BIBLE WOMEN, ESTER PART 3- GOODMORNING

Esther Saves Mordecai

Esther 3-8:14

The story that follows in chapters 3-8 gives details of a personal conflict that escalates into a nation-wide pogrom against the Jewish people.

Mordecai refused to bow to the highest court official, Haman the Agagite. In a court with strict protocol, Mordecai’s refusal to bow was a grave insult that naturally infuriated Haman, and a feud started between the two men.

When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance to him, Haman was infuriated. But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, having been told who Mordecai’s people were, Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews.

Read Esther 3:1-15.

There is no reason given for Mordecai’s refusal to bow. It was not against normal Jewish practice to bow to a ruler or his representative (see Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, Genesis 43:26). But Mordecai’s ancestor Saul had been an enemy of Haman’s ancestor Agag, king of the Amalekites (see 1 Samuel 15), and this may have been Mordecai’s reason. In any case, he did not follow the accepted practice, and thereby placed himself and others in danger.

Haman’s anger shifted. It had been focused on Mordecai, but finding that Mordecai was a Jew, his fury expanded to include the whole Jewish people. In a scene that formed a blueprint for anti-Semitic propaganda, Haman fed the mind of the king with ideas about a people who were different, who obeyed different laws, and who were a danger to the kingdom.

Read Esther 4:1-17

The Jews, said Haman, must be eliminated for the good of the kingdom. The king agreed, not knowing that Esther, his beloved queen, and Mordecai, the man to whom he owed his life, were both Jews. A day was set aside for the slaughter, and a decree issued to every corner of the empire.

The absolute power of the king seems strange to us, accustomed as we are to the democratic rule of law. But in Canaan and Egypt, a king was thought of as a living god. He was a sacred person who embodied, in his person, the state or kingdom that he governed. His physical body was clearly not immortal, but he was thought of as someone who was more than human, with a special and unique connection with the immortal gods. Because of this, he could do what he wanted even when, as in this case, it was clearly unjust.