Week three in Esther, and we meet the final two protagonists – Mordecai and Haman.
Mordecai is a Jew, living in exile in Susa, in the kingdom of Xerxes. He appears to have a position at the palace, working at the palace gate. When his aunt and uncle died he took in their daughter, Esther, and adopted her as his own. Scripture doesn’t mention him having any other family.
Haman is an Agagite, and an official in King Xerxes’ court. As we meet him in the story he has just been promoted – he has been given ‘a seat higher than that of all the other nobles’, and Xerxes has commanded all the royal officials to kneel down before Haman.
These two men are a study in contrasts:
Mordecai is chiefly interested in the well being of his adopted daughter, going to the palace daily to get updates from her that she’s doing ok.
Haman is chiefly interested in himself. He takes his position and his wealth and his honour very seriously.
Mordecai is a man of faith in God- when the command of Xerxes goes out that everyone must kneel before Haman, Mordecai refuses to do so (Esther 3:2). He must have had a very good reason to do so, since refusing the king’s command had grave consequences. We know that Mordecai is not in open rebellion to Xerxes in general, since in chapter 2 he exposes a plot to assassinate the king, thus saving his life. The assumption is that Mordecai is honouring the second commandment – ‘you shall have no other gods before me’. A devout Jew would not give obeisance to any man or idol, as to do so would be to put them on equal or higher footing than God.
Haman is characterized by self-centredness and arrogance – when he discovers that Mordecai is not kneeling down to him, he is ‘enraged’ (Esther 3:5). The whole of the court of King Xerxes is bowing down to him, but the actions of this one man can remove all Haman’s satisfaction in his status. And because his status is of such high importance to him, his anger is thoroughly out of proportion. Haman wants revenge – but simply teaching Mordecai a lesson isn’t enough. He sees this as an opportunity to take revenge on the whole of the Jewish nation for the long history that they have with the Amelikites, and the descendants of Agag in particular. So he uses his power to put in place a plan to annihilate the Jews.
Mordecai knows that he himself is powerless to protect himself, or the Jewish people – but he trusts in God instead. His immediate reaction to the news is to humble himself by dressing in sackcloth and ashes (Esther 4:1). The wearing of sackcloth was associated by the Jews with mourning, debasement, or repentance before God, and particularly a public sign of humility. Mordecai is saying – God, we’re in trouble, and only you can save us!
Haman trusts in his own power. Faced with Mordecai’s actions, he devises a scheme, fully confident in his ability to wipe out an entire nation. He manipulates the king to achieve his purposes, telling Xerxes half truths and only as much as he needs to when presenting his ‘solution’. (Esther 3:8-9)
Mordecai’s trust in God is total and complete. He tells Esther to go to king, even knowing that the expected outcome of this action would be for Esther to die. He is able to tell her this instruction, because he trusts that God is in control, even when all the evidence points the other way.
It is not a lack of care for Esther that prompts him to be so careless with her life – but utter trust in God, as demonstrated in the well known verse where Mordecai says to Esther “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:13)
It is no surprise therefore that Haman’s wife and friends later say to him “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin you cannot stand against him – you will surely come to ruin!” Through Mordecai’s faithful actions, even those who did not honour God began to recognise that the ultimate power in this situation belonged to God.
