Vs. 21-22 And in those days, Murdacai was sitting in the gate of the King, and Begthan and Teresh, two of the Eunuchs of the King, Keepers of the gate, were enraged, and they attempted to lay hands on King Akhashiresh. 22And the matter was revealed to Murdacai and he revealed it to Esthir the Queen, and Esthir spoke to the King in the name of Murdacai.
Here we have a story-within-a-story. Here we learn of two rapscallions, formerly trusted chamberlains, so trusted that they guarded the king’s very threshold. For reasons unknown, they became enraged and plotted to kill the king. It has been put forth that perhaps they had hoped to be elevated into the position Mordechai came to hold, and that they were jealous of him. Accordingly, they schemed to kill the king who had promoted Mordechai. Somehow (well, in God’s omniscient providence), Mordechai got wind of this and foiled the plan. It is said that Mordechai spoke several languages, as this was a prominent characteristic of those on the Sanhedrin in his day. Perhaps he overheard them talking about it, not realizing that Mordechai could understand their native tongue. Regardless, Mordechai found out, one way or the other. He told Esther of the nefarious scheme, and it is written that Esther informed the king, giving Mordechai the credit. (It becomes plain later that the king forgets about this...IF the word of this reached the king personally. It is entirely possible Esther sent the message to the king and that somewhere along the message’s journey, the king never actually heard about it.)
Vs. 23. And the matter was investigated and it was uncovered, and both were crucified on crosses. They were written in The Book of Days in front of the King.
The miscreants were investigated, tried, convicted and hanged on a gallows, which appears to have been a common way of carrying out capital punishment. (Sort of sounds like the wild, wild west to us Americans familiar with American history.) AND, this is very important to our story....the incident was recorded in the Persian book of chronicles of royal events. Apparently, the Persians were a well-organized, detail-oriented people.
Now, on to chapter 3.
Vs. 1
1After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him.
Why do you think God, in His wisdom, allowed Haman to become elevated to such a high position?
Often times, it is difficult for us to understand why “the evil prosper”. The prophet Jeremiah said that often evil men or women are raised up as tools of God’s judgment. Such was the case in Judah around 590 BCE.
Jeremiah was warning the people of Judah in chapter 5:26-28, of their impending invasion and captivity.
26For among My people are wicked men;
they watch like fowlers lying in wait;
they set a trap to catch men.
27Like cages full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
28They have grown fat and sleek,
and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked.
They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless,
that they might prosper;
nor have they defended
the rights of the needy.
29Should I not punish them for these things?”
declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge Myself
on such a nation as this?
Other times, as in the case of Haman, disobedience on the part of ancestors brought about judgment on the descendants. {Recall from previous Esther lessons that Haman was descended from Agag the king of the Amalekites, and that if Saul had obeyed God’s command and wiped out all trace of the Amalekites, there would have been no Haman.} It is a sobering thought to me that I might commit a transgression that would have seriously debilitating repercussions on my children, grandchildren, on down the family line.
In fact, the writers of the psalms wondered this too, but encouraged us to not fret when we see evil people succeeding in their evil ways! Psalm 37:7 - -
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Other translations say “be still”, which is a cut above “rest”, seems to me. Hard to do when your life is being negatively impacted by an “evildoer”!
I saw a meme last week, and it listed the richest billionaires in the world. Three names on the list were leaders of Hamas. Dumbfounding, isn’t it?
{What are some other reasons that God allows evildoers to have tremendous success in this world?}
Vs. 2-4
2All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage. 3Then the royal servants at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the command of the king?”
4Day 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.
At first, it sort of confused me why Mordecai behaved as he did. But, then, I read in the ArtScroll Tanakh series “Megillah of Esther” (p. 64-65) that whenever both words ×›ָרַ×¢֙ (bow) and ×”ִשְׁתַּטֵּ×—ַ (prostrate) appear together in Scripture they always refer to worship of Father Yahweh. The sages say that Haman had a “god complex” and that he was not content with “a mere bow”, such as would be appropriate for a head of state. In fact, some commentators say that he wore a graven image on his person, an idol, so that when someone did “bow and prostrate” he was doing so before an actual graven image.
