Esther 9:5-11 – “A Spine”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁵and the Jews struck in all of ones being hostile to them from a blow of a sword and killing and destruction and they did in ones hating them according to their desire. ⁶And in Shushan the citadel, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men, ⁷and Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha ⁸and Paratha and Adalya and Aridatha ⁹and Pamashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha, ¹⁰the ten of the sons of Haman the son of Hamedatha, the enemy of the Jews, they killed and in the spoil they did not send out their hand. ¹¹In the day the this came the number of the ones being killed in Shushan the citadel to the face of the king.

As I’ve noted before, this passage is highly offensive to the ears of us living in the 21^st. century. “How unchristian!,” we cry. I addressed this very matter back under 8:10-14. There I said, and I’ll repeat it here: “I believe such objections arise from what is a sadly immature, unstudied understanding of faith.” In a day of far greater spiritual men, Joseph Exell wrote (ca. 1880):

“Justice ought to be tempered by mercy. But there may be a danger of degenerating into what we may call sentimentalism. We seem to see the working of this feeling in the present day. We would not deal harshly, but we must deal justly, with the criminal classes. We must have respect to the welfare of society as a great whole. In reading some of the Old Testament accounts of slaughters and battles, we must not follow our own modern feelings; and we must make all due and proper allowance for the difference of times and of dispensations. After all proper allowances have been made, there will still be about those accounts that which is to us inexplicable on modern and even New Testament principles. Here are great slaughters that may well appear to us very strange. However, the narrative does not warrant the assumption that there was anything vindictive on the part of Esther or Mordecai. The Jews slew in self-defence. They killed only the men; they did not kill for personal enrichment, for on the spoil laid they not their hand. Let us seek to gather instruction from the whole narrative.”

That of course is our intent, “to gather instruction from the whole narrative.” What we should learn from Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews is that there are in fact evil people in this world and that they must be dealt with in accordance with their evil. Especially when in positions of leadership, one of our important functions must be to deal with evil, to deal decisively with those who threaten the peace and prosperity of everyone else. That is not “unchristian.” Is not Romans 13 in the New Testament? “The authorities that exist have been established by God…For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong..For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Paul told Timothy to teach the people to pray “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives…This is good, and pleases God our Savior…” (I Tim. 2:2,3).

Jesus Himself said in Luke 16:8, “…the people of this world are often wiser in dealing with their own kind than are the children of the light.” Modern, immature, childish people who call themselves Christians may want to fantasize about “the inherent goodness of man.” They may want to think it is “Christian” not to deal decisively with those who threaten everyone else, but what that will be is not admirable but rather a complete dereliction of their duty. Justice demands that good people be protected and bad people punished. That was true in the Old Testament and it is still true in the New.

What do we see in this passage? How does the Bible itself describe Haman’s people? They are described in vv.1 and 5 as, “the enemies of the Jews…those who hated them.” In v.2, they are described as “those determined to destroy them.” In v.10, Haman is again called “the enemy of the Jews,” and in v.16, they are again called “their enemies.” The word “enemy” means someone who is actually hostile toward you. The word “hate” means exactly that, and again note these people were “determined to destroy” the Jewish people. Realize here, we are not talking about nice people who should be dealt with kindly. Even Xerxes himself, had he been a good king, would not and should not have tolerated such animosity in his kingdom. These Jewish people were his subjects. They have done absolutely nothing to deserve such hatred. He should have been the first to protect them. Unfortunately, he was too indolent and self-absorbed to do his duty, but fortunately the Lord had brought Mordecai and Esther to the zenith of the Persian government and they, at least, did their job. They protected the innocent and set in motion the punishment of the wicked.

If I may inject a little of Jewish tradition here, I’d like to, primarily because it actually makes sense. The old rabbis claimed that Haman’s sons had actually publicly vowed to avenge their father’s death. They and others like them had so fanned the flames of anti-semitism that, even in spite of the fact that Esther was queen, that Mordecai was the prime minister, that all the governors were supporting the Jews, still these men were resolved to carry out Haman’s decree on the 13^th of Adar. I would suggest that their publicly avowed hatred was so widely known that the Jews knew, going into the appointed day, exactly who these men were. That is also why Esther requested a second day to kill them – because, given only one day, the Jews were only able to kill 500 of these men in Shushan. Unfortunately, there were still 300 more just like them. The Jews knew exactly who they were, and had they not dealt with them, the same malignant hatred would have festered and eventually erupted again.

The ten sons of Haman were not just nice guys who sadly got associated with their father’s misfortunes. No. They bore in their hearts the same malignant evil. As long as they lived, the Jewish people were in danger. I want to assert here and say it very clearly, the “Christian” duty of anyone in leadership here is, in fact, to see these men executed. That is justice. In any land, the righteous should not have to live in fear of the unrighteous. Rather, the unrighteous should live in dread of what the righteous will do to them if they’re ever caught! In the workplace, evil people should be fired. In schools, they should be expelled. The people who only want to live in peace and quiet, the people who are more than happy to just live their lives and leave everyone else alone, should be free to do so. And it is the responsibility of good government, good leadership to make sure that happens. Esther and Mordecai knew it. We should too.

It's interesting that even in our age of weak-willed, sentimental (as Exell called it) permissiveness, we’ve had to coin the term “tough love.” Why? Because somehow or another we can’t escape the realization that invariably there are times when our childish, twisted view of mercy just doesn’t work. Sometimes you just have to “get tough.” Is that “unchristian?” I think not. Real leaders are people with spines, people who will use their authority to promote the peace and prosperity of those who are ready to “get along” and respect everyone else they live and work with.

Esther and Mordecai would teach us that real faith gives leaders a spine!