68 lines
4.7 KiB
XML
68 lines
4.7 KiB
XML
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<div2 id="Esth.i" n="i" next="Esth.ii" prev="Esth" progress="97.16%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Esth.i-p0.1">Esther</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Esth.i-Page_1121" n="1121"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Esth.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Esth.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Esth.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Esth.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Esth.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF</h5>
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<h2 id="Esth.i-p1.4">E S T H E R.</h2>
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<hr style="width:75pt"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Esth.i-p2">How the providence of God watched over the
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Jews that had returned out of captivity to their own land, and what
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great and kind things were done for them, we read in the two
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foregoing books; but there were many who staid behind, having not
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zeal enough for God's house, and the holy land and city, to carry
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them through the difficulties of a removal thither. These, one
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would think, should have been excluded the special protection of
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Providence, as unworthy the name of Israelites; but our God deals
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not with us according to our folly and weakness. We find in this
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book that even those Jews who were scattered in the provinces of
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the heathen were taken care of, as well as those who were gathered
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in the land of Judea, and were wonderfully preserved, when doomed
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to destruction and appointed as sheep for the slaughter. Who drew
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up this story is uncertain. Mordecai was as able as any man to
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relate, on his own knowledge, the several passages of it; <i>quorum
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pars magna fuit—for he bore a conspicuous part in it;</i> and that
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he wrote such an account of them as was necessary to inform his
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people of the grounds of their observing the feast of Purim we are
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told (<scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.9.20" parsed="|Esth|9|20|0|0" passage="Es 9:20"><i>ch.</i> ix. 20</scripRef>,
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<i>Mordecai wrote these things,</i> and sent them enclosed in
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letters to all the Jews), and therefore we have reason to think he
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was the penman of the whole book. It is the narrative of a plot
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laid against the Jews to cut them all off, and which was
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wonderfully disappointed by a concurrence of providences. The most
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compendious exposition of it will be to read it deliberately all
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together at one time, for the latter events expound the former and
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show what providence intended in them. The name of God is not found
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in this book; but the apocryphal addition to it (which is not in
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the Hebrew, nor was ever received by the Jews into the canon),
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containing six chapters, begins thus, <i>Then Mordecai said, God
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has done these things.</i> But, though the name of God be not in
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it, the finger of God is, directing many minute events for the
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bringing about of his people's deliverance. The particulars are not
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only surprising and very entertaining, but edifying and very
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encouraging to the faith and hope of God's people in the most
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difficult and dangerous times. We cannot now expect such miracles
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to be wrought for us as were for Israel when they were brought out
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of Egypt, but we may expect that in such ways as God here took to
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defeat Haman's plot he will still protect his people. We are told,
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I. How Esther came to be queen and Mordecai to be great at court,
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who were to be the instruments of the intended deliverance,
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<scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Esth.1.1-Esth.2.23" parsed="|Esth|1|1|2|23" passage="Es 1:1-2:23"><i>ch.</i> i., ii.</scripRef> II.
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Upon what provocation, and by what arts, Haman the Amalekite
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obtained an order for the destruction of all the Jews, <scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.3.1-Esth.3.15" parsed="|Esth|3|1|3|15" passage="Es 3:1-15"><i>ch.</i> iii.</scripRef> III. The great
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distress the Jews, and their patriots especially, were in
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thereupon, <scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.4.1-Esth.4.17" parsed="|Esth|4|1|4|17" passage="Es 4:1-17"><i>ch.</i> iv.</scripRef>
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IV. The defeating of Haman's particular plot against Mordecai's
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life, <scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.5" osisRef="Bible:Esth.5.1-Esth.7.10" parsed="|Esth|5|1|7|10" passage="Es 5:1-7:10"><i>ch.</i> v.-vii.</scripRef>
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V. The defeating of his general plot against the Jews, <scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.6" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.1-Esth.8.17" parsed="|Esth|8|1|8|17" passage="Es 8:1-17"><i>ch.</i> viii.</scripRef> VI. The care that
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was taken to perpetuate the remembrance of this, <scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.7" osisRef="Bible:Esth.9.1-Esth.10.3" parsed="|Esth|9|1|10|3" passage="Es 9:1-10:3"><i>ch.</i> ix., x.</scripRef> The whole story
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confirms the Psalmist's observation (<scripRef id="Esth.i-p2.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.37.12-Ps.37.13" parsed="|Ps|37|12|37|13" passage="Ps 37:12,13">Ps. xxxvii. 12, 13</scripRef>), <i>The wicked
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plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
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The Lord shall laugh at him; he sees that his day is
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coming.</i></p>
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</div2>
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