In refusing to do this, Mordechai drew a lot of attention to himself. Not only was Mordecai snubbing Haman, he was defying a commandment from the Persian king, a very serious infraction.
This refusal to bow reminds me of the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego story, from a few years earlier, when Daniel’s friends were young men in the early days after the Babylonian Empire’s invasion of Judah. Prostration in the presence of top-ranking government officials was very commonplace in this part of the world at that time. Some of the commentators have wondered, then, why the king had to make a special command to force the people to make obeisance before Haman. Maybe he was somewhat disliked, to begin with....Other commentators believe that Haman knew Mordecai was a Jew and that this meant he would not bow down. So, even though it is not explicitly written in Scripture, these commentators believe Haman asked the king to issue such a command.
For Haman’s part, even if ahead of time he did not know Mordecai’s reasons for not bowing down, the royal servants had tattled on him! They probably did this as a form of self-protection. After all, who would want to have any association with a person certain to draw such ire from the king? Another school of thought postulates that they disliked Haman so intensely that they did not want to bow down to him either, and that they tattled on Mordecai as a kind of “test case”, to see if his actions would be tolerated.
The certain-to-occur “felony” we might call it, on the part of Mordecai would give Haman the justification he needed to destroy not only Mordecai, but the Jewish people as a whole.
The sages also say that Mordecai did acknowledge Haman and his exalted position, but just that he would not bow down to him as one would bow down to a god.
Vs. 5 and 6
5When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, he was filled with rage. 6And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion ofa laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.
Haman’s visceral reaction to Mordecai’s obedience to the commandments of Yahweh, his God, is a prime example of how anti-Semites have reacted throughout the ages, namely that their reactions have not been “merely offended”, but instead have been along the lines of murderous hatred. For a contemporary example, one need only look at the current situation in Israel and Gaza. From the time the land of Israel was returned to the Jews from the British Empire, with the express purpose of giving the Jews a homeland, and the grant was “approved” by the United Nations, the surrounding Muslim nations have been plotting for ways to “push Israel into the sea” and attempting to make that so. “From the River to the Sea!” has been their diabolical motto, or from the nation of Jordan to the Mediterranean. Over the years, various nations, including the United States, have tried to broker peace deals, giving the militant Palestinian Muslim Arabs their own self-governed territory. And, what has been the result? The people have become overrun by Muslim terrorist groups who have taken from them their self-governing power. Furthermore, these Muslim extremists have rejected any “deal” that strengthens Jewish Israel.
Some have spoken of a “spirit of Anti-Semitism", attributing these characteristics as being a demonic sprit. Whether inspired by a demonic spirit or not, it is sometimes called “the longest hatred”; and, it has persisted in many different forms over the past several thousand years.
Vs. 7
7In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan,b 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.c
So, to fully understand this verse, you must understand two big concepts. The first is the Jewish calendar and the second is the casting of lots to get answers, or determine timelines, or to designate people for certain tasks. Let’s first briefly review the concept of the Jewish calendar.
The Jewish religious calendar begins in the first month, the month called Aviv, or Nisan. One is its Hebrew name, and the other is its Babylonian (Aramaic) name. When our story begins, the scene where Haman decrees the destruction of the Jews is Nisan 13, according to the Jewish commentaries. He casts the lots, hoping that they will fall on the next day as being the most auspicious day for the Jews to be exterminated. How did this work, however? This “lot casting”?
The word “pur” which means “lot” is found in both the Akkadian and the Assyrian languages. In both these languages, the word means “bowl”, apparently a bowl of stone. Into this bowl something akin to dice would apparently be thrown, and through an interpretative process, “fate” would speak to give direction.
This seems foreign to us, of course. Regardless, Haman cast the lots over and over, going from Nisan 14 on through the calendar, until finally, the lots showed the most auspicious day for killing all the Jews - - it was the 13th day of the month of Adar. Now, Adar is the 12th month of the biblical religious calendar. And, we learn the date of the 13th from the 13th verse of chapter 3 of the book of Esther, where Haman specifies that exact date in his letters to the 127 provinces of Persia. So, essentially, God directed the lots to choose a date 11 months later, from the day on which Haman cast the lots. This must have been quite exasperating to him, knowing he would have to wait nearly a year to see his revenge carried out! Haman had the lots cast before him, to ensure the Jews’ destruction, when all along he was sealing his own. Because of Esther 9:24, where we are told Haman cast lots not just to destroy the Jewish people, but also to terrify them, we see that Haman was engaging in psychological warfare, taunting the Jews by leaving ‘blind fate’ to make the decision.
