue is like those birds of song which come from afar, are caught with difficulty, and are ever ready to depart. There must be strenuous effort on the part of those who would do good. She wept over temporal ruin; do we weep over spiritual ruin? (β) Esther was persistent. She came again. As her former success encouraged her to approach again to an earthly, so our former successes should encourage us to approach the heavenly King. Like the poor widow, men ought always to pray and not to faint. (γ) Esther was boldly self-sacrificing. Un bidden she came to the king, bearing her life in her hands. A noble type of the sacrifice and intercession of Christ is presented by this scene in the life of Esther. In entire self-forgetfulness and self-surrender she ventured her life in order to plead for her kindred; and Christ gave his life that, now within the veil, he might make intercession for his kinsmen after the flesh. (δ) Esther succeeded. The king stretched out the golden sceptre. Oh, Esther, thou hast won for ever the gratitude of every Jew. Moses delivered from slavery; thou hast delivered from death! A sword was about to destroy the whole race, and thy fair neck was stretched under to avert the blow! Our Intercessor has equal success. As the wishes of Mordecai were presented by Esther, and she brought back assured safety; so our petitions, poor, babbling cries, are presented by Christ, sprinkled with his own blood, and return to us in showers of blessing.
III. Evil crushed, but not killed. Ahasuerus could only allow Mordecai to invent some contrivance to counteract the evil. To undo the wickedness of Haman seemed impossible, and, to avoid the results of it, the whole empire incurred the risk of civil war. To destroy is always easier than to save; and many a man, who has no hammer for building, has a good torch for burning. As a madman may set on fire a cathedral which a whole generation cannot rebuild, or as a child may tear a painting which only a Raphael could reproduce; so one sin may ruin a soul which only God could save. Partially the effects of sin may be destroyed. The guilty conscience may be set at rest, and the foul heart may be cleansed; the gates of hope may be opened, and those of despair may be shut; but some of the effects endure for ever. A prodigal wastes his estate by intemperance, and it is never restored; a nation is hurried by ambition into unjust war, and is maimed for ever; a suicide takes poison, and has no more opportunity of repentance on earth. The action may be temporary, and the results eternal.
IV. Practical lessons. (α) The folly of infallibility. For either Pope or Kaiser to say, “The thing is settled, and cannot be reconsidered,” is to doom the Church or the State to dire disaster. For the imperfect state of man on earth, “live and learn” is a suitable motto. But, like the Bourbons, the kings of Persia learnt nothing and forgot nothing. (β) The power of intercession. Our Lord himself takes a precisely parallel case to that of Esther to teach the efficacy of prayer. As she, in the parable, won by her importunity a blessing from the unwilling, much more may we by our pleading secure the mercy of the ever-willing. Esther’s earnestness, her humility, and her self-forgetfulness, teach how to draw near to God. (γ) The awful nature of sin. The actions that are performed the most thoughtlessly may ruin the soul. As one frosty night when the bloom is on the trees may destroy the hopes of spring, as one fierce gale may dash the gallant ship against the rocks; so one sin may ruin the soul. Sickness does not weaken its hold, and death does not destroy its venom. If once the venom is seated in the soul, there is only one healer, and he Almighty, who can wash away the stain.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Esther 8:3-4
Sin never dies of age. It is as when a young man dies in the full fire and strength of his youth by some vehement distemper; it, as it were, tears and forces and fires his soul out of his body. He that will come and fight it out with his corruption to the last shall find that it will sell its life at a dear rate; it will strive and fight for it, and many a doubtful conflict will pass between that and the soul. It may give a man many a wound, many a foil, and many a disheartening blow; for, believe it, the strong man will fight for his possession.—South.
My friends, the old statement, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” is absolutely true, universally true. The gospel is not its abrogation. It modifies it, gives it a new aspect, in some respects it gives it a new incidence; but be sure of this, that the harvest has to be gathered. If you waste your youth no repentance will send the shadow back upon the dial, or recover the ground lost by idleness, or restore the constitution shattered by dissipation, or give again the resources wasted upon vice, or bring back fleeting opportunities. If you forget God and live without him in the world, fancying that it is time enough to become “religious” when you “have had your fling,”—even were you to come back at last, and remember how few do,—you could not obliterate the remembrance of misused years, nor the deep marks which they had left upon imagination, and thought, and taste, and habit.—Maclaren.
