Mordecai, Haman, and King Ahasuerus

Since January 1st, Vanesa and I have been reading from the One Year Bible every morning after we wake up. For the last couple of days, we have been reading from the Book of Esther. In particular, we read the story of Mordecai, Haman, and King Ahasuerus, which is detailed in Esther 3:1-7:10.

If you haven’t read it, here’s a brief synopsis: Mordecai (a Jew) had previously informed Esther (his cousin and the current queen) of a plot to assassinate King Ahasuerus. Esther relayed the information on to the king and a crisis was averted, though the king was never made aware of the source of the information. Later, Ahasuerus appointed a man named Haman as his prime minister. Haman did not care much for Mordecai. As a result, he convinced the king to sign a decree to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed, with Mordecai being a prime target. Hamas was so confident that Mordecai would be killed that he built a gallows in his court in anticipation of having Mordecai hanged. In the course of events, the king discovered that it was Mordecai who had warned Esther of the earlier attempt on his life. Esther also revealed that she was in fact a Jew and that Haman was trying to kill her and her people. Not surprisingly, Ahasuerus sided with his wife and ordered that Haman be hanged. So in the end, Haman was strung up on the same gallows he intended to hang Mordecai on.

It’s a very ironic story and at it’s conclusion Vanesa said to me, “That was a good story. It would make for a great movie!” I agreed and replied, “I have the perfect name for that story. I think it should be called ‘Oh… Snap!’”. However, I was the only one in the room that seemed to fully appreciated the wit of my proposed title.

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