doubtless a large class of his ancient tribe who viewed him as the
lineal descendant of their monarchs and entitled to their allegiance.
They expected to share his triumphs, and, disappointed and exasperated,
they would be ready to avenge his death. Haman being recognised as the
highest officer of Ahasuerus and as his chief counsellor as well as
favourite, he had great power and influence, and doubtless had a large
party in his interests--either won by past favours or hope of future
wealth and honour. At the same time all the discontented and turbulent
of the land would be ready to join an outbreak which made the murder of
any Jew lawful, where it could be accomplished, and which gave their
possessions to those who were their destroyers.
All that Ahasuerus could do to avert the threatened extermination of the
children of Israel, was to allow them to defend themselves if any dared
to attack them. The whole empire was convulsed with the desperate
struggle between the Jews and the faction of Haman; and while the royal
authority aided the Jews in Shushan, so that they were entirely
victorious, seventy-five thousand of their assailants perished in the
provinces, where we are told the Jews gathered themselves together and
stood for their lives; and it is recorded to their honour, that upon the
spoil of their enemies they laid not their hands. And all this suffering
and blood was the result of the policy of Haman. The Jews were not the
aggressors, although they came off victors.
It was the last conflict between the nations of Amalek and Israel, and
threatening and prophecy were thus fulfilled while both nations were
strangers and exiles from their own lands; and while the tribe of Amalek
perished, the sons of Haman, who probably led the conflict in Shushan,
were condemned to the same ignominious death which their father had
suffered. We infer their actual guilt from the fact that they seem to be
unmolested until the day appointed for the extermination of the Jews. As
leaders of the tumult they deserved the doom they received.
The lot is from the Lord; and the day of vengeance thus deferred from
Haman's regard to the casting of the lot, gave the Jews full time to
prepare themselves to resist their foes, and defend themselves after the
issuing of the second edict, by which they were empowered to act on
their own defence, and to repel openly by armed resistance.
The book of Esther is one of the most beautiful and variously
instructive and interesting portions of the Old Testament. While it
illustrates the providential care of Jehovah over all his people, and
his readiness to hear their prayers and interpose for their deliverance,
it shows too that he ruleth over all the nations of the earth, and that
all the arts of intriguing men in courts and cabinets, the various
changes which occur, either affecting nations or individuals, are all
allowed to promote his infinite designs--all accomplishing his eternal
plans. While his people, like Esther and Mordecai, gladly co-operate in
the designs of the Almighty, his enemies are made the unwitting and
unwilling instruments of advancing the same designs, and are
accomplishing his purposes for the re-generation of a corrupt world--for
the establishment of the kingdom of the redeemed, and the complete
redemption of the children of God.
As we look at the book of Esther, through the long dark vista of
intervening ages, we are presented with a beautiful picture of a past
period. Nations have perished and left no memories; and while all the
other portion of our world, at that day, is shrouded in darkness or
buried in forgetfulness, the light of revelation falls upon the court
of Ahasuerus, and we see it in all the gorgeous splendour of oriental
magnificence.
The prosperous monarch of a powerful empire--munificent, prodigal, not
deficient in capacity or heart, but indolent, and fond of luxury and
feasting, he yields himself to the influence of the favourite; and when
ready to rush into the seductions of pleasure, he still, at times,
rouses himself and executes his own will, asserting his authority by
some act of despotic power, of justice or cruelty, as the impulse
prompts--he is a type of a large class of those to whom the destinies of
more modern nations have been committed.
In Haman we see the courtier--crafty, proud, vain, ambitious,
aspiring--intent upon personal aggrandizement, and the acquisition of
wealth; gaining his influence over the mind of the monarch by
ministering to his pleasures, and maintaining it by banishing all pure
influences and crushing all nobler feelings. The history of Haman is
replete, too, with instruction, in displaying the absorbing power of the
selfish and malignant passions, and their fatal influence upon character
and happiness.
One unsatisfied desire will embitter all the most coveted possessions.
There will ever be something to be achieved--some enemy to humble, some
higher elevation to attain, some Mordecai in the gate, whose reverence
withheld is more desirable than all the homage of the multitude
bestowed.
He who cherishes in his heart a hatred of a class or an individual, is
nursing a scorpion which will poison every kind feeling. We must love,
not only to make others happy, but that we may be happy ourselves. We
may withhold all marks of approbation from the unworthy, and still
regard them with the benevolence required by the law of love.
Thus while Mordecai saw in Haman the same persecuting spirit that had
marked all his race; while he saw him, unholy, unprincipled, securing by
his acts an influence over his master, which he abused; prostituting the
royal authority to the ruin of the kingdom, making it subserve the
purpose of his own unhallowed ambition; alienating the monarch from the
queen, and inducing the disregard of the duties of private life as of
sovereign power--Mordecai, as an upright, honourable, high-minded man,
refused to render one, whose course he deprecated, whose character he
abhorred, the honour accorded even by royal favour. He neither bowed nor
did him reverence. But he did not assail him. He did not form any dark
and treacherous plots against him. He did not revile him. All that he
sought was to lead the blinded monarch to a calm investigation into the
proceedings of his treacherous counsellor. And Haman had every
opportunity of repelling accusation and justifying himself, as he was
ever allowed to be present when Esther made her charges against him.
There is a world-wide difference between the firm, indignant
disapprobation with which a virtuous mind regards an evil man, working
ill to all, and that malignant hatred which arises from selfishness and
envy, and which pursues with bitterness and cruelty all that does not
minister to its indulgence.
