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All right, Esther chapter number three. Tonight, we're gonna get introduced to the antagonist of the story, and that is a man by the name of Haman. Now, the Bible says that Haman was an Agagite, so we're gonna kind of unpack that a little bit, talk about his history, the Amalekites. We're also gonna talk about what Haman pictures in the book of Esther, which I believe he pictures the Antichrist, and so we're gonna look at some similarities there. But Haman, you know, all of us have had Hamans in our life, and if you haven't, you definitely will. And the thing you have to understand about Haman, his pride, his arrogance, that came from the power that he was given from Ahasuerus, the thing you have to understand with these types of people is that their lust for power produces perdition, meaning at some point, okay, when these types of people come into our lives, one thing that is comforting is to realize, you know what, this person is going to destroy themselves at some point. Now, the bad news is the length and the time it takes to actually get to that point can be very time-consuming, it can be very stressful, and things of that nature. And as far as the fingerprint goes for this chapter, we're gonna pull that apart, too. So in this chapter, you've got Haman, and he's been given authorization from King Ahasuerus to basically be reverenced for people to bow down to. Okay, and of course, if you know the story, Mordecai decides, you know what, I'm not gonna bow to this guy. I'm not gonna bow to the knee to him, I'm not playing this game. And so what that teaches us is, by the Bible giving us a man that God's people should not bow down to proves that there is a king that we should bow down to. Here's Brother Josh reading Esther chapter number three. God bless. Esther chapter number three, beginning in verse one, the Bible reads, After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadatha the aggregate, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman. For the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgresseth thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought, scorned, to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the Lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar. And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, that there is a certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the aggregate, the Jew's enemy. And the king said unto Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan, the palace, and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed. Brother Evan, would you please pray for us? Well, tonight we get introduced to the antagonist of the story, and his name is Haman. And so I'm gonna call this Haman as more of a gagite than an agagite, okay? What I mean by that is this character Haman is so puffed up and filled with pride and arrogance that it's just disgusting, it makes you want to gag. So I call him the gagite instead of the agagite. So with that being said, we're gonna start off, we're gonna read verse one, then we're gonna go back in time. We're gonna go back to 1 Samuel chapter number 15, and I'm just gonna kind of give you the history of the agagites, the Amalekites, who those people were, and what happened to them, so on and so forth. And the reason for that is because there's controversy with people, I actually had this happen to me out soul-winning. And it's funny, this was several years ago, this happened to me out soul-winning, and then it happened like a month later to somebody else that I know out soul-winning. And what people are doing is they'll take this passage here and they'll say, well, have you ever heard of Haman in the Bible, the agagite? Yeah, I've heard of him. Then they'll say, well, have you ever heard of Samuel in the book of Samuel? Yeah, I've heard of Samuel. And they'll say, well, in 1 Samuel 15, Saul destroyed all the Amalekites, okay? And so therefore, if he destroyed all the Amalekites, how can there still be an agagite in the times of Esther? I'll answer that. I give you some things to think about, it's too easy, but we will address that. So let's go ahead and get started there. Verse number one, look what it says. The Bible says, after these things, did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadatha the agagite and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. Now, I mean, you could almost spend all night with this verse and just talking about how we, there are very few people in the world, I believe, that can actually handle true power and not let it corrupt them, not let it really get to them in some way, shape or form. This guy, he goes from zero to 60 in less than a second. It's just, he gets this promotion and he's like, ah, I need worship. That's pretty much the way the chapters laid out. I need worship, I need everyone to bow down to me because I'm so special, I'm so great. And as the chapters go on, it increases, it increases, it increases until his destruction, okay? Now, I know most people may pronounce this agag, agagite. I call him agag. I have no respect for this guy whatsoever and neither should you, but let's look at something here. Okay, so leave your place there, Esther chapter three, and go to 1 Samuel chapter number 15. So who are the agagites? Where did this come from? What does that mean? What's going on here, okay? And again, the so-called contradiction in the Bible that some people have decided to try to bring up, it can be answered very, very easy, okay? So 1 Samuel chapter number 15, I'm gonna just give you a quick rundown. We'll look at some verses here and talk about it. So King Saul is king