HAMAN’S OPPRESSION AGAINST THE JEWISH PEOPLE Having been promoted by king Ahasuerus, and his seat was set above all the princes who were with him (1), Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, bore the feature of the proud devil, and turned into a murderer who would never be satisfied except through shedding blood, 1- Haman and Mordeccai 1 - 6 2- The royal decree to annihilate the Jewish people 7 - 14. 3- The king and Haman sat down to drink 15 1- HAMAN AND MORDECCAI: “Haman” was named after one of the prominent gods in ‘Elam’, taken over by the kingdom of Persia and Media, who turned it into one of its provinces, and made its capital ‘Shushan the citadel’ or ‘Susa’, the winter capital of the kings of Persia. Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite came a descendant of Amalek (1 Samuel 15: 3-9), whom Saul, disregarding the command of the prophet Samuel, spared them and did not destroy them with the edge of the sword. Consequently, out of them came the one who had almost annihilated the whole people in one day. … Haman, therefore, represents the sin disregarded by man, and slothfully left un-rooted, to become, eventually, the cause of danger to his life. “After these things, king Ahasurus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above the princes who were with him. And all the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman” (1 -2). Having been so promoted and honored by the king, Haman got so conceited that he expected everyone to submit to him and to pay homage to him. In that, he bore the spirit of his master – the devil – who intended to set himself a god, That is why when Haman saw that Mordeccai, the Jew, refrained to bow and pay homage to him (2), “he was filled with wrath; but he disdained to lay hands on Mordeccai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordeccai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordeccai” (5, 6). Yes, the Jews used to bow and prostrate to the ground before their kings, as a sign of giving them honor (2 Samuel 14: 4; 18: 26; 1 Kings 1: 16). But, as the Persians, on the other hand, did that as worship to their kings, the Jews refrained to follow suit1. And when Mordeccai was asked why he did not bow down and pay homage to Haman, “he told them that he was a Jew” (4). No wonder that Haman sought the destruction of the whole Jewish people, for he represented the devil, while Mordeccai was a symbol of the Lord Christ. The devil would never endure the people of Christ, being the kingdom of God. Let us now meditate in how Mordeccai would be a symbol of the Lord Christ, for whose sake, Haman (the devil) intended to annihilate His whole race. In this concern, 1 Herodotus 7: 136. 25 father Aphrahat1 says: [Like Mordeccai, who was persecuted by the wicked Haman, So the Lord Christ was persecuted by the wicked people; … And like Mordeccai, who prayed for the sake of saving his people from Haman, So, by His blood, the Lord Christ interceded for His people to save them from the devil;. … And like Mordeccai who laid in sackcloth and ashes, and saved his people, So the Word of God came down, bore our body as sackcloth and in humility, saved us; …And like, by Mordeccai, Esther found favor with the king instead of queen Vashti, So by Jesus Christ, the church of the new covenant found favor with God the Father, instead of the Jewish Synagogue; … And like Mordeccai who instigated Esther to fast, together with her maids; So Christ instigates His church to fast with her whole congregation. … Ultimately, like Mordeccai who got the glory and honor of Haman, and before him it was proclaimed: “Thus shall it be done to the man the king delights to honor” (6: 11). Whereas Christ was glorified by the glory that was His from eternity, and to Him the Roman guards testified, saying: “Truly, this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27: 54)].. Haman, discovering that what Mordeccai was doing is not out of personal animosity, but set upon a spiritual pious foundation, he arrived to the conviction that that problem would not be solved except by the annihilation of the whole Jewish race, to which Mordeccai belongs.. According to St. Jerome, [as the word ‘Haman’ means (Oppression), Haman was burnt by the fire of his wrath he himself kindled2]. Here, it is befitting of us to confirm that Mordaccai’s refrain to bow down before Haman was not out of insolence, animosity, or pride; but, as he said in his prayer that came in the annex to the book of Esther: “You know all things, You know, O Lord, that it was not in insolence or pride or for any love of glory that I did this, and refused to bow down to this proud Haman; for I would have been willing to kiss the soles of his feet to save Israel. But I did this so that I might