Do It Right The First Time

Wednesday is Purim. Purim is the commemoration of the great victory of the Jews over the plot of evil Haman to wipe out the Jewish people in all of Persia.

The whole story is told in the book of Esther, a biblical account that reads much like a novel. But it is not fiction. Instead, it depicts the true story of someone who has such hatred for the Jewish people that he schemes to destroy them all!

What a preposterous idea! Unfortunately, it is not a lone incident in history.

Why, specifically, did Haman hate the Jewish people? In Esther 3:1 we are told that Haman was an Agagite. Agagites elsewhere are called Amalekites, so specifically, it refers to a descendent of King Agag, the Amalekite.

In the book of I Sam. 15, we find that God told Saul to absolutely destroy all of the Amalekites. In verse 8 we see that Saul killed all the people except Agag. In reading through the rest of the chapter, it seems as though all the action took place during a very short time period. But when Saul sends for Agag to execute him, Agag thinks he doesn’t have anything to fear. Verse 32b says, “And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

That’s because it had been a long time since the war. The rabbis say that Saul treated Agag as royalty. He was captive, all right, but he had his pick of concubines and received the honor of royalty. Perhaps six hundred years later, one of his progeny continued to persecute Jews in Persia.

Some believers struggle with commandments in the Old Testament for entire peoples to be annihilated. Others struggle with the prediction in Num. 14:18 and elsewhere that God visits “the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”

How can He be merciful and still order the Israelites to wipe out a whole people? And how is it fair that the consequences of ancestor’s sins fall on their descendants?

But cause and effect are real. Does one person’s adultery only harm the couple involved? Does the pain caused by murder stop with the victim? Did the horrible abuses of slavery only hurt that generation?

While the story of Esther shows how God intervenes for those who rely on Him, I believe there is an even bigger story here. God knows what is good and what is not. Even if our own modern sensibilities don’t understand His precepts, following them leads to blessing and ignoring them leads to pain.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of Esther is to do right the first time and you and your children will be blessed.