rich’s blog

Haman Gets Really Upset

 

Preface:

So.  Last week we looked at the second chapter of the book of Esther.  We were introduced to Esther and Mordecai, two pretty important people.  And we talked about favor, how favored Esther was by those who saw her, and we hopefully questioned the way we ourselves are favored.  I asked us to pray the question, “With whom have I found favor, Lord?  What would you have me do with the favor I’ve been given?” 

 

And let me really say this: God is at work in the book of Esther.  We will, before this series is over, spend an entire morning simply talking about God in the book of Esther, we’ll review all the seeming coincidences that happen so that the jewish people are kept from genocide, so that the hope of the world, Jesus, can come from Israel. 

 

And I throw this out there because we’ve been, basically, peering close at these various scenes in Esther, and doing what we can to take wisdom from them, to bring it into our lives, and through the Spirit become more like Jesus because of the way we can apply it.  But we’ve been looking close, right? 

 

Today: 

And we’re going to look close, again, today, at a portion of Esther. Chapter three and a few verses of Chapter four.  But before we do, let’s pray together:

 

Prayer: 

 

 

Confession:

You know, I still haven’t quite figured out a way to preach through this narrative well, right?  I mean, letters are easier.  And I do want us to see that anytime we look closely at one of Esther’s passages, we can find in it so much.  The closer we look at these scenes, the more we can realize just how much is packed into them. 

 

This morning, as we look at the passage that read to us, we’ll again be reviewing the passage and asking questions that come of these close looks.  And I’m sort of bringing you all into the way I work through the text more than usual, today, okay? 

 

At the end of this morning, honestly, we’re going to leave with a really simple message, really simple take away: Don’t be like Haman.  But we could talk about much more than this if we wanted.  

 

So.  Feel free to open your Bibles.

 

Review/Reflection: 3:1-2

Today’s passage opens with “after these events.”  We’ve moved along down time, somehow–Esther has been queen for a full five years–and all sorts of things, I’m sure, have happened in Persia.  One of those things is that Haman is now, after the king, the most important official in the Persian Empire. 

 

And The King has commanded that everyone at the King’s gate bow down to him.  “But,” we’re told, “Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.” 

 

And the natural question, of course, is “Why!”  “Why won’t Mordecai bow?” right?  This is one of the first things I think about when I read this.  I want it to be for some faithful reasons, I want it to be because Mordecai will bow to no one but God, you know.  But it could be other reasons.  Maybe Mordecai is upset that he saved Xerxes’ life, and got no props for it, but Haman is just so important for some reason, you know.  

 

Maybe it has nothing to do with Haman at all, and everything to do with the King–who did, after all, order everyone to honor Haman, and who did, after all, take away from him Esther, his adopted daughter.  He can only talk to her through a go-between now. 

 

But we don’t know why Mordecai won’t bow to Haman.  We are not told, anymore than we were told why Vashti wouldn’t come when Xerxes called her.  And this has frustrated me, because we have even fewer clues as to the “why” behind his behavior. 

 

Review/Reflection: 3:3-4

And the people, the officials, that Mordecai hangs out with at the King’s gate–I’d call them friends, but they say friendship and politics don’t mix–these gate-hanger outers (gates were where business was often done, negotiations took place) these people who know Mordecai, talk with him daily, notice that he’s not bowing down.  

 

And frankly, they get upset about it.  

 

They do what none of us do, which is go tell mom or dad that Mordecai isn’t sharing his toys with them.  They tell him, you have to do this: bow to Haman.  Mordecai says no: and because of this, we read, “they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a jew.” 

 

“for he had told them he was a jew.” 

“For he had told them he was a jew.” We saw last week that Mordecai told Esther to keep quiet about being a jew.  Just some fatherly advice; we’re not told why he gives it.  We assume there’s a reason; that being a jew is somehow “lesser” than being, well, anyone else from any other people group Persia has taken over.  

 

But this phrase, “for he had told them he was a jew,” takes us well beyond assumption, doesn’t it.  Because Mordecai is who he is, a jew–something completely beyond his control–the officials he spends so much time with, who he has shared his identity with–decide to treat him differently.  We get the sense, as readers, that if he wasn’t a jew, but just a grouchy Persian, they would have clapped him on the shoulder, told him he was going to get himself killed, but wouldn’t have acted against him the way they acted.  Because he’s a jew, he is marked out for special, negative attention.  

 

Review/Reflection 3:5-6:

And Haman, once he’s alerted to Mordecai’s behavior, is enraged!  He can’t bear the idea of just killing Mordecai, who has daily–he just found out–been rejecting his honor, been sowing seeds of rejection among the officials.  You know what he needs to do: he needs to kill every single jew within his reach. And remember, Haman’s reach is long.  He’s number two in the empire.  

