Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

“What can men do against such reckless hate?”

Are the words that are used in the movie based on JR Tolkien’s book The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,

-King Theodin of Rohan is within the keep at Helm’s Deep, after an army or Urukhai have surrounded the fortress and broken in

-The size of the army was unimaginably large

-And they crashed relentlessly against the fortress like the unforgiving waves of the sea crash against the rocks

-As they face their seemingly impending doom, King Theodin utters these words:

“what can men do against such reckless hate?”

In his despair, this was the only question that he could muster

-Little did he know though, that help was soon to come for the deliverance of he and his people

-and today in the midst of the onslaught of woke American culture, political correctness, and increasing persecution, we often ask ourselves a similar question

-How are we to deal with this kind of persecution and hate

-but thankfully, we have the hope of God’s Word for such times and for such questions

Background

-Judah has been taken captive by Babylon for 70 years

-After 70 years, Cyrus of Persia allows them all to return to their land

-Some Jews don’t go, and stay where they are

-This story takes place in Shushan, the capital of Persia 50 years after the decree

**explain chapters 1-2**

-This happens around 5 years after Esther is made queen

Haman (vs. 1)

-Here we meet the last of the four main characters, and his name is Haman

-Now, it is important to take note of how the author introduces or describes a character in narrative texts

-Many times the author will tell us how we are to view the character through the way the character is introduced

-For instance:

So, how does the author introduce Haman?

-The only real comment we get about Haman son of Hammedatha, is that he is an Agagite

-And that is incredibly significant

Who was Agag?

In Exodus 17, the Israelites have just come out of Egypt, and they are attacked by a group of people called the Amalekites

-This is where the Israelites are winning as long as Moses keeps his arms up, so Aaron and Hur come along and support his arms

-The Israelites win, and this is what is recorded

Now, go to 1 Samuel 15.

Saul is king, and God says this:

What does King Saul do?

He disobeys and spares some of the cattle, as well as the king of Amalek, a man named . . .

Agag

-Samuel comes along and rebukes Saul for his unbelief, and then this happens:

So, this is the thing that author wants us to know about Haman: He is an Agagite, an enemy of God’s people

-And this will be confirmed more explicitly later in our text this evening

-Now, does anyone remember how Mordecai is introduced back in chapter 2?

-There was one thing about his introduction that we said would be very important, but we’d get to it next week

There was also another significant figure in Scripture who was a Benjamite, whose father’s name was also Kish

-And that is King Saul, the one who was ordered to strike down Agag

-So what the author is wanting us to see . . .

-What he is wanting to highlight is this ancient rivalry between the Amalekites and the Jews

Now, let’s keep going with our story

Vs. 1-6

vs. 1-2

-Now, the promotion of Haman seems quite unexpected and stark in light of the end of chapter 2, where Mordecai uncovers a plot to kill the king and receives no reward

-We would expect a promotion for Mordecai, but instead Hama is exalted

-Now, the king had commanded that people pay homage and bow to Haman, and everyone does, except for Mordecai

-Now the question is: why?

-Why doesn’t Mordecai bow to Haman?

-Some speculate that it is religiously motivated

-That Mordecai bows to God alone

-That’s how it’s portrayed in the Veggie Tales version

-However, that theory seems a little suspect, considering that Mordecai was in the king’s court and therefore probably bowed to the king whenever he came by

-Some people say that Mordecai was jealous that Haman got a promotion instead of him, so that’s why he doesn’t bow

-He’s throwing a hissy fit about not being promoted

-The bottom line is that similar to last week, we’re not told the exact reason

-We know the author wants to highlight the ancient rivalry between the these two, but other than that, we’re not given anything more specific

-Like we talked about last week, while it’s not wrong to ask these kind of questions, and even formative tentative and humble opinions or theories, we ultimately must look to the sufficient and inspired text for what God wants us to know

-Therefore, I have no intention in my preaching to further than that, because when I do, I have stepped out of bounds and have left the authorization that God has given us, which is His Word

-The emphasis is not on why Mordecai may not have bowed, but on the fact that he didn’t, which sets off the conflict of our plot

Vs. 3-4

-The other officials want to know why Mordecai won’t bow

-And we’re not told specifically what his answer is, but they go to Haman and let him know that Mordecai won’t bow

-They want to know possibly if he’ll be given an exemption

-Is he just allowed to get away with this?

-They also tell Haman that Mordecai is a Jew

-And Haman is angry now

Vs.

5-6

-Now, Haman doesn’t want to just get Mordecai

-No, that’s not good enough for Haman

-He wants to go after ALL of Mordecai’s people, the Jews

-And as the readers, a question begins to appear in our minds as we read this:

“will God deliver His people?”

-Haman, a powerful enemy of the people of God desires to destroy them, and so we begin to wonder:

-will God deliver His people?

Vs. 7-15

Vs. 7

-It’s very interesting what happens next:

-Haman casts lots to determine what day and what month to destroy the Jews on

-We’re not completely sure if this was a common practice in these kind of situations, or if this was a religious thing, or if this was just part of Haman’s twisted personality

Vs. 8-9

-Haman informs the king that there is a certain people scattered all throughout the kingdom — which is true

-These people’s laws are different from other people’s — which is also kind of true

-And that these people do not obey the king — which is not true

Haman then tells the king that these people aren’t worth tolerating

-Haman then offers the king a huge sum of money to be able to create this law that will ensure the genocide of the Jewish people

Vs. 11-12

-True to form in this story, the King is more than fine with going along with other people’s ideas with very little thought of his own, and gives over his signet ring to Haman, ensuring him the authority to create his wicked and violent law

-The seems to state the he doesn’t care about the money, but it appears he actually does, since Mordecai and Esther later on refer to the money given to the King

Vs. 12-15

-So the couriers go out to all the kingdom with this edict, that on the 13th day of the 12th month, the Jews are to be killed

-Men, women, and children

-And all their stuff can be plundered

-So Haman and the King sit down to have a drink (which it’s interesting to note that somewhat often in this story, the King is drinking)

-While the entire city is thrown into confusion about what on earth is going on