Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi, faith listeners, thank you for tuning into
Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast on this lovely Monday morning, and
Speaker 1: for starting your week out right by reading the Bible
Speaker 1: with me. So we are going to get into Esther
Speaker 1: chapter three today and talk about this notoriously evil character,
Speaker 1: one of the most evil characters actually mentioned in scripture,
Speaker 1: I would say, So we will get into this chapter
Speaker 1: in just one moment, right after a message from a
Speaker 1: sponsor speaking of disgusting characters, I had one of the
Speaker 1: grossest things ever happened to me today. It was so disgusting.
Speaker 1: I can't even tell you, guys the amount of sick
Speaker 1: and queasy that I felt after this happened. So I
Speaker 1: was just happily making myself some lunch, you know, grilling
Speaker 1: up a few pieces of bacon for myself, cutting an avocado,
Speaker 1: you know, just doing the normal one routine that I do.
Speaker 1: And I have this very small section between my oven,
Speaker 1: which is like one of those like wall ovens, and
Speaker 1: my stovetop, this little like section of area that I
Speaker 1: can like place a plate, like that's all that can
Speaker 1: go there. So I placed my plate there and the
Speaker 1: plate was like, you know, slightly over the counter, where
Speaker 1: I couldn't see what was underneath it. So I'm plaiting
Speaker 1: the stuff on my plate and I see these two
Speaker 1: little hairs, you know, that are kind of like flowing
Speaker 1: in the wind under my plate. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's like on a big old hair under
Speaker 1: my plate. And I grabbed it. And it was not
Speaker 1: a hair. It was a locust with like really long antennas,
Speaker 1: and I touched it. I touched it and I threw it.
Speaker 1: I threw it across my kitchen. Thank god, it did
Speaker 1: not land in my food. But I'm telling you, I
Speaker 1: killed that thing very quickly and had a very hard
Speaker 1: time eating after that. Oh that was that was disgusting.
Speaker 1: I pray to God be something like that never happens
Speaker 1: to me again, or to any of you listening to this,
Speaker 1: because that was vile. I'm not joking. I had to
Speaker 1: sit down for like a solid fifteen minutes and just recover,
Speaker 1: and then after eating, I had to sit down for
Speaker 1: like another hour to recover. Like that is how queasy
Speaker 1: I felt after that whole ordeal. That was disgusting, But
Speaker 1: I just had to share my pain with all of
Speaker 1: you guys. It has nothing to do with today's chapter
Speaker 1: from Ester three. So let's delve into Ester three and
Speaker 1: talk about this Hayman character and everything that goes on
Speaker 1: right here. So I'll be reading from the NIV version
Speaker 1: today instead of the Web like I usually do. Faith listeners,
Speaker 1: grab your Bible out of the version that you prefer,
Speaker 1: and also your cup of coffee. Let's read all of
Speaker 1: Esther chapter three. After these things, King Aha Sarras promoted Haman,
Speaker 1: the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, and advanced him and
Speaker 1: set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
Speaker 1: All the king's servants who were in the king's gate
Speaker 1: bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king
Speaker 1: had so commanded concerning him, but Mordechai didn't bow down
Speaker 1: or pay him homage. Then the king's servants who were
Speaker 1: in the king's gate said to Mordecai, why do you
Speaker 1: disobey the king's commandment? Now it came to pass when
Speaker 1: they spoke daily to him, and he didn't listen to them,
Speaker 1: that they told Haman to see whether Mordechai's reason would stand,
Speaker 1: for he had told them that he was a Jew.
Speaker 1: When Haman saw that Mordechai didn't bow down nor pay
Speaker 1: him homage. Haman was full of wrath, but he scorned
Speaker 1: the thought of laying hands on Mordechai alone, for they
Speaker 1: had made known to him Mordechai's people. Therefore, Hamen sought
Speaker 1: to destroy all the Jews who are throughout the whole
Speaker 1: kingdom of Aha Sarras, even Mordechai's people. In the first month,
Speaker 1: which is the month Nissan, in the twelfth year of
Speaker 1: King Aha Saras, they cast pure, that is the lot
Speaker 1: before Hayman from day to day and from month to month.
