Consequens Inobedientiae

Mordecai does not bow to Haman

Amici, Americani, Compatrioate,

Last night's Scripture reading within the Liturgy of the Hours was from Esther chapter 3 where Haman, a newly appointed official to the court of Persian King Ataxerxes, conspired to commit genocide against the entire Jewish people because Mordecai, a Jew in the king's court, would not bow in obeisance to him. As the reader may recall, Esther (Mordecai's niece and the young woman whom King Ataxerxes appointed to replace Vashti as Queen to reign from 479 to 465 BC) would act to prevent this genocide (which is the subject of the book named after her). But in this enmity between Mordecai and Haman there is a great lesson, for Haman was Agagite (3:1) and Mordecai was the great grandson of Kish (of the tribe of Benjamin) (2:5) who had been King Saul's father. And from that we have  history.

In Exodus 17:8-16 (a little later than 1450 BC), right after Moses struck the rock in the wilderness from which sprung water to quench the thirst of the wandering Israelites, a people called the Amalekites attacked. When Moses raised his hands over the battlefield, the Israelites prevailed. When due to weariness his arms dropped, the enemy prevailed. So Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms and the victory went to Israel; the Amalekites were defeated. But they did not forget this incident and great hatred rose between the the two nations.

In 1st Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel told King Saul (1078 to 1010 BC) to finally eradicate the Amalekites - every man, woman, child, infant and beast - for what had happened during the sojourn of the Israelites in the Sinai desert. King Saul carried out only part of the task, saving as spoils the best of what the Amalekites had instead of destroying everything, and sparing the life of the Amalekite king, a man by the name of Agag (hence was Haman in the Persian court later on called an Agagite for he was a descendant of Agag). As a result of King Saul's disobedience, the kingdom of Israel was ripped from him as he ripped a part of Samuel's garment as Samuel went to leave.

Finally when the people of Judah were deported to Babylon, the last remaining descendant of Amalekite King Agag and the last remaining descendant of the line of Kish (father of King Saul), Mordecai, meet and they hate each other. If King Saul had carried out the Lord's command, then he likely would not have lost the kingdom and there would have been no Amalekite descendants, and all the train of events leading up to and including Haman's plot for genocide would not have occurred. But King Saul saved the best of the spoils of war for himself (using the excuse that he was going to sacrifice the spoils to Samuel's Lord).

You see, the attempt to wipe out all Jews from the face of the Earth occurred a thousand years before Haman resurrected that plot. And God (about five hundred years after the initial attempt and five hundred years before Haman's conspiracy) told King Saul to take care of this problem and Saul did not. The consequences for Saul's disobedience were not however relegated to him along but followed the Jewish people into captivity a half millennium later. Yet God in His eternal wisdom foresaw what would happen and put Esther in the right place at the right time to foul Haman's plans and bring final defeat onto the Amalekites. In spite of our disobedience God will always have the final victory, and from this the Chosen People were preserved for the eventual birth of the Messiah, the Savior of the World.