Or, The Very Day to the Contrary
Scripture: Esther 9:1-19
Date: October 26, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
It’s been nine years since the first chapter of Esther and the feast thrown by King Ahasuerus. It’s been five years since Esther became Queen to Ahasuerus. It’s been eleven months since Haman lobbied the king for the lives of all Jews, and eight months since Esther and Mordecai sent out a second decree. Now we come to “the twelfth month…on the thirteenth day…the very day” that the whole book of Esther is written to explain.
In Esther 9:1-19 the Jews are in a fight for their lives. From verse 20 through the short chapter 10, the Jews add a feast into their yearly liturgy, an annual holiday of food and gifts to remember the deliverance on “the very day.”
That day did not go according to the expectations of the Persians in two ways. First, the Persians who attacked the Jews expected that they were going to (finally?) get “mastery” over the Jews. Yeah, it’s easier to control a whole group of people when you kill them. The key verse of the chapter is verse 1, which says that “the reverse occurred,” or “it was turned to the contrary” (KJV, NASB). The second contrary from the Persian perspective was that the Jews did not take any plunder. That’s stated three times in the three different scenes through verse 19. You didn’t think the Jews would win, but if they did win, you didn’t think they’d just leave the goods.
They fight for their lives, and also, that’s all they won.
Adar is the name of the last month of the year, though the Jewish year ended in our March. In the first month (Esther 3:7), the administration cast lots to determine the key dates for the upcoming year, and the lots fell on Adar 13 for the annihilation of all the Israelites living in the Persian Empire. This is what Haman paid for.
But as truly wise men know, “every decision” of lots are from the Lord (Proverbs 16:33). This also means that Haman’s hatred rose and fell according to God’s schedule.
Haman wasn’t the only one with animosity toward the Jews. Even though the second decree had gone out authorizing the Jews to defend themselves to death, there were still those who hated them (verses 1, 5, 16). The Jews identified those who sought their harm (verse 2).
Yet no one could stand against them. A kind of dread came over many of their enemies. Even many of the local magistrates, all the officials of the provinces and the royal agents offered help. Mordecai was now the prime minister, and he was more reasonable than the king and also more consistent. Mordecai said what he meant and meant what he sent. Even the art of the decree could have included some reminders of who had authority in the palace to pay for the butter for their bread, so to speak. Mordecai grew more and more powerful as a major political player (verse 4).
So the Jews fought for their lives and were successful. When the story says that they did as they pleased, that’s not unleashed cruelty, but rather a way to say that they didn’t have a hands tied behind their back from doing what they needed to do to defend themselves.
In the capital city alone 500 men were killed, and added to that were the ten sons of Haman. They are named. Sort of an interesting fact, in the Hebrew manuscripts the names of the sons are off to the side of the main column, giving the impression as if the sons are hanging in the margin. Some traditions also said that when the book of Esther is read during Purim all ten names should be said in one breath because, as the Talmud explains, “their souls all departed together.”
The first section ends with, but they laid no hand on the plunder. They could have, but whether or not it affected their reputation before their remaining neighbors, it was right before God. It stands out because the people of Israel had failed this test many times in their history.
The chapter moves from an overall report to the scene inside the palace. That very day the king heard about those killed in Susa, and he talks with Esther about it. All four commentaries I read questioned Esther’s morals in her requests, and called it conduct “unbecoming a woman” (Jobes). My only questions are for the questioners.
Ahasuerus asks about her wish and request again (though, whether or not it’s a big difference, he does not offer up to half the kingdom). She asks for two things. First, she asks for an extension of the same decree for the capital-city Jews. Second, she asks for Haman’s already-dead sons to be hung up on gallows.
Has power gone to Esther’s head? Is she just being vindictive, brutal?
What we don’t know is what intelligence she had, as in, what she was hearing from word on the street. In light of 500 guys dying because they hated the Jews, it’s not ridiculous to suppose that more hatred was out there. What we do know is that 300 more guys did attack on the second day (verse 15). More of what we don’t know is, how many more might have attacked if Haman’s sons hadn’t been hanged. It was a deterrent, not a desecration. This was not Achilles dragging Hector’s dead body behind his chariot around the walls of Troy.
Esther’s request was still for defense, not attack. And this second section also ends with, but they laid no hands on the plunder. All of this demonstrates restraint more than revenge.
Now we find out the answer to the king’s question about how many fools in their hatred struck out against the Jews: 75,000 enemies were killed in self-defense (verse 16).
Again, they laid no hands on the plunder (verse 16), they were fighting for their lives.
The very day is repeated: the thirteenth day of Adar, and then on the fourteenth day they rested and made that day a day of feasting and gladness (verse 17).
But there ended up being two different days of feasting, because the Jews in Susa didn’t have rest until the fifteenth day (verse 18). So the country Jews started their Purim party a day ahead. We’ll see the formal declaration of this feast as part of their annual liturgy in the next part of chapter 9, but it is a welcome time of eating and giving in the middle of spring.
What do we learn from Esther 9?
That God protects His people. The Lord is a fortress, a stronghold, a shield, a refuge (Psalm 144:2).
That God in His providence often brings about the very opposite of what those who hate Him and hate His people expect. To the contrary, the Lord uses all things to work together for good to those who love Him. Isn’t the book of Esther sort of the story form of Romans 8:28? And who questions if good things work together for good? The emphasis for our faith is that the Lord uses what appears to us to be not good things for His glory and our blessing. In the last chapters of Esther God’s people go from being scheduled for destruction to being delivered by a great reversal on that very day.
That life is worth defending. Murder, and murder to scale in genocide, violates God’s will (Exodus 20:13). Our religion depends on the willing sacrifice of God’s own Son to death. We know that God uses martyrs to magnify His message (think even recently of Charlie Kirk). But also, the same Lord says that it is wrong to hate and to kill and it is right for government to explicitly affirm the right to self-defense. Of course this isn’t about abortion, but there is application of the principle. It is a godly thing to use our energy and resources to seek to protect others from death. The Jews in Esther 9 were able to avoid even more bloodshed, their own or their enemies, because God gave favor to Esther and Mordecai.
And when the Lord does deliver our lives, it’s a good time to feast. The story and the remembrances are part of God’s means to increase our durability. Here are helps to “withstand in the evil day, to having done all, to stand firm.”
As the Lord enabled the Jews in Esther to fight for and win their lives on the very day they were scheduled to be destroyed, so you consider the very day of the Lord’s return and give yourself unto willing and working and winning glory for the name of the Lord.
[May God] make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV)