Bible Bunny Trails

Written by Jan Jalowiec

Esther 9:24
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

God puts little breadcrumbs all throughout scripture in words, names, and places that He wants to use to trigger a memory in us.

“Wait a minute… I read about that somewhere else. Now where was that?”

And the rabbit chase begins!

Agagite is one of those words. King Agag of the Amalekites was an enemy of the Jews who committed abominable wickedness against God’s people. In 1 Samuel 15 we read the account of how King Saul was commanded by God to utterly destroy them, but the Bible tells us that Saul spared Agag and also kept some of the livestock. Saul kept the things he thought were “good” and only destroyed things he found “vile and refuse”.

So why do these events, which happened six centuries before the time period we are reading of now in Esther, have any bearing or importance?

I’m so glad you asked!

Well, sin has consequences. One of them plays out in the life of Queen Esther. For 600 years, the consequence of Saul’s disobedience was brewing, and was being visited upon his descendants.

Another little tidbit we know from Esther 2:5 is that Mordecai and Esther were descendants of Kish, who is Saul’s father. Talk about grudges passed down from generation to generation! So what do we learn from this? A whole lot I hope!

I need to understand that my judgment of good and evil is not the same as God’s. Say that a little louder for those in the back that may not have heard!!

When the Lord says to purge myself of something that on the surface seems harmless, I just need to trust, obey, and utterly destroy it.

I also need to know that sometimes things that are “happening in my life” aren’t because of “sin in my life”. Feeling guilty all the time and trying to reconcile life by how I do and don’t manage things is exhausting and paralyzing.

We live in a fallen and broken world, and sometimes things happen just because of that simple fact.

But the other beautiful and encouraging thing we learn from Esther is that PRAYER AND FASTING CHANGES THINGS! She didn’t accept the law of the land, and didn’t just sit down and accept her fate. She prayed. She fasted. She rallied many others in her petition and campaign to God Almighty! She knew ONLY HE could change their fate. And Change it HE DID!

So regardless of where you come from, and where you currently live; no matter the lineage of sin or grace that precedes your life; GOD CAN AND WILL redeem, rescue, and miraculously make a way of escape.

Just a suggestion – ESCAPE is another good rabbit trail to go down!