Anti-Semite Promoted by King of Iran

Anti-Semite Promoted by King of Iran

            "After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him."  Esther 3:1

               Let us learn from this man, Haman.  The setting is in old ancient Persia which is today's Iran.  He was an Agagite.  The Agagites were continual enemies of Israel.  The original Agagite was a grandson of Esau whom God hated.  He was from the Amalekites against whom it is said in Ex.17:16 that God would have war from generation to generation.  They had been the cause of Saul losing his kingdom.  God had commanded Saul to make war against them and kill every living thing.  Instead Saul saved the king Agag and some prime sheep and oxen alive.  For disobedience he lost his kingdom.  Haman, as an Agagite was a descendent of these enemies of Israel.  He, by the king of Iran, was promoted above all the princes.

               Haman, an Agagite, was a type of the flesh.  The continual war with the Amalekites was a type of our continual war with the flesh.  Paul gave us the secret for this war in Gal. 5:15-17.  “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.  This I say then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:  and these are contrary the one to the other:  so that ye cannot do the things  that ye would.”  

Can we learn anything about the future from Haman?  Iran is still the enemy of Israel.  He sought to have the Jews exterminated and persuaded the king to sign a decree to that effect in verses 8-15.  The Iranians with their allies are still determined against Israel.  See in Psalm 83:4 a prophecy of their continual hatred.  Their allies are the Edomites, the Ishmaelites, the Moabites, the Hagarenes, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, the Philistines or Palestinians, the inhabitants of Tyre or Lebanon, and the Assyrians  Ps. 83:5-8.  Haman was hanged for his action.  The great God of Heaven is still the God of the Jews, and He will secure them in the end.  See the prayer of the Psalmist in Ps. 83:16-18.  “Fill their faces with shame:  that they may seek thy name, O LORD.  Let them be confounded and troubled for ever:  yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:  That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, are the most high over all the earth.”