 

And this theme, tightly woven into Esther, of the destruction of the jews is really the same theme that is woven throughout the Old Testament and into the New. The story of the Bible is, in some ways, the story of God keeping Israel around after persecution after persecution.  Israel is always under threat of destruction, aren’t they? They are pursued, and attacked, and threatened with destruction.  

 

And we’re not all that far removed from a time when jews were killed by the thousands, and Hamans ruled with iron fists.   

 

Review/Reflection: 3:7

And a ceremony is held in Haman’s presence to decide the date of this genocide. They cast lots, of some sort, and the lots fall on a date: the twelth month of Adar.  That’s when Haman will kill the jews. 

 

This is interesting.  You know lots were assumed to be a way for the gods or spirits to speak to you.  The god’s spoke through the lots. (I’m not advocating this, by the way: Paul highlights for us that these “gods”–lower case g–are really self-interested, evil spirits. So. If you want to chat about that, let me know.) But you could divine the will of the godthrough lots, the purim.

 

And what we see here is Haman, deciding to do something, and then going ahead and–after he’s already decided, right?–seeking out the god’s counsel on when.  He didn’t cast lots to see if he should kill every jewish person he could reach; that was decided. 

 

Isn’t that just like a pagan?  To decide to do something out of passionate emotion, and then toss God into it afterward!  I’m glad none of us act like that.  

 

But…the pur, the lots, tell him a day: and he says, okay: that’s a fine day. 

 

Review/Reflection: 3:8-9

And Haman runs to the king, and tells him this: “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 don’t 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, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”

 

Haman tells Xerxes that this people–I didn’t even realize at first that Haman never tells Xerxes who the people are, and Xerxes doesn’t seem to care all that much.  I was alerted to this by someone else (cf. niv ac 121).  Haman tells the King that these people a threat to Xerxes sovereignty and the Empire’s solvency. 

 

And if you want to get governments moving, do what Haman does here: offer the people in charge cash, and tell them that if they don’t act, their power, the empire, might be threatened.  

 

And this ten thousand talents, or 300 tons, of silver is something like 75% of what Xerxes’ dad collected a year in taxes. (NIV AC 121).  So.  This offer isn’t chump change. 

 

And Xerxes does act.  Because if Haman is telling the truth, it is simply not in Xerxes’ best interest to tolerate the presence of these “certain people” and all their seditious behavior, and disregard of Xerxes’ power. 

 

And Haman is clearly exaggerating when he paints the jews as some sort of great threat, right?  I mean, if both Esther and Mordecai–and we assume other Jews–have assimilated to Susa culture enough that they can pretend to not be jews, and nobody realizes it, then maybe “they” don’t disobey the king’s laws, maybe Haman is just upset at Mordecai, who disobeys this one law. In fact, ancient sources tell us that jews did often bow to Persian officials (cf. niv ac 119).  They obeyed court custom. 

 

But every caricature we make about people starts with some truth, right?  The Jews, apparently, are different.  They do have different customs from the majority of those living in the Ancient Near East.  They don’t obey all the king’s laws–or at least, Mordecai doesn’t obey the one about Haman, and that’s enough for him. 

 

But let’s talk about this.  You are a people who have always been persecuted.  You believe that your people will not be forsaken, that through you, God wants to bless the whole world, that God will be faithful to the special relationship He has with you no matter what.  You believe God & what God says.  You are a jew…but if anyone finds that out, you’re a nobody.  If you entrust anyone with that bit of info, they are going to use it against you. You’ll experience antagonism. You’ll be attacked.  

 

When is it appropriate or wise to declare that you are different, when is it appropriate or wise to proclaim that you are part of the people of God: when is it reasonable to dress like the culture around you, and keep the same schedules as the culture around you, and buy the same things as the culture around you, and marry people, work with people, live with people, act like people who aren’t God’s people, even though you are? 

 

We should think about hard questions like these when we read about Esther and Mordecai, because–if its not obvious–they directly relate to our own lives as people who are stuck right in the middle of culture. 

 

Review/Reflection: 3:10-4:3

And the King continues to honor Haman extravagantly.  He says, “Go for it…and don’t worry about the money!”  What a benevolent king!  He even gives Haman his signet ring, effectively giving Haman all the power of the empire.  Runners are sent throughout the neighborhood, the announcement is on Fox News, CNBC, NPR, CNN & BBC, that all Jews–young and old, women and children–should be killed and annihilated in 11 months. 