If it should seem strange to us that the national antipathy should so
long be cherished, we may remember that it is quite as strange that
national character should be thus faithfully transmitted through so many
generations; and those who so confidently predict a change of character
from the mere change of the circumstances of a people, may do well to
ponder the facts presented by the past history of the races of the
earth.
There are other contrasts between the characters of Mordecai and Haman.
Haman was superstitious, yet not religious. He was artful, selfish,
treacherous, bloodthirsty, corrupt himself and corrupting others,
ambitious and vain-glorious. Mordecai was pious, upright, conscientious;
fulfilling every duty, yet seeking no selfish aggrandizement, no wealth,
no personal honour--even when placed in circumstances where he might
claim them as a just reward--and never exerting an influence for selfish
purposes; still ready to forego and sacrifice all that was demanded at
the call of duty.
While we see in Mordecai the devoted worshipper of the true God, the
high-minded patriot, the man of inflexible integrity--an integrity that
scorned the bad acts that would minister to the pride of false
greatness--and a nobleness that rose above the desire for court
favours, the strong features of his character are softened into beauty
by his love for the orphan relative, his watchfulness over her
childhood, and the interest displayed by his daily inquiries for her
welfare. His affections were kind and tender, while his principles were
unbending; and we feel that we love the man, though we are constrained
to render a deeper homage to the patriot.
Esther is one of the most beautiful characters in the gallery of
Scripture portraits. Her character is peculiarly feminine; and while her
path is marked by events of moment, it appeals to our hearts in each
vicissitude of her lot. Youth and beauty always throw a charm around the
possessor. Faint, perishing, transient as they are, they awaken all the
sympathies of our nature; a deep compassion, a foreboding of the future;
while the knowledge of the sorrows and trials which await those to whom
the present is so bright, heightens our interest. Thus in each stage of
the narrative, Esther comes to us with all that can awaken sympathy and
excite interest.
The fair flower is transplanted from Judea to the lands of the East--a
scion of a stock soon removed--sheltered, watched, nourished by the pure
dews of Divine truth; taken from seclusion and loneliness, where but one
eye beheld its opening beauty, to the gardens of royalty; and there,
among gayer and gaudier flowers, like the pure lily of the valley,
winning royal favour by purity, sweetness, and graceful loveliness.
We follow her from her lonely home to the palace, and think how many
fears and alarms mingled with the triumph of her beauty, the
consciousness of her power, when an empire blessed her name and
celebrated her beauty. And a deeper feeling is roused for the royal
bride, lately so flattered, caressed, and honoured, now suddenly
forgotten, neglected--left to the loneliness of her apartments or the
companionship of her formal attendants, while her lord pursued his
career of pleasure, apparently unmindful of her existence.
A bitter lot it is to the young, to be loved and then forgotten. And sad
the contrast to the royal Esther, between her late elevation and all the
incense of homage and affection then offered, and her present
desolation. Yet it was a season of needful humiliation. It awoke her
from the dream of splendour and gayety, and brought her back to the
sober realities of life and its stern duties; and it was also a season
of preparation for the trials that awaited her. It brought her to seek a
happiness higher than could be found in palaces or courts, a favour more
desirable than that of an earthly monarch, a love that is unfailing, a
faithfulness that should be enduring--and thus, when the day of trial
came, she was prepared. She could cast herself upon the arm that never
falters, she could seek the interposition of the God of her nation, and
of each individual who trusteth in him and relieth upon his mercy.
There was something beautiful in the blending of her conscious
helplessness, her sense of loss of the favour of her royal lord and of
the love and courtly honour she deserved, of her entire dependence upon
the protection and interposition of Heaven, and her resolution to
venture all for her people.
IF I PERISH--I PERISH! If we can recall the recollections of our
childhood, we shall remember the breathless interest with which we
attended her, in fancy, to the presence-chamber and awaited the extended
sceptre. All the excitement of romance is concentrated in the story of
Esther. And as we follow the narrative of her final triumph, her
restoration to the love of her husband, the salvation of her people, and
the exaltation of her family, we cannot but pursue the train of thought
and feeling, and fondly hope that the influence of Esther and Mordecai
might redeem Ahasuerus from the vices of youth, inspire him with higher
motives, elevate him to a loftier standard, and rouse one, not deficient
in natural kindness or nobleness of capacity, from a selfish voluptuary
to an enlightened, able, and just ruler of a great people.
The Jews still commemorate the feast of Purim, and celebrate their
deliverance from Haman; and in all the climes and lands to which the
race have been transported, they have carried the remembrance of the
daughter of their people--the beautiful queen of ancient Persia, who
ventured her life to ransom her race.
We would learn from the whole history lessons of sobriety, of
contentment with an humble lot, of the duty of cherishing the spirit of
love, of kindness, of benevolence, of repressing the first germ of
selfishness, of malignity, of envy; of dependence upon an over-ruling
Providence; of encouragement to prayer, to trusting and waiting upon
God.
"Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer thee," is said to
each contrite heart now, as truly as to Israel of old; and none who have
thus truly sought the Lord in lowliness and penitence, ever sought him
in vain. His care and protection are still around his people; and
although the enemies of his church may try her, they shall never triumph
over her.
[Illustration]
End of Project Gutenberg's Notable Women of Olden Time, by Anonymous