not set human glory above the glory of God, and I will not bow down to anyone but You, who are my Lord” (13: 12-14). Although Mordeccai, with a heart wide with love, and with humility, would have been willing to kiss the soles of Haman’s feet for the sake of the safety of his brethren, yet he would worship no one but God. 2- THE ROYAL DECREE TO ANNIHILATE THE JEWISH PEOPLE: Having counted the insult that came upon him through Mordeccai, would never be atoned by killing him alone, Haman sought the annihilation of the Jewish people throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordeccai. On April of the year 474 B.C., namely, about four years after the enthronement of queen Esther, Haman, in order to avoid any probable chance of failure of his evil plot, commanded the magicians and the diviners “to cast Pur (lot) before him, to determine the day and the month, until it fell on the twelfth month which is the month of Adar (3: 7). By that he had time, long enough to realize his goal on a single day all over the kingdom. Haman encountered the king, and stirred him up against the Jews, claiming that they are breakers of the king’s laws, and are, therefore worthy of destruction; and presented ten thousand talents of silver into the king’s treasuries. And as we said before, 1 Demonstration 21, On Persecution 20. 2 Ep 22: 21. 26 he hoped that, through plundering all the possessions of the Jews, he would become immensely rich, and recollect that huge sum of money he gave to the king, to help him make up for his losses in the war against the Greeks, beside his loss of the taxes he used to collect from the Jews1. “The king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammadatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, and said to him: ‘The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you’” (11). And, “Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions” (13). It is a light portrait of the decree that was issued against us, for the sake of the envy of the true ‘Haman’ (the devil), by which all men, with no exception, became under the verdict of death; by which everyone looking on himself would mourn, fast, weep, and wail, day and night, and would even lay in sackcloth and ashes (4: 3); for, according to the apostle: “just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5: 12). That bitter verdict will eventually turn against Haman and his followers, through Mordeccai and Esther; and there will be salvation and a joyful feast for the whole people…. Likewise for us, if by the devil, we have fallen under the verdict of death … By the Lord Jesus Christ (the true Mordeccai), Esther and her people (the church), have enjoyed salvation, joy, and a heavenly feast; while the devil and all his hosts have collapsed under the cross. As according to the apostle: “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2: 14, 15). 3- THE KING AND HAMAN SAT DOWN TO DRINK: Inclining his ear only to Haman, the king did not attempt to investigate or enquire about the other aspect of the matter, but left everything in the hands of Haman, who, for fear that the king might probably perceive the truth and retreat from his decision, he provoked him to drink wine and forget everything, on the expense of the people. The annex to the book of Esther, which came in the Septuagint version, presents to us a copy of the royal decree, sent in the name of Ahasuerus to all the 127 provinces of the kingdom; the following are its most important points: (1) It accused the Jews of betraying the trust of the king, who did them good, through breaking up his laws; and considered that their destruction would bring peace to the whole kingdom; saying: “When these wicked people go down to Hades in one day, peace which they have disturbed, will be restored to our kingdom” (13: 7). (2) It called Haman, the second person after the king, who honors him as a father figure. Therefore, all are committed to consent to his counsel, concerning the destruction of that adversary people, together with their women and children…. Here, meditating a little in calling Haman ‘a father figure’; he actually represents the devil who provides his followers with an evil fatherhood.; As, according to the Lord Christ, addressing the 1 D. J. Wiseman: Illustra??? From Biblical Archaeology, P 76. 27 wicked Jews: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father, you want to do” (john 8: 44). As God, presents to us His fatherhood, to make us carry, as children, the features of our father, and to enjoy the fellowship of His eternal glory; So does the devil, who presents his evil fatherhood to his followers, to make them carry his features, and partake of his eternal perdition.
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