And here we encounter the process that named the Esther holiday story. Have you ever wondered why the Jews call the celebration “Purim” (lots)? This is one of the strangest aspects associated with Purim. The holiday began to be called this in Esther’s and Mordecai’s day, and the name has persisted to modern times. If you were thinking of a name for this festival, what would you have suggested? Well, I would have suggested it be called “Esther Day” or “Mordecai Day”. Yet, no! Instead, it appears the holiday was named after the tools the enemy used to try to kill the Jews! It seems rather bizarre, until you reflect on the truth of what happened. The decision, the “fate” of the Jews was never left to “change”. While God may be choosing to work “silently”, that does not mean He is idle. Though He may at times appear to “hide”, He is ever-present. His covenants and His love are unwavering.
None of the events of the book of Esther occur through “blind chance” or “coincidence”. Personally, I don’t believe in “coincidences”. In the Apostolic Writings, the Newer Testament, we are told that the very hairs of our heads are numbered. (Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7) In His magnificent perfection, God knows all and is concerned with even the tiniest details of our lives.
So, while the prevailing opinion is that Purim is named after the lots that Haman cast, there is another layer I’d like to present to you. This one is from Rabbi David Fohrman’s book, “The Queen You Thought You Knew”.
To dig it out, we need to skip ahead a bit, and look at Esther 9:24-26.
24For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them. 25But when it {Esther} came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.
First of all, let’s examine the order here, which seems counterintuitive.
Haman plotted to destroy the Jews.
Haman cast lots.
Esther daringly saved the Jews.
Haman and his sons were hanged on the gallows.
That’s why it’s called Purim.
What I want to show you here is how there is a double entendre in these three verses. There is a second, hidden meaning. Remember, a theme of the book is “concealment”.
We are going to learn when we get to the fourth chapter that Mordecai, in presenting the quest to Esther, uses words from the book of Numbers, the 30th chapter, a passage that deals with one of the most little-known concepts in the Torah, hapharat nedarim, the annulment of vows. Let’s compare these two passages. Stay with me. This seems like a “rabbit trail”, but it is important.
14For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
As I read aloud these prophetic verses from Numbers chapter 30, see Esther serving in the place of the husband in this passage, and put king Ahasuerus in the place of the wife.
10If a woman in her husband’s house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath, 11and her husband hears of it but says nothing to her and does not prohibit her, then all the vows or pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. 12But if her husband nullifies them on the day he hears of them, then nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or pledges, shall stand. Her husband has nullified them, and the LORD will absolve her.
13Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any sworn pledge to deny herself.b 14But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he confirms all the vows and pledges that bind her. He has confirmed them, because he said nothing to her on the day he heard about them. 15But if he nullifies them after he hears of them, then he will bear her iniquity.”
16These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses concerning the relationship between a man and his wife, and between a father and a young daughter still in his home.
Believe it or not, we are not going to get into all the details of this here. I’ll save some of this for chapter 9, when we arrive there. Today, I am merely giving you a hint. BUT, here’s the point I want you to take with you today, concerning the naming of the celebration commemorating this story Purim: There is another translation of the word “Pur” in the Hebrew, and we see it in the Numbers passage, in the word “nullify” or “annul”. The root of the Hebrew word for “annul” is 3 letters: P-U-R. (The “U” is actually a vav with the “oo” vowel attached, because you have no vowels in Hebrew verb roots.)
So, Esther is being asked to function as the husband might in the situation described in Numbers, as Mordecai’s words are a quote from this passage. What Mordecai is telling Esther in 4:14 is that she has the power to annul the king’s evil decree. So, in the context of the story of Esther, the title Purim refers not only to the lots that Haman cast; the title also honors and celebrates Esther’s annulment of Haman’s decree. And, THAT is a cause for tremendous celebration, every year!
