Divine Appointments: Going to the Gallows

Transcript

JROT 32
05/19/2024
Divine Appointments (Part 5): Going to the Gallows
Esther 5:1-14
Jesse Randolph

Well, we are back in our study of the Book of Esther this evening. And as I mentioned last Sunday night we will be taking a summer long hiatus from Esther after tonight so that we can get on with our “Summer in the Systematics” series in Christology until the end of August actually.

But, regarding Esther, as we finish up at least this leg of the journey, you’ll recall how in chapter 4 of the book, which we explored last week, this involved chapter 4, this back-and-forth dialogue between Mordecai, a Jew living in Susa, and his cousin, Esther. And throughout this exchange between them in Esther 4, which was carried on through the means of this intermediary, a eunuch named Hathach, Mordecai was informing Esther of the reality and this awful decree that had been lobbied for by a man named Haman and then it was signed into law by King Xerxes. And through this decree the entire Jewish population within the Persian Empire, which really was the entirety of the then-known world, was going to be slaughtered. And Mordecai was urging Esther in chapter 4, to do something about it, namely, to wield her power and her position before Xerxes, her husband and her king, so that he would eventually put a stop to this wicked law before it was actually carried out.

And as we saw last time, Esther made clear to Mordecai that it wasn’t going to be so easy to gain an audition and gain time with Xerxes, not only because she had apparently fallen out of favor with Xerxes, the king, but because the law of the kingdom stated that if she were to go into his presence, the king’s presence unannounced and without permission, Xerxes had the right and could summarily order her execution.

Well, Mordecai acknowledged that Esther was between this rock and this hard place that if she went into the king’s chambers unannounced she might die. But if she didn’t do anything, the Jews as a people, including her, would surely die. And so he nudged her and implored her anyway, at the end of Esther 4, 4:13 actually, where he said this to Esther. These are Mordecai’s words to Esther through Hathach in Esther 4:13. He says “Do not imagine that you in the king’s house can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not reached royalty for such a time as this?” To which Esther replied, in verse 16. “Go,” this is her back to Mordecai, “gather all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women also will fast in the same way.” And then came these words from Esther, in verse 16, famous words, where she said, “And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.” And then Mordecai, we saw in verse 17, end of chapter 4 there, followed Esther’s instructions, meaning the fast was called for three days and three nights where the Jews of the land had to abstain from both from food and from drink.

And that’s where we ended last Sunday night, really hanging off this cliff, holding our breath, with this tension building. Now, as we turn to chapter 5, we begin to see the resolution of this tension that was built into the end of chapter 4. And let’s go ahead and dive into it taking it verse by verse, starting in verse 1, chapter 5, it says “Now it happened on the third day, that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s house in front of the king’s rooms, and the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room, opposite the entrance to his house.” Now I don’t know if you caught it, if you were here this morning, but our text in Luke today started with almost identical language, a ‘now it happened’ statement. In Luke 1 it was, “Now it happened,” this was Luke 1:8, “Now it happened” that Zechariah the priest was chosen by a lot to offer incense inside the holy place of the temple. Now as we start our study of Esther tonight in Esther 5 here in verse 1, the narrator starts with essentially the same formulation, “Now it happened.” Now of course, as we saw in our study in Luke this morning and as we’ve seen over and over in our study of Esther on Sunday evenings, whether an account is written in Greek or Hebrew or English, whether an account appears in the Old Testament or the New Testament, whether it’s addressed to Jews or Gentiles, nothing just happens to happen. Nothing just happens to happen in a world that is governed and ruled over by an infinitely-wise and sovereign God. It doesn’t work that way.

Well, here in verse 1 of our text, the tension that’s been building up in Esther 4 begins to resolve, starting with these words, “Now it happened,” I’m in Esther 5:1, “Now it happened on the third day.” Now, I never get very far without making a comment on these texts that we work through and this is one I definitely need to comment on. Because this is one of those sections of Old Testament Scripture where those who read the Bible backwards through the lens of the New Testament, the see-if-you-can-find-Jesus-on-every-page crowd will say, “Aha! Esther plainly is a type of Christ. This story is all about redemption, you can clearly find the gospel in Esther. And just as in the Gospel accounts, where the story really turned, and where redemption was accomplished when Jesus rose on the third day, so too, did redemption occur here in the book of Esther, because it was on the third day that she goes boldly and makes this proclamation to the king.“ The words “on the third day,” in other words, seals the deal for some.

