Haman's subtlety (Es. 3:7–15a)
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We are going to follow the steps that wicked Haman took as he executed his plan to destroy the Jewish people.
I. He selected the day (Es. 3:7)
7 In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.
A. Haman used the lot to select a favorable day to carry out his plot.
Haman and some of the court astrologers cast lots to determine the day for the Jews’ destruction. This was done privately before Haman approached the king with his plan. Haman wanted to be sure that his gods were with him and that his plan would succeed.
The Eastern peoples in that day took few important steps without consulting the stars and the omens. The casting of the lots, however, displays a unique irony. The first readers of this story knew how the story ended. When this text was read, therefore, the readers quickly realized that the casting of the lots would not mean the doom of the Jews; ironically it meant that those who cast the lots would suffer the fate intended for someone else.
B. Was Haman disappointed with this choice?
It’s interesting that Haman began this procedure in the month of Nisan, the very month in which the Jews celebrated their deliverance from Egypt. As the astrologers cast lots over the calendar, month by month and day by day, they arrived at the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. This decision was certainly of the Lord, because it gave the Jews a whole year to get ready, and because it would also give Mordecai and Esther time to act.
Haman may have wanted to act immediately, catch the Jews off guard, and satisfy his hatred much sooner. On the other hand, he would have nearly a year in which to nurse his grudge and anticipate revenge, and that would be enjoyable. He could watch the Jews panic, knowing that he was in control. Even if the Jews took advantage of this delay and moved out of the empire, he would still get rid of them and be able to claim whatever goods and property they would have left behind. The plan seemed a good one.
II. He requested the king’s permission (Es. 3:8–11)
8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.” 10 So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.”
A. Haman used a mixture of truth, error, and exaggeration to convince the king.
Like Satan, the great enemy of the Jews, Haman was both a murderer and a liar. To begin with, he didn’t even give the king the name of the people who were supposed to be subverting the kingdom. His vague description of the situation made the danger seem even worse. The fact that these dangerous people were scattered throughout the whole empire made it even more necessary that the king do something about them.
Haman was correct when he described the Jews as a people whose “laws are different from those of all other people”. Their laws were different because they were God’s chosen people who alone received God’s holy law from His own hand. Moses asked, “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deut. 4:8, NKJV) and the answer is: “None!”
B. Haman’s coup de grace
It was at the end of his speech when he offered to pay the king 10,000 talents of silver for the privilege of ridding the empire of these dangerous people. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the annual income of the entire Persian Empire was 15,000 talents of silver. In effect, Haman was offering the king an amount equivalent to two thirds of that huge amount. Haman must have been a fabulously wealthy man.
The king’s response gives the impression that Ahasuerus rejected the money and offered to pay the expenses himself. In typical Oriental fashion, the king politely rejected the offer, fully expecting Haman to insist that he accept it. Without asking any questions, the king gave Haman his royal signet ring, which granted him the authority to act in the king’s name. He could write any document he pleased and put the king’s seal on it, and the document had to be accepted as law and obeyed.
III. He immediately spread the word (Es. 3:12–14)
12 Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials of all people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 13 And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. 14 A copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, being published for all people, that they should be ready for that day.
A. The fourteenth day was the first day of Passover.
The irony is unmistakable. The day before celebrating freedom from Egyptian oppression, a decree had been made for their very destruction. In the ancient world things that were considered important were written down, so officials had their secretaries record events and transactions. This decree was a type of death document. Haman was busy with the king’s secretaries, writing out the new law and translating it into the various languages of the peoples within the empire.
In verse 13, the words of the law are similar to the instructions Samuel gave to King Saul when he sent him to destroy the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:1–3). The one important difference was that Saul was not permitted to take any of the spoil, while Haman and his helpers hoped to plunder the Jews and accumulate great wealth. The official document was given to the royal couriers, who quickly carried it to every part of the empire.
B. The news went through out the kingdom.
If, in an ancient kingdom, a message of bad news could be so quickly prepared, translated, and distributed, why does it take the church so long to circulate the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? To be sure, we have more people in our modern world than Ahasuerus had in his empire, but we also have better means of communication and transportation.
The problem must be with the couriers. The message is ready to go, but we don’t have enough people to carry it and enough money to send them.
The work was done quickly because Haman didn’t want Ahasuerus to change his mind. Once the law was written and sealed, the doom of the Jews was also sealed; for the laws of the Medes and Persians could not be altered (Es. 1:19; 8:8; Dan. 6:8). Haman’s subtle plan had worked.