When the king “held out the golden sceptre towards Esther” she was animated with greater confidence, and “stood before him” with touching tenderness, and hearty self-consecration to the cause which she pleaded. She importuned him to issue a new decree, reversing the edict of Haman for the destruction of the Jews—“For how,” said she, “can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” Her love for her people was intense, self-sacrificing, and disinterested. She hinged her intercession upon that love. For her own sake did she ask that the lives of her kindred should be spared. In this aspect of it her intercession reminds us of the advocacy and intercession of the Saviour. How vast was his love for his people! Not only did he imperil his life for their sakes, but gave himself “a ransom for many.” He intercedes for them in heaven, and is mighty and all-prevailing because that intercession is centred in himself. How could he endure to see those perish for whom he died? and whom, in his exaltation, he ardently loves? If such a contingency could be supposed possible the trial would overwhelm him, and spoil his satisfaction and joy. They are his kindred—his brethren; and in testimony of his love for them, as well as in proof of his ceaseless intercession in their behalf, he appears in the midst of the throne, and of the elders, and of the living ones, “a lamb as it had been slain.” How many Jews were there in Persia who knew of the sentence of death which had been passed against them, but who knew not the powerful, loving intercessor whom they had before the king! And there are not a few, even within the enclosure of the Church, who, whilst dreading the condemnation under which they have been laid by sin, take not home to their hearts the consolation which arises from the intercession of the Saviour. As the appearance of Esther before the king, with her tears and earnest love-pleading, would have sent a thrill of hope throughout millions of hearts in the Persian empire, had it been everywhere visible, so could the sight of Christ before the throne of God be witnessed by faith by all believers, the burden of fear which oppresses many souls throughout the earth would be removed, and there would be the peace and tranquillity of resting in his love. In the survey of our own condition he could not discover any arguments which he could successfully use to secure our forgiveness and final deliverance, but in himself he has all-prevailing pleas. And whilst the believer’s prayers derive their power from the concluding words—“For Jesus’ sake;” these words receive their confirmation and response in heaven, where Jesus pleads in our behalf for his own name’s sake.
“Fair is the lot that’s cast for me,
I have an advocate with thee;
And he is safe, and must succeed,
For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead.”
McEwen.
Oh queen, thou art victor now! Thou art ascending a higher and a holier throne than that on which thou wast crowned on the day of thine espousals. Thy great king was but now holding forth to thee the golden sceptre on which thy very life was hung, and thou didst arise and stand as a weeping suppliant before him. And lo! now thou art waving a far more powerful sceptre, albeit invisible, over his head! Thou art ruling him partly by the power of womanly beauty and accomplishment over a fitful but susceptible nature, but still more by the irresistible power of moral earnestness, by the grandeur of patriotism, and by the holy spell of self-sacrificing love! And soon the pens of the scribes will be busy for thee, and the swift beasts will be carrying thy message of life to distant provinces, and thy poor people far and near will gratefully bless thy name.—Raleigh.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Esther 8:3. Honesty in little things. One of the kings of Persia, who is famous in history for his exact justice, was once out hunting, when, finding himself hungry, he ordered the people to dress a deer that they had just taken. When all was nearly ready, they found that they had forgotten to bring any salt with them, so they sent a lad off to fetch some from a village at a little distance. The king overheard them, and, calling to the boy, said, “And mind you take money to pay for it.” The attendants expressed their surprise at his thinking of such trifles, and asked what harm there could be in taking a handful of salt. The king replied, “All the evil that now troubles the earth first began in such trifles, till by degrees it grew to its present height; and if I take the salt, my officers will perhaps seize the cow.”
“To put away the mischief of Haman” as it had now reached its climax was difficult. Great evil would have been prevented had Haman in the first instance put away the mischief that was brooding in his heart.