Or, A One-man Genocidal Lobby
Scripture: Esther 2:19-3:15
Date: September 14, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
When we open God’s Word together we are not looking away from the world, we are looking to get wisdom for our life in the world. A good grasp of the context of any given passage in God’s Word should help give us a better grasp of the context of any given problem in our weeks. Scripture provides perspective, not distraction. We don’t bury our heads in the Bible like an ostrich, the Bible elevates our viewpoint like that of an eagle (Isaiah 40:31). Being still before the Lord (Psalm 46:10) isn’t quietism, it’s consecrated agency to get to work by faith not the flesh.
So we come back to the story of Esther. It is a story of God’s providence—that is, God’s attention and activity concentrated everywhere—for His people that is providentially relevant again.
When we look around, and certainly when we hear of events such as are dominating our news cycle, hatred appears to run the world. Titus 3:3 describes the life of unbelievers as “passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” Hatred results in anger, anger energizes attention, and this is why hatred on news channels sells advertising. Those who fear the Lord know that hatred really just attempts to run the world, but even hatred can’t avoid being under God’s control and accomplishing God’s purposes.
Not all hatred is unlawful. In fact, “the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil” (Proverbs 8:13). We sing, “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10). The object of hatred determines whether the hatred is right or whether hatred is evil. In this part of Esther, hatred is not of the good kind. Though foiled for a moment, hatred is incited and inflated until it becomes an extinction-level threat to God’s people.
And also in this part of Esther, the divine Author uses foreshadowing, irony, generational conflict, tension, and dice to keep our attention, and to build our faith.
Chapter 2 began with a plan to please the king. Hundreds of women had a turn to please the king, and Hadassah/Esther won grace and favor in the king’s sight. The king was pleased, but not everyone was pleased with the king.
There’s a new queen in town, and Esther seems to have arranged an official position for her cousin Mordecai. For Mordecai to be sitting at the king’s gate meant he had some authoritative role in the city administration. The men at the gate might not have been in the king’s inner circle, but they heard disputes, they made decisions.
The virgins were gathered together the second time, is this the group of ladies that didn’t get a turn because the king chose Esther?
Then in verse 20 the human author repeats that Esther had not make known her Jewish identity. Esther followed her cousin’s counsel, just as she had done when he was raising her.
While Mordecai was in the gate he learned of assassination plan. Bigthan and Terish were two of the king’s security team (verse 21). They guarded the threshold, meaning that they protected his private bedroom. They became angry, though we’re not told exactly why. It made them mad enough to want to kill the king.
Mordecai apparently did not have access to Ahasuerus directly, but he did tell Esther, and she told Ahasuerus on behalf of Mordecai. The conspiracy was investigated and confirmed (verse 22). The penalty was death. To be hanged on the gallows does not mean hanged as with a rope with a noose around the neck, but impaled—the typical Persian punishment, with a stake through the body, lifted up for all to see.
All this was captured in the official records, but no thanks or honor of any kind is given to Mordecai. Alright. But it does sort of stink compared with what happens next in the story. And those who knew the story knew that it was a part to be resolved in chapter 6. (For what it’s worth, Ahasuerus was assassinated in his bedroom in 465 BC, about 12 or so years after this foiled attempt.)
In a plot surprise, a different man than the man who saved the king’s life gets honored by the king. It was After these things, so we’re supposed to appreciate these episodes next to each other, though this happens two or three years later.
Haman is the last main character for us to meet in the book. He is Haman, the Agagite, which turns out to be important. The king gave Haman the second seat in the empire, the vizier, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men bowed down to Haman for the king had so commanded (verse 2). This detail, along with the lack of any details about why Haman was to be honored, suggests that Haman himself was not easy to honor. It required a mandate from the monarch.
But Mordecai did not bow down. Why not? While the text doesn’t spell it out, enough clues make the answer clear. How Haman is introduced as the Agagaite, along with the repeated keeping their ethnicity concealed, the fact that Mordecai does reveal it now, along with the target of Haman’s hatred. This is a longstanding conflict.
King Agag ruled the Amalekites. The Lord told King Saul to destroy all the Amalekites, in fulfillment of Deuteronomy 25:17-19. But in 1 Samuel 15 Saul took the best, made up an excuse, and when Samuel arrived he “hacked Agag to pieces.” That happened over five centuries before Haman and Mordecai, but the enmity remained.
The other guys in the gate urged Mordecai to keep himself out of trouble. But apparently Mordecai explained himself, he had told them that he was a Jew.
Initially Haman didn’t even notice. But when it was so helpfully brought to his attention, along with the reason for it, Haman was filled with fury. It wasn’t enough for him to destroy one Jew, he wanted to get rid of them all.
Nine years have passed since the initial feast in chapter 1, and five have passed since Esther took on the royal crown in chapter 2. Now in the first month of Ahasuerus’ twelfth year, the fortune tellers and astrologers and event planners get together.
It was apparently a thing to get together at the beginning of the year and throw dice to determine when certain things should be done. The Persian name of the clay cubes is Pur, and purim is the plural form, which we know from the end of the book is part of the reason for the book (Esther 9:26-31), that is, to explain the Feast of Purim.
Haman casts lots to determine when it would be best to kill all the Jews. What good news would his gods give him? It wasn’t so great, he’d have to wait almost a year. Turns out, a lot can happen in a year.
Then he went to Ahasuerus to get official permission. Note that he does not even say who he’s lobbying against, there is a certain people (verse 8), and the king doesn’t ask. Haman dances around the truth, occasionally stepping on it, but mostly spinning up accusations to make his case. He also offers to pay 10k worth of silver talents into the king’s treasuries. Herodotus notes that the typically annual tribute was 15k, so Haman is offering 2/3rds of a year of income for the privilege of getting what he wants; it was about 300 tons. He is his own one-man lobby for genocide.
Now Haman, the Agagite, is called the enemy of the Jews (verse 10). He’s got full palace authority for this intended genocide.
The exact dating of when the scribes were called to write the decree of destruction is not just a demonstration of historical accuracy, it is historical irony. The thirteenth day of the first month is one day before the Jews celebrate Passover. Passover is the feast the reminded them of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They had been sold again, not to slavery, but to slaughter.
The Persian post office was back in action, and the announcement went throughout all the empire with instruction to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day.
The final sentence of the chapter is the most chilling, at least in terms of the gleeful and yet callous hatred. The king and Haman pour themselves a drink to celebrate their impressive work. The city, though, was in confusion. What in the world?
How specifically should this passage change how we respond to threats, hatred, or seemingly hopeless situations?
Remember that Haman’s type of hatred still exists, not only in forms of anti-semitism, but in the desire to destroy others. And remember more than that, God is sovereign. Even “every decision of the lot is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). The Lord is at work in the story.
Do the right thing even if there is no immediate reward. Don’t be distressed by evil men (Psalm 37:1). Even when the laws of the land decree lots of destruction, “the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that his day is coming” (Psalm 37:13).
God governs the lots. God rules over lobbies, including those that lobby for death. God remembers the lowly, and lifts up their heads with wisdom for our life in a world of hate.
You are a clay pot filled with the treasure of the gospel. Jesus Christ is Lord, that is your message, He is your model. Some clay pots are broken in a moment, others are used up and worn out. When grace sloshes out from our pots the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. (1 Corinthians 16:13–14, 22–23 ESV)