Well, hold on, because the context clearly here in Esther 5 on the heels of what’s happened in Esther 4, is that of fasting. There was a three-day fast called back in Esther 4, and here in Esther 5 what’s being communicated is that “on the third day” of that fast, Esther went in to see the king. In other words, her words, “if I perish, I perish,” wasn’t just some form of sanctified, tough talk. No, Esther was prepared to have her actions back her words as she readied herself to go in to see the king, that’s the context. Let’s not try to jam Jesus in where He’s not and in doing so take away from God’s original purpose in recording the words that were recorded here.

Well, back to our text. Recall that this was a truly perilous situation that Esther found herself in.
If she went in to see the king unannounced she ran the risk of being immediately executed. In fact, there are recent archaeological finds in ancient Persia related to ancient Persia, which show a king seated on a throne holding his scepter just as Xerxes is portrayed here. And he’s flanked by different soldiers, one of whom at least is holding an ax who stood ready to execute any uninvited guests. In other words, this was no game that Esther was playing, instead this was a matter of life and death.

Nevertheless, Esther boldly and resolutely goes about her task. Look at the next part of verse 1, after giving us the time reference, it happened “on the third day,” meaning on the third day of Esther’s proclaimed fast, we’re told “that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s house in front of the king’s rooms.” Now, putting all of these circumstances together, this had to have been a frightening prospect for Esther, this young Jewish girl. Physically speaking she’s been fasting for three days, so, no doubt she’s already in a weakened physical state. Relationally speaking she’s in this point of tension between she and her husband. Remember she hadn’t been summoned by her husband Xerxes for the last thirty days, and in the midst of that tension of not having been summoned by her husband, she also knew that she would soon have to reveal to her husband, the king, that she had been deceiving him about her Jewish identity for the length of their marriage. And then historically speaking Xerxes had typically not responded well when he had a wife like Vashti, Esther’s predecessor, who disregarded his laws and disregarded his decrees. We remember what happened to Vashti.

So anyway this is a highly intimidating environment for a young girl like Esther to walk into. And in fact, the human author here of the book of Esther is driving home just how intimidating this atmosphere would have been, by piling on these references in verse 1 (I’m not sure if you noticed them there) to kingship and royalty; there are multiple references here in verse 1 to kings and royalty. The author here is portraying just how thick the royal air was and the magnitude of the royal authority that Esther was soon going to be up against were she to go into the king’s presence.

Well, in light of what she was facing, Esther took great care to prepare herself to go into the king. We’re told here in verse 1 that she “put on her royal robes.” Surely those must have been beautiful, already enhancing her natural beauty. And then by doing so by putting on these royal robes, Esther was actually indicating that though she and Xerxes had had this form of falling out, and though she was his subject, she wasn’t just any subject. She was still the queen, she was royalty herself, she was the queen of Persia, Queen Esther.

And with that we’ll see Esther start to make her fateful walk into the inner court of the king. What might happen from it all she didn’t know, what the king’s reaction might be she didn’t know. She didn’t know whether the king would be in a generous mood or an irritable mood. She didn’t know whether she would make a good impression upon him or not. She didn’t know whether she would find favor with him or not.

And the next part of verse 1 tells us how far physically she went, it says she “stood in the inner court of the king’s house in front of the king’s rooms.” As you can imagine the king’s compound there in Susa was made up of multiple buildings, multiple houses with multiple rooms. And where the king lived and where he functioned was in the innermost part of this royal compound where he would be shielded from enemies and attacks and complaints and commoners, he was shielded from it all. And what verse 1 is telling us is that Esther made her way into this protected area “in the inner court of the king’s house in front of the king’s rooms.”

And note the juxtaposition here. Look what the king is doing here in verse 1, he is doing what kings did during this time, he was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room, so he’s positioned prominently in his power chair. And as the king is sitting there, what is Esther doing? She’s standing. The text tells us that she stood in the inner court of the king’s house. We can’t overlook that word “stood,” it’s key. See, Esther here wasn’t bowing down to the king, she wasn’t laying prostrate before the king. No, she stood and this was an act of rebellion, this was an act of defiance. Esther here was breaking the law by standing in the king’s court in his presence, having not been summoned by him ahead of time.

Now this would have not gone unnoticed by Xerxes, by the way, because the end of verse 1 tells us that, as Esther approached him and stood before him. It says, he was seated “opposite the entrance to his house,” meaning he was facing the entrance, so there was no way he could not have not seen Esther coming in and approaching him. And there’s was no way he could have avoided seeing Esther breaking the law by being in his presence without having been first summoned. So at this point now all eyes in the royal court are on Esther. And everybody there knows that King Xerxes is this volatile man as we’ve seen already and that this whole scene could really go either way.