Speaker 1: To choose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar,
Speaker 1: Haman said to King Aha Saras, there is a certain
Speaker 1: people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all
Speaker 1: the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different
Speaker 1: from other peoples. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore,
Speaker 1: it is not for the King's prophet to allow them
Speaker 1: to remain. If it pleases the king, let it be
Speaker 1: written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten
Speaker 1: thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who
Speaker 1: are in charge of the king's business to bring it
Speaker 1: into the king's treasuries. The king took his ring from
Speaker 1: his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hamadatha,
Speaker 1: the Agagite, the Jews enemy. The king said to Haman,
Speaker 1: the silver is given to you the people also to
Speaker 1: do with them as it seems good to you. Then
Speaker 1: the King's scribes were called in on the first month,
Speaker 1: on the thirteenth day of the month, and all that
Speaker 1: Haman commanded was written to the King's local governors and
Speaker 1: to the governors who are over every province, and to
Speaker 1: the princes of every people, to every province according to
Speaker 1: its writing, and to every people in their language, written
Speaker 1: in the name of King Aha Saris, and it was
Speaker 1: sealed with the King's ring. Letters were sent by couriers
Speaker 1: into all the King's provinces to destroy, to kill, and
Speaker 1: to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old,
Speaker 1: little children and women, in one day, even on the
Speaker 1: thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar,
Speaker 1: and to plunder their possessions. A copy of the letter
Speaker 1: that the decree should be given out in every province
Speaker 1: was published to all the peoples, that they should be
Speaker 1: ready against that day. The couriers went out in haste
Speaker 1: by the King's commandment, and the decree was given out
Speaker 1: in the Citadel of Susa, the King and Hayman sat
Speaker 1: down to drink, but the city of Susa was perplexed.
Speaker 1: You know, since childhood, I've seen a handful of movies
Speaker 1: portraying the Book of Esther, and I feel like King
Speaker 1: Aha Saras is always presented pretty much the same way
Speaker 1: in every movie that I've seen, at least, where he's
Speaker 1: sort of this handsome, hunky, mysterious kind of man that
Speaker 1: just needs a little bit of fixin and Queen Esther,
Speaker 1: you go, girl, you can fix that man. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's what every single Ester movie really comes
Speaker 1: down to, is this like weird, cheesy romance. But it
Speaker 1: is nothing like that when you read through the Book
Speaker 1: of Esther. There's not a lot of romance actually happening
Speaker 1: in this book. And King Aha Saras is a legitimate
Speaker 1: psychopath where he has no qualms at all over committing
Speaker 1: genocide against an innocent group of people. He doesn't care.
Speaker 1: He's just like, oh, my best friend Hayman says that
Speaker 1: these people are bad, so I don't care, go ahead
Speaker 1: and kill all of them. I don't know what they did,
Speaker 1: but they must not be a good group of people.
Speaker 1: And that is exactly what's happening in this chapter. Because
Speaker 1: Haman is personally offended by Mordecai, he decides he's going
Speaker 1: to kill all of the Jews. So here's what happens
Speaker 1: in this chapter. It says in verse one, after these things,
Speaker 1: in other words, after Queen Esther became the queen, King
Speaker 1: Aha Saras promoted Haman, the son of him Adatha the Agagite,
Speaker 1: and advanced him and set his seat above all the
Speaker 1: princes who are with him. So you might remember in
Speaker 1: chapter one that King Aha Saras had seven princes that
Speaker 1: surrounded him, and these guys would have been like advisors
Speaker 1: and close friends, people that regularly saw the king regularly
Speaker 1: eight with the king. And apparently Haman, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: became well known to the king, and the king really
Speaker 1: liked him, so he promoted Haman above all the other
Speaker 1: princes in his cabinet. And by the way, you might
Speaker 1: notice the term seven coming up a lot in this book.
