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Prophets and Kings
return. They were likened by Inspiration to “the highest branch of
the high cedar,” which was to be planted “upon an high mountain and
eminent: in the mountain of the height of Israel.”
Ezekiel 17:22, 23
.
It was those “whose spirit God had raised” (
Ezra 1:5
) who had
returned under the decree of Cyrus. But God ceased not to plead with
those who voluntarily remained in the land of their exile, and through
manifold agencies He made it possible for them also to return. The
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large number, however, of those who failed to respond to the decree
of Cyrus, remained unimpressible to later influences; and even when
Zechariah warned them to flee from Babylon without further delay,
they did not heed the invitation.
Meanwhile conditions in the Medo-Persian realm were rapidly
changing. Darius Hystaspes, under whose reign the Jews had been
shown marked favor, was succeeded by Xerxes the Great. It was during
his reign that those of the Jews who had failed of heeding the message
to flee were called upon to face a terrible crisis. Having refused to
take advantage of the way of escape God had provided, now they were
brought face to face with death.
Through Haman the Agagite, an unscrupulous man high in au-
thority in Medo-Persia, Satan worked at this time to counterwork the
purposes of God. Haman cherished bitter malice against Mordecai, a
Jew. Mordecai had done Haman no harm, but had simply refused to
show him worshipful reverence. Scorning to “lay hands on Mordecai
alone,” Haman plotted “to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the
whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.”
Esther
3:6
.
Misled by the false statements of Haman, Xerxes was induced to
issue a decree providing for the massacre of all the Jews “scattered
abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces” of the
Medo-Persian kingdom.
Verse 8
. A certain day was appointed on
which the Jews were to be destroyed and their property confiscated.
Little did the king realize the far-reaching results that would have
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accompanied the complete carrying out of this decree. Satan himself,
the hidden instigator of the scheme, was trying to rid the earth of those
who preserved the knowledge of the true God.
“In every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and
his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and
fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and