Esther 3:12-15

Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day.

Fruitless preparations

I. Here is unseemly haste.

II. Here are inconsistent precursory measures. Wickedness renders a man inconsistent. Revenge impelled to action, but conscience still spoke in reproving tones. All must be done according to law. Obedience to the eternal law of right is the only method by which human lives can be rendered consistent and harmonious.

III. Here is a low estimate of human life, shown--

1. In the unmethodical nature of the slaughter designed.

2. In the indiscriminate nature of the slaughter designed.

3. In the rapacity after property. Life versus property. This decree is one of the unwritten decrees of modern civilisation.

IV. Here is wickedness bolstered up by human authority. Learn--

1. Great men should try to get a true idea of the importance of human life.

2. Statesmen should remember that the true wealth of a community is its men.

3. All ought to remember that life is ignoble when passion is allowed to rule. (W. Burrows, B. A.)

Persian postal facilities

The postal service for that age was exceedingly good, but only the king could take advantage of it. Indeed, it was one of the means used by him for the government of the empire, and was very largely, according to Herodotus, the device of this same Xerxes. Along the chief lines of travel he established, at intervals of fourteen miles, post-houses, at each of which relays of horses and couriers were always in readiness. One of these messengers, receiving an official document, rode with it at his utmost speed to the next post-house, where it was taken onward by another courier with another horse, and in this way a proclamation like that here described would reach the farthest limits of the empire in five or six weeks. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)