2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
God directs me to continue with the story of Esther so that we might see where the Jewish festival of Purim originates and why it helps us to know about it. Yesterday, we were just about to meet Haman, the villain of the piece. ES 3 opens in the palace of the Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes), now married to a lovely girl, Esther, who is keeping her Jewish identity secret upon the advice of her cousin who raised her and is now one of the king’s administrators, Mordecai. ES 3: 1-2, “Some time later King Ahasuerus promoted a man named Haman to the position of prime minister. Haman was the son of Hammedatha, a descendant of Agag. The king ordered all the officials in his service to show their respect for Haman by kneeling and bowing to him. They all did so, except for Mordecai, who refused to do it.” [It is interesting to note that King Agag of the Amelikites lived in Baalam’s time and is mentioned in NU 24: 7 and again in 1 SAM 15 in several places. It was the capture of Agag, the slaughter of the Amelikites, and King Saul’s murder of Agag that helped to reveal Saul’s lack of fitness to be the king of Israel.] Now, let’s return to the story at hand.
ES 3: 5-6, “Haman was furious when he realized that Mordecai was not going to kneel and bow to him, and when he learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided to do more than punish Mordecai alone. He made plans to kill every Jew in the whole Persian empire.” Anti-Semitism is nothing new, and the injustice of such a plan gives us deep insight into the evil character of Haman. ES 3: 7, “In the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus’ rule, in the first moth, the month of Nisan, Haman ordered the lots to be cast (“purim” they were called) to find out the right day and month to carry out his plot. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, was decided on.” Once this was decided, Haman went to the king and asked him to issue a decree to carry it out on the day decided. His rationalization to convince the king was to say, “There is a group of people scattered over our kingdom who do not obey your laws and who do not observe our customs.” Then, he followed this up by offering the king 375 tons of silver for the royal treasury if the king will issue the decree to allow Haman to have these people killed (8-9).
King Ahasuerus was convinced by this speech from his Prime Minister, so he told Haman in ES 3: 11, “The people an their money are yours; do as you like with them.” In this, Satan’s hand can be seen. No doubt, Haman knew the history of his own family, a history which fueled his prejudice against Jews. That such a plan could ever be carried out also has its roots in fear of the unknown. Sadly, it is human nature to fear what one doesn’t understand and to want to get it out of one’s life. This, then, is the genesis of prejudice. There is a song from the musical “South Pacific” called “You Have To Be Carefully Taught.” Attitudes of prejudice like anti-Semitism are passed down from generation to generation, carefully taught and amplified by the action of the adversary on ignorant imaginations. The devil loves this, and the only hope of putting a stop to it is to know in your heart that the Lord eschews this attitude and will eventually be victorious over it.
ES 3: 13, “Runners took this proclamation to every province of the empire. It contained the instructions that on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, all Jews-young and old, women and children-were to be killed. They were to be slaughtered without mercy and their belongings were to be taken.” How very like the actions of the Nazis in World War II this is! The same could be said for the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, the Hellinization of the Jews in Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ time (175-163 BC), the refusal to allow Jews to immigrate to Israel from Russia (1917-1992), and the list of events in the historical persecution of the Jews goes on and on. The nature of the prejudice mind is to either attempt to assimilate a foreign group into the home culture or to exterminate them altogether. This is the work of the devil, to be sure. ES 3 ends with verse 15, “At the king’s command the decree was made public in Susa, and runners carried the news to the provinces. The king and Haman sat down and had a drink while the city of Susa was being thrown into confusion.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we are given stories such as these in the book of Esther, because You want us to look deeply into our own minds and hearts to discover what is in them. If we are ever to expunge sin from our lives, You know we need to do this. We ask the question: Why has man learned so little from his history that the same mistakes are made over and over? You give us the faith through the Holy Spirit as a gift of Your grace to recognize that prejudice is the work of the devil. Help us to examine our attitudes toward those different from us and guide us to conforming our thoughts with Your teachings, particularly those of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Let us understand that doing this is one way to get rid of the yeast of sin in our lives and prepare ourselves to join You in Your work. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the events that transpire in this story of courage as a result of the king’s evil decree. In the meanwhile, we should reflect on the condition of our heart-attitudes toward those who are different from us. Remember, RO 14: 13, “So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make your brother stumble or fall into sin.” We must learn to accept each other and find ways to encourage faith-building to bring as many people close to the Lord as God allows. Know that our Father in heaven loves us all. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn