Or, The Art of the Decree
Scripture: Esther 8:1-17
Date: October 19, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Is Esther 8 the climax of the story? The change in emotional tone from the beginning of the chapter to the end argues: YES.
The slaughter of every Jew is still in the Persian empire’s development plans for later in the year. But by the end of Esther 8 the Jews have “light and gladness and joy and honor.” Previously the people fasted for three days at Esther’s request, now they feast because God has worked through Esther. Their sorrow is turned to joy and their mourning is turned to a holiday.
The story has fallen hard, as if to the low point on a trampoline, but that potential energy is about to launch the story back higher than before, and Esther puts her force into it. God’s providence loves to store up the pressure of difficulties like a kind of energy until it’s time for deliverance. In the long run the wicked’s worst works for the better of consecrated agents.
It was common Persian practice to really make a point about how bad it would be to do something stupid. It wasn’t just enough for Ahasuerus to kill Haman, then he went to work on his house posthumously.
The king gave Esther the house of Haman. This is everything belonging to Haman; it’s his estate, his assets, not just his roof and four walls. It was a transfer of wealth, and, one would suppose, a major problem for Haman’s wife and sons.
Esther also brought Mordecai before the king and explained that, not only were they related as Jews, they were related as cousins.
Then Ahasuerus gave his signet ring to Mordecai. The king had given it to Haman (Esther 3:10); Haman had been the vizier, the second in power after the king’s throne. Now the queen and the prime minister are Jews.
Esther gave Mordecai Haman’s estate. Haman was consumed with taking away everything that was important to Mordecai, his life included. It is about as ironic as it could be that now Mordecai takes possession of everything that made up Haman’s life. This is quite a reversal of fortune.
All of this is good for Esther and Mordecai, but all is not good. The genocidal decree is still the standing order.
Rather than sit back, satisfied that Haman has been hung, Esther pushes harder into the next jump. Her interaction with the king is a large part of the chapter. It’s not necessarily what we would call the principle of pursuit, but it’s still more consecrated agency.
She fell at [the king’s] feet and wept and pleaded. In chapter 5, when she entered the king’s throne-room without his request, she gave no signs of emotional distress. Her invite to dinner had no drama. No longer does she hide her troubles, and she realizes that what she’s about to ask is almost impossible.
The king was disposed to listen. Holding out the golden scepter to her this time probably wasn’t to spare her life but as a symbol of his ready ear.
She shows great deference, or even we could say, her respect bestows an expectation for a respectable response. There’s four diplomatic conditions: If it please the king…if I have found favor…if the thing seems right…[if] I am pleasing in his eyes. Two are about the principle of the thing, two are about her person.
To all intents and purposes there was no way to undo or reverse a written law. And actually, that would make the king look bad anyway. But Esther—with wisdom and tact—puts the blame on Haman. They were the letters devised by Haman (verse 5), which is accurate, though not complete. Maybe that is a way around it.
But the decree that went out almost three months ago was for calamity and destruction.
Esther did the asking, the king answers both Esther and Mordecai that, if they will do the work, they have his permission to write another decree and see what will happen.
The amount of detail in this part of the chapter stands out. The bottom line is that they wrote a decree that Jews could defend themselves and distributed the decree. But again, so many specifics argue not only for the accuracy but for the significance.
One reason is to show the fulness of reversal. It’s not as if the second decree only turned over 60% of the table. All the official scribes get out their pens. All the fastest royal horses are saddled. All 127 provinces will get the message. The signet ring stamps the highest level of authority. And the permissions are exactly opposite from what Haman wanted.
In chapter 3 the letters had “instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods” (3:13).
Now the letters allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods, on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar (8:11-12).
They did not have authority to stop the first decree, but they did have authority to counteract it. The terms are meant to match in most ways.
The Jews did not have to turn the other cheek, so to speak. It’s likely that they would have tried to defend themselves anyway, but it would have been without any kind of permission. Also, this is not a command for the Jews to attack, it allows them to defend their lives. It is explicit power for self-defense against those who might attack them. It is also limited to only the one day, the same day as the purge was scheduled.
Adding the women and children and plunder (verse 11) in has caused quite a Christian conniption. It’s okay to fight the guy swinging his sword at you, but then to go after that guy’s family?
I wonder if we shouldn’t see this as an ancient art of the decree. Say something extreme, but not because that’s really what you want, in order to make the eventual agreement seem like a win to the other party. The language of this second decree does not require massacre of civilians or the plunder of property, but 1) it does match the previous decree, and 2) it does plant a mental-seed; it gets the would-be attackers on their heels. We know this happened per the last comment in the chapter: fear of the Jews had fallen on them. And also, we know that the Jews did not plunder (9:10, 15-16).
The decree gets distributed, “hastened and impelled by the king’s command” (NASB). And still some 75,000 men tried to kill the Jews anyway.
They are still eight and a half months away from the 13th of Adar, but when news gets out, the party breaks out. (We might wonder if this provoked at least some more anti-Jew attitude than otherwise, but we don’t know for sure.)
In Susa they are rejoicing at a new prime minister. They apparently don’t care where he’s from, Mordecai has shown himself a man of character.
As for the Jews themselves they had light and gladness and joy and honor. It’s not frequent, but, here and probably in Psalm 97:11, light is used to describe a sense of feeling not in the sense of illumination. It’s not contrasted with darkness, it’s contrasted with heaviness.
When the first decree came out there was “great mourning…with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes” (4:3). Now it is a feast and a holiday.
Many non-Jews declared themselves Jews. It’s a word for conversion, and it’s only used here in the OT. Seems more political than spiritual, but very rare for non-Jews to identify as Jews. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Haman went too far. If he’d only tried to sell the Jews as slaves, Esther says she might not have even said anything. But the depth of the pit led to the height of reversal. Salvation and elevation, from possible genocide to governing authority.
A few years ago I was talking with a lawyer about how to get private schools out from underneath any state requirements. He said that such change likely won’t happen until the state overreaches so blatantly at some point, not just that results in push back but a complete push off. Sort of similar with the murder of Charlie Kirk, the forces of spiritual darkness magnified Charlie’s testimony by overplaying their turn.
Know that threats and pressure are never wasted, but stored up; the lowest point holds great potential. Feel God’s providential attention at every point of your arc. Do not despair at the low point on the trampoline, ready your consecrated energy to maximize on the rebound. It’s all for such a time as this.
If you lay down on the metaphorical trampoline of life you’re wasting your advantage. Of course there will be low points, but the springs of Providence don’t break. So don’t lose heart. Watch for the right time, and then put your consecrated legs into it.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)