In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar. Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.” So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”

Drunk with power. Cutthroat business dealings. Ranking people based on wealth, position, or upbringing.

All of the above are tactics we run into in this world. These types of people are written about by the Apostle Paul: “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭29‬-‭31‬)

Haman was one of these types of men. What I find interesting is that around these types of men there is usually an enabler, like King Xerxes was for Haman. The King was not as cruel as Haman, it seems, or he might have decided to kill his disobedient wife, Queen Vashti. But he was indifferent to the cruelty around him.

The condition of the heart that allows people to digress down the path to destruction is described well in Romans 1:18-32. Some of the stages are: 1) not acknowledging God and thanking him for his blessings, 2) worshiping false gods in place of the one true God, 3) committing sexually impure acts, and 4) casting out the knowledge of God and allowing one’s mind to become depraved and futile.

We must understand and prepare our hearts for meeting men like Haman and King Xerxes. They are in direct opposition to our mission of serving God and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lord, it is hard to be ruled over by evil men. Sometimes even worse to see those in high power “look the other way” as these evil men carry out their evil plans. As we struggle under this type of evil and oppressive leadership, we can hold onto the hope in this verse: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬) Thank you Father for sustaining me in the ups and the downs of life.