Esther 3:5–7

The plot of Haman

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, they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

As is so often the case in the book of Esther, the actions of the participants are simply reported without any analysis or moral evaluation of their motives. Nothing in the text indicates whether Mordecai’s actions were justified or were a case of misguided zeal. We simply learn how the crisis for the Jewish people came about.

Likewise, we are given little information about the motivation of the officials who reported Mordecai. It appears that they tried to give Mordecai ample time to comply with the king’s orders but may finally have felt compelled to report him.

There can be no uncertainty, however, about the attitude and motivation of Haman. He responded with irrational hatred, totally out of proportion to the apparent offense. He determined to wipe out a whole religion for what he perceived to be the offense of one of its adherents. As shocking as this is, it should not be particularly surprising. Many more recent persecutions of both Jews and Christians have been just as lacking in rational motivation. The tendency of sinful human beings to hate and fear anyone who is different, especially anyone whose religious devotion is a silent rebuke of indifference, is a terrible reality. It has caused a tremendous amount of pain and bloodshed in this world’s sad history. When the insane rage of Satan against God’s people joins up with this blind human prejudice, reason and decency are cast aside and hatred runs wild.

But under the wise rule of God’s justice, the persecutors and tyrants of this world, in their blindness, often plant the seeds of their own destruction. Haman’s superstition was the first step to his ultimate downfall. Rather than seeking immediate action against the Jews, Haman chose his lucky day by casting lots. The lot fell on a day 12 months later, providing ample time for Mordecai and Esther to work to foil the designs of Haman.