Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with 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.
Here Haman's private grudge becomes imperial law. Couriers carry sealed letters into every province, and one day is named for the killing of a whole people. Why was the day set so far off? And what can a people do when the law itself says they must die?
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What the letters ordered
Haman's own words became a law of the empire, and no one could undo it.
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The king's scribes were then called to write a decree "according to all that Haman commanded." It was addressed to all the officials of the kingdom in every province, and sealed with the king's signet (v. 12)... Haman had taken fullest advantage of the king's permission. He had copies of the document sent everywhere (v. 14), declaring this slaughter as law. That law could not be changed, for the Medes and Persians prided themselves on laws that could never be altered (Dan. 6:8).
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The order was written on a day whose Persian name meant "lot", and it reached every people in its own language.
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An empire-wide proclamation went out, a real proclamation of death. The king's scribes were called on the 13th day of the month. Research has shown that the Persians called that day Tir, which means "lot." The message went out in different languages to all the king's satraps, to the governors of every province, and to the princes of every people joined to the Persian empire. It told them what was to happen on the 13th day of the month Adar.
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The enemy behind the writing
The man dictating these letters is drawn as more than an offended official.
He is marked by uncontrollable pride and by the desire to lift himself up and make himself a god. He is filled with terrible hatred against the people of God and against the one who represents them. To take revenge on that one man, the enemy sacrifices the whole nation. He also uses lies and hellish cunning to get what he wants: murder. In a word, he is the spirit of wickedness in the flesh. Is he not the same one who says, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!"? (Ps. 83:4)
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A day set far ahead
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Haman cast lots to pick his day, and the day he got undid him.
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So the enemy cast lots to find a day that suited his murderous plan. God's providence saw to it that the lot fell far ahead. That delay left room for a new decree, since the old one could not be changed or cancelled, so that the Jews could stand and defend themselves and destroy their enemies. At first nothing looked less likely. In the end Satan, as always, defeated himself.
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A written word no one could reverse
The sorrow that spread had a deeper cause than one man's hatred.
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The king's decree, the written word, stood in front of them. It would not be changed. It had to be carried out, unless some way of rescue was found in time. Haman's hatred on its own would have caused no sorrow. The decree of death made all the difference, because it came from the man who held the power to kill.
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Birth alone put a person under the sentence, and no comfort could reach him.
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A Persian had no fear of death because of it; it did not touch him. A Jew anywhere in the king's lands had no hope of life once it was published. He could go from one end of the empire to the other, and there was no corner, no hidden spot, where he was safe.
after The decree was aimed against the race. So simply by being born into this world, the Jew found himself threatened with death... Had anyone tried to cheer him, how could it be done? "It is written" would have been the poor man's answer.
Indifference at the top
The chapter closes with two men at ease over the doom they have just posted.
C E StuartHaman succeeded in getting a royal decree for the destruction of all the Jews found in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. His work for that day was done. The scribes were busy; the couriers went out, hurried on by the king's commandment. Then Ahasuerus and Haman sat down to their drinking. What is man! Those two, as far as they were concerned, had sealed the doom of a whole people by the decree that was being published; then, with light hearts, they sat down to drink! (3:15).
The answer to the first decree
A second proclamation later followed this one, and the Jews had to believe both.
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But faith was necessary for the Jews. They had to believe the second proclamation as they had believed the first. It would have gone badly for them if the thirteenth day of the month Adar came and they had not acted on the second decree. The first decree would then have fallen on their heads, and they would have died. So the sinner must believe the first decree: death is his sentence as a sinner. Then he must believe the second decree, "Christ died for the sins of the ungodly." There is life in a look to the crucified One.
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Summary
- Written. One sealed law, sent out in every language, set a single day for killing every Jew. Persian law could not be changed.
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- Hated. Behind the writing stands pride and hatred of God's people. One man's wounded pride is paid for by a whole nation.
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- Deferred. The lot set the day far ahead. That delay left room for a second decree, so the enemy's own method defeated him.
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- Helpless. "It is written" ended every comfort. Nowhere in the empire was safe, because the sentence fell on the race, not on what anyone had done.
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- Answered. The first decree still stood, but a second one came. The Jews lived by believing both — as the sinner believes the sentence of death, and then believes that Christ died.
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