over Israel, the first king to actually take over the nation of Israel. And Samuel is the last judge, okay? The nation had belonged under the care of Samuel, but the people rebelled, okay? And they started telling Samuel, hey, you need to petition God for us because we want a king. We want a king to go out and fight battles, just like all the other nations do, not realizing that that was going to forever change the way things were done in their nation. And they lost a ton of freedoms in the process of doing that. Now they got to pay more tax and all these different things, losing their rights to property. And now the king could just basically say, I need you, you, you, and you to go do this. And I need your daughters to do this. And they just lost a lot of their God-given liberties because they desired to be like the world. So in the process of time, Saul has already allowed this power to get to him and he's not doing too well. And it gets worse in this chapter. And this chapter and the decision that Saul makes in his chapter is what leads to his ultimate demise. And it's basically what God uses to tell him, hey, I'm taking the kingship from you, you're done, okay? So let's look at Saul's assignment here. First three verses of chapter 15, look down at verse number one. So the Bible says this. Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the Lord. Of course, great advice for all of us in that passage there. But look at verse number two. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now I wish I had more time, but I don't have time to go back and really rehash the studies that I've done on the Amalekites. I know it's been a couple of years, so I will redo them at some point. But you can think of the Amalekites like this. The Amalekites basically preyed on the weak. So if they were gonna attack you, they're just like the devil. They would just assess and be like, okay, well, let's go for the women and children first. All right, now let's go for the elderly. You know, that's what they would do. They would attack from behind. They would surprise attack. They would attack the weak. And that's why they decided to attack Israel when they did, because they had heard all the great things that God had done for them and said, we're not gonna allow you to pass through our land. In fact, we're gonna make you go around and then we're gonna go ahead and come after you, okay? And so God is wanting to avenge that situation here. And he wants to use Saul to carry that out. But of course, if you know anything about King Saul, he's not quite the best at following through on instructions. So look down at verse number three. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. Okay, that is key right there. That's the instruction. Saul was not to spare anything, anyone. Total destruction, complete 100% annihilation. And so the rest of the verse says, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Everyone goes, okay? And again, I don't have time to really take this down. This seems very harsh, okay? But there's a reason for this, okay? There's a reason for this. And of course, these children here were not Catholic. These kids that would have died in this situation would have obviously gone to the Lord. The Amalekites basically got us saying, you don't deserve these children. They're mine, they belong to me. Because we believe in an age of accountability. Again, don't have time to really get into that. But okay, if you want on your own time, go read Exodus chapter 17 and go read that battle between the children of Israel and the Amalekites, okay? And then go read Numbers chapter 24. And I think it's verse seven. Numbers chapter 24, verse seven mentions Agag. And Numbers 24 is actually Balaam, the son of Bozo, or prophesying, okay? If you remember the story, there was a man by the name of Balak that wanted to hire Balaam to curse the children of Israel so that they could not advance any further and take the promised land and obviously fulfill God's will. Balaam realizes very quickly that God is not gonna allow him to curse Israel. And he begins to prophesy. And one of the things he says is that this nation is going to rise higher than Agag. Several verses later, somewhere between verses 20 and 25, I can't remember exactly, okay? But Balaam starts talking about the Amalekites. And the reason why I'm bringing this up to you is because when you kind of start to piece this together, it is possible that Agag here, who you're about to see in just a moment, may not have been a name, but a title, kind of like Pharaoh, King of Egypt, or, you know, things of that nature, okay? So just something to kind of for you guys to think about, but we're crystal clear here. Saul's orders, go in, destroy the Amalekites, okay? Take them out, wipe them out, everything, everyone goes. We're cleaning house, close the business sale, okay? Everything's gotta go. Now fast forward here to verse number seven. It says this, and Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah, until thou comest to shore, that is over against Egypt, okay? So it's giving you the range, it's giving you the geography in where Saul smote the Amalekites. Now, what you have to understand here, okay, is that I think it's silly of us to just assume that every single Amalekite in the world was here during this specific time. I mean, don't people travel, right? Haven't there been cities and nations of people that have come under complete conquest, and yet people were gone, they were out of town, so to speak, they were spared, okay? So that is definitely possible as you read this, you know? But of course, if you're a critic of the Bible, hey, you're looking for