Well, as we turn to verse 2 we see that the king graciously received Esther. It says, “Now it happened that when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she advanced in favor in his eyes; and the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther came near and reached out and touched the top of the scepter.” Now you start there with those same words, “Now it happened.” See, those first words of verse 2 are the same few words as are back in verse 1, “Now it happened.” “Now it happened” here again doesn’t’ point to blind fate or dumb luck or mere happenstance. But instead what the author is doing here in typical Hebraic storytelling style is indicating temporally what happened next. In other words, he’s simply keeping the flow of the story going. And he picks up the next development by saying here, “Now it happened that when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she advanced in favor in his eyes.” This is one of those clear examples in the book of Esther of the God, who is otherwise unnamed, intervening directly in a scene and in a situation. Indeed, this whole scene embodies the truth of Proverbs 21:1, that “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; and He turns it wherever He wishes,” [NASB].

So back in Esther 4:11, just up the page a little bit, Esther had reported to Mordecai through Hathach that she had fallen out of favor with the king. Remember that? She had fallen out of favor with the king. She said, Esther 4:11, I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.” But here now in verse 2 of chapter 5, we’re told that Esther, who’s now, by the way, is referred to as Esther the queen, she’s advanced in favor in the king’s eyes. Meaning the God, who isn’t named, had turned Xerxes’ heart so that he now viewed Queen Esther, his wife, his queen, favorably.

And the king’s perception we see of Esther led to action. Look at the next part of verse 2, it says, “and the king extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand.” Again, back to Esther 4:11 up the page, we saw last time that there was this law that mandated that whoever came into the king’s court without previously being summoned, that they “be put to death,” it says, “unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live.” Well, here that exception clause triggered by the word “unless” had kicked in as the king lowered his golden scepter. This was a visible sign of his favor, this was a gesture of his recognition and his welcome.

Moving on in here in verse 2, Esther recognized the significance of the king’s gesture. And so we see here at the end of verse 2, it says “Esther came near and reached out and touched the top of the scepter.” Meaning, the situation was now defused and the immediate threat of death to Esther was no longer there. And while, at this point we might be inclined to breathe a corporate sigh of relief, if we were to do so, we would actually be breathing too soon. Because though the threat to Esther’s life directly was no longer there, there still loomed this far greater danger and threat to the entire Jewish population based on Xerxes’ edict, which had not been revoked, to destroy and annihilate the entire Jewish population. That edict, that decree, was still hanging over the heads of all Jews in the kingdom, including Esther’s.

But as of this moment, Esther 5:2, as the king lowers his scepter Xerxes was in the dark about all of this. He’s ignorant of all the various moving chess pieces that are in play here. Sure, he knew that he had passed this law but at this point he didn’t know that that very law would impact his wife. In fact, he had no idea in this scene, at this point in this scene, why she had even come to him. He really had no way of putting two and two fully together. But that’s not to say that his mental gears were not grinding as he was trying to figure out what might be happening here. In fact, we see his gears grinding in verse 3, it says, “Then the king said to her, ‘What is troubling you, Queen Esther? And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be given to you.’” So with that first question, what is troubling you Queen Esther, Xerxes actually is demonstrating a measure of discernment. He understands that if Esther was willing to come to him under these circumstances, unannounced, without receiving permission, on the pain of potentially of death, there must have been something important that she needed to discuss, perhaps even an emergency. So he asks her. “What is troubling you, Queen Esther?” Now that’s no idle expression by the way, that’s him seeing that she’s greatly distressed, wanting to be able to help her. And then recognizing that Esther would not have risked her life to come see him unless there was some measure or some degree of great importance that she needed his help with, he asks a second question which is also recorded here in verse 3. He asked her, “And what is your request?”

And then note right after that second question he says, “Even to half of the kingdom it shall be given to you.” Now people ask, and go around and around about this, and they’ll ask this over and over, was this a serious promise by Xerxes? Is this a promise that was to be taken literally, did he mean it literally, and was it to be interpreted literally in the context? Was he really going to give her half his kingdom? The answer is, no. As rash as Xerxes was in making foolish decisions, and receiving a bunch of unwise counsel, kings just don’t just offer half their kingdoms to their subjects. This rather was hyperbole, this was intentional exaggeration. And what Xerxes was communicating to Esther with those words was that he was predisposed to being gracious and generous toward her. As was true of Herod Antipas hundreds of years later, in Mark 6, when he made a similar offer to the beautiful daughter of Herodias. Xerxes here was intentionally exaggerating for the sake of effect. He was attempting to communicate to Esther that whatever her request was of him she needed to share with him because he was inclined to listen to her and to grant her request. And what he gave her ultimately here was a point of entry, an open door to speak up on behalf of her people.

