Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave
Esther 2:1-4
But after Xerxes’ anger had subsided, he began thinking
about Vashti and what she had done and the decree he
had made. 2 So his personal attendants suggested, “Let us
search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the
king. 3 Let the king appoint agents in each province to
bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem
at the fortress of Susa. Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge
of the harem, will see that they are all given beauty
treatments. 4 After that, the young woman who most
pleases the king will be made queen instead of Vashti.”
This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the
plan into effect.
Okay, this is going to be an empire-wide beauty contest.
3 Some time later King Xerxes promoted
Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite over
all the other nobles, making him the most
powerful official in the empire.
There’s something very interesting about this
man and this is key to the whole story. He
was an Agagite. A small detail, but the origin
of Haman’s hatred for Mordecai and his
hatred for the Jews.
2 All
the king’s officials would bow down before
Haman to show him respect whenever he passed
by, for so the king had commanded. But
Mordecai refused to bow down or show him
respect. 3 Then the palace officials at the king’s
gate asked Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying
the king’s command?” 4 They spoke to him day
after day, but still he refused to comply with the
order. So they spoke to Haman about this to see
if he would tolerate Mordecai’s conduct, since
Mordecai had told them he was a Jew.
How many of keep our faith a private matter
until it benefits us. In other words, we really
don’t walk with God, but we’ll pull out the
Christian card when it’s for our convenience,
and then all of a sudden we’re really
committed and the rules don’t apply to us.
To bow down could have been a means of
showing respect, or it could have been a form
of worship.
How can we as Christians respond when
confronted with religious
and political demands?
What helps us know when
to draw the line between
obedience to authority and
refusal to compromise our
faith in God?
1 Timothy 2:1-3 (NLT)
2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.
Ask God to help them; intercede on their
behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this
way for kings and all who are in authority so
that we can live peaceful and quiet lives
marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is
good and pleases God our Savior.
Romans 13:1 (NLT)
13 Everyone must submit to governing
authorities. For all authority comes from
God, and those in positions of authority have
been placed there by God.
Mordecai lived in a culture in which bowing to
officials was customary. It seems it would have
been easy for Mordecai to just simply blend in
with the crowd and bow to Haman. We face that
same struggle today—whether to blend in or take
a stand on issues where our
contradicts God’s Word.
When is the right time to
take a stand
and when is it time to
speak out? How do we decide
which customs to hold and
which to discard?
5 When
Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow
down or show him respect, he was filled with rage.
How many of us are like Haman? We just can’t let it
go. Like, Haman’s life is going good. He’s got a
throne, he’s ruling and reigning, everybody bows
down to him except for one guy. What does he
become obsessed with?
One guy. We get like that,
don’t we? Everything in
life is great except for one thing,
and that’s what we obsess over.
That’s what we freak out about.
That’s who we’re frustrated by.
Esther 3:6
6 He
had learned of Mordecai’s nationality, so
he decided it was not enough to lay hands on
Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way
to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire
empire of Xerxes.
Are you like Haman? Do you hold grudges?
So Haman goes to the magicians and the astrologers and he says,
7 So in the month of April, during the twelfth year of King Xerxes’
reign, lots were cast in Haman’s presence (the lots were called
purim) to determine the best day and month to take action. And
the day selected was March 7, nearly a year later.
Next, he goes to the king says, “There is a certain race of people
scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep
themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different
from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws
of the king. So it is not in the king’s interest to let them live. 9 If it
please the king, issue a decree that they be destroyed, and I will
give 10,000 large sacks of silver to the government administrators
to be deposited in the royal treasury.”
I’m going to make you a lot of money and get rid of your
problem. “So the king took his signet ring,” this is power of
attorney, “from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, the
son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews.”
Many of us are horrified that a government could send
forth a decree for the execution of an innocent people—
through the efforts of Haman or Hitler or Hussein.
But we as a nation don’t have moral high ground either. As
a nation, we have sanctioned the murder of the unborn.
We take life every week; we do it legally, and it’s not holy.
However, we’re no better
than the Persians.
They would slaughter innocent
people who hadn’t done anything,
and we do as well. We’ve got to be
very careful if we’re going to
condemn holocausts that we
condemn all holocausts, even
the ones on our watch.
What can we learn from the story so far?
How do we tell the story in such a way that it
benefits us? We all do it. It started when we were
little. We would do something evil against our
sibling, they would start screaming, then we
would
try to get to mom and
dad first in order to
tell our version.
Proverbs says
it rightly, “Everyone
seems right until the
other side is heard.”
Have we looked at both sides
of a situation before
passing judgment?
We need to be careful and cautious and ask,
“How are we like Xerxes?” We believe things
about people, negative things that are said,
criticisms, gossip. We don’t even know them.
We haven’t even checked
the facts. Or greed. We
make decisions solely based
upon the bottom line, not
the glory of God and the
good of others.
Haman hits the fast track, dispatches a royal
decree, 3:13, “all Jews—young and old,
including women and children—must be
killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a
single day. This was scheduled to happen on
March 7 of the next year. The property of the
Jews would be given to those who killed
them.”
How do we interpret all this data? What do we
do with it?
Appearances can be deceptive. From a snapshot
taken at the time of Haman’s manipulation of
Xerxes, you might conclude that the enemies of
God had won. But when you
look at the big picture, the
long-term reality
of God’s love and His control of
history, it all leans toward Jesus.
The whole Bible is one story
with one hero, our deliverer.
Esther: For Such a Time As This – John
Macarthur
A Deadly Poison: Holding a Grudge -- Edward
L. Winkfield
Jesus Died a Better Death -- Mark Driscoll
Explore the Bible –Tony Evans (General
Editor)