anything. And let me just tell you guys something else, you know, when you're dealing with these types of people. Here's what I've been doing lately. I just say, okay, look, if I can prove to you that what you're saying isn't true, that you completely are misunderstanding this, would you believe the Bible? And if they waffle at all, I walk away, I'm done. I'm not playing this game anymore with people, okay? If you look, I'm looking for people that just wanna hear it, you know? I really don't wanna be getting involved in these long, drawn out discussions, but if this is a hang up for somebody, you're gonna have the answer here, okay? And the answer is coming. Look at verse number eight. So it says this, And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. Okay, now here's two possibilities. So possibility number one, which I think is very reasonable, is the fact that not all the Amalekites who were ever alive were in this geographical period, or location rather from Hovilah to Shur. Obviously there are people outside of that, and Saul didn't get them all. I mean, it's just common sense, okay? So that's one, but the other one is right here. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. You remember this morning when we were in Numbers chapter 14, and it said the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, okay? It said the whole congregation. But we know that Joshua and Caleb, who are part of the congregation of Israel, did not murmur, okay? So sometimes the Bible just uses that language here to just collectively tell us that, look, okay? He destroyed most of the people, or just about everybody within these boundaries here. I mean, heck, he's got this guy alive here, and it tells you that he destroyed all the people. So, you know, you've got those two tickets to be able to teach people. Now look at verse nine. It says, but Saul and the people spared Agag. You know, why does it say that? Why does it say it's Saul and the people spared Agag? Well, you'll see that in just a moment. It says, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and of the lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. So does it sound to you guys like they actually did a thorough job? Does it sound like Saul actually carried out verses one through three and provided utter destruction? No. Okay, so obviously if he's not obeying right here, what makes you think he got 100% of the people between Havilah? And sure, sure he did a good job, so to speak, and he got a lot of them, okay? But it's kind of foolish for us to assume everyone because that's not really what it means, and that's not what this passage is really telling us because he spared Agag. They're sparing these animals here. Verse 10, then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, and of course verse 11, it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night. Now jump down to verse 13. Samuel came to Saul and said, I'm sorry, and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. It's like, no, you didn't. You completely disobeyed the commandment of the Lord. You did a lot of it, but you didn't do all of it. The commandment was 100% destruction. If it breathes, it dies, okay? That's the commandment. He didn't do it. Verse 14, and Samuel said, what meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the ox in which I hear? So Samuel's like, really? You did all this, okay? And these animal noises are going off and he's just like, what is that sound? What in the world is going on here, Saul? Verse 16, and Samuel said unto Saul, stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, say on. And so he begins to basically prophesy unto Saul that you're done, okay? You're not gonna be king. God's gonna take the kingdom away from you. So look at verse 18. We're just gonna kind of rattle through this because we got some other stuff to go to, but verse 18, it says, and the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Clearly disobedient, did not do it, did not complete that mission, okay? And so that again applies to that answer. Well, how could Haman pop up at Esther? Well, because Saul failed to do the job. That's what this is teaching us here, okay? Verse 19, wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And look at what verse 20 says. This is kind of like what we talked about this morning with group think. And Saul said unto Samuel, yay, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. So he thinks that the people are gonna back him up. He thinks that they all follow God's will to a T. Verse 21, but the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and Gilgal. So now they're thinking, see, we collectively decided, you know, we wanna honor God with some sacrifices and some offerings. We know he said to destroy everything that breathes, but we've got a better idea. Okay, let's go ahead and set up an offering here and that'll make God happy. Okay, verse 22, Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? And that's key. I mean, that is really key for us to understand here. God wants obedience rather than sacrifice because oftentimes we get to thinking and reasoning inside of our own heads and thinking, okay, well, I know I'm supposed to do this. I know the Bible says this, but you know, if I shine someone's shoes real quick, you know, if I just give someone some malt on me, I'll just make them happy for a couple seconds. Hey, I've pleased God, man. I've done my job for the day. I'm good to go. And God's gonna be happy with that because I made somebody happy, okay? That is not the case. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Look at the rest of the verse, and to hearken than the fat of rams. And then Samuel really gets deep here. Look what he says in verse 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. So this rebellion that Saul is leading here, okay, and his stubbornness are equated to witchcraft and idolatry, and then he says, because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king in verse 24. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, okay? So this is where he realizes that going with the masses and following the crowd cost him his kingship here. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. And so again, it was the masses, and it was Saul's desire to please them and to influence them and to have that power. Okay, it was a failure in understanding what real leadership is, okay? And again, I don't have time to really get into that. We'll deal with that another time. But that fear of the people is what led to his destruction. Okay, and that's why I talked about Kurds this morning and talked about the need for conflict, the need to confront people sometimes, because it's better to do that than to wind up like Saul. It's better to do that than to wind up like the people that murmured and spoke blasphemy against God back in Numbers chapter 14. Now jump down to verse 32, and let's see Agag here. So after they go through this here, okay, Samuel tells them, you know, hey, God's gonna give this kingship to a neighbor that's better than you. It actually says that, that it's better than you. Look at verse 32. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag. Okay, Agag. So this is where we get the Agagite name from. And you only find Agagite in the book of Esther. And when you see ites in the Bible, like Jebusites, Canaanites, obviously that's telling us where they're from and where these people came from. So Samuel says, verse 32, then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death has passed. Right, so he's like, hey, it's been long enough. You know, surely you're not upset about this stuff anymore, right, Sammy? We're good to go, we're buddies now. Verse 33, and Samuel said, and this is what really will give you guys some insight onto how the Amalekites operated. Look at what he says. And Samuel said, as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Now go back to Esther chapter number three. So Samuel is now left to do the job for Saul. And he, you know, he said, well, that's pretty crazy, man. It's almost psychotic. He cut this guy up? Yeah, he did. Why did he do it? Because that's what Agag and the Amalekites would do to other people. They would go and try to conquer a place. What they would do is they would kill the children in front of the moms. And they would do that as a scare tactic. I mean, it's the same thing that the government's doing today through abortion. We still have spiritual Amalekites today alive and well. We have Agagites in office today. And they want to kill women and children, promote it like it's a good thing, call it healthcare, call it reproductive rights, whatever you want to say, okay? These people, this attitude has been alive for a long time. Just like Solomon told us, there's nothing new under the sun. God hates that with a passion. And that's why God wanted to destroy all the Amalekites because they were all in on it. And that is what they do. That is what they have always done from the time we see them come onto the scene in the Bible, okay? So hopefully that kind of gives you some ammunition there. If somebody ever brings that to your attention, you've got some options. And the first one is, I think it's very viable. You know, Saul did not complete his mission. He did not do a thorough job. He disobeyed the Lord. He spared Agag. He listened to the people. And I'm sure that Agag wasn't the only one that was spared. Okay, I'm sure his family obviously was spared. There were other people that weren't in town or whatever, you know, whatever the case is. And so that's why now you see this pop up in Esther chapter three. It's because of the failure of King Saul, okay? So enough about that. Let's go on here now to verse number two, because we need to kind of talk about the picture. Who does Haman picture in the Bible? You just read the chapter. You're probably already thinking the Antichrist and you are right. Look at verse two. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Okay, now let's talk about the fingerprint here. Let's talk about the fingerprint, because each chapter in Esther, remember, there's a fingerprint of God in each chapter. And I'm bringing these up in every chapter because I don't like how people say that this does not belong in the Bible because God isn't mentioned or what have you. And that is not the case here. So, okay, verse two, what do we see here? Well, Haman, he's gotten promoted and he's like, hey, look, I need to be reverenced. The king even said so. I need people to be bowing down to me, kissing my ring and understanding that I am the man. It's just what it is. Now, I want you guys to go to Philippians chapter number two real quick, Philippians chapter number two. So thus far, we understand a couple of things about Mordecai and we just read the chapter. We know that Mordecai is not going to bow down to Haman. In fact, it's a big part of what this story is about. Now, think about this. There's three things real quick that we've learned about Mordecai. Remember, Mordecai is Esther's cousin. Number one, Mordecai and Esther stayed in Shushan instead of going back to Jerusalem to help with the temple, help repopulate Judea and to contribute to building the wall and getting everything back up and running. They were comfortable in their captivity, okay? They just grew