Text:<\/strong> Esther 3<\/p>\n The story now moves ahead by five years to the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus\u2019 reign. Ahasuerus appointed an Agagite named Haman to be the head of his government. \u201cAgagite\u201d probably refers to Haman being a descendant of Agag. \u201cAgag\u201d was a popular name for kings of the Amalekites, who were ancient enemies of the Israelites (Exodus 17:8-16; Numbers 24:7; 14:45; Deuteronomy 25:17-19). One Agag was the king that Saul refused to slay and so was killed by Samuel (I Samuel 15:8-9, 32-33). It is this relationship that likely explains why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman despite the king\u2019s command that Haman was to be so honored. When Haman\u2019s servants asked why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, Mordecai only told them that he was a Jew.<\/p>\nAfter repeatedly telling Mordecai to bow to Haman over the course of several days, the servants reported the matter to Haman to see if being a Jew was a justifiable reason for not bowing. To determine when would be the best time to execute his plan, Haman cast lots, called \u201cpur\u201d for each day of the year. He reached the twelfth month before the lot\u2019s answered that it was a favorable time.<\/p>\n Haman did not delay in setting his plan into motion. Coming before the king, Haman told him that he learned that there were people, scattered through the empire, who were in rebellion to the Persian laws and followed their own laws instead that were different from everyone else. Notice that Haman neglects to mention which people he had in mind. He also inserts a lie by claiming that they are not keeping the king\u2019s laws. The truth is that only Haman refused to obey one law of the king, but Haman generalized it to all laws and applied it to all Jews. Such rebellion by people who had not assimilated into the empire could not be allowed to continue, so he suggested that they be destroyed. Haman also offered to deposit 10,000 talents of silver (about 375 tons) into the treasury to finance the destruction. Estimates are that the amount was well over half what the empire took in during a year. Without checking further, Ahasuerus gives Haman permission to handle the matter. He even gave Haman his signet ring. This allowed Haman to write the decree any way that he wanted without a review by the king. The king also allowed him to use the offered money to do with the rebelling people as Haman desired.<\/p>\n By the thirteenth of the first month, the edict was copied and sent out throughout the empire. On the 13th day of the twelfth month, all Jews were to be killed regardless of age or sex. Anything they owned would belong to the killers. The edict was met with confusion by the populace of the capital. This indicates that the empire, as a whole, was not against the Jews. Meanwhile, the king was drinking with Haman. Either he was celebrating the completion of the deal or he was unaware of what was ordered in his name.<\/p>\n Pride can be a dangerous thing. Both Vashti and Mordecai exhibit some level of personal pride in refusing a king\u2019s order. Both receive the anger of a ruler whose own pride cannot allow a lack of submission by another. Both Ahasuerus and Haman\u2019s anger was extreme and lasted a long time. Both put their anger on display nationally by issuing official decrees.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Study of Esther\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Haman\u2019s Plot Text: Esther 3 Understanding What You Read What order of the king did Mordecai refuse to obey? What reason did Mordecai give? How was Mordecai\u2019s refusal similar to Vashti\u2019s refusal? Why did Haman decide to destroy all the Jews? What did Haman do all year during Ahasuerus\u2019 twelfth year in power? How did…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":20799,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21333","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/a-study-of-esther\/reversal-of-fortune\/","url_meta":{"origin":21333,"position":0},"title":"Reversal of Fortune","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Reversal of Fortune Text: Esther 8 Understanding What You Read How did Mordecai come to replace Haman? What did Esther request of the king? Take note of the language. How did Esther address the king when making her plea? What was allowed to be done about the law to kill\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22506,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/survey-of-the-bible\/survey-of-the-bible-esther\/","url_meta":{"origin":21333,"position":1},"title":"Survey of the Bible – Esther","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Survey of the Bible - Esther Text: Esther 4 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Esther\u2019s story takes place between the first return from captivity, led by Zerubbabel, and the second return lead by Ezra. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It would fall between the 6 and 7 chapters of Ezra. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The author is unknown. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not the same style as\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21965,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/a-study-of-esther\/esthers-banquet\/","url_meta":{"origin":21333,"position":2},"title":"Esther’s Banquet","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Esther's Banquet Text: Esther 7 Understanding What You Read What did the king want to know? 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When Ahasuerus\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21333\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Understanding What You Read<\/h2>\n
\n
\nHaman was a prideful man and Mordecai\u2019s disrespect angered him. It was just one man, but Haman lacked confidence and would not allow someone to not acknowledge his position. Haman decided that he would not just punish Mordecai. He decided he would destroy every Jew in the entire Persian Empire.\n