The Power of Hatred
(Esther 2:21-4:3)
1. I love preaching and teaching through the Book of Esther.
2. If you were not here last week, you missed a lot.
3. Let me review: Esther takes place between Ezra 6 and 7; during the era of the Medo-Persian Empire; nowadays, we would call it the Iranian Empire; the Persian Empire had conquered the Babylonian or Iraqi Empire, which included the nation of Israel.
4. A small number of Jews were allowed to return to Israel, but most had to or chose to stay put, scattered throughout the empire.
5. CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Vashti – the deposed queen, never heard from again after chapter one.
King Xerxes – (Ahasuerus) of the Iranian (Persian) Empire, ruling over Iraq (Babylon), Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel, yet blindly following the advice of wicked Haman.
Mordecai – the faithful Jew whose obedience to God’s Law could doom the entire Jewish race.
Esther – Mordecai’s cousin/niece, the new queen who keeps her Jewish heritage a secret (the heroine).
Haman – the ambitious new Grand Vizier who cooks up a plot to annihilate all Jews (the villain).
6. Politically Correct Story of Esther to catch you up…
Chapter I
And it came to pass in the third year of the reign of Xerxes, King of Persia, that the King threw a great party. And it was during that party, that the King became intoxicated and called for his wife Vashti to come dance exotically in front of the guests. Now, Vashti was a liberated woman, and was not at all ashamed to display her body in public ("my body, my choice," she used to say). But she was certainly not going to do so at the behest of a male chauvinist like her husband. So she refused to appear, and the following morning, in addition to a major hangover, Xerxes had one royal-size sexual harassment suit waiting for him. Public opinion quickly turned against the King, and he was forced to settle out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Chapter II
It was after those events that the King missed Vashti, and wanted to find a new wife. He consulted his inner circle of advisors, which, in accordance with multi-cultural practices, consisted of, among others, one woman, one Indian, one Ethiopian, and one handicapped person, who was also rumored to be gay. One of his advisors, Memoochan, suggested holding a beauty contest, attended by all the fairest maidens in the land. But his female advisor informed him that Memoochan was a Neanderthal living in the dark ages, and that beauty contests where men gawk at women walking around in swimsuits had long ago gone out of fashion. Instead, she suggested giving a test in such subjects as physics, literature and music, and the most intelligent woman would be made queen. And the King, already lagging in the public opinion polls, had no choice, and he said to make it so.
Now is just so happened that in the Kingdom of Persia there lived a young Jewish girl named Esther who was very beautiful, but much more importantly, had a 195 IQ. Having successfully sued her parents for termination of custody, she had been living with her uncle Mordecai. Esther aced the test and was chosen to be the new queen. Only, the homosexual community objected the word "queen", and the feminists didn’t like the whole gender-based title thing, so it was decided that she would just be called "Royal Person." So Esther was crowned Royal Person of Persia and was married to King Xerxes, though she kept her own last name. And being that Esther was an intelligent woman in her own right, and had no intention whatsoever of sitting quietly next to the King looking pretty, she was given her own staff of 15 and an office in the west wing of the palace.
(source: www.harryc.com/j-jokes03-purim.htm#1)
MAIN IDEA: Love and hate run deeply in our hearts, even co-existing. But unrestrained hatred can bring suffering to both those hated and the one hating.
I. Act 3: Mordecai Saves the Kings Life (2:21-23)
· he overhears a plot to assassinate the king
1. He was FORTHCOMING
· some people have information but do nothing with it
· you know, “What’s new?....Nothing. How are you…fine. Why ddin’t you tell me….I didn’t know you wanted to know…”
2. He was FORGOTTEN
· he did not report this for a reward
· but it would have been nice to be appreciated….a little thank you
3. This is the special DETAIL in Esther
II. Act 4: Haman’s Plan to Exterminate the JEWS (3:1-4:3)
A. Haman goes CRAZY with rage
1. Haman becomes the kings Grand VIZIER (3:1)
2. His obsession: ATTENTION and Strokes (3:2a)
· people bowed down to him not just to respect him, but to through him worship the king who was thought to be an incarnation of the god Orormasdes
· Jews would bow down to kings, but not if it involved recognizing them as a descendent of the gods (2 Samuel 14:4)
3. Mordecai’s obsession: obeying God’s LAW (3:2b-4)
· God’s truth is often exclusive, whereas many false religions can accommodate anyone…it’s as thought the underlying message is: religion is pretend anyway. Why fight over it?