Speaker 1: For example, King Aha Sarahs had seven princes, he also
Speaker 1: had seven eunuchs, and Queen Esther had seven maidens. Apparently
Speaker 1: the number seven was considered a holy number to the
Speaker 1: Persian people, interestingly enough, because it's also a holy number
Speaker 1: in Jewish and Christian tradition as well, which is kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. So, yeah, the Persian kings would have seven
Speaker 1: people that surrounded them because they considered seven like a
Speaker 1: lucky number or a holy number of some sort. So
Speaker 1: the king having these seven princes promotes Hayman above all
Speaker 1: of them. And so apparently the king commanded all the
Speaker 1: people that they must bow down and pay homage to Haman.
Speaker 1: It says for the king so commanded concerning him, but
Speaker 1: Mordecai didn't bow down or pay him homage. Now, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys remember who Mordechai was. We
Speaker 1: discussed him in the last chapter, but he was Queen
Speaker 1: Esther's cousin and also her primary caretaker. In fact, Esther
Speaker 1: had been orphaned as a young child, and Mordechai actually
Speaker 1: took her in and adopted her and raised her as
Speaker 1: his own daughter, and so he loved her very much
Speaker 1: as a daughter. And it kind of seems like Mordecai
Speaker 1: is a man that didn't have any family for his own,
Speaker 1: and he could have been relatively old as well. We're
Speaker 1: not sure how old he was, but he probably was
Speaker 1: a little bit older because, based upon the last chapter,
Speaker 1: his family was from the first generation of people that
Speaker 1: had come into Persia or Babylon when King Nebekenzer had
Speaker 1: taken it. So it could be that Mordechai was an
Speaker 1: older man at this point and didn't have any family
Speaker 1: for himself except for Esther, though of course that's all speculation.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say that specifically in scripture. So Mordechai, though,
Speaker 1: because he loved Esther very much and wanted to see
Speaker 1: how the young woman was faring, he didn't live too
Speaker 1: far away. He would regularly travel to the courts of
Speaker 1: the king and just see how Esther was doing and
Speaker 1: kind of hang out in the area. It could be
Speaker 1: that maybe he even got a job in the area,
Speaker 1: though again that is not stated in scripture. That's just
Speaker 1: my own two cents being thrown in there. Whatever the
Speaker 1: case was, Mordecai wanted to be close to Esther, it
Speaker 1: seems like, and so he would regularly travel to the
Speaker 1: king's courts. But even though he was in the king's courts,
Speaker 1: the next chapter we read makes it kind of clear
Speaker 1: that Mordechai wasn't really able to have any face to
Speaker 1: face conversation with Esther. In fact, they have to talk
Speaker 1: through messengers, probably because they were kind of trying to
Speaker 1: keep their relationship with each other on the down low,
Speaker 1: because Esther was not telling anybody who her relatives were.
Speaker 1: Neither was she telling anybody that she was a Jewish woman,
Speaker 1: because the Persians and the Babylonians disliked the Jews obviously,
Speaker 1: and so it could have been dangerous for her if
Speaker 1: they found out she was a Hebrew, as we're going
Speaker 1: to see in this chapter that we read today, was
Speaker 1: dangerous for the Jewish people. So Mordechai specifically told Esther
Speaker 1: to keep it quiet, and she did. She kept it
Speaker 1: all quiet, so nobody knows that she is a Jew.
Speaker 1: But Mordechai didn't really seem to care if people knew
Speaker 1: that he was a Jew. He didn't seem to care
Speaker 1: at all, because he actually just directly to tell some
Speaker 1: people that he was a Jewish man right here, Because
Speaker 1: whenever Mordechai would go into the king's court, you know,
Speaker 1: this hayman would pass by on occasion and everybody would
Speaker 1: have to bow down to him. But Mordecai did not
Speaker 1: want to bow down to Haman and give this man
Speaker 1: homage because Mordechai was a Jew. And why would this matter.
Speaker 1: You know, we see Daniel, for example, bowing down to
Speaker 1: the Babylonian kings. We see many Jews actually bowing to kings.
Speaker 1: There was no specific law that said you couldn't bow
Speaker 1: to a king. So Mordecai had a different reason for
Speaker 1: not wanting to bow to Haman. And here's what it is.
