Esther 9:11-22
This day, the 13th of the month of Adar, which was to have marked the final destruction and disappearance of Israel became, on the contrary, the commemoration of their triumph and the annihilation of their enemies. The fate of these enemies is tragic proof of the fact that attacks levelled at the people of God do not go unpunished. Whoever touches them "touches the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8; cf. Psalms 105:12-15).
Could we be any less the objects of His love, we who are part of the heavenly people, the Bride of Christ? Israel in captivity clearly shows the marks of a nation "scattered and ravaged, a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth; a nation of continued waiting and of treading down" (Isaiah 18:2 JND translation). God, for whom these people are precious because the Saviour of the world was born of them, will yet set in motion His mighty powers to deliver them, a nation trodden underfoot by the world.
How rich is this book of Esther, of which we might have thought before embarking on it, that it would contain little to build us up! What a place it gives to the Lord Jesus, humbled and exalted! What vistas it opens on the future of Israel, their rest and their joy (v. 17), the joy of the kingdom which awaits them at the end of their sufferings!