Examples are sometimes bloody and necessary

Esther 9:11-16 On that day the number of those who were killed at the citadel in Susa was reported to the king. ¹² The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman at the citadel in Susa. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall even be granted you. And what is your further request? It shall also be done.” ¹³ Then said Esther, “If it pleases the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.” ¹⁴ So the king commanded that it should be done so; and an edict was issued in Susa, and Haman’s ten sons were hanged. ¹⁵ The Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder. ¹⁶ Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and kill 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

  

Application: For those of us that have not grown up where violence was a common everyday experience, sections in the Scriptures like this are hard to stomach much less derive some spiritual lesson from. We still need to see once again, the Jews motive is established. They are defending themselves and not secretly after gain. So why ask for  the ten dead sons of Haman to be hung out in public for everyone to see? That seems like overkill, doesn’t it? How can a God of love approve such a thing? Lord, I think if we love You and are following You this is a natural question. I think the answer is one that makes sense, though, we often do not like it, preferring instead to see the world from a more civilized pair of glasses. That is what a world without sin would expect – the problem is we do not live in a world without sin. 

Our world is full of evil and it seems often the only way to discourage that kind of behavior is to publicly give a clear example to everyone else that this behavior has some very harsh consequences. It is important to note this was the cultural norm at that time. It was not a matter of “squeezing” the last drop of blood in revenge – this was to dissuade any others that might come up with another brilliant scheme to destroy the Jews. I see two other items Your Word leads me to compare against what our cultural norm is today. Is evil so rampant today in part because we do not give clear examples in public of the cost of such behavior? I admit I do not desire to see dead bodies hanging from trees, or impaled upon a pole. However, when I think of the murders, rapes, mutilations and other horrendous scenes that are censored everyday, that actually ignore the victim and protect the criminal, I am forced to rethink our idea of “civilized”. How can we be civilized when some in society are intent on being controlled by evil? Maybe we need to be reminded that when you behave like a brute savage, your end will be the same. The other issue is that we need to make this personal no matter what society does. We need to look hard and long at what the outcome of sinful living will bring. We have a plethora of examples throughout our world. We need to look at these examples and ask ourselves if we would choose the same end. If not then we may need to change the way we live. Your Word tells us that even the Old Testament was written to show us the outcome of such evil. 

(1 Corinthians 10:10–11 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.) 

Father let us learn from our life examples so we do not have to live those lessons!

Meditation Questions: When we see horrible scenes of evil people being destroyed, even though our sensibilities are shocked do we still try to learn the lesson of what evil brings? Is it okay to feel bad for an evildoer that is punished, yet be glad that justice is being done? How do we love evil people? When you see the evil person punished and feel pity (which is good) do you also remember the victim?