Purim-Haman, the Anti-Christ (aka Anti-Messiah) Cometh

Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections-48

Chapter 3

Verse 1 (cf. 5:11)

• Haman is advanced by Achashverosh to the rank, according to JFB, of vizier or prime confidential minister

• Achashverosh establishes Haman’s authority in the realm
• Matthew Henry places the date around 510 BC
• Haman was an Agagite—an Amalekite so says Josephus—probably of the decedents of Agag—common name of the princes of Amalek (Ref. Num. 24:7—Matthew Henry)
• Amalek was an Edomite—decedent of Esau
• Exo. 17—Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim (vs. 8, NAS—Stephan Biographical Bible)
• Joshua and Israel fough Amalek (vss. 9-12) as Moses, Aaron and Hur held up the saff of Moshe
• Joshua overwhelmed Amalek (vs. 13)
• Yah had Moshe write in a book for Joshua’s edification—”for I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. (17:14—NET)
• Num. 24:20—Balaam’s Oracle—And having seen Amalec, he took up his parable (i.e., Balaam) and said, Amalec is the first of the nations; yet his seed shall perish.”
• Yah will wage war against Amalek from generation to generation (17:16—NET)
• Deu. 25:17-19—LXX—vs. 19—”…And it shall come to pass whenever the Lord thy God shall have given thee rest from all thine enemies round about thee, in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit, thou shalt blot out the name of Amalec from under heaven, and shalt not forget to do it.”
• This was not accomplished to any significant degree until David wipe out the marauding groups of the Amalekites (I Sam. 30:17) and the final vestiges of them at the hands of the decedents of Simeon (I Chr. 4:43)
• The decisive battle to exterminate the Amalekites is recorded in I Sam. 15. Here Saul is commanded to battle against Amalek—to smite Amalek and to utterly destroy all that they have and not to spare them, be they man, woman, infant, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (vs. 3)
• Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep and oxen and fattlings and the lambs and all that was good (vs. 9) Ultimately Samuel the prophet of Yahovah executed Agag, the king of the Amalekites. However, it is a fair bet to conclude that Saul failed in his task to utterly destroy the Amalekites as the remnants of this people continued to harass Israel for years to come until David and the decedents of Simeon completed the annihilation order. Yet Haman emerges as the biggest threat to the survival of Israel as a nation since the Amalekites attacked them in the Sinai desert during the Exodus from Egypt

• The Amalekites presumably would have been wiped out by Saul in 1 Samuel 15 if he had followed God’s instructions. He did destroy the city of Amalek, but other raiding parties/nomadic bands of Amalekites survived. These were defeated by David in 1 Samuel 30 with the exception of a few hundred who escaped (30:17). The remnant of the Amalekites were finally destroyed by the Israelites many years later (1 Chr 4:43). Thus, while God did blot out the memory of Amalek by wiping out his descendents, he was at war with them for many generations. (www.rationalchristianity.net/amalekites.html)

