Serious efforts to exterminate Jews have happened more than
once, and the word of God assures us they will happen again. The book of Esther
is the story of a relatively early attempt.
The Medo-Persian empire was not Nazi Germany, and it is not
Armageddon, but there are still a few interesting things to be observed about
genocides, how such things can even come about at all, and what a persecuted (or
soon-to-be-persecuted) minority can learn from them about how best to conduct
itself in the face of overwhelming numerical opposition.