After Queen Vashti takes a stand and loses her throne. The king’s advisors tell him that he needs to find a new queen. Then the biblical version of The Bachelor takes place. The king sends people out into the kingdom to collect all the beautiful women. Each gets a night with the king and whoever pleases him the best becomes the new queen.
Esther is the Jewish woman in this contest. Her cousin Mordecai tells her not to tell anyone she’s Jewish. To make a long story short: Esther pleases the king the most and she becomes the new queen–the new Persian queen who no one knows is Jewish.
You know how when you’re reading a novel, the story is mostly about one main character, but there are other characters who have their own story? That’s called a subplot. The subplot here involves Esther’s cousin, Mordecai. He overhears some people plotting against the king. He takes a stand, speaks up, and saves the king.
Esther 3:1-11 is a picture of unstable leadership. Things go from “Everything’s great!” to “Let’s kill all the Jews!” in an instant. Let’s try to make sense of that.
Haman is called an Agagite. Because it’s a detail that’s given to us, it’s probably important. In Exodus 17, the Jewish people are coming out of slavery in Egypt. The Amalekites attack them. Because of that--because they attacked God's people when they were vulnerable--God says he’s going to wipe the Amalekites off the face of the earth. Fast-forward to 1 Samuel 15. Saul is the first king of Israel. And he’s instructed to wipe the Amalekites off the face of the earth. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t kill King Agag. He keeps the best things for himself. This disobedience causes Saul to lose the throne.
Big picture: there is a deeply troubled history between Israelites and the Amalekites. There’s this bad blood between them. And knowing that history gives us a clue as to why Haman becomes so violently angry.
Back to this story: Haman becomes angry because everyone is supposed to bow before him. Mordecai doesn’t.
Why? Truthfully, I’m not sure. Because as we read the story of scripture, Israelites are allowed to bow before superiors. It happens in Genesis, Exodus, and 1st Kings. So it doesn’t seem like Mordecai is refusing to bow for religious reasons. But Mordecai did tell Esther NOT to reveal that she’s Jewish. So we sense there’s an anti-Jewish sentiment lurking under the surface of the empire.
Maybe this is an echo of what Vashti did: take a stand to call something out. Maybe Mordecai is taking a stand to call out the anti-Jewish sentiment. To bring it out in public.
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever really noticed this till I read it closely this week. Haman doesn’t see Mordecai NOT bowing down. Other people tell on Mordecai. Because he’s Jewish. He’s marked as ethnically and religiously different. He’s a minority, a target.
Haman determines the best thing to do is to do away with ALL the Jews. It’s not enough to only get rid of Mordecai. He remembers the past and he wants to get revenge.
Casting lots is rolling dice. And it sounds so strange to us to think people made important decisions by rolling dice. But the idea behind this is that it’s a way of inviting God into the decision. Because God can turn the result in the way he wants.
But notice the way Haman is going about it. He’s NOT asking if it’s a good idea. It’s more like “Should I do this in February or March?”
Then, when he goes to tell the king his plan, he never says “Jew.” He talks about those people who have their own law. (Yes, that’s true. The Jews have their religious Law.) But then Haman says those people disobey the king’s law. (No, that’s not right. Jews are observant of the law of the land UNLESS it violates religious law in some way.)
Also, this is crazy because remember that subplot about Mordecai saving the king’s life? Through that action, Mordecai proved he was loyal to the king.
Then Haman tries to sweeten the deal. He says to the king, “I’ll pay you 75,000 pounds of silver if you let me do this.” He says it’s not in the king’s profit to tolerate these people.
The king says yes. Why wouldn’t he? Based on what he's been told he thinks there’s this unspecified people who are not following the law, who are a threat. And your right hand man is going to pay you to let him take care of the situation. To the king, that sounds like a sweet deal.
But when the Jews hear about Haman’s plan, they start to go out in the street wearing sackcloth and ashes. They’re wearing mourning clothes as an act of protest.
People start talking about this scene. So Esther sends her servants down to ask, “What’s going on?” Mordecai explains the story, and he tells her that she needs to get involved.
Esther says, “I can’t just GO to the king. I have to be called.”
Then Mordecai tells Esther it’s for this time that you are where you are. This is a chance to save your people. From this moment on, Esther engages in this mission from the inside. She’s strategic in what she does and how she does it.
She bravely goes in to the king. He offers her anything she wants. She invites him and Haman to dinner. Then at dinner, the king again offers to give Esther anything she wants. She asks for another dinner banquet the next night.
Chapter 7 is this second dinner. And Haman has got to be feeling on top of the world. He’s the king’s right hand man. He’s eating with the royal family every night.
And now we hear what Esther’s been working on behind the scenes. She’s built up her social capitol with the king and now she’s ready to cash it in.
Esther says, “My wish is for my own life.” That seems so small, doesn’t it? The king has offered her half the kingdom and she says, “Just let me live.” It’s a small request, but it’s personal. Then she moves from that to the larger appeal: “I wish for the life of my people.”
Have you noticed that she hasn’t mentioned who her people are or why they’re in danger? She’s easing her way into making her request.
Oh, and remember how Haman said that problem group was no profit to the king? Now Esther says, “It’s financially bad for you if we’re wiped out. If we were sold into slavery, we could still make a profit for you. But if we’re killed, you lose all the tax money. So it kills us and hurts you.”
It’s an economic appeal that's emotional.
And part of the suspense of the story is Esther still hasn’t said the danger comes from Haman–who’s sitting right there at the table with them.
Here is Esther’s big reveal. She’s delayed as long as possible so the king has time to become emotionally invested. Esther knows she has to have a solid, fool-proof case for the king to get rid of his right hand man.
“The villain is sitting right here. It’s Haman.”
Then the king storms off. While the king is away, Haman begs Esther for his life.
I picture this awkward scene where Esther is on the couch. Haman approaches her. She slides back, not knowing what he’s going to do. He falls to his knees and starts begging for his life, trying to be near her and to wipe his tears on her dress.
The king storms back in. “What are you doing to my wife?!?”
That’s the final straw. It’s become personal to the king. This, seeing Haman in an awkward position on the couch with his wife, is too much. It pushes the king over the edge.
Then one of the servants speaks up. “Hey, in the last chapter, we set up this big stake because Haman wanted to kill Mordecai on it.”
Now, the tables have turned. Haman is impaled on his own stake.
This is a dramatic short story, but what does it mean for us today?
Thinking about that, I keep going back the most famous lines from chapter 4: “You were born for such a time as this.” That means, you are where you are for a reason. You are who you are for a reason. Maybe you can do something now.
As we zoom out and look at the big picture, we see that Vashti, Mordecai, and Esther all make a stand, but in different ways. There’s different ways to raise awareness and create change.
Some are called to call out injustice. Others march or refuse to bow down. Some work the system to change it from within.
There are times a person is uniquely situated to do something. It’s not by chance. It’s not by accident. It’s your calling.
Please don’t get some overly romantic idea about a calling. A calling does NOT mean you get a direct game plan from God.
You don’t have to know how everything is going to play out. You don’t have to know how the system works. You certainly DON’T get to choose when you have an audience with people of power. But when you do, be clear about who you are and what your responsibility is. Do what is truly necessary. That’s what you can do.
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