Love and Hate

Have you ever read the book of Esther???  



Have you heard how Esther, a Jewess, became Queen of all the land from India to Ethiopia (now known as Cush?)

If not, it is well worth the read.  It is a book of intrigue and passion, of love and hate.



And yes, ALL this is in the Bible!!!



Let’s look at what happened while Esther was Queen.


Esther 3:1-6 (CEV)

¹ Later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha to the highest position in his kingdom. Haman was a descendant of Agag,

² and the king had given orders for his officials at the royal gate to honor Haman by kneeling down to him. All of them obeyed except Mordecai.

³ When the other officials asked Mordecai why he disobeyed the king’s command,

⁴ he said, “Because I am a Jew.” They spoke to him for several days about kneeling down, but he still refused to obey. Finally, they reported this to Haman, to find out if he would let Mordecai get away with it.

⁵ Haman was furious to learn that Mordecai refused to kneel down and honor him.

⁶ And when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he knew that killing only Mordecai was not enough. Every Jew in the whole kingdom had to be killed.



Have you ever noticed that some folks seem to hate anyone who serves God?  And sometimes they have no idea why!!!  God has chosen people everywhere!!! 



Be careful who you hate!! 



I know that some would say, “Why wouldn’t Mordecai bow down to this man?”



That is simple!  Jews do NOT bow to anyone or anything, but The Lord God Almighty!!!  Therefore, Mordecai would NOT even consider bowing to Haman. 



So, Haman schemed and came up with a plan to avenge his wounded pride, and in doing so he planned to destroy NOT just one man, but a whole people!!!!  


Esther 3:8-12 (NCV)

⁸ Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain group of people scattered among the other people in all the states of your kingdom. Their customs are different from those of all the other people, and they do not obey the king's laws. It is not right for you to allow them to continue living in your kingdom.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let an order be given to destroy those people. Then I will pay seven hundred fifty thousand pounds of silver to those who do the king's business, and they will put it into the royal treasury."

¹⁰ So the king took his signet ring off and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jewish people.

¹¹ Then the king said to Haman, "The money and the people are yours. Do with them as you please."

¹² On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal secretaries were called, and they wrote out all of Haman's orders. They wrote to the king's governors and to the captains of the soldiers in each state and to the important men of each group of people. The orders were written in the writing of each state and in the language of each people. They were written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with his signet ring.



How can anyone hate another person so much?  And yet they do!!!  Even in our world today!!!  Look at Iran today.  Iran hates Israel!!!  And they want to see Israel wiped from the face of the earth. 



Look at radical Muslims.  They hate Christian and Jews alike.  Some people hate us because we are Americans!!!



And yet God loves ALL of these people and wants to see them ALL saved!!!




We find that the Jews were to be wiped from the face of the earth on the day scheduled by Haman. 



Esther 3:13-14 (NCV)

¹³ Letters were sent by messengers to all the king's empire ordering them to destroy, kill, and completely wipe out all the Jewish people. That meant young and old, women and little children, too. It was to happen on a single day—the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which was Adar. And they could take everything the Jewish people owned.

¹⁴ A copy of the order was given out as a law in every state so all the people would be ready for that day.

When Haman made his plan he had no idea, that Queen Esther, was one of God’s chosen people!!! 



Esther 4:5-13 (NCV)
 

⁵ Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was.

⁶ So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate.

⁷ And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews.

⁸ He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.

⁹ So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai:

¹¹ “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.”

¹² So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.

¹³ And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.

The words, “FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS” ring out in my heart!!!

Esther 4:14-17 (NCV)

¹⁴  For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:

¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

¹⁷ So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.



As we can see, God gave Esther great favor with the King!! 


Esther 5:1-4 (NCV)

¹ On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner courtyard of the king's palace, facing the king's hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the doorway.

² When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, he was pleased. He held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand, so Esther went forward and touched the end of it.

³ The king asked, "What is it, Queen Esther? What do you want to ask me? I will give you as much as half of my kingdom."

⁴ Esther answered, "My king, if it pleases you, come today with Haman to a banquet that I have prepared for you."

Haman’s hatred was so fierce towards Mordecai that he could NOT be content to know that the Jews were to be destroyed.  Nor could he just be happy to have been honored to eat with the king and queen. 



Esther 5:9-14 (NCV)

⁹ Haman left the king's palace that day happy and content. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and saw that Mordecai did not stand up or tremble with fear before him, Haman became very angry with Mordecai.

¹⁰ But he controlled his anger and went home.

   Then Haman called together his friends and his wife, Zeresh.

¹¹ He told them how wealthy he was and how many sons he had. He also told them all the ways the king had honored him and how the king had placed him higher than his important men and his royal officers.

¹² He also said, "I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to come with the king to the banquet she gave. And tomorrow also the queen has asked me to be her guest with the king.

¹³ But all this does not really make me happy when I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate."

¹⁴ Then Haman's wife, Zeresh, and all his friends said, "Have a seventy-five foot platform built, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and be happy." Haman liked this suggestion, so he ordered the platform to be built.

As always, God intervenes for HIS CHOSEN ONES!!! 


Esther 6:1-2 (NCV)

¹ That same night the king could not sleep. So he gave an order for the daily court record to be brought in and read to him.

² It was found recorded that Mordecai had warned the king about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway and who had planned to kill the king.

