Women with a Story to Tell. Esther 5. Genocide.

 Last week we learned that Esther and Mordecai are in trouble; there is a substantial threat to their lives, and it comes, of all places, from the government. How did this happen? What will Esther and Mordecai do? 

 My friend Bill Mefford (The Fig Tree Revolution: Unleashing Local Churches into the Mission of Justice, 2017) points out that their antagonist, Haman the Agagite, is skilled in using the strategies of racism fanning the flames of hatred of certain ethnic groups in order to turn a despotic government toward genocide. How did he do it? Look at the passages for last week’s devotional (Esther chapter 3). 

 First; hide the real purpose of executive orders. Notice that Haman carefully chose the right day to approach the king (you know how touchy they are and how easily given to rage). Haman begins with an innocuous statement: “There is a certain people scattered and separated among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom…” (Esther 3: 8). Bill notes that there is no hint of genocide here, only a statement that everyone can agree on. 

 Second; control the conversation with subtle shifts in language. Haman claimed that ”their laws are different from those of every other people” (Esther 3: 8). Again, this seems not to be a stretch of the imagination, nor does it seem sinister. But, it is. Haman has inserted the issue of the ‘law’ into the conversation, and he has made an ever-so-subtle shift. Are Jewish laws really ‘different from every other people’? I can tell you, the answer is ‘No’. 

 Samuel Noah Kramer (1897-1990), was a leading expert in ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, particularly in the language and texts of Sumeria (prominent from 3500-2000 BC). Kramer’s family were Jews from Ukraine who fled to Philadelphia as refugees from Russian oppression there, so he knows the territory of demagogues and pogroms (Russian attacks against the villages of the Jews). 

 Kramer’s most famous and accessible book is History Begins at Sumer: Twenty-seven ‘Firsts’ in Man’s Recorded History (1956). I have that book in my library because it was one of the textbooks in my class on the Ancient Near East in the 1960s at Bethel College.   

 Chapter 8 in that book is titled ‘Law Codes: The First ‘Moses’, and Chapter 9 is ‘Justice: The First Legal Precedent’. Kramer points out that there are various examples of other law codes, the most famous of which is Hammurabi’s text which dates to around 1750 BC. Several lesser known codes immediately preceded Hammurabi’s text, one written in Babylonian and the other in Sumerian script. One of the oldest, by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu, dates to around 2050-2000 BC. Moses lived no earlier than 1800 and probably closer to 1400.

 In these earliest texts, Kramer already recognizes laws that are common to Sumeria, Babylonia, and to the Mosaic law. He even has chapters on the first innocent sufferer, quite similar to the story of Job, and the great flood of Gilgamesh, quite similar to the story of Noah. In short, Jewish law and Jewish ethics and philosophy are not very different from other accounts from the Ancient Near East.  

 A close examination shows that Haman was wrong and his claim very misleading. The Jews may have had some unique laws to go with their unique god, YHWH, but they share a legal framework with other peoples of the Ancient Near East. So, what is Haman up to? Haman wants to separate out the Jews (he hasn’t named the people yet) as less than human. Here are the next parts of Haman’s carefully crafted speech.

 Third; sneak in some provocative accusations: “they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them.” There is one incident, Mordecai did not bow down to Haman as the king’s new law instructed people to do. There is no other evidence that Mordecai, Esther, or any other Jews were breaking the law. This is like taking a traffic stop for a broken taillight to the level of killing the immigrant driver because you hate the immigrant’s race. Or of taking a rumored slight to a white woman to the level of lynching a Black teenager. One illegal action (or imagined action) is used to condemn the whole ethnic group; and that is the problem. 

 Haman has moved from a simple observation that this ethnic group is scattered in every province (there are a lot of these people around), to the claim that their laws make them into a unique case (they different from other people), to the claim that all people of this ethnicity break the laws (they are criminals, scum, the lowest rung of society). So, what is the conclusion? 

 Fourth; suggest that it is in the king’s best interests to get rid of these people: “it is not appropriate for the king to tolerate them.” That is, they should all be eliminated so that they no longer are a threat to our society where people like us are on top.

 Fifth; offer the king a way to act but still escape responsibility. “If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued for their destruction….” Where does this decree (law) originate? Not from the king. Haman speaks in the subjunctive voice which does not require identifying the actor: “let a decree be issued.” A crafty despot always has his appointees take the blame, then he can fire them and still stay in office (Mefford, 2017, page 21).

 Sixth; make an offer that the king does not have to refuse because it never touches his hands: “and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business, so that they may put it into the king’s treasuries.” The best dodge is for the king to make money off of his corruption without appearing to be dishonest. If the judiciary is compliant, no one can prove it in court. 

 Seventh; seal the deal by passing the buck. “So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.” The imagined problem is solved, the king gets the money, and Haman gets unlimited authority to take a chainsaw to the social order. 

 That’s the way that things work, and it has been that way for a long time.

 “The LORD saw that the wickedness of human beings was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (Genesis 5: 5).

 Fortunately, God on the other side. How will Esther and Mordecai be saved?