The Jewish men were organized and armed, ready to meet any enemy who would attack them and their families and try to take their possessions. But the Lord had given them a greater weapon than their swords, because “the fear of the Jews fell upon them” (8:17; 9:2). This was a fear that God had sent into the hearts of the Gentiles to keep them from fighting His people.
This reminds us of the experience of Jacob as he traveled from Shechem to Bethel. “And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob” (Gen. 35:5). It was this same fear that went before Israel as they entered the Promised Land. “This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you” (Deut. 2: nkjv, and see 11:25). Rahab told the two Jewish spies that the fear of Israel had paralyzed the nations in Canaan (Josh. 2:8–11; 5:1; 9:24), and that fear helped give Israel the victory.
One of the problems with our world today is that “there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). Like Pharaoh, people are saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” (Ex. 5:2). But have they seen anything in the people of God that would make them want to fear the Lord? Is there such devotion to God among God’s people that an outsider attending one of our meetings would fall down on his face, worship God, and “report that God is truly among you,” (1 Cor. 14: nkjv)?
The fear of God protects those who fear God and believe His promises. Because the Jews believed Mordecai’s decree, they had new courage and were not afraid of the enemy, and their courage put fear into the hearts of the enemy. (See Phil. 1:28.) Before King Jehoshaphat went out to battle, God’s message to him was: “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chron. 20:20). That is still wise counsel.
But there was another aspect to this fear that helped give the Jews their victory, and that was the people’s fear of Mordecai (Est. 9:3). The princes, deputies, governors, and officers of the king throughout the empire were in such awe of Mordecai that they even helped the Jews defend themselves against the Persians. God had given Mordecai his high position and his great reputation, and Mordecai used his authority to do the will of God.
Christians today who live in a democratic pluralistic society can’t get into political office in order to use that office to promote their own religious faith and destroy those who disagree with them. Mordecai was prime minister in a government where his word was law. Christians today, however, can so live their faith that the power of God is seen in their lives, and the enemy will think twice before attacking. And yet, instead of the godless world being afraid of the church, the church is afraid of the world and so imitates the world that it’s difficult to tell the difference between the two.
The church today is no longer “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10). Rather, we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17), which is the description of prisoners of war. Instead of being the conquerors, we’re the prisoners! No wonder the world has no fear of the Lord.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (2 Cor. 10:3–4 niv). Whenever the church has tried to use the weapons of this world to fight its battles, the consequences have been embarrassing if not disastrous. Wearing the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:l0ff.), however, and depending on prayer and the Word of God (Acts 6:4), the Christian soldier can march forward with courage and faith.
The Persians who attacked the Jews were actually cooperating with Haman, an Amalekite; and this made them the enemies of God (Est. 9:5). In slaying those who attacked them, the Jews were only doing to the enemy what King Saul had refused to do (1 Sam. 15).
In Esther 9:5–15, we’re given the report from Shushan, and, in verses 16–17, additional news is given about what happened in the other parts of the empire. During two days of conflict, the Jews killed 800 of their enemies in Susa alone (vv. 6, 15). It’s remarkable that so many Persians would have dared to attack the Jews right in the king’s own city where both Esther and Mordecai lived. Perhaps these people had been loyal to Haman and dependant on his bounty. Now they were angry because their hero had fallen and his wealth was gone.
Since the Jews were not the aggressors, it means that the ten sons of Haman had taken up arms and attacked the Jews, and all ten of them were slain. The bodies of the ten sons were hanged on Haman’s gallows as a warning to the enemy. (In the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, the ten names are arranged on the page to look like a gallows. On the Feast of Purim, the synagogue reader reads these ten names all in one breath because the sons of Haman all died together.) The sight of ten corpses on Haman’s gallows would certainly deter the Persians from attacking the Jews and would result in the saving of lives.
Some commentators have seen Esther’s request in verses 12–13 as evidence of a vindictive spirit on her part, but this was not the case. Haman’s strongest support was in the capital city where people had bowed down to him and benefited from his favors. Since it would be easy for them to get together and plan their strategy, Esther wanted to be sure that none of them would survive to cause further trouble. Perhaps she had received private intelligence that Haman’s supporters had planned to attack again the next day, prompting her to ask Ahasuerus for permission to extend the Jews’ right to defend themselves.
The Jews in the other parts of the empire killed 75,000 in one day, which shows how many people hated the Jews and wanted to destroy them. It averages out to about 600 per province. Since the Jews were greatly outnumbered in the empire, their victory was certainly a tribute to their faith and courage.
Three times in the record it’s stated that the Jews didn’t take any of the spoil (vv. 10, 15–16). It was in taking spoil from the enemy that King Saul lost his kingdom (1 Sam. 15:12–23), and the Jews didn’t repeat his mistake. They were not out after wealth. They wanted only to protect themselves and vindicate their right to live safely in the empire. And remember, the Jews killed only those who first attacked them; the Jews were not the aggressors.