Under the Armpits

With a title like that, how can you not click the link? :) 

It wasn't until my kids were out of the crib and into their twin beds that I heard how dangerous drop-side cribs were. We had a drop-side crib; it had been given to us when our first child came along, and we kept it through all three children.

Per the name, a drop-side crib is where one side of the crib releases and slides down to be nearly level with the mattress -- sort of like a vertical sliding minivan door. It was super handy for picking up a squalling hungry baby, but it was also dangerous enough that manufacturers stopped making them. Apparently toddlers could release the mechanism and seriously hurt themselves as the side dropped without adult assistance.

Turns out, though, that our drop-side mechanism got permanently stuck, so we never used it. And my kids, when they got big enough, would cry out to be released from their crib. I'd hear them get up from their nap and soon afterward, their insistent wail would thread through the monitor, the wail that said: I want out!

When I'd open the bedroom door, the wail would stop abruptly and a grin would break out over the face that was barely visible above the top rail. Arms would go up high above the toddler's head, palms would spread wide. Pick me up! Get me out of here!

I'd go over and slide my hands around their little tiny rib cages and pull them out. Did you know there's a handy-dandy little niche that's perfect for lifting said child? It only works when their arms are up. The niche is called the armpit. When you slide your hands just below their armpits, their appendanges come down and hook in with certainty and security, and you've got insta-leverage to lift your child to freedom.

Why am I talking about armpits when we're supposed to be in Esther? I shall explain. :)

Esther 3 introduces us to Resident Villain #1 within the house of King Xerxes (although I did bring him us in yesterday's blog post). His name is Haman. He is the son of a man named Hammedatha, who, significantly for my point, is an Agagite.

What in the world is an Agagite?

An Agagite very likely refers to "a descendant of Agag." 

Well, who is Agag?

Let's look back at 1 Samuel 15. To summarize what happens in it, Saul, king of Israel (of the tribe of Benjamin -- remember that), goes out, per the Lord's command, to fight the Amalekites. The Lord gives instructions through his prophet Samuel for this particular battle. Samuel tells Saul: "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt (we'll get to that in a second). Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" (1 Samuel 15:2-3). 

Have you ever had thistles crop up in your yard? It's so frustrating, because when I first discovered one near the road on our property years ago, I just mowed over it. I figured it would eventually go away (which shows how much I knew about the nature of weeds, right?). Anyway, it didn't. It cropped the top, sure. I couldn't see it anymore, but what it also did was spray its seeds through my lawnmower alllll over my grass. Ever since then, even years later, we fight the battle of the thistles. Every time we see a thistle, we have to stop the mower, grab our spade, and root it out completely -- to keep it from spreading even more.

War isn't pretty. And annihilation is awful. But God commanded a complete rooting out of this thistle in the side of His chosen people. The Amalekites were determined to completely destroy Israel. God says: No, and He commands Saul, through Samuel, to completely destroy the nation of Amalek.

So what does Saul do? "Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur to the east of Egypt. He took Agag (remember him?), king of the Amalekites, alive, and all the people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs -- everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak, they totally destroyed" (1 Samuel 15:7-9). 

In other words, Saul only cropped the top of this thistle-nation. And God wasn't happy about it. "Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 'I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from Me and has not carried out My instructions" (1 Samuel 15:11).

But to understand what happens in Esther 3, we've got to go back even further to the reason the Lord told Saul to wipe out Agag's people. Check out Exodus 17:8: "The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim." This is the battle Samuel reminded Saul of when he told him to go wipe out Agag and the Amalekites.

So Joshua, who is Moses' military commander "fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. "When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up -- one on one side, one on the other -- so that his hands remained steady till sunset" (Exodus 17:10-12).

Hands up. Pick me up! Get me out of here! 

"So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword" (Exodus 17:13).

Okay, now let's go to Esther 3 to set the scene: "After these events (the assassination plot that Mordecai foiled that I wrote about yesterday), King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor" (Esther 3:1-2).