comfortable, obviously. He has no plans of leaving. He's in the gate, which is also a sign that he probably works for the Medo-Persian empire because you always see him in the palace there walking around, talking with people. So that's the first thing that we know about Mordecai, okay? Not a good thing. Number two, we saw last week that he gave Queen Esther up to basically Ahasuerus' harem, okay? We showed you that. We showed you how there were two houses in chapter two. There was a house where the virgins were kept and young virgins, they would come out of that house. When it was their time, they would present themselves before the king. And where did they go after that evening, after that night, on the next day? Well, they went to the house of the concubines, okay? So there was a change in who they were. They did not leave Ahasuerus' house as a virgin is my point. And Mordecai is like, hey, great idea. Why don't you go try to be the queen? Luckily, God works in her favor. She obtains favor from King Ahasuerus, becomes queen. It's gonna all play out well in the end. But, you know, when I read that, I'm like, I ain't giving my daughter, I ain't giving any girl that I'm in charge of, you know, like to any freak like that. But that's me, that's most of us. It's kind of hard to really always insert us back in their culture. There's a lot of other variables that we're just not aware of and so on and so forth. But I also said this last week, when you're in a place that you should not be, things are not going to go the way that they should be. Number three was his faith, who he was, okay? These aren't Jews like Jews today, these were God's people, okay? And what does Mordecai tell Esther? Hey, don't tell Ahasuerus that you're a Jew. Don't tell him about our people. What we believe nothing, keep it quiet. And he kept himself quiet. But now all of a sudden, Mordecai is like, I'm not bowing to this Agagite, okay? What does that tell you? That tells you that he knows that much, at least about his nation's history. He understands who the Amalekites were and the significance of how they've tortured people, how they came after his nation. They tried to prevent them after they left Egypt. And he's like, you know what? I am definitely not giving this guy any reverence. I'm not saluting him. I'm not bowing down. This ain't happening, okay? Let me show you something real quickly. Philippians chapter two, look at verse number five. So we've obviously got a picture of this guy Haman, okay? Not a good guy, just wants influence. He just wants power, okay? He's lustful for power. And what you're gonna see with Haman is that a lust for power produces perdition. That's why, if you know the story, he goes into perdition. He gets hanged on the very devices that he wanted to kill all the Jews on, winds up going to hell. That's very clear in the Bible, okay? So the Bible's telling us in Esther chapter three, this is not a man that God's people should bow the knee to. We should not bow the knee to this person. But who should we bow the knee to? Look at verse five here, Philippians chapter two. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Okay, verse six, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. So obviously Jesus understanding that he is God didn't think it robbery, but he didn't go around bragging about it, okay? He lived a humble life while he was on this earth and he put other people before himself, okay? He always did that. In Paul's request to the Philippians, hey, this mindset needs to be in you guys, okay? This is true Christian success when you can arrive here. Verse seven, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death and even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Verse 10, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of the things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. So God's fingerprint, you can go back to Esther chapter three God's fingerprint in Esther chapter three is really this. So by giving us the man Haman, okay? And by giving us the man we don't bow to shows us the King that we do bow down to. That's what that proves to us. So don't say, oh, God's finger's not in Esther. It's everywhere on every single page in this book. The mere fact that Mordecai won't bow to this guy tells you there is one worthy of bowing down to otherwise he would have just gone with the flow. Okay, so now let's read verse two again. I know you guys are like, this is supposed to be a short chapter. Don't worry, it'll move faster here in a minute, okay? Verse two, and all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed in reverence Haman for the king had so commanded concerning him, but Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence. Okay, look at this. Verse three, then the king's servants which were in the king's gate said unto Mordecai, why transgress this thou the king's commandment? All right, so now these people are like, hey, what are you doing, man? You're breaking the king's commandment. Hey, Hazzard said, you gotta bow to this guy. You gotta pay him his respects. You better do it. Mordecai's like, I ain't doing that, okay? So why now? After all the other things that are negative about Mordecai, I mean, just not going back to Jerusalem, the whole queen thing, keeping quiet on your faith. Why now? It's because obviously he knows the true God and he definitely understands the history of the Amalekites. Now, let's really quickly go to Revelation chapter 13. We were here last week, so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time in here, but I just want this in your mind as we kind of study through the rest of this chapter because Haman really