September 26, 2024: Thursday Old Testament Bible Study - Esther 2:19 - 3:11
Good evening, and good morning,
Yes, I am at it again late on Wednesday. Tomorrow is my midday appointment with my urologist to check on the status of the cancer that we know is present. Please keep me in your prayers for a good update. Also please remember two families that have family members who are succumbing to their cancers in the near future. One is in the Denver area, and the other is a neighbor of Teri H. Please pray for these families that the hope of the Christ's salvation and forgiveness will bring comfort and peace at this time of uncertainty. Now, we move on to study Esther this evening.
As we get into the passage for this reading, (see above) we find that Xerxes has already called for a second viewing of the young girls who will be sexually abused by him, which at this time in history, is his right as the nation's leader. During this time two of his eunuchs plotted to kill the king. It was their job to protect the occupants of the harem. Obviously, they were unhappy with how the king was acting towards the young women who had been called into his presence to be looked at for their beauty and who would then go on to be misused by the king. When this happened Haman, a servant of the king, who was not in a position of great power sought to save the king and then took the eunuchs and killed them. The king was so pleased with Haman's action on his behalf that he gave Haman a position of Ultimate authority over everyone except himself, and Haman certainly took advantage of his new position, even to the point of having everyone who entered through the palace gate forced to bow to Haman's authority. That is, everyone except Mordecai, Esther's adoptive father. This made Haman furious, and so he approached the king about destroying all of the Judahites and more in the kingdom, along with a number of others too who were seen as an outside threat to the king, and maybe even more, to Haman!
As we know from history, the Jewish community has often suffered as the scape goats. This is the start of that victimizing them based just on the basis of their heritage and identity as a people. Haman was able to even get the king to consent to his taking on the job of destroying these communities of outsiders, and he would make a sizable fortune for doing so, which the king willingly paid. In terms of the young women who were being judged, we need to remember that not everyone met the king's standard. Beauty was a high and vicious standard to have to meet, and many young women could not measure up. Beautiful women are vulnerable, and so are the Judahites. The names for the Jewish people that were most often used were Judahites, Jews, Jewish, and Jew are all rooted in the word Jehudi, or in the plural Jehudim. (Here the J’s are pronounced like the y in yes.) We all know that at an earlier point Cyrus was called by God to release the Jews, but it was more than that. They had become successful in business, had large families, and their community in exile soon outpaced the native community of Persia. So large numbers were given the opportunity to leave for Judah and the promised land. Though Hama was hatching a plan to destroy the Judahites in the kingdom over which Xerxes was king. Mordecai's persistent refusal to bow to Haman, was only exacerbated by the food restrictions which Mordecai's people followed stringently, and their independent and unique religious practice also separated the Jews and made them more vulnerable. It is also likely that Mordecai recognized Haman as an Amalekite. The Amalekites had been historically irrationally and inhumanely hostile toward the Judahites. No good Jews would ever bow down to a person from this area of their world. Today the Jews in Israel continue to see the Palestinians as Amalekites, which may explain their disdain for these children of Abraham. Over hundreds and thousands of years, the Jewish community has seen the Palestinians as their enemy. There seems to not be a good answer in the Middle East, but whoever becomes the next president in our election will be forced to deal with this very irrational way in which these children of Abraham are willing to do harm to one another.
With love for your faithfulness in Christ, Pastor Kim
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