Esther chapter three. Esther chapter three, and we'll be reading the whole chapter. We've looked at how Vashti lost her place as queen, how Esther was chosen to be queen, And we also met her cousin and guardian, Mordecai, and how Mordecai had foiled a plot against the king and saved the king's life by telling Esther to tell the king. Now let's pick up in chapter 3, starting in verse 1. After these things, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king's command? And when they spoke to him day after day, and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. but he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom. of Ahasuerus. In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast purr, 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. Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.' So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, the money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you. Then the king's scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict According to all that Haman commanded was written to the king's satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the officials of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language. It was written in the name of Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day. The couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king, and the decree was issued in Susa, the citadel. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Let's pray for God's blessing upon his word. Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks to you for telling us of your deeds of old and also revealing your ways and the ways of this world to us that we might live wisely, that we might live in your fear. We pray that you would bless this word to us this evening. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. In verse 1, we meet with a new person. Who do we meet in verse 1? What is his name? Haman, right? Haman, how is he described? He is an Agagite, the son of Hamadatha. Right. And so verse one, we we learn something about this new character, new person to us at least. And notice this is right after Mordecai saved the king's life. What might you expect to find in the next chapter? You might expect to find that Mordecai was was promoted, right? I mean, that's what happened to Daniel. He would do something, and the king would recognize it, and Daniel would be promoted. Well, here Mordecai saved the king's life, but Mordecai is not promoted. Haman is promoted. Now, I don't know if that's what they were thinking, because we don't know how long it took until Haman was promoted. There's some period of time here of a few years in which this could have occurred. But at least for us reading it, it takes us by surprise perhaps that all of a sudden there's this other person that is promoted and he is described as an Agagite. Now who was Agag? Who was Agag? Agag was a king, or at least the only Agag we have described in scripture was a king of the Amalekites that's described in 1 Samuel 15. Well, who were the Amalekites? Esau's grandson Amalek was the founder of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were the first nation to encounter Israel after they left Egypt. In fact, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites before they even made it to Mount Sinai. First thing, what do they encounter? There's a battle and the Amalekites fight the Israelites. That's where Moses had to hold up his hands and the Amalekites would be defeated. The Lord determined to blot out the memory of the Amalekites by the hand of Israel because of their bitter hostility toward his people. And this was a special decree similar to that against the Canaanites in Exodus 17, 14 and Deuteronomy 25, 19. And so later there are wars against them led by Saul and David. The Amalekites were defeated. A remnant of the Amalekites took refuge near the Edomites in Seir. But then in the days of Hezekiah, that remnant was destroyed by the Simeonites. Now, going back to 1 Samuel 15, that told of how King Saul defeated the Amalekites in his day, but how he did not obey God's command. God had told King Saul to strike down the Amalekites and to devote to destruction all that they had, to not spare anyone or anything. But Saul did not kill. everyone and everything. He did kill the people, but he spared the king Agag, as well as the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatted calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. But that which was despised and worthless, that is what he destroyed. And so he had plundered the Amalekites, even though God had told him not to. When Saul told Samuel that, oh, we took this to sacrifice it to the Lord, Samuel made his famous reply, has the Lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. It's more important to obey God than to try to find other ways to worship him other than he had commanded. And so Samuel called out Agag, and Agag was feeling all cheerful, thinking that any harm had passed by. But then Samuel hacked him to pieces, saying, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And so the job was done. Now, is Haman a descendant of this same Agag? Well, perhaps he is a descendant of a different Agag. And in that case, the author would at least be bringing to mind this earlier enemy of the Jews by the same name. But many commentators, both Jewish and Christian, have understood Haman to be a descendant of this same Agag, the Amalekite. He is, after all, the only other Agag that we know about from scripture. There is a reference to Agag in Numbers, which might indicate that this was a typical name