Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke.” Esther 8:7-8
I recently read the book of Esther, and I recommend doing so as it is a great story! A quick summary of one of the plot points: An adviser to the king (think Jafar to the Sultan in the movie Aladdin!) hatches an evil plot to wipe out the Jews in the kingdom by asking the king to issue a decree that cannot be revoked saying the kingdom should do so on a certain day. The king trusted his adviser and allowed him to do as he saw fit. Problem is, the king’s wife unknowingly happens to be one of the Jews. Queen Esther petitioned the king to stop this from happening, and the king wanted to acquiesce to his wife’s request. Problem is, whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring cannot be revoked. They couldn’t just cancel the first plan as it was already decreed and was in motion; so instead, the king allowed Esther and her uncle to write a NEW plan that would allow the Jews to protect and counteract the effects of the first decree on the same day. Spoiler alert: Through the second decree the Jews were able to rise above those who were determined to destroy them, and instead of the Jews being killed off, they killed well over 75,000 of their would-be enemies. Then they rested and had feasting and gladness.
I think this is an important principle to understand today. I think many people have questions like, “why is there evil in the world?” or “why doesn’t God just come swoop in and make all the bad things go away?” Like it or not, evil is present in this world because one of the King’s trusted advisers, Lucifer, went rogue and was hell-bent on seeing the destruction of humankind, who are God’s people. Once the fall of Adam was set into motion it could not be undone; God couldn’t just cancel sin because—unlike lesser, shady creatures—He plays by His own rules which He created. However, that didn’t stop God from creating a NEW plan to redeem His people and restore the world and that came in the form of JESUS! Jesus was the signed, sealed and delivered Savior who would overcome the first decree and cancel the effects of it for His chosen people. The second decree offered protection and empowerment to those who put their trust in Him. Jesus has victory over sin and death because the second decree became greater than the first. Through Jesus’ life we can’t make the evil and sin of the world go away, but we can mount an attack against it, and defend ourselves in His name from those who would seek to kill, steal and destroy us as God’s people. Take heart, for Jesus is, has been and will be ultimately victorious. When we allow Him to be our defender, we can be assured He will reign supreme and we can rest and have feasting and gladness in Him.