In today’s lesson:

What goes around comes around.

The tables are turned.

            But

Note the similarities.

Esther 8 NLT
A Decree to Help the Jews
^8:1 On that same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Then Mordecai was brought before the king, for Esther had told the king how they were related. ² The king took off his signet ring—which he had taken back from Haman—and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of Haman’s property.
³ Then Esther went again before the king, falling down at his feet and begging him with tears to stop the evil plot devised by Haman the Agagite against the Jews. ⁴ Again the king held out the gold scepter to Esther. So she rose and stood before him.
⁵ Esther said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor with him, and if he thinks it is right, and if I am pleasing to him, let there be a decree that reverses the orders of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should be destroyed. ⁶ For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?”
⁷ Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole because he tried to destroy the Jews. ⁸ Now go ahead and send a message to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want, and seal it with the king’s signet ring. But remember that whatever has already been written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring can never be revoked.”
⁹ So on June 25 the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was written exactly as Mordecai dictated. It was sent to the Jews and to the highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. The decree was written in the scripts and languages of all the peoples of the empire, including that of the Jews. ¹⁰ The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.
¹¹ The king’s decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies. ¹² The day chosen for this event throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was March 7 of the next year.
¹³ A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready to take revenge on their enemies on the appointed day. ¹⁴ So urged on by the king’s command, the messengers rode out swiftly on fast horses bred for the king’s service. The same decree was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa.
¹⁵ Then Mordecai left the king’s presence, wearing the royal robe of blue and white, the great crown of gold, and an outer cloak of fine linen and purple. And the people of Susa celebrated the new decree. ¹⁶ The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere. ¹⁷ In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the Jews might do to them.

Examine the Scriptures
Esther 8 NLT
A Decree to Help the Jews

Begin at Esther 7:9
⁹ Then Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall in his own courtyard. He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination.”
“Then impale Haman on it!” the king ordered. ¹⁰ So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

Counsel for the Hamans of this world. (Really this is counsel for all of us.)

Isaiah 3:11 NLT
¹¹ But the wicked are doomed,
for they will get exactly what they deserve.

Proverbs 26:27 NLT
²⁷ If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.

Galatians 6:7 NLT
⁷ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

Colossians 3:25 NLT
²⁵ But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.

Proverbs 22:8 NLT
⁸ Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster,
and their reign of terror will come to an end.

Matthew 7:1-2 NLT
^7:1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

Matthew 7:12 NLT
¹² “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

^8:1 On that same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther.

By Persian custom, King Xerxes confiscated Haman’s property.

• Just as Haman had promised the wealth of the Jews to those who would kill them, King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther.

Note the similarity:

Esther 3:13 …the property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them.

Then Mordecai was brought before the king, for Esther had told the king how they were related. ² The king took off his signet ring—which he had taken back from Haman—and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of Haman’s property.

Again the tables are turned.

Note the similarity:

Esther 3:10 NLT
¹⁰ The king agreed, confirming his decision by removing his signet ring from his finger and giving it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

• The signet ring that Haman had used to seal the decree to destroy the Jewish people was now given to the Jewish person he had most wanted to destroy.

Mordecai now had the power Haman had wanted so desperately.

³ Then Esther went again before the king, falling down at his feet and begging him with tears to stop the evil plot devised by Haman the Agagite against the Jews. 

• Esther went again before the king begging him to stop the evil plot devised by Haman against the Jews.

Previously King Xerxes had agreed to Haman’s request to have a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of (his) empire…, who refuse to obey the laws of the king, destroyed .

Esther 3:8-11 NLT
⁸ Then Haman approached King Xerxes and said, “There is a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So it is not in the king’s interest to let them live. ⁹ If it please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators to be deposited in the royal treasury.”
¹⁰ The king agreed, confirming his decision by removing his signet ring from his finger and giving it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ¹¹ The king said, “The money and the people are both yours to do with as you see fit.”

• • • • • A decree to execute all of the Jews in the Persian Empire was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

• • • • • A decree sealed with the king’s signet ring was irrevocable

⁴ Again the king held out the gold scepter to Esther. So she rose and stood before him.

• Again King Xerxes welcomed Esther into his presence.

⁵ Esther said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor with him, and if he thinks it is right, and if I am pleasing to him, let there be a decree that reverses the orders of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should be destroyed. ⁶ For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?”

• Esther was asking the king to reverse a law signed with the King’s seal.
• Esther was asking the king to do something he was unable to do.

⁷ Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole because he tried to destroy the Jews. ⁸ Now go ahead and send a message to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want, and seal it with the king’s signet ring. But remember that whatever has already been written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring can never be revoked.”

• According to Persian law whatever has been written can never be revoked. That meant that Haman’s decree could not be reversed.

Daniel 6:8 NLT
⁸ And now, Your Majesty, issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed, an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked.”

• However, Mordecai could write different or counter-decree to supersede the first decree and seal them with the king’s signet ring which would make it difficult to carry out Haman’s decree.

⁹ So on June 25 the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was written exactly as Mordecai dictated. It was sent to the Jews and to the highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. The decree was written in the scripts and languages of all the peoples of the empire, including that of the Jews. ¹⁰ The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 

Note the similarity:

Esther 3:12 NLT
¹² So on April 17 the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was written exactly as Haman dictated. It was sent to the king’s highest officers, the governors of the respective provinces, and the nobles of each province in their own scripts and languages. The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 

Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.
¹¹ The king’s decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies. ¹² The day chosen for this event throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was March 7 of the next year.

The king’s decree did not permit the Jewish people to start a war but to defend themselves and plunder the property of those who attacked them.

Note the use of:

defend
kill, slaughter, and annihilate
take the property of their enemies

Here the king is using Haman’s words.

Esther used Haman’s words in 7:4

Again, note the similarity:

Esther 3:13 NLT
¹³ (Haman’s) Dispatches were sent by swift messengers into all the provinces of the empire, giving the order that all Jews—young and old, including women and children—must be killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a single day. This was scheduled to happen on March 7 of the next year. The property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them.

• A decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring that gave the Jews authority to unite to defend their lives. They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies.

¹³ A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready to take revenge on their enemies on the appointed day. ¹⁴ So urged on by the king’s command, the messengers rode out swiftly on fast horses bred for the king’s service. The same decree was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa.

• The king could not reverse the orders of Haman but this decree, written by Mordecai, would allow the Jews to establish justice by correcting wrongs committed against them.

¹⁵ Then Mordecai left the king’s presence, wearing the royal robe of blue and white, the great crown of gold, and an outer cloak of fine linen and purple. 

• Mordecai was honored. 

And the people of Susa celebrated the new decree.  

Note the difference:

Esther 3:15 NLT
¹⁵ At the king’s command, the decree went out by swift messengers, and it was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa fell into confusion.

• The people of Susa celebrated the new decree.  Many of the Persian people did not share Haman’s hatred toward the Jews. They understood the injustice of the original decree and the justice of the new decree. 

¹⁶ The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere. ¹⁷ In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday.

• The Jewish people saw that the king himself now favored them.

And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the Jews might do to them.

• The new decree gave hope to the Jewish people.