ON THE VANGUARD

ROLL THE DICE
“In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.”
Esther 3:7

The main parts of the story of Esther that people are familiar with normally include Esther’s beauty which led to her becoming queen, her going before her husband the king without his calling for her, and the events in the end where the Jews were saved and Haman was hung. I will admit, for the most part that was the extent of what I knew. But as I was looking forward to celebrating the holiday of Purim with my children, I found myself brushing up on the story. It was in this brushing up that a portion I had read over many times jumped off the page. It was in my brushing up that I saw the words, “They cast the pur in the presence of Haman to select a day and month.”
I plan to share more on the story of Esther tomorrow, but quickly I want to set a stage for you concerning this piece of the puzzle. Haman was an Agagite and descended from the Amalekites. It was these people that Moses spoke of when he declared, “The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation (Ex 17:15-16).” The Amalekites from that point on became the antithesis of the Jewish people. As the Jewish people lived lives of holiness in order to honor God, so the people of Amalek lived lives of sin and did not honor God. This same opposite continued throughout history and became a characteristic owned by Haman toward the Jews.
So then, this enemy of the Jewish people cast the pur, otherwise known as a lot. This rolling of the dice was used to determine the date that Haman should move forward to carry out his plan to execute the Jews. Hitler, who also opposed the Jews, used this same method of casting lots in an early version of his ‘Final Solution’. In Hebrew, every name has a numeric value, and when added up, the pur cast by Haman equaled the value for King Agag, his ancestor. With confidence to now move forward, Haman went before the king requesting the extermination of the Jews. Once his request was granted, “…dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the orders to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews – young and old, women and little children – on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods (Est 3:13).”
Yet, our story does not there. The top view of the lots added up to King Agag, but the bottom view of the lots added up to the value of King David, from whose line the Messiah came. You see, things are not always as they seem. Sometimes what we see on the surface looks bleak. But underneath, where so many times we fail to look, God is at work and preparing an answer opposite of what we see right away. As we will learn tomorrow, the enemy was overcome, ultimately destroyed by his own noose. Victory came for the Jews, and it will come for you. Maybe the pur that has been cast over your life shows a bleak and disastrous outcome on the surface. Do not fear, my friend. Although the top may show King Agag, and the enemy has confidently begun his march on you, know that the bottom shows King David, your salvation from the enemy’s hand.