And if you don’t think that God has a sense of humor read these next 2 verses!!!  God turns the tables on Haman and makes him look the fool or so it seems to Haman, himself!!! 



Esther 6:10-11 (NCV)

¹⁰ The king commanded Haman, "Go quickly. Take the robe and the horse just as you have said, and do all this for Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Do not leave out anything you have suggested."

¹¹ So Haman took the robe and the horse, and he put the robe on Mordecai. Then he led him on horseback through the city streets, announcing before Mordecai: "This is what is done for the man whom the king wants to honor!"

And as he comes home and begins to complain to his wife and friends about what happened to him that day, he is rushed off to the banquet that unbeknownst to him is to be his last supper!!


Esther 7:1-10 (NCV)

 ¹ So the king and Haman went in to eat with Queen Esther.

 ² As they were drinking wine on the second day, the king asked Esther again, "What are you asking for? I will give it to you. What is it you want? I will give you as much as half of my kingdom."

 ³ Then Queen Esther answered, "My king, if you are pleased with me, and if it pleases you, let me live. This is what I ask. And let my people live, too. This is what I want.

⁴ My people and I have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed and completely wiped out. If we had been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because that would not be enough of a problem to bother the king."

 ⁵ Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he? Who has done such a thing?"

 ⁶ Esther said, "Our enemy and foe is this wicked Haman!"
  
Then Haman was filled with terror before the king and queen.

 ⁷ The king was very angry, so he got up, left his wine, and went out into the palace garden. But Haman stayed inside to beg Queen Esther to save his life. He could see that the king had already decided to kill him.

 ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, he saw Haman falling on the couch where Esther was lying. The king said, "Will he even attack the queen while I am in the house?"
  
As soon as the king said that, servants came in and covered Haman's face.

 ⁹ Harbona, one of the eunuchs there serving the king, said, "Look, a seventy-five foot platform stands near Haman's house. This is the one Haman had prepared for Mordecai, who gave the warning that saved the king."
  
The king said, "Hang Haman on it!"

 ¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the platform he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king was not so angry anymore.

As we can see, God gave NOT only great favor to Queen Esther, but also the wisdom to know what to say to the king, so that he would spare her and ALL of her people (God’s people.)



Esther 8:1-2 (NCV)

¹ That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther everything Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, had left when he died. And Mordecai came in to see the king, because Esther had told the king how he was related to her.

² Then the king took off his signet ring that he had taken back from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai. Esther put Mordecai in charge of everything Haman left when he died.

Now, that is NOT the end of the story, even though it was indeed the end of Haman, the man who chose to make himself the enemy of God people!!!



Esther 8:3-12 (NCV)

 ³ Once again Esther spoke to the king. She fell at the king's feet and cried and begged him to stop the evil plan that Haman the Agagite had planned against the Jews.

 ⁴ The king held out the gold scepter to Esther. So Esther got up and stood in front of him.

 ⁵ She said, "My king, if you are pleased with me, and if it pleases you to do this, if you think it is the right thing to do, and if you are happy with me, let an order be written to cancel the letters Haman wrote. Haman the Agagite sent messages to destroy all the Jewish people in all of your kingdom.

 ⁶ I could not stand to see that terrible thing happen to my people. I could not stand to see my family killed."

 ⁷ King Xerxes answered Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, "Because Haman was against the Jewish people, I have given his things to Esther, and my soldiers have hanged him.

 ⁸ Now, in the king's name, write another order to the Jewish people as it seems best to you. Then seal the order with the king's signet ring, because no letter written in the king's name and sealed with his signet ring can be canceled."

  ⁹ At that time the king's secretaries were called. This was the twenty-third day of the third month, which is Sivan. The secretaries wrote out all of Mordecai's orders to the Jews, to the governors, to the captains of the soldiers in each state, and to the important men of the one hundred twenty-seven states that reached from India to Cush. They wrote in the writing of each state and in the language of each people. They also wrote to the Jewish people in their own writing and language.

 ¹⁰ Mordecai wrote orders in the name of King Xerxes and sealed the letters with the king's signet ring. Then he sent the king's orders by messengers on fast horses, horses that were raised just for the king.

 ¹¹ These were the king's orders: The Jewish people in every city have the right to gather together to protect themselves. They may destroy, kill, and completely wipe out the army of any state or people who attack them. And they are to do the same to the women and children of that army. They may also take by force the property of their enemies.

 ¹² The one day set for the Jewish people to do this in all the empire of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.



God saved HIS PEOPLE from being killed and even allowed them to NOT only fight anyone who came against them, but to take the property of their enemies!!! 



Esther 8:13-16 (NKJV)

¹³ A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and published for all people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

¹⁴ The couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s command. And the decree was issued in Shushan the citadel.

¹⁵ So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.

¹⁶ The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor.




As I read this last verse today, I was overwhelmed (even as I am now) with the feelings of LOVE that GOD HAS FOR HIS PEOPLE!!! 



Esther 8:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews, because fear of the Jews fell upon them.

And I can feel and hear the Lord saying, “I will rescue my people!!!”




GOD HAS DONE IT BEFORE AND HE WILL DO IT AGAIN!!!



So, be careful who you hate!!!  



And what you plan against others!!!



And to Iran I say, “Look out, because just as Haman built the gallows that he was hung upon, so are you planning your own demise!!!”




As it says in Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!!!” 



WE WILL STAND WITH ISRAEL!!!  AND WE WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF HE LORD!!!