When NOT being a Jew was dangerous

Each year has its defining moment, which makes it different from the others. We will always remember 2020 as the year COVID-19 struck, 2001 as the year the Twin Towers were attacked and 1969 as the year man landed on the moon. But who would have thought that 2024 would be the year when we discovered just how dangerous it was to be a Jew?

Since that fated day of October 7, when Jews were massacred in their own homeland, one would think that such a brutal and savage attack would be the cause of world sympathy, support and condemnation for an act that defies sanity and was completely devoid of all humanity. Yet, ironically, the opposite has happened. While some have called it out for what it is, a shocking number of people have turned around the victimhood to use it as a justification for the act itself. It’s the old adage that a woman wearing a miniskirt deserved the rape. 

But in the year 2024, visibly looking Jewish has become a definite liability and one which can result in physical injury or even being surrounded by an angry and threatening pro-Palestinian mob. Just a few days ago, “two Orthodox Jewish men were pelted by objects thrown from a car in the Upper West Side of New York, making it the third incident of its type in that neighborhood over the weekend.”

This, of course, is not an isolated incident, relegated to the heavily Jewish-populated area of New York. It has been known to happen in other American states, throughout Europe and also in Australia. Those are the depths to which we have sunk – where an entire ethnicity is being attacked just for being part of the particular tribe to which they belong. If you’re scratching your head wondering why that is, a quick look at the book of Esther can provide the answer to this bewildering mystery.

Since today is the Jewish holiday of Purim, it’s traditional to read Megillat Esther (the book of Esther), and for those less unfamiliar with the story, the antagonist is evil Haman, who had been appointed the principal minister to the king, Ahasuerus. Haman, after requiring that all the king’s servants bow down to him, became greatly angered when Mordechai, a member of the king’s court, in the capacity of advisor, refused to do so. 

Of course, we know that since he was a Jew, he followed the law which strictly forbade Jews to bow down to anyone except God. It was that act of defiance that led Haman to address the king, describing the Jews as “an odd set of people scattered through the provinces who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else. Worse, they disregard the king’s laws. They’re an affront; the king shouldn’t put up with them.” (Esther 3:8 MSG)

And there you have it – the best and most accurate description ever of what a chosen people should look like – a people not to be reckoned with the nations, categorized as “an odd set of people.” It is still that same libelous assertion that is being used today as a justification to look upon Jews with disdain and loathing. They don’t fit in, they look different, and their customs and ways are different from others. They, therefore, don’t deserve to live, let alone have their own country!

We know that once Haman began to plan their demise, God intervened in the course of events by supernaturally bringing the plot to the attention of the king who, by this time, had fallen deeply in love with his new Queen, Esther who just happened to be Mordechai’s niece. During a sleepless night when the king became restless and summoned the daily records of journals to peruse, chapter 6 of the book of Esther reveals the heroic story of how Mordechai had saved the king from an assassination attempt, something which was unbeknownst to the king but which now got him thinking how he could best honor the loyalty he had displayed. It is in that very moment that there is a reversal of fortunes, because, in very short order, Haman ends up on the receiving end of what he had wished for Mordechai as well as every Jew in the kingdom.

In fact, the story really takes an unexpected twist in chapter 8. Commanding that an order be posted in every public place, authorizing the Jews to avenge themselves on their enemies, it is recorded that “many non-Jews became Jews, emphasizing that in those days, it was actually dangerous NOT to be a Jew!”

What an incredible turn of events! Suddenly, the hated became the beloved. The odd people were now viewed as the ones most desirable to emulate. If that’s not the intervening hand of God, what is? Chapter 9 says that all this happened on the same day that the enemies of the Jews had planned to overpower them, but that, instead, the Jews overpowered those who hated them! What an amazing victory – assuring us that only a divine act could have been responsible for such an incredulous outcome.

But can that still happen today?

In the midst of all that is happening in our Jewish homeland, we are watching as more and more politicians, nations and individuals are engulfed in that same intense hatred that had been ignited as Haman (representing evil) sought to rid the world of a different type of people who were not created to “go along to get along.” Theirs was a unique and singular role, which was meant to direct the lost to a loving God who also had a good plan for them. It is through those same people, with whom God has endowed with wisdom, knowledge and every type of gift, meant to bless all mankind, that the promise was made to Abraham, “that through his offspring, the world would be blessed.” (Genesis 22:18)

The Jewish nation has, indeed, on a practical level, fulfilled, that promise, utilizing innovation, technology, medical advances and even daily mundane navigational know-how to better everyone’s life. On a spiritual level, we have yet to fulfill the source of godliness that we were intended to be as the Jewish prophet Isaiah wrote, “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3) But that, too, is coming, and it’s still the enemy’s plan to extinguish that part of the promise before it has a chance to reach its realization. 

Here’s the takeaway from the story of Purim. God hasn’t stopped intervening in the history of the Jewish people. After having spared us, following 2,000 years of dispersion throughout the nations, and then being established in our own homeland, He’s not about to abandon us now!

For those who are planning and plotting our demise, along with the evil Hamas, whose name eerily bears the same first letter as Haman, just a word of warning. Be prepared for whatever you’re devising to fall on you, because that is a guarantee when you mess with God’s odd people!