• Haman was husband to Zeresh; son to Hammedatha; father to Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspartha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizath (Stephan Biographical Bible)
• So hated is Haman in Jewish culture, that the mention of his name when the Megillah of Esther is read, one hears boohs and hisses and gears from the listeners and participants. Rabbinic tradition also plays upon Haman’s evil, villainy persona by making him the center of many Talmudic legends—found in Targ. To Esth.; Meg 15)
  • Haman was also an astrologer, and when he was about to fix the time for the massacre of the Jews he first cast lots to ascertain which was the most auspicious day of the week for that purpose. Each day, however, proved to be under some influence favorable to the Jews. He then sought to fix the month, but found that the same was true of each month; thus, Nisan was favorable to the Jews because of the Passover sacrifice; Iyyar, because of the small Passover. But when he arrived at Adar he found that its zodiacal sign was Pisces, and he said, “Now I shall be able to swallow them as fish which swallow one another” (Esth. R. vii.; Targ. Sheni iii.). Haman had 365 counselors, but the advice of none was so good as that of his wife, Zeresh. She it was especially that induced Haman to build a gallows for Mordecai, assuring him that this was the only way in which he would be able to prevail over his enemy, for hitherto the just had always been rescued from every other kind of death. As God foresaw that Haman himself would be hanged on the gallows He asked which tree would volunteer to serve as the instrument of death. Each tree, declaring that it was used for some holy purpose, objected to being soiled by the unclean body of Haman. Only the thorn-tree could find no excuse, and therefore offered itself for a gallows (Esth. R. ix.; Midr. Abba Gorion vii., ed. Buber, Wilna, 1886; in Targum Sheni this is narrated somewhat differently). (Jewish Encyclopedia)
• Haman’s Agagite-Amalekite heritage is a nagging reminder of the far-reaching consequences to be suffered when we fail to complete the tasks that Yahovah places before us to accomplish
• Haman was a 6th century BC anti-Messiah for if Haman would have been permitted to succeed in his plot to eradicate the Jew, the Saviour would have not come on scene
• I find it very interesting how the enemy works within and around the existing world systems to do his bidding. He finds a fitting instrument to wage war against Yahovah’s people and in this story, hasatan finds a most fitting individual in the person of Haman
• Yah’s providence prevails in spite of hasatan’s seeming brilliant strategies to destroy the plans and oppose the will of Yahovah.
• Saints, what Hamans do we today have operating within the halls of government-not just in the United States, but throughout the nations and countries of this world? Plotting the demise of Yahovah’s people? Some say members of the ruling elite; others say the leaders of radical Islam; still others say President Barak Hussein Obama. Surely, in every dispensation and in every generation there is a Haman operating and scheming to destroy Yahovah’s people. These individuals receive their marching orders and power and anger and hatred of God’s people from the enemy. The archenemy who’s meddling in the affairs of God’s people begins way back in the garden
• Achashverosh advances/exalts (LXX)/promotes/lifts—Hebrew “nasa” Haman above any other official in the Persian Kingdom

 

• Verse 2—It was Achashverosh’s order that Haman receive homage from every servant of the king whenever Haman would pass by. Mordecai, however, did not bow or pay homage to Haman.
• The Megillah of Esther does not elaborate as to why Mordecai declined to do obeisance to Haman. It is a fair bet, however, that the most likely reason was that Mordecai knew that Haman was an Agagite—a decedent of the Amalekites, which every Jew knew should be despised for what they attempted to do to Israel in times past (NET Bible)
• Many might contend that the people of Yahovah are not to render such accolades towards other men and that such accolades should instead be steered towards Yah. But it would be a fair bet that Mordecai did render obeisance towards Achashverosh. Thus I believe it was the mere fact that Haman was a decedent of Agag and an Amalekite that moved Mordecai not to rendered the commanded obeisance.
• In syriac translations, the obeisance takes on a much grander appearance: one of not just bowing as one would do towards a high official, but of “prostrating oneself on the ground as in worship. According to the TWOT Lexicon, prostration was quite common as an act of submission before a superior. When that same term is translated into the Greek word proskuneo, used some 148 times in the LXX, the term can mean either “prostration” or “worship.” Furthermore, prostration was a common act of self-abasement performed before relatives, strangers, superiors, and especially before royalty. According to the TWOT Lexicon, “it was in open defiance of Persian court etiquette that Mordecai refused to bow or to prostrate himself before Haman. The Targum and Midrash explain Mordecai’s refusal on the basis of an alleged idol on Haman’s robe. Mordecai may have bridled at the thought of bowing before an Amalekite or Agagite.” The JPS does use the prostration term to describe the homage being paid to Haman

 

• Verse 3—it became widely known or observed that Mordecai did not pay homage to Haman as the king’s edict mandated. Thus certain officials of the king’s court called Mordecai to task over Mordecai’s refusal to pay the mandated homage to Haman

• Verse 4—the LXX contends that these same instigating officials spoke daily to Mordecai about his refusal to follow the kings edict of paying homage to Haman. But Mordecai ignored them. No doubt this enraged those meddling individuals who themselves no doubt to prostrate themselves before Haman every time the man passed by them. Given that it would seem Mordecai could care less about Haman, these individuals approached Haman to see if Mordecai’s Jewish culture would exempt him from paying homage to Haman.
• Now this is an interesting development here as we see that Mordecai has reversed the practice of keeping silent about his Jewish heritage, as he’d taught Esther/Hadassah in chapter 2. It is impossible to say why Mordecai made such a reversal apart from surmising that maybe he’d just got fed up of having to put up with the daily attacks by those meddling in his affairs over the obeisance towards Haman. For it would certainly explain Mordecai’s reasons for not paying such extreme homage to Haman, especially as it relates to Haman being an Amalekite

