Chapter 7 A Nation Saved

Haman was gone, but the law he helped write still stood: the Jews were to be destroyed on the 13th of Adar.

But King Ahasuerus gave his ring to Mordecai and allowed a new law to be written. It said that the Jews could now defend themselves against anyone who tried to harm them.

And so, when the day came, the Jews stood together-and they triumphed. In every province, their enemies were defeated. Even the nobles helped them, because the fear of Mordecai had spread.

Esther requested one final thing: that Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows. It was done.

Then came a time of rest.

"The month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day..." -Esther 9:22

Mordecai and Esther declared a new holiday: Purim-to celebrate how God had turned a death sentence into deliverance.

Every year, they would remember the day the Jewish people were saved-not by armies, but by the bravery of a young woman who said yes to her calling.

Yet the decree of death still stood. "The writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse" (Esther 8:8). But a new edict was sent forth, allowing the Jews to gather and defend themselves.

On the thirteenth day of Adar, the Jews arose, "and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people" (Esther 9:2). In Shushan, five hundred enemies fell, and Haman's ten sons were slain and hanged.

On the fourteenth and fifteenth, they rested and made them days of feasting and gladness.

To this day, Jews remember it as Purim-"Because on those days the Jews rested from their enemies" (Esther 9:22).

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