And in verse 4 she did, sort of. Look what’s recorded in verse 4, and perhaps better stated, look at what’s not recorded in verse 4. Because what’s not recorded in verse 4 has perplexed students of Esther for centuries now. The king, in verse 3 swings this door wide open to Esther to ask him for anything, up to half the kingdom. So naturally you’re assuming that what she’ll do next is make known her request, and make known her request specifically to have Haman dealt with before he wipes out her people, the Jews. But that’s not what she does. She takes a much more indirect approach. Look at verse 4, it says “And Esther said, ‘If it seems good to the king, may the king and Haman come this day to the feast that I have prepared for him.’ ” Huh? This was Esther’s chance to uncover Haman’s evil plot to have him exposed, to start the process of reversing his wicked decree. And Esther’s response is to invite Xerxes to a feast? That’s what’s recorded here.

But why? Why didn’t Esther immediately inform Xerxes in that moment with that question hanging about Haman’s evil plot? Now there have been countless theories offered throughout the centuries as to why Esther here didn’t take a more direct approach. Some have said that she was being sensitive to Xerxes and sensitive to his fragile ego. And she was protecting Xerxes against the shock and the embarrassment he would have faced in hearing for the first time of Haman’s wicked plot. Some have said that she was merely being fearful here. To speak up and reveal her Jewish identity, she was just worried about the potential backlash from her husband that she had been deceiving all those years. Some have said that if Esther were to share this news right now about Haman, it would be considered an act of treason against the empire and she’d be immediately put to death. Some have said that for Esther to speak up, with others present, including males, would have been a breach of palace etiquette. And that weeping, pleading women, even queens, were not allowed to make such public displays of emotion. Some have said that Esther was thinking really practically here in terms of her knowledge and awareness of Persian law, and she knew what she was asking for was the reversal of an irreversible law and it just wasn’t going to happen. The king’s signet ring had already been stamped down on that decree and it was done.

Those are each interesting theories. But a better answer, I believe and one that is borne out through the reading of the book of Esther as a whole is that Esther here is being strategic and shrewd. She wanted Haman, and only Haman, to be present in that room when she told King Xerxes about Haman’s plot. She wasn’t here losing her nerve; she instead was keeping her cool and biding her time. She indeed was setting up this perfect scenario whereby Haman, being caught off guard, would be forced one day to admit his guilt before the king. In other words, Esther here was inviting Haman to his own downfall and she was preparing him, unbeknownst to him, to go to the gallows. Now, Haman here might have been asking, Haman here should have been asking himself, why the queen had risked her life to go into the king’s palace unannounced, just to invite her own husband to a feast, to ask her own husband to dinner, and also to attach him Haman to this request. Haman, if he was thinking clearly, should have seen that something was up here and that something didn’t quite add up. But instead Haman, as we are going to see over and over in the next few verses, his ego was so inflated by having received this private dinner invite that those thoughts never even crossed his mind.

Now, before we move on from it, this will be a fun one for the Bible scholars in the room. There’s an interesting detail about verse 4 that I think it’s worth mentioning. If you were to read Esther 5:4 in the Hebrew Bible you would see that the initial letters for each word in this verse in the Hebrew spell out the first 4 letters, the only 4 letters of the divine name, ‘Yahweh,’ Y - H - W - H in acrostic form. And what some people have said and what they take that to mean is that, it was the author’s intent in writing out this account to insert the otherwise missing name of God in the book of Esther, albeit in coded form, right here in Esther 5:4. Now, while it’s true that in the Hebrew text of Esther the letters Y-H-W-H do make up the first Hebrew letters of each Hebrew word in this verse, I don’t think it’s necessary to get into the practice of cryptic code breaking to find God in this text. Rather, the course of events that we are seeing throughout recorded in the book of Esther all ten chapters of it, are themselves the best evidence of God’s fingerprints being all over this book. Whether Yahweh’s name is embedded in the text as a Hebrew acrostic changes nothing about the fact that God is so clearly and evidently at work in this book.

As we turn to verse 5, we see that God was working in Xerxes’ heart, not just to find favor with Esther as he did back in verse 2, but to cooperate willingly with her request to attend her feast and to bring Haman along. Look at verse 5, it says, “Then the king said, ‘Bring Haman quickly that we may do the word of Esther.’ So the king and Haman came to the feast which Esther had prepared.” So right away here we see that the king accepts Esther’s invitation to the feast. It's an immediate “yes” on the RSVP for Xerxes. But then he also said, “Bring Haman quickly,” let’s eat, let’s go!

