Sermon Tone Analysis

Esther 2:19–3:15 (CSB)

19 When the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate.

20 Esther still did not reveal her family background or her ethnicity, as Mordecai had directed.

She obeyed Mordecai’s orders, as she always had while he raised her.

21 During those days while Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, became infuriated and planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus.

22 When Mordecai learned of the plot, he reported it to Queen Esther, and she told the king on Mordecai’s behalf.

23 When the report was investigated and verified, both men were hanged on the gallows.

This event was recorded in the Historical Record in the king’s presence.

1 After all this took place, King Ahasuerus honored Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite.

He promoted him in rank and gave him a higher position than all the other officials.

2 The entire royal staff at the King’s Gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded this to be done for him.

But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.

3 The members of the royal staff at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?” 4 When they had warned him day after day and he still would not listen to them, they told Haman in order to see if Mordecai’s actions would be tolerated, since he had told them he was a Jew.

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing down or paying him homage, he was filled with rage.

6 And when he learned of Mordecai’s ethnic identity, it seemed repugnant to Haman to do away with Mordecai alone.

He planned to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.

7 In the first month, the month of Nisan, in King Ahasuerus’s twelfth year, the pur—that is, the lot—was cast before Haman for each day in each month, and it fell on the twelfth month, the month Adar.

8 Then Haman informed King Ahasuerus, “There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, keeping themselves separate.

Their laws are different from everyone else’s and they do not obey the king’s laws.

It is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.

9 If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction, and I will pay 375 tons of silver to the officials for deposit in the royal treasury.”

10 The king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

11 Then the king told Haman, “The money and people are given to you to do with as you see fit.”

12 The royal scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded.

It was intended for the royal satraps, the governors of each of the provinces, and the officials of each ethnic group and written for each province in its own script and to each ethnic group in its own language.

It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the royal signet ring.

13 Letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces telling the officials to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jewish people—young and old, women and children—and plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

14 A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples so that they might get ready for that day.

15 The couriers left, spurred on by royal command, and the law was issued in the fortress of Susa.

The king and Haman sat down to drink, while the city of Susa was in confusion.

The TSA agent that annoyed me years ago.

The Bible teaches that Honor is earned by pleasing and conforming to God.

Not everybody agrees- today’s shows what happens when we think honor is based on anything other than our relationship with God.

We are going to see two men letting pride get in the way of reason in the name of their honor.

Honor Belongs To The Lord: The Text In Its Context

After Esther was crowned queen, there was a second gathering of virgins.

The when of 2:19–23 is not as clear as the where and the what.

The author could possibly mean that the virgins who remained in the first harem were transferred to the concubines’ quarters, which was overseen by Shaashgaz (2:14).

The author could also mean that even after Esther was chosen, the king commissioned another gathering of women—not to give anyone a crown but to serve his cravings.

Would anybody be surprised that Xerxes would do that?

Based on what we have observed of him, this seems much more like a probability instead of a possibility.

Whatever the second gathering of women was about, we know it most likely occurred sometime between Esther’s being crowned in Ahasuerus’s seventh year of reign (2:16) and Haman’s casting lots in the king’s twelfth year (3:7).

We also know that Esther’s new position had not changed Mordecai’s influence on her life.

Despite being crowned queen, Esther still concealed her ethnicity because of Mordecai’s command.

It is wrong to hide that we belong to God.

It was wrong for Medecai and Esther back them, and it is wrong if we do it today.

This, no doubt, would be considered good policy on Mordecai’s part, and lovely obedience in Esther, but it was real unfaithfulness to God, often duplicated in our own times.…

If they cover their nationality, and shame Him so that He hides His name too, He will make them nevertheless the instruments of His providence.

— H. A. Ironside

We see God’s providence- the hidden hand of God- in Mordecai stumbling upon a conspiracy to kill Xerses.

Mordecai foiled the assassination plot by reporting it to Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to Xerxes, giving due credit to Mordecai.

All of this was recorded in the annals of the king.

Herodotus refers to an official list recorded in the Persian archives naming the king’s “benefactors.”

Acts of loyalty were usually rewarded immediately and generously by Persian kings, but Mordecai’s reward was apparently overlooked.

Although this attempt on Xerxes’ life was foiled, Herodotus reports that a subsequent attempt succeeded when the king was assassinated in his bedroom in 465 b.c.

Mordecai had done the right thing, and it went completely unrewarded.

Contrast that with Haman being promoted to a high position, even though there was no explanation of why he deserved that reward.

