Year 2, week 26, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 26, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Esther 3-4.

Today’s reading continues the Book of Esther. We will return to the Book of Ezra after we consider the Book of Esther. Ezra 1-6 covered a period of time from about 538 BC to 515 BC recording the first group of returnees and the work they accomplished in rebuilding the Temple. Ezra 7 will pick up in about 458 BC as Ezra is a part of the second group of returnees. The events recorded in the Book of Esther cover a period of time from about 483 BC to 473 BC, and note some key events in the life of Ahasuerus, the King of Persia. Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes). Esther, a Jew, emerges as the wife of Ahasuerus and Queen of Persia. Esther 3 introduces Haman, a man whom King Ahasuerus promoted to a high rank over the kingdom. When Haman did not receive the honor from Mordecai that he felt entitled to, he sought the elimination of the Jewish people: “Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus” (Esther 3:6b). Haman was able to use his influence to persuade the King to issue an edict to annihilate the Jews. Esther 4 records Mordecai’s effort to involve Esther to persuade the King to spare the Jewish people: “Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:15-16). Esther would need to approach the King and plead the case for the Jews. Esther agreed to help even at great risk to herself.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the background of Haman: “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him” (Esther 3:1). We have already learned that Mordecai was   a Jew from the line of Saul: “Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite” (Esther 2:5). This showdown between a descendent of Saul, son of Kish, a Benjaminite; and a descendant from the Agagites is an important detail as we seek to understand the villain Haman. Agag was the name of an Amalekite king: “And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword” (1 Samuel 15:8). Saul spared Agag, the Amalekite king rather than put him to destruction as he was commanded: “Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Samuel 15:3). Having ignored the instruction from the prophet Samuel, Saul lost his reign as king: “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23b).

Now, many years later, a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag (Haman) and a descendant of King Saul (Mordecai) continue the hostilities. This enmity is ultimately the outworking of the conflict between God’s plans and the schemes of Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:5). Haman wants the Jewish people eliminated by the end of the Jewish calendar year: “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar” (Esther 3:7). Haman is confident that he will oversee the complete destruction of the Jews. Ironically, the month when Haman cast lots was significant: it was during Nisan that the Jews remembered their deliverance from Egyptian slavery. Just as their time in Egypt had grown gradually into oppression (see Exodus 1:1–14), now their time in Persia was unfolding toward something terrible. And yet, perhaps they would remember that the LORD who delivered them before would deliver them against. At least Mordecai had such confidence: “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14). Perhaps it would be through Esther, perhaps not; but Mordecai is confident.

Esther is willing to help but rightfully apprehensive: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days” (Esther 4:11). Esther states that she cannot come into the presence of the King uninvited. But as Mordecai reminds her that she may not escape harm if she doesn’t approach the king, Esther relinquishes her life and faces the danger: “if I perish, I perish.”

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe