Esther 5

I(In which an evil man gathers enough rope to hang himself) n recent years, the news media have had a heyday reporting the questionable (and usually illegal) behavior of well known people, including professional athletes, politicians, preachers, presidents of financial institutions, and even royalty. From “Watergate” to “Iran Gate” to “Pearly Gate,” the investigative reporters have been kept busy digging up news to satisfy the public’s insatiable appetite for scandal.

If all this journalistic activity accomplished nothing else, it certainly underscored the significance of the biblical warning, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32: nkjv). People may succeed for a time in covering up disgraceful activities, but eventually the truth surfaces, and everybody knows what’s going on. And the culprit discovers that the wrong we do to others, we do to ourselves.

The words of Psalm 7:14–16 make me think of Haman: “He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment. He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head” (niv).

There is a law of retribution in this world declaring that the person who maliciously seeks to destroy others ends up destroying himself. The French existentialist Albert Camus wrote in his novel The Fall: “There’s no need to hang about waiting for the last judgment—it takes place every day.” Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all. Friedrich von Logau

Haman didn’t realize it, but four forces had already begun to work together to destroy him.

Esther was concerned whether the king would acknowledge her presence and grant her an audience. If he didn’t, it could mean her immediate execution; and she knew how unpredictable were his moods. The Jews had been fasting and praying for three days, asking God to intervene and save them from annihilation, and now Esther had to act.

What Esther did ranks among the great deeds of faith in Scripture and could have been recorded in Hebrews 11. It wasn’t enough for the Jews to pray and have faith that God would work. Somebody had to act, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). But Esther wasn’t operating on the basis of “blind faith.” She knew that God had covenanted with the Jews to deal with their enemies (Gen. 12:1–3). She also knew that the God of Israel was a forgiving God who would hear His people when they humbled themselves and prayed (2 Chron. 7:14). Furthermore, God had allowed a remnant of Jews to return to their land and rebuild the temple. Surely it wasn’t God’s will that they perish and their work stop. Unlike Esther, when we come to the throne of grace, we don’t have to wonder what our Father thinks about us, because He always loves His people and welcomes them into His presence. One of the greatest needs in the church today is for intercessors who will pray faithfully for a lost world and for a church that desperately needs revival. “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor” (Isa. 59:16). When the needs are so great and the privilege of prayer is so wonderful, well might the Lord wonder that His people neglect the throne of grace. As John Newton wrote: Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For His grace and power are such None can ever ask too much.

Let’s note that Esther prepared herself to meet the king. (You’ll recall that Ruth prepared herself to meet Boaz. See chap. 3.) If you knew you were going to meet the president of the United States at the White House, or royalty at Buckingham Palace, you would prepare for the meeting. Like Peter sinking into the sea, there are times when we have to rush into God’s presence and cry out for help. But the power of those “emergency prayers” depends on our day-by-day fellowship with God, and that fellowship demands preparation. Preparing to pray is as important as the praying itself.

The king officially recognized his queen and invited her to share her petition. “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand” (Prov. 19:21). “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will” (Prov. 21:1; see Ezra 6:22). The sovereign God was in control.

Why didn’t Esther immediately inform the king about Haman’s evil plot? For at least four reasons. For one thing, it wasn’t the right time. The king was unprepared to receive the shocking news that his number one officer was a scoundrel. In the midst of kingdom business, Ahasuerus might have considered her accusation an act of treason if not just a piece of palace gossip.

But neither was it the right place for her to intercede. There were no doubt retainers serving the king in the throne room, and it would have been a breach of palace etiquette for the queen to make her plea publicly. The sight of a weeping, pleading woman before the throne might have annoyed the king and made matters worse. Better she should speak to the king in the privacy of her own apartment than in the throne room.

The third reason was that Esther wanted Haman, and only Haman, present when she told the king about his prime minister’s evil plot. With womanly intuition, Esther was confident that Haman, caught off guard, would in some way admit his guilt and do something foolish that would anger the king. It turned out that she was right on both counts.