does give us a very good picture of the Antichrist. And I think it's definitely worthy of bringing this up once again. So Revelation chapter 13, remember your two personalities in Revelation chapter 13, you've got the beast and the false prophet, okay? Let's look at the beast real quick. Look at verse number one. So John here, prophesying verse one says, and I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and upon his horns, 10 crowns, and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy, okay? And we could get into this later on about what these things represent and what he's actually describing here. He's basically describing this guy rising up out of the sea, out of the sea of nations, out of people. He rises above everyone on the earth. Look at verse number two. And the beast, which I saw, was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power. And that's very, very important for you to understand. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. So the Antichrist, okay, or the beast here, how does he get his rise to fame? How does he get his power? He gets it from Satan himself. Now, remember, when Satan, in the beginning of time, wanted to disguise himself, all he had to do was appear as a serpent. Nothing out of the ordinary about a snake in a garden, okay? Didn't trip up Eve, didn't trip up Adam. They're like, of course, those snakes there, okay? Now, at the end of time here, okay, during the tribulation, when this beast rises up here, we see that this dragon is giving this individual power and great authority. Now, look at verse three here. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. Now, look at this here, verse four. And they worshiped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast who was able to make war with him? So now the devil, in the end times here, okay, during the tribulation, he can disguise himself as a dragon and receive worship, okay? So what does that kind of tell you life's gonna be like towards that time period? The devil doesn't even have to disguise as something seemingly harmless, like a snake in a garden, okay? He can come on as a full-on dragon, and people are like, that's who I want to worship, okay? That's my guy, that's our guy right there. And so, of course, you see what's happening here. The devil gives this individual power, gets somehow, gets taken out, comes back on the scene, and people are like, whoa, nobody messing with this guy. This is it. We need to worship this guy. Verse five, and there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue 40 in two months. And you know, that's what you see with him, and he starts speaking blasphemies against, not just Mordecai, but against the people, which in turn does blaspheme God. He wants to eradicate all of God's people from the entire world, from the entire kingdom. Verse six, and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. Verse seven, and it was given unto him to make war with the saints. You see that? War with the saints. That is exactly what you are going to see Haman do and begin to carry out here in chapter number three. And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. Now, obviously, in our story, Haman is gonna get taken out because of his own pride and God is going to save the people. But during the tribulation, by and large, the devil's gonna put a lot of us down, okay? And it's just, it sounds bad, but look, in the end, we win. So no need for any kind of concern or fear there. Verse eight, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Verse nine, if any man have an ear, let him hear. So obviously, the beast is going to want worship. We know that the false prophet is going to point to him. And there's a lot that goes into that. But you kind of see this story in Esther chapter three as a precursor to that. You see that Haman wants this worship. And this one guy who won't bow the knee, it just bothers him so much that he's like, I have got to get rid of this guy. And then he finds out there's more. There's a whole people group that are of Mordecai, and he's like, I want to take them all out. So he kind of is an Antichrist to a certain degree here. So let's get moving through the rest of the chapter here. Verse three, then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, why transgress thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. Okay, so now, guess what? The gloves are off. You know, there's a saying, it was from G.I. Joe back in the 80s, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And that's kind of what you see here. Now it's not the way we like to have it. We like to see people that are tough like going now all the time. But there will be, I believe, even during the tribulation, people that get fed up, like, hey, okay, checkmate, you got me. And I believe you're gonna see a rise in people just like, all right, hey, people have been talking about this forever. I'm on board now. And you probably see in the beginning there, people getting saved, and people actually wanting to now all of a sudden do something. And we're gonna be like, we've been here this whole time, man. Like trying to warn people, knocking doors. You know, now it's illegal. Now you want to do it, you're crazy. But we're gonna do whatever we got to do, so. Okay, so he finally comes out with it. Okay, now the gloves are off. No more, you know, hiding who he is. No more of this, you know, supporting the kingdom stuff. He's had enough. Okay, he understands who Haman is. Verse five, and when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. Who knows somebody like that? You know, just, ooh, you know, the military is full of people like this. Ooh, you're not gonna stand up for it, Russ, when you talk to me, boy? It's over, oh, you didn't salute me? Get over here. You know, just people love that. You know, the military is full of Hamans. I'm talking full to the brim with these types of people. And you just want to smash them and you can't. That's the thing that sucks, okay? And then it produces people like me, and yeah. Yeah, the rest is history. Look at verse six. And he thought, scorned, to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So he's like, all right, I'll just take this dude out here by himself, hit a little hand-to-hand combat. I'm just gonna grab him, I'm just gonna choke him out. That's my interpretation. That's the Pastor Jones version there. Look at the rest of the verse. For they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. Now, this is where your Zionists, they go crazy. Like, this is a precursor to Hitler and kind of, I don't know, but you know, it's like, they try to remove Jew from believer, you know? These are our people, all of us who are saved. These are our people, okay? These Jews have nothing to do with these clowns and their curly fries over and Israel banging their heads up against a rock wall saying that that's Saul's house, okay? These are God's people of this time, okay? These are our people, these are our family. These are the saints that we're gonna meet someday, not those idiots over there in the Middle East. But a sermon for another day. Verse seven. In the first month, that is the month Nisan, okay, the car manufacturer, this is, see, there's nothing new under the sun. Nisans are in the Bible. I get it's pronounced different, I just had to throw that out there. Now, look at this here, okay? We're actually gonna come back to the last part of this verse in chapter nine, so I'm not gonna bother that, but I just want you to see how much time here has passed since Esther became queen. It's easy to overlook this when you just read them through on one shot, okay? But look at this here. In the first month, that is the month Nisan, in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, the Casper, that is the lot before Haman from day to day and from month to month, to the 12th month, that is the month Adar, okay? We're gonna really deal with that in chapter number nine, but if you remember in chapter two last week in verse 16, it says that Esther became queen in the seventh year of Ahasuerus' reign. We know history tells us that he reigned for about 19 years, 20 years. That's probably pretty accurate. Now we see that he's in his 12th year. So you've gotten five years have gone by since Esther has become queen, and it's important for us to hang on to that for the following weeks, okay? So five years has passed by. Haman's still here just hanging on the palace. Now he's got problems. Now he's got a Haman that's entered into his life and wants to kill him. Verse eight, Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people and all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all the people. Neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. You know, it'd be nice here if Ahasuerus had a little bit of wisdom. It's like, well, what laws, just all of them? Because it seems to me like Mordecai's kind of keeping himself wise. He's still in the gate. He hasn't bothered anybody. He hasn't gotten arrested. He hasn't gotten locked up or anything like that. But Haman's like, hey, these people, they don't follow nothing. What's he upset about? He's mad because they won't bow the knee to Haman. That's his whole point here. They won't respect me and who I am. They don't understand I'm the man. I've got divine blood, okay? So verse eight, one more, or I'm sorry, verse nine. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries. Hey guys, be careful when someone's pitching something to you and it kind of sounds good and they're talking fast, and then they throw a little bit of money into there, okay? Be careful with that because they're trying to manipulate you. I had an individual a couple years ago, a few years ago now, call me on a Friday. I was one of those Fridays, I'm working late, it's like seven o'clock, and I have to pull over to the side of the room. It's really important. This guy, okay, wants me to pray for his grandmother's death so he can get his inheritance, okay? And I wish I could have recorded the conversation, but I was so blown away that this was happening, and I was just like, what? He's just like, okay, well, she lived a great life and I just need prayer because I'm about to lose my job and nobody at work likes me and all the conspiracies are coming after me, man, they're coming after me because of our church and this, that, and I'm gonna give a really big generous offering to the church, of course, you know I will, right? And I'm just like, oh man, I did not sign up for this. I signed up to preach three sermons a week and bounce, okay? And now I'm having to deal with stuff like this, and of course I'm being a little bit facetious there, okay? But the story is true, that literally happened to me, okay? I'm telling you, people will often do that to you. They will try to pitch something and if they're worried about it, they might mix in a little treat for you, a little bit of money or something. Don't let them do it, okay? That's exactly what Haman is doing here. Look at verse 10. And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy, okay? So of course the king's like, I got my girls, okay? I've got all these people. I'm trying to stop the Grecian empire from coming over here, okay, just do whatever you wanna get rid of these people. I don't even care. Again, keep in mind, he's