Speaker 1: In verse one, Haman is mentioned as the son of Himadatha,
Speaker 1: the Agagite. Now an Agagite was from the the tribe
Speaker 1: of King Agag who was an Amalekite. And the Amalekites
Speaker 1: were a notorious group of people known for absolutely hating
Speaker 1: the Jews. They are mentioned as far back in Genesis fifteen,
Speaker 1: where back then they were known as the Amorites. And
Speaker 1: God actually told Abraham in Genesis fifteen that eventually the
Speaker 1: Amorites would fill up their sins and God would drive
Speaker 1: them out of the nation and allow Abraham's descendants to
Speaker 1: actually take the land. Then they're mentioned in Deuteronomy twenty five,
Speaker 1: verses seventeen through nineteen. So let me actually read this
Speaker 1: so we get a little bit better of a picture
Speaker 1: of who the Amalekites were. It says, remember what the
Speaker 1: Amalekites did to you along the way when you came
Speaker 1: out of Egypt, when you were weary and worn out,
Speaker 1: and they met you on your journey and attacked all
Speaker 1: who were lagging behind. They had no fear of God.
Speaker 1: When the Lord your God gives you rest from all
Speaker 1: the enemies around you in the land that he is
Speaker 1: giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot
Speaker 1: out the name of Amelek from under heaven. Do not
Speaker 1: forget then. In First Samuel chapter fifteen, when Saul is
Speaker 1: finally the king, God commands Saul to go in finish
Speaker 1: the job of completely wiping out the Amalekites for good,
Speaker 1: because they were a nasty and evil people, both biblically
Speaker 1: and historically historically. If you look them up, you can
Speaker 1: find a lot about their notorious cruelty. The Israelites were
Speaker 1: just traveling through the wilderness and the Amalekites came, and
Speaker 1: anybody that was lagging behind, which is what Deuteronomy twenty
Speaker 1: five mentions. Anybody who is lagging behind, that would be
Speaker 1: the sick people, the elderly people, the children, the pregnant women,
Speaker 1: the widows, just anybody who wasn't able to keep up.
Speaker 1: Those people were targeted by the Amalekites, were killed, probably tortuously,
Speaker 1: and then their homes were looted. That is what the
Speaker 1: Amalekites did. They didn't start an all out war with Israel.
Speaker 1: They targeted the most vulnerable people because they were cowards
Speaker 1: and because they hated the Jewish people for no specific
Speaker 1: purpose or reason. We don't even know why they hated
Speaker 1: the Jewish people, but they did so. In First Samuel
Speaker 1: fifteen you can read through this. I won't read the
Speaker 1: whole thing. But God told Saul to go in and
Speaker 1: fully wipe out the Amalekites after hundreds of years of
Speaker 1: the brutality of the Amalekite nation. So here's what Saul does.
Speaker 1: In First Samuel fifteen seven through nine, it says Saul
Speaker 1: struck the Amalekites from Havila as you go to shore,
Speaker 1: which is before Egypt, and he took Agag, remember that name,
Speaker 1: the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all
Speaker 1: the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul
Speaker 1: and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep,
Speaker 1: of the cattle, of the fat calves, of the lambs,
Speaker 1: and all that was good. They were not willing to
Speaker 1: utterly destroy them. But everything that was vile and refuse
Speaker 1: they destroyed utterly, which is the opposite command that got
Speaker 1: God told Saul to do. He said, destroy everything. You
Speaker 1: are not to take any booty for yourself. This is
Speaker 1: not the time to do that. This is my judgment
Speaker 1: being poured out on these people. And you are not
Speaker 1: to decide what is considered vile and what is considered
Speaker 1: not vile. Because Saul in this story was considering these
Speaker 1: animals and the king less vile than the average individual.
