Following Queen Esther’s coronation and Mordecai’s saving of King Ahasuerus, in this episode we discover the unexpected promotion of Haman to the highest office in Persia, which brings about the command for all officials to bow and give him divine-level reverence. Mordecai, a faithful Jew and magistrate, refuses on religious grounds, enraging Haman, who learns he is Jewish and plots to annihilate Mordecai and every Jew throughout the provinces. Haman then bribes Ahasuerus to authorize an irrevocable decree to slaughter all Jews. Yet God’s unseen providence is already at work, foreshadowing Haman as a type of the future Antichrist, and the Jews’ deliverance, which is still celebrated to this day at the Feast of Purim.