And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.  And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.”  Esther 3:5-6

Continuing from the last blog of 4/7/24, King Ahasuerus of Persia now has a new queen, Esther, who is Jewish, but her cousin, Mordecai, who had been like a father to her, warned her not to let anyone know her heritage.  Mordecai had uncovered a plot by two men to kill the king, made it known, and the two were executed, but the king was not aware that it was Mordecai who saved his life at this time.  A new character has entered the narrative, Haman, the right-hand man to the king whom the king favored highly by giving him the top position above all the other princes of Persia.  If you have ever seen the movie, “The Green Mile”, there was a character in the movie whom I would compare to Haman.  His name was Percy, and he was a hateful, deceitful, and selfish man, and so was Haman, who also had an extremely high opinion of himself and expected everyone else in the kingdom to honor and revere him.  The king commanded everyone to bow before Haman.  The king made a huge mistake in not doing a background check on this man whom he thought was highly qualified and of great integrity.

Some of the king’s servants notified Haman that Mordecai was Jewish.  When Haman passed by the king’s gate where Mordecai was positioned, Mordecai did not bow because he worshiped the LORD God and did not bow to any man.  Haman did not notice Mordecai likely because Haman had his nose so high up in the air, he couldn’t see the servants, and he also likely assumed they all bowed.  These same servants, whom Mordecai had revealed that he was Jewish, questioned Mordecai as to why he didn’t bow, but he gave them no answer.  They decided to tell Haman maybe because they wanted to get Mordecai in trouble or perhaps, they thought that Jews were exempt from bowing to a Persian official.  Whatever the reason for snitching on him, Haman was outraged when he found out that this Jew was not paying him homage.  He was so full of hate for Mordecai’s insolence that he wanted to kill Mordecai but decided that it would be more fitting that all the Jews in the kingdom of Persia be killed.  The thing is, there are still plenty of Hamans even today who desire for all Jews to be annihilated.  (Just drop the “n” in Haman and add “s”, and you have Hamas).  However, just as God preserved the Jews during that time, He will preserve them today.

Of course, Haman couldn’t just issue a command for all the Jews to be killed.  He had to have the order come from King Ahasuerus.  He lied to the king and told him that there were a multitude of people in the kingdom who would not obey the king’s laws, and thus, it was of no profit to the king to keep them around.  Haman talked the king into issuing a written decree that all of them be destroyed.  Here’s where the king failed to do his due diligence.  As far as we know, he didn’t inquire as to who these people were or think about the long-range repercussion of eliminating workers in his kingdom.  He had put so much trust into Haman that he agreed to Haman’s request without question.  Haman even offered to pay a huge sum of money into the king’s treasury, but the king told him to keep his money.  It is not clear whether the king understood that Haman was going to commit mass murder, but he told Haman to do whatever seemed good to him.  Ahasuerus gave Haman his signet ring in order to make the written document to destroy Haman’s enemies official and irrevocable.

The order was written and sent to the rulers of all 127 provinces of Persia.  The day designated for this slaughter upon the Jews was the 13th of the twelfth month, Adar, exactly eleven months from the day the order was written.  Even with this length of time to prepare, because the Jews were scattered out across the entire realm, likely had no weapons, nor had ever had to go to battle as their forefathers did in years past, there were not many options to protect themselves, not when they were surrounded by an entire kingdom of idolaters, those who did not worship the LORD God of Israel.

When Mordecai found out Haman’s plan to destroy the entire Jewish population, he put on mourning attire and went out into the city and cried loudly and bitterly.  Imagine knowing that all of your people were going to be destroyed because of something that you did even though it was right to not bow to Haman.  All the Jews also mourned when they heard how they were targets of a hateful and selfish man.  Esther’s maids and chamberlains told her that Mordecai was in the streets in sackcloth and ashes, so she sent fresh clothes to Mordecai, but he refused to wear them.  She didn’t know why he was in such a state of mourning.  She sent Hatach, one of the chamberlains, to Mordecai to enquire as to the cause of his grief.  Hatach went to Mordecai, and Mordecai told him about the plan to eliminate all Jews and gave him a copy of the written order to give to Esther.  He also sent word that she must go before the king and request a reprieve of this terrible plan to destroy all of her people.  Hatach returned and told Esther everything that Mordecai had said.  How did she respond?

To be continued next time.