Speaker 1: God said, no, everybody, everything associated with the Amalekites is
Speaker 1: vile in my eyes. Basaul considered the animals less vile
Speaker 1: than the human beings, and also the king, King Agag,
Speaker 1: less vile than the rest of the Amalekites. So he
Speaker 1: leaves these things alive. And by the way, King Agag
Speaker 1: of the Amalekites, it was probably not just the king,
Speaker 1: but the king's entire family that he left alive. And
Speaker 1: now we see the ramifications of this, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: God was very angry at Saul when he did this
Speaker 1: because he didn't listen to the command of God. He
Speaker 1: decided to do whatever he wanted to do. And this
Speaker 1: was one of the reasons that God rejected Saul and
Speaker 1: the Benjamites from the throne and gave it to David
Speaker 1: and the Judites instead, because King Saul's lack of obedience
Speaker 1: caused the Agagites or the Amalekites to survive, to continue thriving,
Speaker 1: to continue hating the Jewish people. And this is who
Speaker 1: Haman is. He is a direct descendant of King Agag
Speaker 1: of the Amalekites. So Haman is an Amalekite man, and
Speaker 1: he remembers his hatred of the Jews because here's what
Speaker 1: he does. In Ester III. When he finds out that
Speaker 1: Mordechai refuses to bow down to him and worship him
Speaker 1: and pay him homage whatever is going on in this situation,
Speaker 1: he becomes furious. And it says in verse five when
Speaker 1: Hayman saw that Mordechai didn't bow down nor pay him homage,
Speaker 1: which Haman was full of wrath, which by the way,
Speaker 1: Hayman didn't notice this immediately. It actually says that some
Speaker 1: of the king's aides actually went up to Haman was like, hey,
Speaker 1: did you see that this Mordechai, this like Jewish guy,
Speaker 1: wouldn't bow down to you? And then that's when Haman
Speaker 1: looks for it and notices that Mordechai refuses to bow down.
Speaker 1: And Haman was full of wrath, it says in verse six.
Speaker 1: But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone.
Speaker 1: So he's like, no, just Mordechai is not enough, it says,
Speaker 1: for they had made known to him Mordechai's people. So
Speaker 1: the king's servants told Haman, hey, Mordecai is a Jew.
Speaker 1: That's why he's not bowing down to you, because you're
Speaker 1: like an Amalekite and everything, and you guys have this
Speaker 1: whole thing going on with each other. And when he
Speaker 1: finds out that Mordecai, a Jewish man, does not like him,
Speaker 1: he is furious and he's like, laying hands on Mordechai
Speaker 1: is not enough. I must kill all of these disgusting Jews.
Speaker 1: And I am sure that Haman thinks, how dare you
Speaker 1: think that you are better than me? How dare you
Speaker 1: think that your people are better than my people? So
Speaker 1: now in the first month, which is the month Nissan
Speaker 1: in the twelfth month of King Ahasiris. They cast pure
Speaker 1: that is the lot before Hayman, and chose the twelfth month,
Speaker 1: which is the month Adar. So the reason Hayman was
Speaker 1: doing this was because he was deciding ahead of time,
Speaker 1: before even talking to King AHAs Ayris, when he would
Speaker 1: strike the Jews, because he's got this whole plan laid out.
Speaker 1: So he casts loss to decide which month everybody will
Speaker 1: strike the Jews. And it turns out that the lot
Speaker 1: lands on the twelfth month, and Hayman was currently doing
Speaker 1: this in the first month, which means that the Jews
Speaker 1: had eleven months to figure out this problem that they
Speaker 1: were dealing with the longest amount of time I suppose
Speaker 1: that they could have had in retrospect. So now after
Speaker 1: casting these lots, here's what it says in verse eight,
Speaker 1: Hayman said to King Osiris, and this is the same
Speaker 1: story over and over and over again. You're gonna see
Speaker 1: what I mean in just a second. He says to
Speaker 1: King Osiris, there's a certain group of people scattered abroad
Speaker 1: and dispersed among the peoples, and all the provinces of
Speaker 1: your kingdom, and their laws are different from other peoples.
