The Pulpit Commentary — Esther — Section 105

or forget, but that they may inflict a deadlier vengeance. 4. How the result of con• sulta~ions will be in accordance with the spirit that governs them. The practice.I question before Haman and his friends came to be, How should Mordecai be dee.It with_? There was 1:0 thought of pity or for~iveness, or even of silent contempt. The msul~ed favo:unte c_ould no longer, eve': m pr_ospect of the coming slaughter, possess Ins soul m patience. The conclusion arrived at was consistent with the fierce animosity that had communicated itself to every breast. Justice, compe.esion, wisdom were swallowed up in the common hatred. Notice-(1) The proposer of the scheme of punishment. We infer that it was Zeresh, the wife of Haman. She as his most intimate companion, would be most influenced by his spirit, and would enter most sympatheticaJly into his ambitious projects. The tenderest nature may become brutalised by the dominance of evil. (2) The nature of the adopted pro- posal. It consisted of three parts :-(a) That a gallows fifty cubits high should be constructed for the hanging of Mordecai. The higher the gibbet, the more con- spicuous, and therefore the more satisfying the vengeance of the favourite. (b) That Ilaman was to get the king's sanction for the hanging of the Jew on the morrow. Having secured a decree for the destruction of all the Jews, it would be an easy matter to obtain the premature sacrifice of this one Jew. (c) That Ha.man, having done this business, was to " go in merrily with the king unto the banquet." Merrily I with so much evil in his heart I with so much blood on his bead I (Ps. i. 1 ; ii. 1-4). V. GoD SENDS BLINDNESS TO THOSE WHOM HE MEANS TO DESTROY. Ha.man had no perception of any influences that were working against him. So vainly secure was his sense of power with the king, that he took Esther's banquets as intended to confer special honour on himself. God had entered the lists against him. It was God who had given to Mordecai the heroism of faith. It was God who had strengthened the timid Esther, and given her" a mouthpiece and wisdom." And it was God who had allowed Haman to erect a. gallows for himself. How blind we become when we fight against God 1-D. Ver. 2.-The hour that revealed dut'JI. This veree speaks of an hour when dark- ness turned to light, gloomy foreboding to well-grounded hope ; and when the anguish of trembling suspense was lifted off many a heart, as an unhealthy vapour lifts itself and vanishes before the growing sun. Though it was most true that many a heart "Vas this hour relieved of its strain of anxiety, and was immensely gladdened, yet, as the i=ediate task had devolved upon Esther, so no doubt the immediate relief was hers. In her first and chiefly the battle was fought and the victory won. In what she thought, did, and obtained we may find concentrated the important suggestions of the hour in question. Notice three things:- I. THE UNPROMISING APPEARANCES WHICH THIS HOUR PRESENTED. They were not mere dim, vague impressions which it made, nor were they fancies. These appear- ances were true for the human point of view, however they might be overrnled by Divine power and goodness. For men they were hard facts, with which it was necessary to deal. Thus it was certain that-1. The hour was one which found incalculable human interests at stake. The blotting out of existence, the swift swallowing up of human lives innumerable, with all their precious freightage of love and joy, of purpose and hope, was no light fancy, no vague fear now. Yet that was the appalling uncertainty beneath the burden of which the solemn hour bended. It was not dull cloudiness of sky alone, and that made worse by unnecessary appre- hension and weak fearfulness. It was one defined dark mass of cloud. 2. To all human appearance the question of the ~our depen?ed on the. caprice of one man. It did not resemble some case of great interest, which was gomg to have the best attention of a. select number of the best of people, and thereupon a deliberate decision be taken. In that hour the momentaT'JI whim of a capricious despot would decide the question of life or death, for the innocent Esther _first, and after her f~r a v.:h~le race of which she was then the head and representative. But all the wlule this 1s, truly speaking, only a forcible case of ~ consta~t ph~nomenon, ~ genuine fa.et of human life. We can see, when shown m the d1mens10ns of the mstance before us here, tlie same thing which, because it is on a leBser scale, eludes both belief and even err. v. 1--8.] THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 109