I watched a very well-done movie (just out, I think, by "Acclaim" films--the same outfit that did "Courageous" and "Fireproof"), on "Esther"--it followed the Bible very closely--word-for-word in a good bit of the dialogue---and I noticed something I'd never noticed before.
First, some background:
Haman--who was an Amalekite, not a Persian--and guess what? Amalek was SYRIA--talked the King of Persia into giving Haman full license to "destroy, kill, and annihilate every man, woman, and child" {literal words of the decree} among the Jews.
Xerxes or Ahashuerus, by the way, was the crazy Persian king who:
* had his soldiers "punish" the sea by whipping it with whips when it destroyed a bridge he'd just built;
* who had his golden throne hauled all the way from the capital city to the top of a hill in Greece overlooking the Bay of Salamis near Athens, so he could sit in state to watch his fleet destroy the Greek navy and ensure his conquest of Athens and thus of all Greece. Instead, his large ponderous Persian ships were too big to turn easily in the Bay, and were handily out-maneuvered by the Greeks' light, swift ships--so Xerxes sat on his golden throne and watched every single one of his ships be destroyed.
*who, just before he set out for this Grecian campaign, Xerxes and his army on the march had stopped near a certain Persian city, and an old man there came to appeal to the king. This man begged clemency of the king for his last son, who was in the army, that he might be allowed to stay home with his aged father, since this man had already given and lost six previous sons in the service of the king. The king told him that of course his son could stay there in Persia, and ordered him brought forth. Then, before his father and his army, King Xerxes ordered the boy to be cut in half, and one half of his body placed to one side of the road and the other half on the other--and then ordered his army to march between the two halves on their way westward to engage Greece.
THIS was the man Esther had to marry.
See why she was scared to go into his presence without permission--a flouting of royal court protocol---now?)
Anyway, in watching this movie, I noticed something I never had before:
1. That the order to "destroy, kill, and annhilate" (interesting wording, that) the Jews, was given by "royal decree of the Medes and Persians"---and this type of royal decree, once issued, could NOT be revoked--it was an unstoppable force once set in motion.
2. That, since the order could not be taken BACK, what it took to save the Jews was a COUNTER-ORDER, to COUNTER-ATTACK their enemies ON THE SAME DAY that THEY were to be attacked. (note the order---FIRST the enemy designated and set in motion a day to destroy the Jews, THEN the Jews were given "permission" and means to ON THE SAME DAY resist that attack by equal force.)
3. That the enemy of the Jews had DONE TO THEM the VERY THING they had meant to do TO the Jews---"destroy, kill, and annihilate"---and though there were casualties on BOTH sides, the Jews came out victorious against those who had sought to wipe them off the face of the earth (meaning of annihilate).
God is known in the Bible for bringing down as judgment on the head of the wicked the VERY THINGS they meant to do to others.
