As we think of Christmas as an act of war – God invading the planet in the person of Jesus – we remind ourselves, it’s been war since Genesis 3.15:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (ESV)

And so it’s no surprise that there’s war against God’s people in the book of Esther. The instigator is Haman the Agagite:

Some time later, King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, making him the highest-ranking official in the government. All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honor him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded. Except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel. (Esther 3.1 – 2, MSG)

Why wouldn’t Mordecai bow to Haman? There weren’t supposed to be any Agagites! King Saul was sent to thoroughly destroy the Amalekites, recorded in 1 Samuel 15. But he didn’t do it:

Saul defended himself. “What are you talking about? I did obey GOD. I did the job GOD set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy ban. So the soldiers saved back a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy ban for sacrifice to GOD at Gilgal—what’s wrong with that?” (1 Samuel 15.20, 21, MSG, emphasis mine)

Back to Esther. Mordecai won’t bow, and Haman wants revenge:

When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai didn’t bow down and kneel before him, he was outraged. Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes. (Esther 3.5, 6, MSG)

And the battle is on. We’ll see God at work through Esther and behind the scenes. Stay tuned.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.12, ESV)