But there was a fourth reason—one that Esther herself was unaware of at that time. One more event had to intervene before she could share her burden with the king, and it would take place that very night. The king would discover that he had never rewarded Mordecai for saving his life five years before, and he would rectify that mistake immediately. He would honor Mordecai, but at the same time humiliate Haman, and this experience would help prepare the king to hear Esther’s petition.

Esther’s banquet was already prepared. Thus, Haman and the king had to hurry to attend. In answer to prayer, God so worked in the king’s heart that he not only cooperated willingly with his queen but he also made Haman cooperate. Such is the wonder of the providence of God.

False confidence (5:6–9a) What an honor for Haman to attend a special banquet with the king and queen alone and in the queen’s private apartment at that! It’s unlikely that any official in the empire had ever been so honored. As Haman ate and drank with Ahasuerus and Esther, his confidence grew. He was indeed an important man in the kingdom, and his future was secure.

When the king asked Esther to state her petition, it gave the prime minister even more confidence, for here were the king and queen discussing a personal matter in his presence! Haman was not only the king’s confidant, but now he was sharing in the intimate concerns of the queen as well. Since the queen had invited him to the banquet, she must certainly value his counsel.

At the banquet, we see three more evidences of the sovereignty of God. First, the Lord restrained Esther from telling Ahasuerus the truth about Haman. While there may have been fear in her heart, I don’t think that’s what held her back. The Lord was working in her life and directing what she said, even though she wasn’t aware of it. God was delaying the great exposure until after the king had honored Mordecai.

We also see the sovereign hand of God at work in the way the king accepted the delay and agreed to come to the second banquet. Monarchs like Ahasuerus aren’t accustomed to being told to wait. “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue” (Prov. 16: niv). “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (19: niv). Whatever plans Ahasuerus had made for the next evening were canceled to make time for the queen’s second feast.

A third evidence of God’s sovereignty is that none of Esther’s attendants who knew that she was a Jewess tried to convey this important information to Haman. Had Haman known the queen’s nationality, he would have immediately devised some plan to prevent her from interfering. Palace intrigue is a dangerous game, and any of the attendants could have profited by telling Haman what they knew.

The fact that Esther invited Haman to the second banquet only increased this evil man’s confidence (Est. 5:12), and that’s exactly the response the queen wanted. As long as her enemy was overconfident, she knew it would lead to a fall. “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe” (Prov. 28: niv). Like the rich fool in our Lord’s parable (Luke 12:16–21), Haman was confident that he was set for life, when in reality he was just a few hours away from death.

Two other men come to mind whose false confidence led to their death: King Belshazzar and Judas Iscariot. King Belshazzar held a great feast during which he blasphemed the God of Israel, and by sending handwriting on the wall, God announced his doom. That very night Babylon was conquered and Belshazzar was slain (Dan. 5).

Judas, an apostle of the Lord, was not a true believer (John 6:70–71) but a traitor and a thief (12:6). In the Upper Room, he sat in the place of honor at the table, and none of the other disciples knew what was in his heart. But Jesus knew what Judas was and what Judas would do, and He hid this knowledge from the disciples. In fact, Jesus even washed Judas’ feet! Confident that he had everything under control, Judas betrayed Jesus to the enemy and ended up committing suicide (Matt. 27:1–10).

The only safe place to put your confidence is in the Lord.

When Haman left the queen’s palace, he was walking on air, but the sight of Mordecai immediately brought him down to earth again. On previous occasions, Mordecai had refused to bow down to Haman (3:4–5), but now the courageous Jew even refused to stand up and acknowledge the presence of the illustrious prime minister. I once attended a press briefing at the White House, and when President Reagan entered the room, we all stood to our feet. When a presiding judge enters a courtroom, everyone rises and remains standing until the judge is seated. Whether we like the president or the judge personally is not the issue. We all show respect to the offices that they hold.

Haman was “filled with rage against Mordecai” (5: niv). His hatred of the Jews in general and Mordecai in particular had so poisoned his system that he couldn’t even enjoy talking about his greatness! “But all this gives me no satisfaction,” he admitted, “as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate” (v. 13 niv).