got no idea that his queen is a Jew. Verse 11, the king said unto Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. So he's like, yeah, good plan. Let's go ahead and go forth. Verse 12, then there were king's scribes called on the 13th day of the first month and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province and to the rulers of every province, according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written and sealed with king's ring, okay? So this concept here where you see the king giving Haman this ring, he's basically saying, you kinda got like a power of attorney here. You have my blessing to go ahead and carry this out. You can go ahead and get everybody involved and strategically make things happen. You've got my blessing, okay? Thanks for the sales pitch. I'm sold, carry it out. You're the man, go do it. In a nutshell, that's basically what's going on here. Just three more verses here. Look at verse 13. And the letters were sent by posts. Oh, but they were too dumb to have mail back then and post communication. I had a college professor tell me that, okay? He's like, they didn't have a way to deliver letters back then. It was just by town to town. They had to get on a mule or a donkey and go ride to the next town. That was about it, okay? Well, somehow they managed to get this law through 127 provinces, okay? So again, of course, people hate God will use anything they can to discredit the Bible. Verse 13, and the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish all Jews, both young and old, little children and women. And one day, even upon the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a pray, okay? You know what that is? That is the hallmark of an Amalekite, okay? That is what the Amalekites do. They want the women and children to die. They want everyone to die. They only care about themselves. And that's what you're seeing coming out here in Haman. If Saul had done a thorough job, a complete job, like God told him to do, we wouldn't be in this situation here. But God's got a plan and he's gonna be able to deliver. Now, why this is so significant is because the way this empire operated, okay? When they signed something into law, they didn't change. Okay, they did not back down. Once they made a decree, once they made an edict and said, this is law, there was a saying, the Medes and the Persians change not. Like, they're not gonna be like, okay, let's vote this out. There has to be another way to overcome that law, okay? It's kind of like Daniel in the lion's den. Go back on your own time and read Daniel. You'll see that come up a few times in that time period. Now, look at verse 14. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people that they should be ready against that day, okay? So this edict goes out and it gets translated obviously into other languages, which also proves what? Hey, that you can get your point across from one language to another, okay? I'm telling you right now, you're gonna see this, that nothing got lost in translation here, okay? The message was clear. There's coming a day where we're all gonna rise up and we're gonna get rid of all these Jews, all these God worshipers, and we're gonna get them out. Just like the end times, there will be a decree that goes out from a man who the Bible calls a beast who gets his authority and his power from the dragon. And people are worshiping this dragon and they're like, yes, this is a great idea. Let's kill all the Christians. Let's get them all off the earth and then we'll have true peace. Those fundies, boy, they sure are a problem. They don't stop posting their stuff on YouTube and Rumble and BitChute and all this stuff and it's really so in division in our nations, okay? And we can't have that going on. Come on, guys, we need to get rid of these people, okay? Look at verse 15. There's a little bit of a difference between here and the end times. Look at this. The post went out being hastened by the king's commandment and the decree was given in Shushan, the palace, and the king and Haman sat down to drink. Of course, of course you did, okay? Sit down, hey, let's toast one up here, okay? We got this ball rolling here, but look what it says next. But the city Shushan was perplexed, okay? So they're like, wait a second here. We know Jews, we know some of God's people. Why are we just gonna have to rise up and kill these people? Okay, that's the difference between this story and the end times. The end times, okay, people are gonna be like, yeah, let's just wax everybody, okay? We're worshiping the beast, we're gonna take his mark. They're gonna be calling the hotline, you know, oh, the haters are out, you know? 1-800-HATER, you know, 1-800-CALL-A-HATER, whatever. Call Gavin Newsom's hotline and, you know, turn people, turn your neighbors. It's just like COVID, right? If you see somebody not wearing a mask, call this number and report your neighbor, right? It's not that we're telling, it's not that we're tattling. You're not a snitch, you're trying to save lives, okay? It'll be the same thing. Hey, you're not snitching, you're not complicit in murder. We're just trying to save peace, love, and harmony. We're just trying to save some lives here. That's all we're doing. Call 1-800-SATAN and let the beast know that your neighbor's reading a King James Bible and hates fags, okay? So let's just stop right there, bow our heads, and have a word of prayer. Thank you again, Lord, for this church and for all that you do for us. Just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service and, of course, bring us back again safely this evening. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.