Est. 8: Jews Fight Back

Esther 8:11 "The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies."

So Haman's out of the picture. Which I thought would mean Xerxes would overturn the edict. That's just the way it is in every movie ever. The bad guy gets killed, and everything goes back to the way it was before he was in power. Not so here. Esther still has to go in and plead with Xerxes to put an end to Haman's evil plan. 

But he doesn't. I don't know why, and I'm not familiar with ancient Persian politics, but I would guess it was a sign of weakness and indecision to change one's mind on an issue. I can't imagine that happening today... So the one thing Xerxes can do is issue another edict. This one gave the Israelites in the land the ability to assemble and protect themselves when they were under attack. The day the attacks on the jews were set to begin was the 13th day of the 12th month...Adar. That was also the day the new edict said the Jews were allowed to defend themselves. Makes sense.

So the Jews rejoice, because God is on their side, and they won't be killed for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than Mordecai wouldn't bow to one nutjob. Whats interesting to note is that many people from other nationalities converted to Judaism because of this. They were so afraid of being killed by Jews, that they became Jews. I can't imagine another religious dynamic that works like this today.