Malice is that deep-seated hatred that brings delight if our enemy suffers and pain if our enemy succeeds. Malice can never forgive; it must always take revenge. Malice has a good memory for hurts and a bad memory for kindnesses. In 1 Corinthians 5:8, Paul compared malice to yeast, because, like yeast, malice begins very small but gradually grows and finally permeates the whole of life. Malice in the Christian’s heart grieves the Holy Spirit and must be put out of our lives (Eph. 4:30–32; Col. 3:8).

The insidious thing about malice is that it has to act; eventually it must express itself. But when you shoot at your enemy, beware! For the ammunition usually ricochets off the target and comes back to wound the shooter! If a person wants to self-destruct, the fastest way to do it is to be like Haman and cultivate a malicious spirit.

Haman had infected his wife and friends with his sinful hatred of the Jews, and they suggested that he ask the king for permission to hang Mordecai. A man with Haman’s authority could always trump up some charge, and the king wasn’t about to take time to investigate. Of course, this was before Ahasuerus discovered that Mordecai had saved his life! Now we can better understand Esther’s delay in offering her petition to the king. After the events in chapter 6, it would be impossible for Haman to get permission to execute Mordecai.

Not one to waste time, Haman ordered that the gallows be made. We’re not sure whether the gallows itself was seventy-five feet high or whether it was put in a prominent place that lifted it to that height, such as the city wall or the roof of a building. But Haman’s plan was obvious: He wanted to use Mordecai’s execution to frighten the Jews and convince them that the king meant business when he approved the edict. The execution of a prominent Jew such as Mordecai would paralyze the wills of the Jewish people in the empire, and Haman would have them at his mercy.

There’s another thing about this gallows that we’re not sure of: Was it like the Western gallows, a device for hanging a person by the neck until dead? Or was it a stake on which a human body was impaled? The Persians were known for their cruel punishments, one of which was impaling live prisoners on sharp posts and leaving them there to suffer an agonizing death.

Whatever this gallows was, it turned out to be the instrument of Haman’s own execution. God was standing in the shadows, keeping watch over His own.

“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths. His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray” (Prov. 5:21–23 nkjv).

The famous actor John Barrymore said, “One of my chief regrets during my years in the theater is that I couldn’t sit in the audience and watch me.”

It was with that kind of an attitude that Haman left the palace and returned home with a joyful heart. Fresh from an intimate dinner with the king and queen, and anticipating a second banquet the next evening, Haman launched himself on an ego trip that disgusts me each time I read it. Note the number of masculine personal pronouns here: his friends, his wife, his riches, his sons. (He had ten; 9:7–10.) The king had promoted him above everybody else. I’m reminded of that rich farmer in Luke 12:16–21 whose favorite word was I.

Didn’t Haman know that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16: nkjv)? Or that “a man’s pride will bring him low” (29: nkjv)? Anybody who boasts about position, wealth, family, or anything else ought to heed the words of John the Baptist: “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27). “For who makes you differ from another?” asked Paul. “And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” (1 Cor. 4: nkjv)

Many theologians are of the conviction that pride is the very essence of sin. (Perhaps that’s why pride is number one on God’s “hate list.” See Prov. 6:16–19.) It was pride that turned Lucifer into Satan: “I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14: nkjv). Satan used pride to tempt Eve: “You will be like God” (Gen. 3: niv). British Bible scholar William Barclay wrote, “Pride is the ground in which all the other sins grow, and the parent from which all the other sins come.”

What does a sinful person have to be proud of? We certainly can’t be proud of our ancestry. The Puritan preacher William Jenkyn said, “Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, and our great-grandfather-nothing.” So much for the family tree! The only thing the Bible says is great about humanity is its sin: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Gen. 6:5). So much for our achievements!

Someone has said that pride is the only known disease that makes everybody sick except the person who has it. Unless cured, pride is a sickness unto death.