 

• Verse 5—needless to say, Haman was “full of wrath (KJV);” “greatly enraged (LXX);” “furious (CJB)” when he himself observed that Mordecai did not prostrate himself or pay the commanded homage to him. And this is where Haman’s inflated ego becomes the platform upon which a grand plot to exterminate the entire Jewish race would be launch
• Josephus reads: “When Haman observed this, he inquired whence he came; and when he understood that he was a Jew, he had indignation at him, and said within himself, that whereas the Persians, who were free men, worshipped him, this man was no better than a slave, does not vouchsafe to do so.” (Antiquities 11.6.5)

 

• Verse 6—some translations suggests that Haman was disdained at the thought of striking out solely towards Mordecai (e.g., NAS); other translations use the terms repugnant, scorned and contemptible (e.g., NET, DBY and ESV). But I prefer a more civil rendering such as provided by the NLT which describes Haman’s perpsective towards Mordecai as “seeming a waste to lay hands on Mordekhai alone” or “not enough to lay hands on Mordecais alone.” (CJB and NLT respectively). You see, when something bothers those who are possessed by the enemy, it’s not enough to deal with the problem directly. No, these individuals seek to utterly destroy any and all who are associated with the individual causing the problem in the first place. In this case, Mordecai was a Jew who refused to prostrate himself before him as commanded by Achoshverosh. So instead of just attacking Mordecai, Haman elects to turn his attentions and his anger and hatred towards the whole Jewish race—to use his newly acquired power and influence, through the power and might of the Media-Persian crown, to wipe out the Jews in the known world, which at this time was the Media-Persian empire.
• Josephus writes: “…he (Haman) thought it too small a thing to request of the king that he alone (speaking of Mordecai) might be punished; he rather determined to ab olish the whole nation, for he ws naturally an enemy to the Jews, because the nation of the Anmalekites, of which he was, had been destroyed by them. (Antiquities 11.6.5)
• It should be noted that the entirety of the first part of verse 6 is completely absent in the LXX, which reads: “…and took counsel to destroy utterly all the Jews who were under the rule of Artexerxes.”
• Indeed, Haman’s desire was not only to destroy the Jew in the immediate area of Susa (aka Shusan), but every Jew throughout the known world, including those who had been released to return back to Palestine by the crown

• Verse 7—the LXX denotes that lots were casts before haman in the 12th year of the reign of Achoshverosh; cast daily and monthly, to slay in one day the race of Mardochaeus; and the lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month which is Adar.
• The definition of Purin is explained here: meaning “the lot.” (NET) According to TWOT Lexicon, “the word (i.e., Pur) occurs only in the book of Esther and the term is to be distinguished from “goral,” which is the usual word for “lot.” Pur is related to Babylonian “puru” which means “lot” and seconarily “fate.”
• All other translations, however, denote that the casting of lots began in the first month of the year—the month of Nisan which corresponds to the March-April timeframe of our pagan calendar
• Thus we see the importance of having a firm understanding of the Biblical Calendar when studying the works of the Old Covenant
• All indications are that Haman consulted soothsayers to figure out the proper time for the execution of the plot to exterminate the Jews. Thus, lots were casts to determine the date this plot against the Jews would be carried out in one fell swoop. The lot of course, landed upon the 12th month—the month of Adar. What are the chances of this happening—day after day; month after month; to land on the 14th day of the 12th month is beyond the confines of human reasoning and must be attributed to Yahovah
• It should seem without the slightest reservation that Yahovah’s providence influenced the outcome of this plot in that an entire 12-months was arrived at for the plan to be executed. This extended amount of time would provide for the opportunity on the Jew’s part to lodge a counter-defense against Haman’s plot (Matthew Henry)
• The casting of lots was a common practice in the ancient near east; even used by the Hebrew to assist in determining or arriving at a time, date or solution to a problem. The point behind casting lots or “pur” was to place the arrival of the solution to the problem at hand to chance and allow providence to determine the outcome. In this case, providence indeed took center stage and providence sided with the Jews. When those who balked at the canonicity of the Megillah of Esther is ever heard or read, let it be known that this single incident alone is proof positive that Yahovah, although not mentioned once by name or title, was all over this story and throughout this book

 

• Verse 8—in this verse we can see the spinning of the yarn and the story so as to make the offense propagated only by Mordecai, seem so insidious and widespread among the Jewish nation that Haman takes tremendous liberties to alter the truth when delivering the concern to King Achoshverosh
• Josephus writes Haman saying to Achashverosh the following: “There is a certain wicked nation, and it is dispersed over all the habitable earth that was under his dominion; a nation separate from others, unsociable, neither admitting the same sort of divine worship that others do, nor using laws like to the laws of others, at enmity with thy people, and with all men, both in their manners and practices. (Antiquities 11.6.5)
• This is about 4-years into the marriage of Hadassah and Achoshverosh
• Haman’s articulation of the situation was ever so hasatan like, almost reminiscent of the garden incident—”There is a particular people (the Jews of course) that is dispersed and spread among he inhabitants throughout all the providences of your kingdom.” Here Haman in ensuring that the King is not limiting the scope of his assessment against the Jews to just the Persian capital, but also the Jews scattered throughout the entire Medio-Persian realm—the whole of Achashverosh’s kingdom. “ …whose laws differ from those of all other peoples.” This indeed is true, but the Jews were a people who were under abject subjection and would not have caused any problems against the monarchy. “Furthermore, they do not observe the king’s laws. It is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them.” And here is where the hasatan character shows up—furthermore these do not observe the king’s laws…what? There is only one man who has been shown not to obey the king’s edict—that is to prostrate himself before Haman whenever Haman would passed by him. So the question posed to Achoshverosh by Haman is: “it is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them.” (NET) The NAS and ESV provide somewhat of a different rendering—”…so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain or not to the king’s profit to tolerate them.”
• Thus we see part 2 of the plan to exterminate the Jews through the agency of Haman. Part one was to cast lots and decide upon a day to pull the trigger on the extermination day. Part 2 was to exaggerate the issue to the ears of Achoshverosh as we see here played out

 

• Verse 9—Haman says to Ahashverosh, if it pleases you/if you are so inclined/if it seems good to you, let a decree be written/an edict be written that these troublemakers be destroyed. And to sweeten the deal if you will, how ‘bout I add to the king’s coffers/treasury, 10,000 talents of silver, which the NET Bible equates to about 2/3 of the royal income by some estimates; 330-tons of silver according to the CJB.
• The NET surmises, which I find very interesting and never considered before reading it, that Haman would have naturally figured out this tidy sum of wealth through a calculation of the overall wealth of the Jews in the empire. No doubt the Jews, although in captivity, were in many places still prosperous as Father’s promise to bless His people trickled down to them even in the midst of the recompense they were paying for their abandonment of Torah We saw even during Nazi regime’s attempts to also exterminate the Jews—popularly known as the Holocaust (Hitler being a 20th iteration of the Anti-Messiah/anti-Jew) how many in the nation remained prosperous in spite of their treatment and persecution. It is widely known that the Nazi regime pillaged the wealth of Europe’s Jewish populations and added that wealth to its national coffers which no doubt also helped finance Hitler’s war machine. How can one not see the tremendous similarities between Haman and Hitler here? Both, I submit to you, are Anti-Messiah’s and Anti-Jewish agents of the enemy. Hitler not so much an Anti-Messiah as an Anti-Semite who set out to rid the world of the Jew—something that so many before him set out to do. But Haman and others before him, certainly set out to exterminate the nation and in so doing, if they were successful, would have cut the line of Messiah, preventing the Saviour from coming in to the world. One must wonder how someone like Haman could sway the most powerful man on the planet at that time, to agree to such a plan to wipe out an entire nation of people—to commit pure and unadulterated genocide. Only through the workings and power of hasatan I say
• Today, we see a similar mindset amongst the people of such terrorist groups as Hamas and the surrounding Islamic nations such as Iran who have vowed to see the nation of Israel wiped from the face of the earth. Sadly, the United Nations, if it had its way, would support the destruction of Israel
• Josephus goes into the mindset of Haman in that Haman suggests to the King that these miscreants be “utterly, and not leave the least remains of them, nor preserve any of them, either for slaves or for captives.” (Antiquities 11.6.5)
• Furthermore, Josephus takes the perspective that Haman would pay into the King’s coffers 40,000 talents for which the king “both forgave him the money and granted him the men to do what he would with them (meaning the Jews)” (Antiquities 11.6.6)
• Verse 10—and certainly Haman’s silver tongue worked it’s supernatural wonders in Achoshverosh, for the King consented to the plan, even giving Haman his ring to “seal the decrees against the Jews” (LXX)
• The KJV ensures the reader understands that (1) Haman was an Agagite, and (2) that Haman and the Agagites are enemies of the Jews