The author of Esther places the promotion of Haman just where the original readers would have expected a report of Mordecai’s reward as a benefactor of the king.

Surprise, Mordecai’s good deed goes unrewarded yet the bad guy gets promoted.

Haman demanded that all bow before, because Xerxes had commanded this to be done.

All the officials at the king’s gate knelt and paid honor to Haman because the king had commanded it—all of them, that is, except Mordecai.

Mordecai’s refusal to give Haman the honor commanded by the king is left unexplained.

Perhaps he resented Haman’s promotion when he himself deserved, but had not received, a reward for his loyalty to the king.

However, as much as five years may have passed (cf.

2:16 and 3:7), and if this was Mordecai’s reason for not bowing to Haman, it apparently was not obvious to his colleagues.

They asked him repeatedly to explain himself, but he refused.

so they reported his behavior to Haman to see if Mordecai the Jew would be given an exception to the king’s command (3:4).

This suggests a lurking tension between the Jews and Gentiles of the court.Interpreters throughout the ages have offered explanations for Mordecai’s refusal.

It is known from other sources that in general, Jews did bow to pagan officials of the Persian court.

It was not a religious act but one of court protocol, much as moderns still curtsy or bow to the British queen.

This suggests that Mordecai’s refusal was not religiously motivated, but personal and specific to Haman.

It is possible that the cause of Mordecai’s refusal to bow was his anger at Haman being promoted for no reason while Mordecai was ignored when he saved the kings life.

That would explain Mordecai’s refusal to bow, but why did Haman have such a passionate hate for the Jews?

In Hebrew narrative the characteristic described when a character is introduced is key to understanding his or her role in the story.

When Mordecai is introduced in 2:5, he is identified not as a wise man or as an official in the court, but as a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin.

When Haman is introduced, he is identified as an Agagite.

The Bible reveals that the Jews and Agagites have an ancient enmity.

Apparently that hatred drove Mordecai and Haman to hate each other.

Agag was the king of the Amalekites at the time Saul (also of the tribe of Benjamin) was the first king of Israel (1 Sam.

15).

The Amalekites were a nomadic people of the southern desert region who frequently raided Israel from the beginning of its history.

This pagan nation had the dubious distinction of being the first people of the world to attack and try to destroy God’s newly formed covenant nation.

Because of this, God promised Moses that he would completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven and would be at war with them from generation to generation (Ex.

17:8–16).

In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, God commanded Israel, once they were settled in the land, to be agents of his promise and so war against the Amalekites as to blot out their memory forever.In the years between Moses and King Saul, God gave Israel the land as promised.

When Saul came to power, God instructed him through the prophet Samuel to “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them,” and to “put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys” (1 Sam.

15:1–3).

Saul did attack the Amalekites as commanded, but he took Agag their king alive and spared his life along with the best of the sheep and cattle, in disobedience to God’s command.

Over the centuries after Saul spared Agag’s life, other perennial enemies of Israel were called Agagites, even though they had no ethnic relationship to the Amalekites.

In the first century of this era, for example, Jewish writers referred to the Romans as Agagites.

In our own time, the Palestinians in Israel are sometimes referred to by that ancient appellation.

The New York Times reported on a violent incident in Israel by saying that “a core of militant Jews has preached a doctrine of intolerance, often with the Arab as the biblical enemy Amalek.”

Esther had been queen for five years when Haman skillfully manipulates the king to gain support for his evil plan.

He begins by bringing an accusation certain to arouse the king’s attention—that there is “a certain people” who do not obey the king’s laws.

It may have been true that the Jews observed certain distinctive customs even in Persia, but in narrative fact it is only Mordecai who does not obey the king, and then only one specific command—to bow to Haman.

Haman carefully avoids mentioning that these people are the Jews, and the king is apparently too apathetic to ask which people are so charged.

Haman then appeals to the king’s need to replenish the treasury depleted by Xerxes’ disastrous war with Greece.

Herodotus reports that the annual revenue of the Persian empire under Xerxes’ father, Darius, was 14,560 thousand talents.7

This revenue was generated by receiving tribute (i.e., taxes) from the satrapies.

Haman’s offer to provide ten thousand talents of silver (about 300 tons) represents a substantial contribution to the royal coffers.

Haman may have thrown out an exaggerated figure of ten thousand talents to sell his idea.

Presumably, whatever revenue he promises will come by plundering the possessions of those killed (cf.

3:13).

To determine the propitious time for an attack on the Jews, Haman consults the pur (pl., purim) or lot.