The Agagite
Question of the day: Have you ever had a close call on the road, when you maybe should have been in an accident?
My answer: This past week while driving up to Pisgah I found myself in the right lane behind a beautiful new Trane Air conditioner repair truck. I was talking on the phone with my brother...(hands free, blue tooth car speakers, but very much engrossed in the conversation,) when I noticed a very large clean new ladder shift just a tiny bit. My first thought, that isn't good. My second thought, I'm sure it is securely tied down. My conversation continues.... but I'm not comfortable. I decide to move over so I'm not directly behind him. I can't there are cars beside me. Then still talking and thinking about the conversation, a break opens up in the traffic and I move over. I accelerate and as soon as I am beside the pickup truck, the ladder flies out of the truck and hits the pavement breaking into pieces and flying everywhere. Cars and trucks are trying to avoid it and I am driving no longer aware of the conversation but fully aware that had I not moved I might not be here now.
Good morning everyone. I huge thank you to Paul for stepping in and teaching! Today we are going to finish Esther 3.
READ: Esther 3:5-15
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on[a] the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents[b] of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”
10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”
12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman’s orders to the king’s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. 13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.14 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.
15 The couriers went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.
This passage seems quite boring. At the very least it seems to have little that we can grab onto and learn from. However as we look deeper I think we will find a real gem.
So we have to take a moment and understand a couple things.
1. Timing
2. A Name
Timing: So here we learn that Haman casts a lot (or roles the dice) which isn't like what we think of when we think of rolling the dice, it is really the equivalent of asking the gods for direction. In this case he wanted to know the time that he should get rid of them. He does this in the first month, Nisan when the Jews celebrate Passover. The lot tells him the twelfth month, meaning he will have to wait 11 months, but he immediately tells them and the edict of death goes out on the thirteenth day of the first month, which is the very eve of Passover.
Now I think we must note what Passover was all about. What were the Jews celebrating?
So the very eve of the holiday that celebrates the deliverance of Israel from Egypt they get this news. It is especially important to note that ultimately what they were celebrating was the events - the deliverance that made them a "people" a nation, God's people.
Can you imagine.
So you are coming together to celebrate being a people, who were delivered by God, and you find out it has been ordered that now you as a people are going to be destroyed.
2. A name. You notice in verse ten we see Haman is called the Agagite. What does this tell us?
Well us... NOT MUCH.
But to the original readers this meant a lot.
We need a short history lesson to understand it all....
This is from the NIV Life Application Commentary on Esther
Agag was the king of the Amalekites at the time Saul was the first king of Israel. The Amalekites were the first people to try to destroy God's people. God instructed the Jews to destroy all of the Amalekites and all their stuff. Saul did attack them but he spared their king Agag taking him alive and keeping the best of his stuff, (sheep and cattle, etc.) In direct disobedience e to God. Let's just say that not doing away with Agag and his possessions was a big mistake and it kept coming back to haunt them. So much so that over the years those who hated and were enemies with God's people were called Agagites even though they had no relation. So basically the term Agagite, or the name was the same as calling someone anti-Semitic.
Haman was not necessarily a direct descendant, but the title made it clear to the reader he was an enemy of the Jews.
Here is what is interesting about the timing and the name.
On the eve of Passover when they were to celebrate being God's chosen covenant people, delivered by Him, they are told that because of an Agagite, they were going to no longer exist, and the name Agagite reminds them of how they had not done their part by doing what had been asked of them.
The inevitable question - Would God still keep His covenant? Were they still His, would He deliver them when they hadn't done as he had asked?
What does this all have to do with us today? What life application?
Over and over again we see in the bible that the devil is trying to destroy God's people. He is trying to destroy you too. So where is the good news in all this?
We know the end of this story.
God keeps his covenant with His people. It doesn't matter how dire it may seem. All your failures may point to why you think God won't be there to help you. But guess what....
God keeps his covenant.
Jesus came.... was tempted.... and even when told to worship Satan, he didn't. Isn't it interesting that Haman (the Agagite, an enemy of God's people) also asked to be worshiped, just as Satan did. Just as Satan does!
But the good news... Jesus came was tempted but overcame and was then killed, saving you!
Life application:
No matter how dire, no matter how much you are attacked, no matter how impossible it all seems, we can celebrate! We can celebrate because we are HIS PEOPLE and He has a covenant with us and HE KEEPS HIS COVENANT! We can celebrate Passover!
I also want you to know that God keeps his word because it is who HE is not because of who YOU are!
That gives me peace today!
Every attack on you, your family, your church, is an attack on the character of God himself. We already know the end of the story here too! God's character was revealed in Jesus and Jesus won!
What does this knowledge do for you?
How do we live because of this knowledge?
Have there been times you questioned whether or not God kept His word?
I realize that it is quite possible in the midst of your situation or in a situation still to come or in one from your past, God was/is seemingly absent.
In this story, we never hear him mentioned, and things are seemingly dire for His people and yet...
God wins!
Because of what God has done for you! Because of His covenant to you! GO and LOVE WELL!!!!!!!
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