She Stood Up for God's People -Esther's Faith Under Test

A man named Haman rose to prominence in the court of Ahasuerus.  The king appointed him prime minister, making Haman his principal advisor and the second in command in the empire..  The king even decreed that all who saw this official must bow down to him.  (Eshter 3:1-4)  For Mordecai, that law posed a problem. He believed in obeying the king but not at the cost of disrespecting God. You see, Haman was an Agagite.  That evidentl means  thathe was a descendant of Agag, the Amalekites that they made themselves enemies of Jehovah and Israell. As  a people. the Amalekits stood condemned by God.  (Deuteronomy 25:19) How could a faithful Jew bow down to an Amalekite?  Mordecai would not. He stood his ground.  To this day, men and women of faith have risked their lives to adhere to  this principle:  "We must obey God as ruler rather than men." - ACTS 5:29.

Haman was enraged. But it was not enough for him to find a way to kill off Mordecai.  He wanted to exterminat all of Mordecai's people!  Haman persuaged the king by painting a dark portrait of the Jews.  Without naming them, he implied that they were inconsequential, a people "scattered and separated among the peoples."  Even worse, he said that they did not obey the king's laws; hence they were dangerous rebels.  He proposed to donate to the king's treasury an immense amount of money to cover the expense of slaughtering all the Jews in the empire.  Ahasuerus gave Haman the king's own signet ring to seal any order that he had in mind. - ESTHER 3:4-10. 

Soon messengers were speeding on horsebakcto every corner of the vast empire, delivering what amounted to a death sentence on the Jewish people.  Imagine the impact of such a proclamation when it reached  far-off Jerusalem, where  remanant of Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon were struggling to rebuild a city that still had no wallto defend it. Perhaps Mordecai thought of  them, as well as of his own friends and relatives in Shushan, when the terrible news. Distraught, he ripped his clothes, wore sackcloth and placed askes on his head, and cried aloud in the middle of the city. Haman, however sat drinking with the king.unmoved by the grief je jad stirred up among the many Jews and their friends in Shushan.  - Read ESTHER 3:12-4:1.

 Next time: She Stood Up for God's People - Esther's Faith Under Test -Conclusion

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