Session XI, Day 1

In the words of a friend, "How blessed we are that he arose!"  I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend, and  were able to find time to reflect on the truth of the above statement.

Today we jump into Chapter 3 of Esther.  Five years have transpired between the events of chapters 2 and 3.  Chapter 2 recorded the crowning of Esther as queen of the Persian Empire and ended with the hanging of two of the king’s officials who were discovered to be planning his assassination.  Mordecai had overheard of their plot and informed the king via Esther.  There is no mention of any reward for Mordicai, only that the event was recorded in the annals of the king.  This neglect on the part of Xerxes to honor Mordecai will come back to haunt him and will be a factor in the deliverance of the Jews from the threat of genocide.

If you have read all 10 chapters of Esther’s story, at this point, you probably realize it is a fascinating story and reads like a novel.  However, it is so much more.  Some commentators have referred to the story as “another expression of the holy war” that has been ongoing since the Israelite slaves escaped from the Egyptians – approximately 1,000 years earlier. 

In chapter 3, we will see the “gathering clouds” of the battle.

ASSIGNMENT:

Read Esther 3:1

Background Information...

- Most scholars believe that Haman was of Amalekite descent and carried the age-old grudge of his ancestors against the Jews.

 - Originally, the Amalekites lived in the Negev/Sinai region and were the first people who attacked the Israelites on their way to Canaan.  God told Moses (Ex. 17) that He would be at war with them from generation to generation.

 - Five hundred years before the story of Esther, Israel’s King Saul destroyed the Amalekite army under King Agag.  The story is told in I Samuel 15.  We will look more closely at that now...

Read 1 Samuel 15

Answer the following questions in your notebook.  These fill in the blanks are taken from the NIV translation.

1.  :1-3   Samuel brought a message from the Lord which instructed Saul to  ____________  the  ______________ for what they did to ____________  when they waylaid them as they came up from  ____________.

2.  :7-8  Saul took _______ alive and spared the _______ of the livestock.

3.  :10  The Lord said to Samuel  “I am ____________ that I have made Saul king because … he has not carried out my instructions”

4.  :23b   Samuel said to Samuel,  “Because you have ____________  the word of the Lord, He has  _____________ you as  __________.

Historical Information

The reference of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite by the author could have one of two possible explanations:

1)  Haman may have been a descendant of King Agag, the Amalekite king during Saul’s reign.

2)  The term may have been used (as it often was over the centuries) as a general reference to any enemy of Israel.  Even as late as the first century – when the Romans were in power and in control of Israel’s homeland - Jewish secular writers referred to the Romans as Agagites.