 

And I wonder what I would do?  What would you do, if you found out your neighbor would be killed–and it was government orders.  It was patriotic to kill them.  What if you found out your business partner, or an in-law, maybe, or the neighbor in the house you’ve always loved down the street–he and all his family–are going to be killed in a year.  And it’s Xerxes will; it’s irresistible.  What goes through your mind?  Pity? Greed? Resistance? What? What would you do?

 

Responses: 

Haman & the king have a drink, relax on the back porch.

 

Susa is thrown into chaos. 

 

Mordecai mourns, publicly and loudly. 

 

And every jew, in every town, in every place in the empire, is overwhelmed with the reality that they will die in less than a year.  All they have will be taken from them by others. And they mourn like mordecai mourns.  

 

Mordecai mourns, by the way, like this: 

 

When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. (esther 4:1-2, tniv)

 

This whole burlap and ashes thing is a typical ancient near east convention, right?  This was how people mourned, grieved–loudly, in public, in a way that couldn’t be ignored. 

 

Caught on 4:2: 

But I was caught here, stuck here for a long time this week, stuck on the second verse.  Remember, Mordecai wouldn’t bow to Haman–again, we don’t know why, although we can probably assume it has something to do with him being a jew.  He disobeyed the king, wouldn’t bow, and from this Haman extrapolated, and declared that jews don’t follow the customs of Persia. 

 

But now Mordecai decides to obey the law?  To not enter the King’s Gate with his grief outfit on?  I wonder what is going on here?  Are people stopping him?  Does he regret having not just bowed to Haman–which, with all the mourning, we should assume he does, and so, in his regret, does he decide to obey the king’s laws?  

 

But what has changed between the refusal we started this passage with, and this pause at the gate that we end with? 

 

And this seemed like a riddle to me: an Esther riddle, you know, posed by God: “What’s different between these two pictures?  Oh!  Mordecai’s suit only has three buttons!” 

 

But, sometimes, the simplest answers can be the best ones, can’t they? 

 

Simple Answers:

I don’t know what changed in Mordecai’s heart, or if that language is even appropriate, but what we can know and say easily because of what we see at the start of chapter four is that Haman is a liar. 

 

Haman is a liar.  

 

Because Mordecai, the one that Haman seems to base all the caricatures he tells the king about–Mordecai follows custom.  He doesn’t go through the gate.  Because it’s just not done; no one is allowed to go through it. It’s a custom; and he follows. It’s a law, he obeys.

 

Mordecai obeys the law; he just wouldn’t–for some probably jewish reason–bow to Haman.  

 

And in here, I think, is something we can say about this passage that was read to us today.  An easy thing to draw from it:  

 

Don’t be like Haman. 

 

Don’t be like Haman. 

 

Self-serving Deception:

Don’t lie–or stretch the truth or deceive or mislead or do any of the things we do to get some selfish thing we want accomplished- no matter how small thing that thing is.  I mean, that’s one thing Haman does, right?  The Jews are not troubling to Xerxes; Mordecai, one man, simply didn’t bow to Haman–but honestly, he seems to be pretty Persian in a lot of ways.  He doesn’t push against the custom we read about at the end of the chapter.  People knew he was a jew only because he told them.  

 

Haman misled Xerxes so he could get what he wanted.  Let’s not be like Haman in this way.

 

Expansive Anger:

Or this: Haman allows his anger at one person, at Mordecai, to expand into every single person that he associates with Mordecai, every single jew.  Have you ever done that?  Angry at one person, at one incident, and all of a sudden, all men are such-and-such, all women are such-and-such, or: all…Iranians? Iraqis? Immigrants? 

 

We don’t have the power Haman had to manipulate Xerxes and get his way, but we do have some power: and do we use it towards those who remind us of other people who have frustrated us?  Do we watch our mouths and our actions? Let’s not be like Haman in this way. 

 

“Spiritualized” Decisions:

What else does Haman do? Oh! He decides to do something, then “spiritualizes” it, doesn’t he?  I think I’ll commit genocide–better cast the lot and see when that’ll happen, ask the gods, and I guess I better get Xerxes okay.  His mind is made up, and his plans are set, well before he even considers any spiritual thing–even if we would very much avoid the spirits Haman might look to.  That said, do we include God into our plans only after we’ve made them? 

 

Let’s not be like Haman in this way.

 

Conclusion:

Let’s not be like Haman; misleading, deceiving, serving ourselves instead of others. Extrapolating our anger out to whoever is like the person we are angry with, or making decisions well-before we have consulted God, who really does desire that we make the best decision in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.  

 

And if we invite one another, and the Holy Spirit, into the circumstances that we find ourselves in–today, right now, when we leave, before and after we meet again: we can become, in fact, not at all like Haman, and a lot more like the one who has brought us together in the first place.  Jesus.   

 

I pray this for all of us. 

 

Prayer: