Rise of Haman and His Evil Plot to Kill The Jews

Bible Passage:  Esther 3

At first glance, the hostility between Mordecai and Haman appears to be a simple case of disrespect on Mordecai’s part (3:2) – we know that this is due to religious purposes, although the Bible text does not state it – and racial prejudice on Haman’s part (3:6).

However, as I looked deeper into the background of these 2 characters, I realised that the encounter outside the palace of king Xerxes was not the first time that the people of Haman and the people of Mordecai had met.

The book of Esther stresses that Haman was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite (3:1, 10; 8:3, 5; 9:24).  Tradition holds it that the Agagites were the descendants of Agag.  Does that name sound familiar?  He was the Amalekite king whom Saul, the first king of Israel, had failed to kill – thereby disobeying God’s instructions (1 Sam 15).

The Amalekites stood under the permanent judgement of God for attacking the Israelites during the exodus (Ex 17:8-13; Deut 25:17-19).

Now with Haman’s rise to power, the Amalekits were in a sense threatening once again to destroy God’s people.  But this time, God used Mordecai to frustrate the plan.  Ironically, Mordecai was descended from Kish (2:5) – the same family of Benjamites from which Saul had come (1 Sam 9:1).  Thus, in the end, Mordecai carried out what Saul had failed to accomplish (7:10; 9:4-5, 13-15).

Perhaps Mordecai nor Haman knew about the long standing enmity between their two peoples.  Nevertheless, their conflict illustrates that sin or evil can pass through generations – even embedded in the very life of a culture.  The legacy of sin may lie dormant for generations, then suddenly flare up, as it did in Haman’s case.

We may think that everything is going on well – when in fact – sin and evil is just waiting to erupt the very next moment – threatening our spiritual lives.

For that reason, it is not good enough to just live a good life personally, although this is very important.  It is also extremely important and prudent to root out evil.  And to do that may require us to re-look at our lives and build up Godly values and discard habits which does not edify (build us up) but may bring us down.

What I am trying to say is that we cannot be too careful when it comes to sin.  The seed of sin that we fail to root out today may spring up in later generations and yield a harvest of evil.  Just like the rising of Haman.

Let us be like Mordecai – to not compromise on the standards of God and allowed himself to be used by God to accomplish His will