With Purim just past, and as we were studying from the book of Genesis this evening, it dawned on me that Haman is our (Jewish people’s) distant relative! How can that be?!, you may be saying.
Let’s trace it out; it won’t really take that long:
Gen 25:23 Esau and Jacob are fraternal twin brothers/two nations
in their mother Rebecca’s womb; and the older would serve the younger.
Dt 23:7a; 14:1-3
You (children of YHVH God) shall not abhor an Edomite (another name for a descendant of Esau), for he is your brother.
Gen 36:15-16
These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, were . . . Chief Amalek . . . in the land of Edom….
1Sam 15:8
[King Saul] also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
Esth 3:1
After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
So, Haman is a son of Agag, son of Amelek, son of Esau, the brother of Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham!
The verse in Dt 23:7 in the Law of Moses prepares us who believe, by the grace of God, in the Lord Yeshua as Messiah and Savior to seek God for an increase of faith perhaps to fulfill the New Covenant commandment to love one’s enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us, that we may be sons of our Father in Heaven…. (Mt 5:44-45a)
Passions and murderous grudges run deepest within families, especially when one feels cheated out of an inheritance or blessing, even if beforehand those same gifts were of little value to them. (Heb 12:14-17; Mt 10:34-36; Mic 7:5-7)
Our present suffering cannot compare to the glory to be revealed! Vengeance is the Lord’s!
Dt 25:17-19 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when YHVH your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which YHVH your God is giving you to possess an an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.