Esther 8:3-4

Besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman.

Counteracting evil

It requires earnest and vigorous efforts on the part of the pious to undo the evil wrought by the wicked, and left by them as a legacy to the world. How much thought and research have been expended in this way in answering the works of such men as Voltaire and Paine! The evil cannot be sufficiently deplored, but may it not, in the providence of God, be overruled and sanctified for good? In nature we have opposing forces at work, which issue in greater stability and permanence; and somewhat the same result is secured by the opposition and conflict of minds. By the strain to which the truth is subjected it is put to the test, and whilst what cannot be maintained falls away, all that is founded on reliable evidence is retained, and made on every side more perspicuous, as the pressure of a great need has stimulated the inventive genius of a people to provide appliances to meet it. So has one infidel book or wicked action occasioned the writing of treatises in defence of Divine revelation, or the performance of holy and generous deeds, and the evil of the former has been more than counteracted, and the result proved an absolute boon. In this direction also we may see the hand of God, and praise Him for His goodness. (T. McEwan.)

Sin survives the sinner

I. Evil outlives its first contrivers.

1. Haman is dead, but the mischief he devised still hangs over the Jews. A passing stranger may loosen a stone in an embankment, and go on his way; but a whole province will bewail his folly. An infidel father trains most carefully an infidel son; the son becomes an eminent writer and spreads through a whole generation the poison he imbibed on his father’s knee. An English colonist, filled with pity for the Caribbaeans, introduces negro slavery into the West Indies--doing evil that good may come--and for centuries those fair islands are cursed by his device.

2. Evil tends to permanency.

(1) Because of the natural corruption of the heart.

(2) This principle is assisted by the solidarity of our race. What affects one affects all.

II. Evil yields before holy self-sacrifice. Esther was--

1. Intensely solicitous.

2. Persistent.

3. Boldly self-sacrificing.

4. Successful.

III. Evil crushed but not killed.

IV. Practical lessons.

1. The folly of infallibility.

2. The power of intercession.

3. The awful nature of sin. (W. Burrows, B. A.)