A Great Hero

Every great hero is born of great necessity and great adversity. Mordecai the Jew faced both; Great necessity... the threat of the annihilation of his people and a great adversary… Haman the Agagite.

Haman was second in command of the great Persian Empire. He carried King Ahasuerus’ signet ring which carried the authority of the king. Haman was informed that Mordecai refused to bow and pay homage as Haman entered through the king’s gate. He was also informed that Mordecai was a Jew.

Instead of reserving punishment for Mordecai alone Haman devised a scheme to punish all the Jews. He schemed and “cast the lot” (astrology) and got King Ahasuerus to agree to issue an edict that all the Jews in the entire kingdom, which stretched from India to Ethiopia, could be “destroyed, killed and annihilated” including “young and old, and women and children” on the 13th day of the month of Adar.

Seems a little excessive doesn’t it? Every word in the Bible means something and the word, ”Agagite”, is huge in the understanding of Haman. An Agagite is a descendant of King Agag who was king of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a people who, centuries before, God had ordered the Jews to annihilate. Undoubtedly Haman knew this and now he was in a position to do something about it. To do to the Jews what the Jews had done to his people.

In comparison to Haman, Mordecai the Jew appeared to be a nobody, but to God he was a somebody, a simple man of faith selected by God to overcome a great adversary so that God’s people could be preserved.
More on Mordecai next week.