The Girl-Queen, the Captive Conqueror: A Devotional Commentary on the Book of Esther (3:11-15)

From what I understand, in the Jewish tradition whenever the Book of Esther is read (once a year at the Feast of Purim), it's customary to boo, hiss and/or heckle whenever Haman's name get's mentioned.  There's something very visceral in this that seems appropriate.  The genocidal plan, as it’s described in verses 3:14-15, is about as absolute as it can get: an order sent to “every province in every language of every people-group” to “destroy, kill and annihilate them all, young and old, women and children, in a single day” (did we miss anything, Haman?)  And then in verse 15, just to send a cold chill down the spine, like a chaser of whiskey after a long, deep swig of utter doom, it says that after the couriers left, “The King and Haman sat down to drink.”   Having sealed the fate of God’s People, they sit down to clink their glasses together over some fine Merlot.

Reading in slow bites like this keeps you from jumping to the end of the story too soon.  I want to say something about how the point of Esther is that even when things seem their darkest for God’s people, He hasn’t abandoned them.  He’ll see them through when it seems most hopeless.

But Esther isn’t making that point yet.

Right now, I think, it’s making this other point: don’t forget the plight of God’s people as they face the Haman’s of this world.  Because the truth is, Haman is not just some vaudeville villain from the vague and distant past.  Haman-esque atrocities are real; history is bloated with them.   I was going to say something about the “spirit of Haman” that swept the world during World War II, but I don’t, actually, have to go back that far for examples.  A while ago, a friend of mine who was doing missions work in Niger, sent an update about the Haman-esque stuff that was going on in that part of the world right now: churches burned, Christian homes looted, believers displaced.  A friend of mine recently returned from a visit to Zanzibar, with reports of churches bombed and Christians persecuted.  I support the work of Gospel for Asia, and often get news updates about the violence against Christians in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India.  I realize there are many layers to each of these stories, but as I reflect on Esther 3:11-20, it feels like God's saying to me:  Dale, if your heart doesn’t break for them, and your knees don’t wear out praying for them, then the picture of Haman and Ahasuerus, drinking a toast to the end of the People of God hasn’t sufficiently chilled your spine yet.

Of course, the challenge for Christians, here, is to feel these things without demonizing the Hamans themselves; Christ would have us pray, not hiss, every time we hear Haman’s name read in Esther: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is how he said it.  May God give us deep compassion and great courage whenever we encounter the Spirit of Haman, however it manifests itself in this world.