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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In our time vocabulary is continually expanding for finding ways to express ideas, some of which are ancient ideas but need new words to explain them. So, we have words like terrorism or terrorist or pandemic or genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Join me again back in Susa, one of the capital cities of the great Persian empire, in about 475bc. You’ll recall we’ve met a highly respected Jewish man named Mordecai who sits daily with other officials at the king’s gate.
As one of King Xerxes most highly prized nobles named Haman enters through the gate all but one of these officials bow to honor Mr. Haman. (Esther 3:2) Yesterday we discovered WHY Mr. Mordecai, a Jew, refuses to bow as Haman walks by, do you remember?
The record says this: “When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, Haman scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead, Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews throughout the entire kingdom of King Xerxes.” (Esther 3:5,6)
As you hear those words is there another special vocabulary word that comes to your mind: Holocaust!? Do WWII photo images come to your mind which you’ve seen of the ovens and torture chambers of the Nazi death camps, or the piles of bodies or shoes, or the emaciated bodies of people barely alive when finally the death camps were liberated? Holocaust! It’s a terrible word and yet is there any difference between what Adolf Hitler wanted for the Jews in the 1930’s and what Haman wanted for the Jews in 475bc?
The big differences are process and methods. For Hitler it required a massive system of finding, transporting, housing, and finally killing and disposing of millions of Jews from all across Europe. For Haman, his plan was much simpler. He would convince King Xerxes that these Jews were a threat to the King and his authority over the Persian kingdom. Then, Haman imagined the fastest and best way to eradicate all Jews, everywhere in the Persian kingdom, as quickly as possible, was simply for King Xerxes to issue an edict that every Jew, anywhere in Persia must die. But how?
Haman’s twisted mind envisioned all Gentiles in Persia would be empowered to kill any Jew, anywhere in Persia, by any means they desired. And rather than having a long drawn out process Haman envisioned one single day of slaughter everywhere in the Persian kingdom!
Now pause and ponder the horrificness of this terrorist vision. It dwarfs anything we’ve ever seen or heard in modern times. Oh yes, we sometimes hear of some nations wanting to destroy Israel but this plan to slaughter every Jewish person, across the entire kingdom, in one day is nothing less than Satanic! But it’s a very real part of history, isn’t it?
The record says Haman made his case to King Xerxes with these words: “Your majesty, there is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them…” (Esther 3:8,9) Incredible, isn’t it?
No maps or charts or graphs to make his case. No statistics or video reports of atrocities these people were doing. Simply one man’s distorted, deceitful but convincing statement to the most powerful king in the world. The record does not tell us how long King Xerxes deliberated nor if he sought counsel from other wise advisors. This shocking statement follows: “So, the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman…the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, ‘Do with the people as you please.” (Esther 3:10,11)
The next verse tells us Haman wasted no time. Scribes were summoned and wrote out Haman’s orders in the many languages spoken across the empire. (Esther 3:12) What exactly were these orders of wicked Haman the Agagite? “The order was to kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and children -on one single day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, and to plunder all their goods. A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would all be ready for that day.” (Esther 3:13,14)
Now, my friends, history has shown us what ethnic cleansing or genocide or a holocaust looks like in Cambodia’s killing fields with Paul Pot; or Nigeria’s slaughter by Edi Amin; or Russia’s slaughter by Joseph Stalin, or Adolf Hitler’s Nazi death camps, but this one day of slaughter of all Jews everywhere in the entire Persian empire, would have overshadowed anything our world has ever seen! So, we need to pause right here for reflection. I have three questions for us as we close today:
1. Where does such evil in the human heart come from? How is it possible that from the days of Adam and Eve and one of their sons killing his brother, all the way to our present day, such evil is widespread in our human race?
2. How is it possible one man’s horrific dream of slaughter can be embraced and supported by so many other people, even governments?
3. What prevents this terrible wickedness from taking root in your heart or mine?
I urge us to ask God about those questions, for HE alone understands our human race. And as we contemplate, what’s the condition of your heart and mind today my friends? Let’s worship with this song, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow, to discover what happened with Haman’s plan.
Today’s Scripture: Esther 3:5-14.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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