· Bible Christians have to deal with the same issue: the exclusiveness of salvation through Chrsit…
· Speaking of an inter-prayer breakfast in Chicago, Joe Stowell writes of Jesus, “No one said that He wasn’t welcome, but the message was clear. All our “gods” are to be equal. And when that is the agenda, the authentic Jesus is trouble. It’s difficult to include One who has claimed to be the only way to God when a diversity of paths to God is being celebrated.” (from “The Traditions that Divide Us”).
4. The CLASH between two obsessions (5)
5.Result: Haman’s Hatred Becomes INSANITY (6)
· not enough to conspire to kill Mordecai, must kill all the Jews
B. Haman DUPES the King (7-15)
· rightly claims that the Jews were different from the other peoples
· wrongly claims they did not obey the law
· offers the king 375 Tons of Silver!!!
· King seals with ring: Laws of Medes and Persians irrevocable
· cast lots for the date….11 months away (8)
· begins circulating the announcement (give time for covetous people to distance themselves from their Jewish friends)
· the citizens of Susa were bewildered (15)
C. Mordecai and the Jews respond by tearing clothes and fasting (4:1-3)
III. Intermission: Implications for US
1. We tend to resent those who are DIFFERENT
· We do not need to approve of the differences we have to tolerate them
· Toleration is not agreement
2. Hatred is the powerful FORCE behind much misery
· Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.
Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.
· Of the Islamic terrorists in Iraq, Ralph Kinney Bennett writes:
· “The Islamoterrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown a resilience that some have found surprising.
· “They have learned fast and learned much - about how to build more effective roadside bombs, for instance, and about the futility of engaging American forces directly in firefights. They have shown an ugly ruthlessness about spilling Muslim blood. They have demonstrated an extraordinary ability or extraordinary luck in preserving their leadership, sometimes with hairbreadth escapes.
· “And, although they may be scraping a barrel or two while husbanding their "finest" for later operations, they have thus far produced enough recruits (some with their hands taped to steering wheels) to continue their fight despite heavy losses.
· “Give them credit where credit is due. And credit them, too, for shedding light on a dark reality many Americans would prefer to ignore - the power of hatred.
· It is fashionable to praise the power of an uplifting idea, but it makes us uncomfortable to admit the power of festering hatred. Yet it is pure hatred that is abroad and alive in the bomb-laden cars that ply the streets and roads of Iraq and in the calculated fury that leaves children dismembered in a market place and young policemen executed with their hands tied behind their backs” (www.techcentralstation.com/062805D.html).
5. Love is a powerful force, but so is hatred. Love slowly builds up, but hatred can tear down in a moment. It can take a year to build a house, but an arsonist can destroy it in minutes.
3. Christians need a theology of HATRED
· Do you hate someone? Have you ever hated someone? Maybe that’s okay.
· Do you just get rid of feelings of hatred with a magic wand?
· Does God hate anyone (according to Psalm 5, yes)
· If you are going to get over hatred, you should not deny it by giving it a different name
· There is hatred that festers and ferments, and there is hatred that dissipates
· There is a hatred that is justified and one that is not
· Christians can love those they hate (enemies)
4. Relationship of one Hebrew word for “Hate” to “SATAN”
· Hatred is dangerous stuff
· Satan’s sin: pride, the lust for power and control, nurtured by hatred
· If we hate, it should be a temporary hatred, one that we seek to see lessen and dissipate…one that we do not act upon…
· Justice is one thing, revenge another…
5. How Christ can conquer hate: SIMON and MATTHEW
· Jesus had 12 dsiciples who shared life together on a full time basis for about 1.5 years…
· They became friends…but they were all different
· two of them probably at one time hated one another
· Simon the Zealot was part of a terrorist movement that tried to make it miserable for Rome to rule over Israel…they wanted freedom and independence
· Levi Matthew was a Tax Collector FOR Rome, a traitor to his people
· But in Christ, both Matthew and Simon left their former lives behind…
· Such is the power of Christ in our lives…
CONCLUSION
1. Hatred wins many, many battles.
2. But it will ultimately lose the war.
3. Yet God wants to bring love into your life, a love for Him and others.
4. But you have to want to know God; you have to want to submit to Him, even if you disagree with His viewpoints…He can pour out love into your hearts through the Holy Spirit…