So immediately, in this chapter, we have two nations juxtaposed against each other: The Amalekite ancestry, descendant of Agag, and the Jewish ancestry, descendant of Benjamin, and boy, are there some weighty pickles to fry here.

"Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, 'Why do you disobey the king's command?' Day after day they spoke to him, but he refused to comply. Therefore, they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes" (Esther 3:3-6).

You can almost hear the bell for the round to start, right? Jews over here, Amalekites over there. And the audience is pitting them against each other and egging them on.

These guys despised each other. Mordecai, likely for the reasons of Haman's ancestry, and Haman, the same, with the additional factor that Mordecai won't bow to him. And Haman, to his discredit, isn't content with only taking vengeance on the guy who is standing up to him, he decides that anyone connected to Mordecai has to die as well.

Mordecai's refusal to bow doesn't likely stem from adherence to the second commandment, because throughout Old Testament history, there are multiple mentions of Jewish people, faithful to God, bowing or prostrating to others as a sign of respect (1 Samuel 24:8, for instance). They don't worship the ones to whom they bow, but it was a cultural way of showing submission or reverence.

But Mordecai's refusal to show Haman this same reverence got his goat. He hated him!

So Haman huddles with his buddies (likely the astrologers and wise men who advise him in his position of favor with the king), and they come to a consensus: total and absolute destruction of the Jews. But they need to have a time frame. What day will they do this on? They cast lots. The lot falls on the twelfth month, the month of Adar, which is approximately eleven months away from the huddle.

Haman's got a little time. So he goes to King Xerxes, the Jewish queen's husband (oh, the irony), and says: "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different (it's true, their customs were different; they worshiped the one true God) from those of all other people, and who do not obey the king's laws (it's not true; Jeremiah 29:7 says: "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."); it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them..." (Esther 3:8-9)

And Haman stood in high enough favor with King Xerxes... that "the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. The king said to Haman, '...Do with the people as you please'" (Esther 3:10-11).

And so the royal secretaries were summoned. "They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples... Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order 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" (Esther 3:12-13). 

Notice the similarity to the Lord's orders to Saul (which Saul disobeyed). Haman, the Agagite, the Amalekite, wanted to wipe out his own thistle. Eradicate it. Leave nothing left. Problem was... he picked the Lord's chosen people... to eradicate. Big mistake. Because God had planted a certain person in a certain position of power... for such a time as this.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When this order went out, the entire Persian empire understood -- with crystal clear clarity -- that somebody in power hated the Jews. And all the satraps and governors and nobles -- when they got word that someone in position of power hated the Jews -- had to start considering their own loyalties very carefully. Because if the power was against the Jews, and if they wanted to keep their own positions of power, then they'd better be against the Jews, too.

Esther 3:15 says: "Spurred on by the king's command, the couriers went out, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered." Like... what did the Jews ever do to you, Xerxes, that you've issued such a decree? 

And the puppet master named Haman smiles behind the king he's making dance, and raises his glass in a toast. 

But Mordecai... "When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out in to the city, wailing loudly and bitterly" (Esther 4:1).

It all comes crashing down on Mordecai, who realizes who truly is the puppet-master, and he sees exactly what will happen to his people the Jews... without the Lord's help. Sackcloth and ashes are a sign of bitterest mourning, deepest despair, the deepest, blackest pit into which one can crawl to cry out for help... and that's right where Mordecai goes, into that pit.

Psalm 40 hit me between the eyes this morning as I read this: "I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord" (Psalm 40:1-3).

The thing about God is that He doesn't just save... lukewarm-ly. Or half-heartedly. Or uncaringly. When He saves, He saves spectacularly. He sees Moses with his arms worn out from reaching up to the skies, and He saved with flair! Joshua cut down the entire Amalekite army that day, as long as Moses' arms were lifted high.

God hears the cries of His people, He reaches down into the crib, hooks His almighty hands beneath the armpits, and He lifts with all the ease in the world. He pulls us out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire in which we find ourselves embroiled -- through our own decisions, sometimes, other times, because of our circumstances.

But He always opens the door when we cry out. Pick me up! Get me out of here! 

Arms up! He's got you under your armpits.