AM I PREJUDICED?
Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, Haman 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 3:6
Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman. He would not give homage to someone serving the purposes of the kingdom of darkness. Haman could have killed Mordecai. That would have been enough of a crime but he also sought a way to get the most mileage out a single act of retaliation. Why kill just one Jew when thousands more could be annihilated!
Haman’s revenge could appear to be the retaliation of a wounded ego. It was much more than that. The enmity between Haman’s people, the Amalekites, and Mordecai’s people, the Jews, dated back to the time of the Exodus. The war between these two nations was so fierce that when God saw it, He declared that these two nations would always be at odds with one another. Haman’s hatred for Mordecai was fueled by a generational prejudice that was in his very blood.
Behind enmity of any kind, there’s always something bigger going on; something sinister in the spirit world that exacerbates seeds of discord. Satan loves division among people groups. He favors anything that God hates. God calls His children to unity; Satan calls his children to discord. God calls His children to love one another; Satan calls his children to kill and destroy. Whenever prejudice is not dealt with, it intensifies with each generation. Sin is never dormant. Left to itself, it will grow, giving Satan an opportunity to get even more mileage out of hatred.
Prejudice still exists. Blacks against whites. Arabs against Jews. The North against the South. Old money against new money. The rich against the poor. But God would want me to personalize this even further. We are often born into homes with family prejudices. I was. There were feelings of animosity against a certain relative who, sadly, couldn’t do anything right to lessen the feelings of hatred. There was a prejudice against a neighbor who had acted foolishly years back. Their name couldn’t even be mentioned without the re-telling of their story of shame. It’s possible for us to hear family stories around the dinner table and feel a dislike for someone without a personal reason of our own. It’s in the blood, just as it was for Haman.
God is a God of reconciliation. Whenever prejudice can stop with us, let’s make this our holy ambition. Seeds of righteousness will be passed on to our children. A war, local or even international, might just be prevented if generational biases were healed at the foot of the cross.
Show me if there is anyone I would hate to see You bless. Then, I ask You to show me Your love for them. I will repent and end the war. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Originally published Friday, 05 April 2019.
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