Haman’s Plot against the Jews
“After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him. All the royal servants at the King’s Gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded this for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.
Then the royal servants at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the command of the king?” Day after day they warned him, but he would not comply. So they reported it to Haman to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, since he had told them he was a Jew.
When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, he was filled with rage. And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.” (10,000 talents is approximately 377 tons or 342 metric tons of silver.) So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. “Keep your money,” said the king to Haman. “These people are given to you to do with them as you please.”
On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.
And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued in every province and published to all the people, so that they would be ready for that day. The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the law was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.”
Consider Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite. For some reason, King Xerxes chose to honor Haman above all the other princes, commanding that everyone, including the other princes, should bow whenever they saw Haman. It’s likely that Haman had made a timely donation to the royal coffers or had done some other personal favor for the king. Perhaps Haman had learned something about the king that he could use as blackmail. Evidently, Haman was also one of the king’s drinking buddies. At any rate, Haman’s ego was “in a gaseous state and ever expanding,” as writers in an earlier age might have said.
As an observant Jew, Mordecai could only bow before God but not before Haman, despite repeated warnings from the royal servants at the King’s Gate. Remember that Mordecai frequented the King’s Gate so that he could get news of Esther, his beloved niece, and he might have made friends with many of the guards. In addition, the guards probably realized that Mordecai was the one who had tipped off the two guards who had conspired against the king. On the other hand, some of the guards might have been friends to the two who had been arrested and executed. The politics of the royal court at Susa were as slippery as anything ever conceived anywhere or at any time. It might have been a guard who was a friend to those who had been executed who slipped the word to Haman about Mordecai.
Drunk with power as well as with the king’s wine, Haman decided to carry out genocide against all the Jews in the empire. When Haman mentioned the matter to the king, the king was intoxicated and easily persuaded; after all, there were so many different races and peoples in the Persian Empire. Why not gratify Haman’s wishes to demonstrate royal munificence? Meanwhile, the city of Susa was in confusion because each ethnic group rightly feared that they might be the next one targeted for annihilation. One can only speculate as to how many other capricious decisions King Xerxes may have made while drunk.
APPLICATION: Consulting Wikipedia, it appears that Haman’s threats were the first organized attempts at genocide for the Jews. While earlier invaders had destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and had killed or carried off much of the population of Judah and Israel, these actions were those of “normal” invasion and not specifically antisemitic. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_antisemitism) Unfortunately, as this excellent article points out, throughout the centuries there have been repeated attempts of various kinds to wipe out God’s chosen people-massacres, seizure of property, expulsion from various countries, isolation in ghettoes, etc. Many of the other races that were included in the ancient Persian Empire have since vanished; however, despite all this persecution, the Jews remain and the State of Israel continues to flourish.
What has made the difference for the Jews? God cut covenant with Abraham as described in Genesis 15. God made many promises to David regarding his descendants. Despite all the failings of the Israelites, God continued to promise a magnificent future. God is a covenant-keeping God. Even when humans fail, God remains faithful to His promises.
Why didn’t Mordecai simply bow before Haman? King Xerxes had issued a royal command; why wouldn’t Mordecai honor that command? After all, everybody else in the kingdom was doing so. Would Mordecai bow before Xerxes if he met Xerxes? Or did Mordecai refuse to bow to Haman because he knew Haman’s character so well? Mordecai worshiped the One True Living God; was it God who told Mordecai not to bow, thus provoking Haman’s wrath? Perhaps God had singled out Haman for destruction and Mordecai was to be the instrument of that destruction.
Although we might never face the threats of extinction of our entire nationality as did Mordecai, we might find ourselves facing similar difficult situations. What do you do if you are working for a corrupt boss and he/she makes totally unreasonable demands on your resources? If your boss is involved in shady dealings and you are asked to testify against him/her, will you do so, knowing that it might cost you your job? One of our friends was sacked on totally fabricated grounds, forcing him and his family to suffer. To this day, he can only speculate that the individual responsible thought our friend had seen something wrong that person had done and was likely to testify against that person. (Our friend has no idea what he was supposed to have seen.)
There are many lessons to learn from this short book of Esther, but one of them is this: We must honor God above everyone else and trust that God will also help us. If we must suffer, let us suffer for righteousness’ sake.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to seek Your Will for our lives at all times and then to do Your Will, even when that course of action seems to lead to disaster. Help us to remember that we are not merely working for earthly rewards, but for heavenly ones. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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