The dark spirit of antisemitism—or what may be called “the spirit of Haman,” named after the man in the book of Esther who plotted to exterminate the Jewish people in the days of King Artaxerxes—is on the move across the world today.

We Christians have a dangerous tendency to consider biblical narratives such as the story of Esther, Mordecai and Haman as myths or children’s stories. On the contrary, these stories are real and instructive to us today. The Bible declares, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

The fact is the ancient spirit of genocide yields only to the power of God, which can be released only by a people who, like Esther’s cousin Mordecai, pray and fast and even put themselves at personal risk, as Esther did.

Today I am convinced that we are destined to relive the book of Esther in this generation. Her older cousin, Mordecai, warned her about Haman’s plot against the Jewish exiles (see Esth. 3-4). Let’s take a deeper look at the call of God on Mordecai. What was his God-given task, his divine assignment?

More…