Skip to main content

Haman Is Alive And Well


                 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.  (Esther 3:1-5) 

            Time passes. Suddenly, as most things Xerxes does in this story seem to happen suddenly, Xerxes decides that Haman the Agagite is his main man. According to Jewish tradition, Haman was the descendant of the Amalekite king, Agag, one of Israel’s enemies during the time of Saul. That enmity was just a continuation of the struggle between Israel and Amalek going back to the time of Joshua (at least.)
            Xerxes had commanded that all people should bow down to Haman and he was enjoying his time in the sun tremendously, until officials at the king’s gate reported that there was one guy who wasn’t with the program. My first question: Why was it necessary for Haman to be informed? Didn’t he see this infringement himself? Second question: why did the officials report it? Could it be as revenge for Mordecai turning the would-be assassins in? Eventually, he saw for himself that Mordecai could not be intimidated, He was enraged. Not just angry – think road rage.
            I don’t have answers. What I do have is yet another timely parallel. The officials of the land have declared, this group of people is to be granted the status they have coveted. When we, the people of the land, encounter them, the government has decreed that we bow down to their wishes with regard to treatment of them. There have been more than one of these groups, but the response is the same. When a group of people refuses to bow, when one says, “I’m sorry, I can’t bake that cake” or take the photographs, or perform the ceremony, or host the ceremony, or whatever form the not bowing down takes, the group denied the honor from that one person, or that group is enraged.
            Sadly, Haman is alive and well and living in the United States, and while I may not yet be Mordecai, I stand with those who are.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more