• 24 sn Possessing the king’s signet ring would enable Haman to act with full royal authority. The king’s ring would be used to impress the royal seal on edicts, making them as binding as if the king himself had enacted them. (NET)
• Friends this is power in its purest state and Haman now possessed it. It would seem at this point that there was no stopping the man nor stopping the plot to exterminate the Jew

 

• Verse 11—but Achoshverosh, according to the LXX, instructed Haman to “keep the silver and treat the nation (i.e., the Jewish nation) as he saw fit.”
• Matthew Henry suggests a very astute consideration to this situation, how Achoshverosh did not examine the claims made to him against the Jews by Haman, as he carefully did back when Mordecai exposed the plot against the King by the two chamberlains in chapter 2 of this book.
• Obviously, Haman was able to appeal to something within Achashverosh’s ego make-up to convince him to move fully over to Haman’s position to eliminate the erroneous threat to his sovereignty as the undisputed potentate, new world order, oligarch

 

• Verse 12-14—thus Haman drafted the edict against the Jews on that day using Achashverosh’s scribes/secretaries according to some translations; the mission to anihilate the Jews to take effect on the 13th day of the 12th month or the month of Adar. This message was drafted and Haman signified it with the King’s ring and the letters were to be sent out to all 127 provinces of the kingdom.
• I find the LXX’s treatment of this scene interesting as it records what is believed to be the actual content of Haman’s letter instructing to the armies of the realm to take out the Jews in every single province of the realm. It reads as follows:

LXE Esther 3:13 <1> And the message was sent by posts throughout the kingdom of Artaxerxes, to destroy utterly the race of the Jews on the first day of the twelfth month, which is Adar, and to plunder their goods. <1> And the following is the copy of the letter; The great king Artaxerxes writes thus to the rulers and inferior governors of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India even to Ethiopia, who hold authority under him. Ruling over many nations, and having obtained dominion over the whole world, I was minded, (not elated by the confidence of power but ever conducting myself with great moderation and with gentleness, ) to make the lives of my subjects continually tranquil, desiring both to maintain the kingdom quite and orderly to its utmost limits, and to restore the peace desired by all men. But when I had enquired of my counsellors how this should be brought to pass, Aman, who excels in soundness of judgment among us, and has been manifestly well inclined without wavering and with unshaken fidelity, and has obtained the second post in the kingdom, informed us that a certain ill-disposed people is mixed up with all the tribes throughout the world, opposed in their laws to every other nation, and continually neglecting the commands of the kings, so that the united government blamelessly administered by us is not quietly established. Having then conceived that this nation alone of all others is continually set in opposition to every man, introducing as a change a foreign code of laws, and injuriously plotting to accomplish the worst of evils against our interests, and against the happy establishment of the monarchy; we have accordingly appointed those who are signified to you the letters written by Aman, who is set over the public affairs and is our second governor, to destroy them all utterly with their wives and children by the swords of the enemies, without pitying or sparing any, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar, of the present year; that the people aforetime and now ill-disposed to us having been violently consigned to death in one day, may hereafter secure to us continually a well constituted and quiet state of affairs. {1) The portion from here to the end of the verse is not in the Heb. } (Est 3:13 LXE)

• Josephus pretty much echoes verbatim the LXX’s account of this edict

• Verse 15—and the chapter ends with Haman sitting down with Achashverosh over some adult beverages in the aftermath of the hurried sending of the edict against the Jews by couriers to all 127 provinces of the realm. Certainly for Haman, something to celebrate. But the city of Susa is described at that point to have been perplexed/troubled/in an uproar/thrown into confusion/in consternation
• The DRA translation actually narrows down this confused state in the capital Susa by rendering: “…and all the Jews that were in the city weeping”; all this while Haman and the King feasted together

 

In reality, this chapter should end over in the first part of chapter 4 as it is a most befitting place to conclude our study for today. The passage reads as follows:

(1) When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; (2) And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. (3) And in every province, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Yahudiym (i.e., the Jews), and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.