Esther
6:12-13 - Then Mordecai returned to
the King’s Gate, but Haman, overwhelmed, hurried off for home with
his head covered. Haman told his wife Zeresh and
all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife
Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai is Jewish, and you have begun to fall
before him, you won’t overcome him, because your downfall is certain.”
In the story of Esther, we meet Haman,
who was an enemy of the Jews. Haman plotted genocide against the Jews, but
had a special hatred for one particular Jew, Mordecai, who refused to bow down
to him as he walked by.
In chapter six, the King realized that
Mordecai once had done him a great favor that had not yet been rewarded, so he
called Haman in and told him to go honor Mordecai for the unrewarded deed.
Though Haman hated Mordecai, he had no choice but to do what the King
commanded, even if he loathed every moment of it.
When Haman got home that night he whined
to his family and friends about having to pay homage to Mordecai that day, the
very Jew who had refused to honor him. He was expecting sympathy. But their
answer to him was startling: “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall,
is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before
him" (Esther 6:12 NAS).
It is amazing that Haman's friends, who
had no love for the Jews, recognized that the Jews were special and that Haman
would not be able to stand against them. Whether Haman's friends had access to
the Old Testament or not, they clearly understood the teaching of Genesis 12:3,
where God promised Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, I will
curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be
blessed through you."
Almost since the beginning of Jewish
history, there have been those who have sought to destroy the Jewish
people. Time and time again they have been persecuted, often with great
enthusiasm. But through God's supernatural protection, the Jewish people have
survived.
In our century, the media have somehow
painted the Jews as the bad people of the Middle East. Any effort they make to
defend themselves from far superior numbers of enemies gets spun to somehow
make the Jews the aggressors instead of the victims. We may not always agree
with the tactics that the modern nation of Israel uses against her enemies, but
we should not be foolish enough to put ourselves in Haman’s place. The Jews are
still God's chosen people, and if we stand against them, our fall is
inevitable.
Lord,
help us be a blessing to the Jewish people and remember that if we bless them,
You will bless us, but if we curse them, then we will be cursed. Amen.
This post is an excerpt from the book, The
Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in
big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God
in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a
gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased
at this link:
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