Speaker 1: They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not
Speaker 1: for the king's prophet to allow them to remain. It's
Speaker 1: always the same story. When someone wants to destroy somebody
Speaker 1: in scripture, they go to the local authority and they say,
Speaker 1: these people do not follow your laws. It happened to Ezra,
Speaker 1: happened to Nehemiah, It is now happening to Mordecai, happened
Speaker 1: to Paul, it happened to Jesus, happened to Daniel, and
Speaker 1: also Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego. Every single time, it's the
Speaker 1: same story. Oh, King, there's somebody here I don't like.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that they are breaking your laws.
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing happening today here in America
Speaker 1: and across the world. In America, it's the whole fear
Speaker 1: mongering of the Christian national you know, the person that
Speaker 1: wants to change the laws from what the laws actually
Speaker 1: are to these like scary Christian laws and force everybody to,
Speaker 1: you know, do the Christian laws. It's the same thing
Speaker 1: over and over and over. See, these Christians, they don't
Speaker 1: follow the laws of the land. They want their own
Speaker 1: laws to be followed. Satan is smart, but he also
Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of tricks up his sleeve. So
Speaker 1: hey Man goes to King Ahsris and he's like, these
Speaker 1: Jewish people, they don't listen to you, King. They have
Speaker 1: their own set of laws. They have this like levitical
Speaker 1: law that they follow, and they don't follow the laws
Speaker 1: that the king lays out for them. Therefore, it is
Speaker 1: not for the king's prophet to allow these people to remain.
Speaker 1: So if it pleases the King, let it be written
Speaker 1: that they be destroyed, every single Hebrew living in Persia
Speaker 1: to be destroyed, even though they did nothing. They were
Speaker 1: completely innocent at this point in time. And I will
Speaker 1: pay them ten thousand talents of silver into the hands
Speaker 1: of those who are in charge of the King's business
Speaker 1: to bring it into the king's treasuries. So Hayman tells
Speaker 1: the king, He's like, look, I'll even pay you king
Speaker 1: to get rid of these people. But the king, who
Speaker 1: is a good friend of Haman, trusts Hayman explicitly, and
Speaker 1: so he takes the ring off of his hand, which
Speaker 1: would have been like a seal type of a ring
Speaker 1: where they stamp, you know, the envelope, and he gave
Speaker 1: it to Haman, the son of Hamidath of the Agagite,
Speaker 1: the Jews enemy, and the king said to Haman in
Speaker 1: verse eleven, the silver is given to you the people also,
Speaker 1: to do with them as it seems good to you.
Speaker 1: So you can certainly see with that that there could
Speaker 1: have been some greed involve this as well, because Hayman,
Speaker 1: it seems like, would get the silver and the possessions
Speaker 1: the bounty apparently of these Jews that he ended up
Speaker 1: killing throughout Persia. That's what the king says right here,
Speaker 1: that the silver and the people also are specifically for
Speaker 1: Haman to do whatever he wants to do to them.
Speaker 1: So I imagine that Haman is pretty excited to hear this
Speaker 1: because some money is coming his way if he kills
Speaker 1: all of the Jews, because he can just plunder all
Speaker 1: of their possessions as well. You can do whatever you
Speaker 1: want to these people, do with them as it seems
Speaker 1: good to you. That is what this king says. So
Speaker 1: he is one hundred percent fine with mass genocide. And
Speaker 1: he might be like, well, Jen wasn't God okay with
Speaker 1: mass genocide of the Amalekites, So how can you get
Speaker 1: upset with this Amalekite man Haman wanting to commit mass
Speaker 1: genocide against the Jews. Well, the reason I can get
Speaker 1: angry about it is because the Jewewish people were innocent
Speaker 1: from the beginning. The Amalekites started the trouble, so much
Speaker 1: so that God was talking about them back in the
Speaker 1: Book of Genesis and in Deuteronomy. The Amalekites struck first.