for the king of the Amalekites, similar to how maybe Pharaoh was for the Egyptians, in which case he would simply be a descendant of the king of the Amalekites, or the kings of the Amalekites, but still connected to that same heritage. It is true that the remnant of the Amalekites had been wiped out in the days of Hezekiah, but perhaps Haman was from a family who escaped and sought refuge in a foreign land, and that would explain why he was so far away in the land of Persia. And so he would be then something like the last of the Amalekites, lingering on now in the lands of Persia. In any case, by his actions, he certainly carried on the heritage of hostility towards Israel. So I think he probably was a descendant of King Agag. And I think another reason why we are to think of that man in particular, King Agag, is because Mordecai had been described as a descendant of Shammai and Kish, thus a kinsman of Saul, a Benjaminite, the same Saul who had failed to kill King Agag. Well, in verses 2 through 6, we find Mordecai and Haman clash. See, all the king's servants bowed down and paid homage to Haman according to the king's command. But Mordecai did not bow down and did not pay homage. The king's servants questioned him again and again. And why don't you do it? And then they told Haman. Hey, you better look out, this guy over here, he's not bowing down to you. Then Haman noticed, and he grew angry, and he determined to destroy the people of Mordecai, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom. Now, why did Mordecai refuse to bow down? What do you think? Why did Mordecai refuse to bow down? Now, normally, before you answer, normally it was fitting and proper and permissible to bow before the king. That in itself was nothing idolatrous. The Israelites were commanded not to bow down before images, but they were permitted, and it was often a proper way to show honor, to bow to living people who were their superiors. David bowed and paid homage to King Saul. Others bowed down and paid homage to King David. Joseph's brothers and all Egypt bowed down before Joseph. In fact, Jacob had bowed down before Esau, his brother, the grandfather of Amalek. So it wasn't purely the fact that bowing was something wrong, but perhaps there was something about that context that meant that bowing down would be idolatrous. You know, some people have speculated that maybe Haman was wearing some idol and thus bowing to him would be bowing down to that idol. Of course, that's not in the text. That's simply a theory. But maybe there was something about the situation that that gesture would have been understood in an idolatrous way, and so Mordecai refused to bow. And that's possible in a variety of... you could think of a variety of situations where that might occur. Perhaps Mordecai refused to bow because Haman was an Agakite and an Amalekite. And remember that the Lord had declared war against Amalek from generation to generation. Perhaps that temptation and hostility was at the root of this. The only clue we seem to have is that Mordecai had said that he was a Jew. It seems like he's saying that as to why he's not bowing down. We also know that Mordecai had saved the king's life. Mordecai was not a rebellious man. He shines through the rest of this book as a character that is honorable and stands up for the king and cares for his people. Later on, he's going to be exalted in the courts of the king. He was not a rebellious subject and he would not have disobeyed the king's command lightly. He was not characteristically rebellious. So was Mordecai being foolish and overly zealous, disobeying the king without just cause? Or was he taking a principled stand like Daniel and his three friends, not giving in despite the pressure around him? There seems to be certainly pressure around him. When the servants spoke to him day after day, it sounds a lot like how Potiphar's wife had tempted Joseph day after day. Like those servants, I would like to ask Mordecai, why did you transgress the king's commandment? It'd be nice to have a better explanation, right? Or a clearer explanation. But it's noticeable that the text does not spend much time explaining his reasons. It doesn't tell us really why he did not bow. I'm inclined to think that Mordecai had a good reason, even though it's not spelled out for us. But the main point is that Mordecai clashed heads with Haman, and Haman was filled with fury, and his fury went beyond all bounds. He did not act rationally and justly. He learned that Mordecai was a Jew and sought to destroy then the whole people because of what Mordecai had done. And so Haman here is more of the focus, I think, at this point of the story, that he enters into a rage, he bears enmity towards his whole people, and he determines to blot them out. So whether Mordecai was right or wrong, the very question of whether he was right or wrong should provoke you to consider your own actions. May you boldly stand upon the word of God, be ready to suffer for Christ's cause, despite the pressure of peers and powerful people, but also be careful to not provoke hostility by your folly or by your evil doing. If you're going to suffer, make sure it is for the right things and not simply suffering for foolish decisions or for evil decisions. Just as we might look and examine at Mordecai and examine his actions, we should first look to our own actions. Is the anger that we are receiving provoked by things that we have done which are wrong or Are they provoked by us doing things which are right? Both may be true. Peter says this in 1 Peter 4, 14 through 16. He says, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. So, suffering because you were a thief is nothing for you to glory in. That is not persecution, that's just justice. That is you receiving the consequences of your own evil deeds. But, Paul says, if you are suffering for righteousness sake, for Christ's sake, then you may count that an honor to do so. Glorify God in the name of Christ. Well, in verses 7 through 15, then, we find another scene. It moves to Mordecai and the king. But even before he makes it to the king, he does something else first. He casts pur, or lots. Pur, the plural of that being Purim, that's where we get the word for the festival that's going to be appointed at the end of this book. But the word refers to lots. Lots here stands for the Hebrew word that's more commonly used. And in Persia, what was used was much like what we have as dice, something that you would throw and it would kind of randomly indicate something by what side is facing upward, and that would be used here to determine upon a month. This was a pagan Persian practice to divine the right time for doing things. Now, divination was forbidden in scripture, although there was a proper use of lots to settle disputes, to divide inheritances, to divide and apportion tasks. Like the way we flip a coin, you know, see which team goes first, that sort of thing. But Haman was seeking a supernatural indication as to the best time for this decree to go into force. But it didn't work. It actually worked against Haman. No divination shall stand against God's people, right? God had ordained the result of these lots so that Haman's plot would backfire. As Proverbs says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Now the lots indicated that the last month of the calendar there that they used, Adar, Adar, would be the best. Now this was all taking place in the first month. So that last month was, you know, almost a year away. They were in Nisan and that was the first month. Now man may scheme, man may plot, he may use his devices, but the Lord is sovereign over everything. And in this he was giving time so that there would be an escape from the plots of Haman. Well, next in verse eight, Haman slanders the people. He slandered the Jews. He mixed some half-truths with lies. The Jews did have a law, but that didn't mean that they were rebellious subjects, a threat to the empire. Certainly Mordecai seems to have transgressed the king's command, but that was not typical of them. And in fact, Mordecai had also saved the king's life, but that is left out. Haman doesn't bring that up. He paints a picture of the Jews that they are a troublesome and a threat to the empire. And it is not in the king's interest to tolerate them. They must be destroyed. Now bearing false witness is what is going on and that is breaking the ninth commandment and it's also a form of persecution that is often employed or has often been employed against the church. In the New Testament, we're told to expect it, but to live in such a way that the lies become quite evident as lies. In other words, people are still going to slander, but live in such a way that others can see right through it. that their claims are false. As Peter says in 1 Peter 2, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Next, Haman proposes what to do to the king. Let that be decreed that they be destroyed. Haman would pay 10,000 talents. Now, if this takes place like it seems to have done after Xerxes, who I believe is Ahasuerus, had just fought against Greece, he would have been in need of some money. 10,000 talents is about two-thirds the revenue of the empire. So this is a very large sum of money that would be delivered into the king's treasuries. So he plots to wipe out this people and to make the king profit from it. The serpent, that ancient serpent, the adversary, Satan, he leads his offspring, those who follow him in his ways, to wage a war against the woman and her offspring, the people of God. Pharaoh, Amalek, Haman, Herod, they're part of this line of those who sought to snuff out this people and the promise line. The world hated Christ and he told us that the world would be at enmity with his people too. While the world is passing away, it yet remains opposed to Christ and opposes the church as well. The Church of Christ is the heir of ancient Israel, the people of God today, the continuation of that people, the Gentiles having been grafted on through Christ. And it inherits this heritage as well. Jesus says, blessed are you and people persecute you, for so they treated the prophets who were before you. So do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes to you, to test you, but turn to the Lord in the trial, call upon Him to save His people, and count the reproach of Christ as greater wealth than all the wealth of the world. The king then gave his decree. Well, did the king actually give his decree? What did he do? He took his signet ring, gave it to Haman, and basically gave charge to Haman to write the decree for him. Yes, that sounds good. You take care of that. It's basically what the king does. He gives Haman full power to see to the matter. He empowered Haman to write the decree in the king's name. The money and the people were put into Haman's hands. A ruler like a king must be careful with his advisors. The king here was being led astray. He was too careless. He was neglecting his responsibility to care for his subjects, because those Jews were his subjects as well. And now their lives were being stamped out. Through the evil counsel of Haman, a person with much responsibility needs to be wise, surrounding himself with good