“Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse” (Esther 8:8).

It was the practice of kings to wear a signet ring that could be used to place their mark of authority and ownership in a clay or wax seal. That seal and authority remained effective so long as the king lived, but when his throne was ascended by another, the seal no longer had power. To seal a document or a letter was to finish it and consider it a settled matter. As in our text verse, “no man could reverse it.”

The word seal occurs several times in the New Testament. It is a strong word that means to stamp with a private mark for security or preservation. The “book” of Revelation 5, sealed with seven seals, can only be opened by the one who is “worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof” (5:9). When Satan himself is bound a thousand years, God sets a seal upon him and God alone can “loose” him (20:2,3,7). The reason these seals are immovable and irreversible is because they are the seals of the living God (7:2). Our King never dies; He is the Alpha and Omega.

With these thoughts in mind, consider the following: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13,14). “Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (II Corinthians 1:21,22).

Knowing our earthly “clay” bears the seal of the living God, we rejoice that “the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His” (II Timothy 2:19). CJH