The Coming Holocaust | Esther 3:12-15 | Week 3 Day 5 Study of Esther

Haman had just a little less than a year before his plan would come to fruition, so he quickly got to work. He paid to have his decreed holocaust printed, translated, shipped and delivered to every corner of the vast Persian Empire. When he had finished what was probably a week or two of picking out fonts, graphics and colors, he took a well-deserved break to sit down and have a drink. 

As the messages started to quickly be distributed around the capitol Susa, people were troubled. Verse fifteen tells us that Haman took a break and was quite proud of himself, but everyone else in the kingdom with any sense read this for what it was: the complete annihilation of an entire people group for no reason at all. And not just any people group, but the one that had been told by their own prophets to settle down, build houses, make money and be productive in Babylon and Persia. The people group who had already had four great leaders, and some of the only leaders known to span the rulership of two great kingdoms; Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. 

There were probably lots of people who had questions about this, but it obviously became known that Haman now carried the signet ring of the king and that the king had checked out from ruling, as we will see in the next chapter. Everyone had questions, but no one wanted to ask for fear that their people might be the next one with a decree about them.

If you had been in Susa, how would you have responded to such a decree?

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Esther is simultaneously a victory and a tragedy. In some ways, If you look at it through a modern lens, it should be called the Victory of Mordecai and the Tragedy of Esther. Esther loses her parents and then is taken into the harem of a despotic king to be used as he wishes. Mordecai ends up, like Daniel, a very high official and ruler in his expatriated land. 

This will be a great study of Esther as we look at the emotions, the world and the meanings of one of the most cherished, and often misunderstood books of the Bible.

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