But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked.”
Haman is dead and his house is Esther's. Yet the letters he sent out are still racing across the empire, and they fix a day for the killing of every Jew. The king does not cancel that order. He says no one can. Instead he hands over his ring and tells Mordecai and Esther to write whatever they please in his name.
The deliverance not yet finished
The fall of one enemy did not save the people. The death sentence still stood in every province.
William KellyGod did not only catch the cruel enemy of His people in his own trap. He would also care for the Jews across the whole of the king's dominions, where they were still under sentence of death. The deliverance was not yet complete. The chief enemy was dead, but they were still in danger... The king takes off his ring and gives it to Mordecai. So the Jew now comes into the place of government in the earth.
Why no one could reverse it
The king's refusal was not stubbornness. Persia treated its law as beyond recall. That is why Esther had to risk her life a second time.
Leslie M. GrantHowever, no one could revoke Haman's edict, which was sealed with the king's signet. People held the laws of the Medes and Persians to be ordered by God, and therefore unchangeable. What could anyone do about such a situation? Esther again risked her life by coming before the king. No doubt she came without the fear she had felt before, because he had proved his love for her.
The way out was not to break the law but to work inside it.
Leslie M. GrantThese letters allowed the Jews everywhere to gather together and protect their own lives. They had permission to destroy, kill and wipe out any people who attacked them on the 13th day of the 12th month — the very day the first decree had fixed for the killing of the Jews. The laws of the Medes and Persians could not be changed. Even so, the second edict made the first one useless, and did so legally.
What the ring and the seal meant
The seal is the point of the verse. Two opposite letters went out in this book. Both carried the same authority, so no one could withdraw either.
W. H. WestcottIn Esther 3:12 and Esther 8:8 we find two letters of King Ahasuerus. Haman's influence and scheming produced one, which told men to rise up and wipe out the Jews. Mordecai's guidance lay behind the other, which authorised the Jews to destroy anyone who dared lay hands on them. Both letters were written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring, and no one cancelled either... The sealing, then, meant the unchangeable purpose and will of the one whose seal it was. No man could reverse it.
Death and life, published side by side
The result was two standing orders for the same day. One threatened the Jews; the other armed them.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe proclamation of death stood, and beside it came a proclamation of life. They did not need to die. Their enemies were given into their hands. They acted on this second proclamation and believed what it said. So they learned that the first decree stood and could not be revoked, while the second decree set them free from death and gave them liberty.
Joy resting on a written word
Nothing had yet happened on the ground when the mourning turned to celebration. The change came from a document they believed.
C. E. StuartPerplexity gave way to gladness; feasting took the place of fasting. Why? The thirteenth of Adar had not yet come. The first decree stood unrepealed. Why this change? The written word of that second decree had made all the difference. Relief had come; a way of escape from that dreadful doom was offered to the Jews. They believed it, and they acted as if they believed it.
The seal applied to God's people
One writer applies the king's words straight to the reader.
Samuel RidoutThis gives special meaning and beauty to the words of King Ahasuerus. I am glad to quote them, because the Lord's people neglect the book of Esther so much. "For an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked" (Esther 8:8). Think of that, you trembling saints. You are sealed with the King's seal, confessed and owned as His.
Summary
- Sentence — Haman was hanged, but the death decree still ran through every province. The enemy's fall was not yet the people's rescue.
- Seal — the king's ring stamped his unchangeable will on a letter. No one could pull back the first letter, and no one could pull back the second.
- Second word — the king did not cancel the old decree. He gave a new one beside it: death still on paper, life proclaimed, and the enemies handed over.
- Faith — the Jews rejoiced long before the fixed day came. They believed the written word that reached them, and they acted on it.
- Sealed — one writer turns the king's phrase toward the believer: God seals His own and owns them as His, and no one can reverse it.