advisors, and doing due diligence to make sure that his people are protected. Then the king's decree is proclaimed in verses 12 through 15. It was proclaimed in all the nations, in every language. It says, letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with instructions to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. utter annihilation throughout this vast empire that stretched from India to Ethiopia, even to the coastlands. This was a threat to the whole nation of Israel and to the promise of the offspring that would come through it. The promise had been that the nations would be blessed through the offspring of Abraham, culminating in Jesus Christ the Messiah. But here now, Through the power of the nations, through Haman, the enemy of the Jews, there was a threat to this promise. But notice also the timing of the decree. The decree would take effect on the 13th day of the last month, but it was decreed, it was put into writing on the first day of the, sorry, the 13th day of the first month. Does anyone know what was on the 14th day of the first month? was on the 14th day of the first month. That was the beginning of Passover. This decree goes into writing the day before Passover began. Now, it probably took a while to get into all the provinces, but they went out hurriedly and Susa was right there. And so at least the people of Susa would have received it then, probably that day before Passover began. Passover was to be a great feast when they would remember the deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh, from bondage, from oppression. But now they heard a decree that they were all to be annihilated. While the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was thrown into confusion. The joy of the Jews turned to mourning. Would God deliver his people as he had done of old? And that's the question we're left with at the end of this chapter. Of course, knowing the whole story, we would say yes, but it's one that we ought to ask and to pour out to our God in prayer when we see threats to His people, when we see threats made against it or accusations and slander and persecution and reviling, temptation and falsehood and error and other threats to The people of God and to the faith, the world and the flesh and the devil seek to oppose Christ and his church. The sinful passions within seek to destroy the soul. The devil is like a lion seeking to devour. The people will ridicule you and seek to bring you back into the ways of the world and its lust and pride. The history of the Bible and the Psalms remind us that You live in the midst of conflict and antithesis between the serpent and Christ. That there is this enmity declared, that there are two kingdoms at irreconcilable war against the other. You are called to stand for Christ, to pray for the well-being of His cause and of His people. Pray on behalf of Christ and His church. Pray that the enemies of Christ and their efforts would be overturned. Pray that God would arise and defend His cause. Call upon the Lord to deliver his sheep, as they are led away to slaughter. Pray that Christ, through his converting grace and the hand of judgment, would overcome his enemies and advance his kingdom. For even though Haman sat down to drink, thinking that he had triumphed, that he had won, that he had obtained the favor of the most powerful person in all the empire, Yet Haman had picked the wrong enemy. He had picked on the wrong people. Their Redeemer is strong. They would have one who would fight for them. Though they might have seemed small in the eyes of Haman, their God was great. The God of Jacob was their fortress, and he dwelt among them, even though they were scattered throughout all the nations. As Haman sought to blot them out, like Amalek of old, that they would be no more. Yet God would arise, and his enemies would scatter. He would fight for them. God fights for his people, strengthens his people, preserves his people even today. Let us entrust our cause to him, our covenant Lord and God. We have a covenant with our God through Jesus Christ. He has held forth Christ to all that they might receive him. And so, enter into this covenant with God that he saves them, he forgives them, and he becomes their Lord and protector. He is a faithful God, and we can take refuge in Him. Join with me in prayer. O Lord, our God, do not keep silence. Do not hold your peace or be still, O God. For behold, your enemies make an uproar. Those who hate you have raised their heads. We ask, O Lord, that you would indeed arise and make yourself known in mighty deeds of power, that you would make your word powerful to overthrow the strongholds of spiritual forces that wage war against your kingdom. We pray that you would advance your kingdom through the gospel and that through the course of providence and your powerful hand that you would overcome all opposition, that you would Indeed, work all things for the good of your people and for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. We pray that we might see your ways prosper, your enemies put to flight, to see the lost converted, to see the nations brought to a true knowledge of you, We ask that you would protect your church, to give relief to those who are persecuted. We know great freedoms and protections in this land, but we pray for those who do suffer persecution from neighbors or from governments, that you would give them endurance and that you would also give them relief, that you would extend your church from generation to generation, that it would not be destroyed. but rather advanced. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.