Here's the setting: Ancient Persia. The Jews had been taken captive, removed from their homes and carried, in exile, to Babylon. We're talking Daniel and his buddies. Eventually, Cyrus (a Medo-Persian king) conquers Babylon and issues a decree allowing the Jews to return home to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. I'm not exactly sure the measurement of time, but at this point, the Jews had been in Persia long enough that some were comfortable enough to not take Cyrus up on his offer to return home, choosing instead to stay in Persia. Several decades later...long enough that the Jews have so assimilated into the Persian culture that nobody even knows Esther is Jewish. The people of God were no longer living a set-apart life.
So, here we are. In Persia, decades after Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Xerxes has been humiliated several times over, not only on the battlefield, but in his own home. Vashti has been banished (probably, ultimately, to her own benefit) and Esther has been chosen as her replacement.
Esther's beloved cousin, Mordecai, who really acted more as a father, paces the city gates daily to ensure her safety. He saves the king's life by reporting a murder threat and, in turn, is required to bow to the son of a family that has been an enemy to his own family for generations. Think Hatfields and McCoys. Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman, or to pay him honor. I find it interesting that, in hindsight, already knowing how the Lord will work this story out, that I just assume his refusal to bow is similar to that of Daniel and his pals, that he will not bow before anyone but the Lord. Without actually researching this point, I have to say it appears that isn't really the case. Mordecai has raised Esther from (apparently) a very young age. If he is such a devout Jew that he would bow to no one but the Lord, wouldn't he have raised Esther to be a more devout Jew? Or, at the very least, Jewish enough that people in their community, the other girls she was in the harem with would know of her heritage? It looks like his refusal to bow is based not in commitment to the Lord, but old family grudges...all be they understandable grudges.
So, as a result of Mordecai's refusal, Haman takes the opportunity to wipe out the Jewish presence from the Persian empire. The edict goes forth from Haman to destroy anyone or anything of Jewish decent on the very day the Jews would celebrate Passover and remember what had been, up to that point, the most blatant portrayal of oppression, deliverance and redemption.
A quick recap: the Jews were living in a land that wasn't their own; a place they didn't belong. Persia was not where God had intended for them to live. He sent them there to get their attention. They had been provided a means of escape. Cyrus had let them go...they could have gone home, back to the place the Lord had promised them from the days early on. And, they chose not to go. And, as a result, they now faced a mortal enemy and certain death.
So, let's import this circumstance to our own time. We, as believers, live in a land that isn't our own, a place where we don't belong. This world is not what God intended for us. It is not what He created us for. He created us for a place so much better...and place of uninhibited relationship, communion and worship with and of Himself. And we face an enemy that is entirely impossible for us to overcome or defeat without the intervention of God. We face an enemy who is trying, desperately, to kill us, to wipe our presence from the face of the earth. This enemy knows he can't win...that he has already lost.
Unfortunately, we're the ones who remain unconvinced of that truth.
God has worked miracles in our past...both corporately and personally, not the least of which (can you even qualify a miracle as 'greatest' or 'least'???) is our own salvation. I can look at my own past, my own life, and see the miracles, but they're mine. Look for your own. If the Lord worked those, will He not work others? He doesn't run out. He doesn't have a limit to the number of cancer patients He can heal before that element of His power is gone. He can't only save so many families and businesses from bankruptcy before the money runs out. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills to keep us fed...and the hills the cattle stand on, as well.
And, His timing is perfection.
I think Beth Moore hit the nail on the head when she said that sometimes the Lord's timing in sending a new threat, a new Haman, serves to remind us of the ones He's delivered us from in the past. This is the exact reason I have a tattoo on my foot. (Click here for that story.) So, the next time a Haman shows up in our own lives, maybe our response shouldn't be 'Why now, Lord?' But, rather, 'Lord, help me remember Your faithfulness.' He's been faithful to provide, protect and rescue for the last, oh, six thousand years or so...He's not going to forget us tomorrow.
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