Interestingly, there is another Jewish “appointed time” or holy day where lots are cast. That day is Yom Kippurim, which is sometimes called Yom Kippur. The two occasions stand in many ways in stark contrast with one another. Yet the names have much in common, and both occasions feature the use of lots. The Jewish mystical writing called the Zohar goes as far as to interpret the name Yom Hakippurim, which is what the Torah calls Yom Kippur, to mean that (in the respect of the lots) it is a day like Purim! And, “day like Purim” is written yom k’purim. It’s a play on words.
In the days of the Tabernacle, the Mishkan, and later the Temple, at Yom Kippur, two blemish-free, perfect-as-possible goats are presented to the High Priest. He then casts lots to determine which one would be offered on the altar of sacrifice for the sins of the people, with the other one sent out to the wilderness as the Azazel goat. There’s a lot more to this process that we are not going to get into today. But, that’s the gist of it. Instead of just choosing one, the procedure was to use lots to allow God to choose. There’s an excellent article at chabad.org, entitled “The Pur of Purim”. I highly recommend you go read it if you want to explore the contrasts and comparisons of Purim and Yom Kippur. Fascinating!
Vs. 8
8Then 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.
Now, I want to ask you something. Were you to put yourself in Haman’s place, how would you have handled this? Let’s look how he handled it. First, he made the point that the Jews were at that time scattered all over the Persian Empire, across all the 127 provinces from Egypt to India. Secondly, he made the accusation that they have their own customs and laws, which are peculiar to their people group. And, third, he makes the point most of us would have led with. He accuses the Jews of not keeping the laws of the king. If I were Haman, I’d have led with my strongest argument, which was point number 3! By itself and on its own, this complaint was more than enough to raise the ire of the king against this people group. As for the first two, who cares where the Jews are, geographically, and so what that they have their own peculiar customs and laws?
Make no mistake, however, Haman knows King Ahasuerus very well. It has been said, “There was never a slanderer so skillful as Haman.” Slanderer is a synonym for “liar”, and Haman was serving the bidding of the Father of Lies, aka haSatan.
Perhaps, by mentioning that the Jews were distributed throughout the Empire, the king would not fear any uprisings or reprisals from the Jews. In other words, they were too scattered to mount an answer to the coming extermination.
Vs. 9 and 10
9If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silverd into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”
10So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11“Keep your money,” said the king to Haman. “These people are given to you to do with them as you please.”
Many times we read a measure of something in Scripture and just gloss over it. For example, notice here that Haman did not even identify the targeted people group. He did not even name the Jews! And, the king allowed Haman to do whatever he liked to this anonymous subset of his empire. With what seems like incredible casualness, he decreed the utter genocide of the entire (former) nation of Judah! Nor did Haman tell the king how MANY of these people there were. There could have been a million; there could have been ten million. The entire transaction was staggeringly cavalier...
Another thing: if you had asked me to tell the Esther story, before I began to prepare for this study, I would not have even known Haman offered the king such a large bribe to get his request granted. Let’s see how much 10,000 talents of silver would be in today’s terms. When I checked today, silver was $23.47 an ounce. A talent of silver was equivalent to 2400 ounces. Therefore, the monetary value of a talent of silver today would be $56,328. Now, of course, Haman was offering the “royal treasury” ten thousand times that amount, which would equate to $563,280,000. Don’t you find that astounding?! Haman was willing to finance the entire extermination campaign, himself. The god of this world tries to allocate riches for the defeat of the one, true God’s purposes, but God’s purposes will triumph every time. If the king lost tax revenue due to the loss of these human subjects, Haman’s bribe more than would have made up for that.
Haman also made the argument that the king would not have to take care of this onerous task himself. All he had to do was to “let it be recorded”. As long as blanket permission was granted to Haman, the king would not have to worry himself about it. Haman would see that it got done, done well and the ones who did it amply rewarded.
Apparently, the king was persuaded by, if by nothing else, Haman’s fervor. And, amazingly, he told Haman to keep his money! The king’s treasury would finance this annihilation!
In giving Haman his signet ring, the king was giving Haman full authority to act on the king’s behalf. Since the signet ring was used to sign the king’s official documents, whomever had it could use it to do so, and no one would question, especially not question an official so high in authority as Haman.
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