Speaker 1: They were the consistent, persistent enemy of Israel, no matter
Speaker 1: what was happening. They hated the Israelites without a cause
Speaker 1: from the beginning. So finally God is about to judge
Speaker 1: the Amalekites, which partially ends up happening, but the Amalekites,
Speaker 1: because of the sin of Saul, ended up escaping, breaking
Speaker 1: off into their own clan, which became the Agagites, who
Speaker 1: again wanted to destroy the Jews, who were innocent at
Speaker 1: this point in time and very widespread across Persia. So no,
Speaker 1: it's not the same to me. This is unprompted genocide
Speaker 1: that Hayman wants to do towards the Jewish people, Whereas
Speaker 1: the Jewish people were carrying out God's judgment when God
Speaker 1: told them to kill the Amalekites, and it is God's
Speaker 1: decision who is to remain alive and who is not
Speaker 1: to remain alive. And God wanted the Jews to survive,
Speaker 1: but Haman did not. So Haman collects the King's ring,
Speaker 1: and it says that the scribes were called in on
Speaker 1: the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month,
Speaker 1: and all that Haman commanded was written to the King's
Speaker 1: local governors, and to the governors who were over every province,
Speaker 1: and to the princes of every people, to every province
Speaker 1: according to its writing, and to every people in their language.
Speaker 1: It was written in the name of King Aha Saras,
Speaker 1: and it was sealed with the King's ring. So this
Speaker 1: is all in King Aha Saras's name. King Aha Saris
Speaker 1: or Xerxes allowed this to happen. He did not care.
Speaker 1: Letters were sent by couriers into all the King's provinces
Speaker 1: to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all
Speaker 1: the Jews, both young and old, little children and women
Speaker 1: in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the
Speaker 1: twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder
Speaker 1: their possessions. And a copy of this letter that the
Speaker 1: decree should be given out in every province was published
Speaker 1: to all the peoples that they should be ready against
Speaker 1: that day. So in other words, all the people need
Speaker 1: to be ready for this moment. The Jews would be
Speaker 1: marked and probably forced to remain where they were for
Speaker 1: these eleven months as they are like slowly waiting for
Speaker 1: the day of their death. And every single Jewish person
Speaker 1: was to die on that day, December thirteenth, is what
Speaker 1: it says. So now the couriers in verse fifteen went
Speaker 1: out in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree
Speaker 1: was given out in the citadel of Susa. The King
Speaker 1: and Hayman sat down to drink. But the city of
Speaker 1: Susa was perplexed. So the city of Susa, here's about
Speaker 1: this cree that has gone out, and they are freaked out.
Speaker 1: But the King and Hayman, they are happily partying away.
Speaker 1: They're just like yay, our wicked scheme is coming to fruition.
Speaker 1: Who cares about the suffering of all of these people.
Speaker 1: We are going to sit down to drink. So what
Speaker 1: happens next we will find out in Esther chapter four
Speaker 1: and see how everybody responds to this news. So stay
Speaker 1: tuned for another great episode about this on Wednesday. But
Speaker 1: faithful listeners. Before I say goodbye to all of you
Speaker 1: with a happy listening in God bless, please listen to
Speaker 1: one last message from a sponsor. Well, faithful listeners, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening through this episode, and I hope that
Speaker 1: you guys have been enjoying the Book of Esther so far.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean, the one thing that I caught
Speaker 1: this time around reading through the Book of Ester that
Speaker 1: I didn't catch before is that Esther is from the
Speaker 1: tribe of Benjamin, and it was a Benjamite king, specifically Saul,
Speaker 1: who refused to kill the Amalekite king. And now God
Speaker 1: is tasking another Benjamite, specifically a Benjamite woman, to fulfill
Speaker 1: what King Saul had not done hundreds of years prior
Speaker 1: to these events taking place in Esther. So I found
Speaker 1: that kind of interesting as well. And also Esther was
Speaker 1: a direct descendant of King Saul's family as well, So
Speaker 1: faithful listeners make sure to tune in for Esther Chapter four,
Speaker 1: where we will discuss more about Esther and Mordecai and
Speaker 1: how they respond when they hear this terrible news. Faithful listeners,
Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful day. Hopefully I'll see you
Speaker 1: guys tomorrow for an episode from One Peter six am,
Speaker 1: or whenever you choose to wake up and listen to
Speaker 1: the Bible Explained, Happy listening, and God bless. I just
Speaker 1: want to take a second to thank the team at
Speaker 1: Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible
Speaker 1: Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot
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