And then look at the next words. And note the irony here. After summoning Haman to join him at the feast Xerxes gives the reason for doing so. Do you see it there? He says bring Haman quickly that we may do the word of Esther.” Hmmm. Earlier in this book, in fact, if we go over to Esther 3:15, you’ll see that there were instances where people were naturally acting in accordance with the “word of the king.” Esther 3:15 speaks of those who were charged with spreading word about Haman’s wicked decree throughout the Persian Empire acting in accordance with “the word of the king.” But now, here in Esther 5:5 it’s the word of the Queen Esther which was to be followed.

And then note this and recall this, recall the command that Xerxes had given to his male subjects, the husbands of Persia. Back in Esther 1:22, the command was “that every man should be the ruler in his own house.” Well, apparently that was every man except Xerxes, because now he’s recorded in this passage, Esther 5:5, as tripping all over himself to “do the word of Esther,” his wife. Well, apparently recognizing neither the irony nor the inconsistency of what was happening, both Xerxes and Haman “did the word of Esther.” Look at the rest of verse 5, it says, “So the king and Haman came to the feast which Esther had prepared.”

Now, put yourself in Haman’s shoes for just a moment. What an honor this must have been to be invited to attend this special banquet with just the king and the queen alone in the queen’s separate residence. Haman was in this distinguished and honored and privileged position. I want you to hang onto that thought, we’ll get more of that later as we work through the remaining verses.

But as we get to verse 6 and moving on all the way through verse 8 we’re going to be told now what happened at this banquet. Starting at verse 6, they accept the invite, they’re at the banquet now, verse 6 says, “Then, as they drank their wine at the feast, the king said to Esther, ‘What is your petition? For it shall be given to you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.’ Sounds familiar. Now, in our English Bibles here where it says that “they drank their wine at the feast,” the Hebrew expression there is that they were drinking “at the banquet of wine. ” See, at Persian feasts there was this separate course offered most likely at the end of the meal for the express purpose of drinking wine. So here the setting is the wine is being drunk, it’s flowing, it’s being imbibed. And side note, the last time we saw a bunch of wine drinking happening in the book of Esther all sorts of trouble ensued as drunken Xerxes sent his first wife, Vashti, away. Here, though, the events take a different turn as Xerxes again, as he did back in verse 3, asks Esther essentially here in verse 6 what can he do for her.

He's full of wine, he’s feeling magnanimous. He’s burning with curiosity as to why Esther had extended him and Haman this invite. And then he asks her these two questions in verse 6, you see them there, “What is your petition,” “And what is your request”? Again, Xerxes is revealing here that he did at least have a few perceptive bones in his body. He apparently was able to recognize that Esther had a purpose in inviting him to this feast and that she must have needed something from him. So, with the wine flowing and being in this very generous mood, he not only asks questions but after he asked these two questions he immediately gives assurances to Esther that he would provide. Note the first question, “What is your petition,” middle of verse 6, and what comes right after that, it says, “For it shall be given to you.” And then the second question, “And what is your request,” and then right after that a statement, “Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” Which again, is an idiomatic expression by which Xerxes is communicating to Esther here that she had his support. That he was there to help her out, she just needed to make her request.

So again you would think now Xerxes is given her two green lights to say whatever was on her heart and to ask Xerxes for what she actually wanted. But Esther didn’t ask the question. No, she was more shrewd and more cunning than that. Look at verses 7-8 and look how craftily she proceeds. She almost tells all, verse 7 says, “So Esther answered and said, ‘My petition and my request is: if I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it seems good to the king to give heed to my petition and to do my request, may the king and Haman come to the feast which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do according to the word of the king.’ ” Now whether you have an LSB or an NASB, is there a colon, do you see a colon at the end of verse 7 in your Bibles? Verse numbers were not added for some 1500 years after the Book of Esther was written. But this is actually a very good place for a verse break because the significance of what is happening here is that, in verse 7, Esther almost reveals her heart’s request, which was to send wicked Haman to the gallows. She says, “My petition and my request is,” and she almost spills the beans and lets out the whole truth. But she stops herself and restrained herself and changes course. So with the king and wicked Haman leaning in expectantly to see what Esther really wanted and what she had really called them to this feast for, Esther now drags the cat-and-mouse game out even further.

Looking at verse 8, this is when she dodges and doesn’t really ask what she wants to ask. Look at verse 8, she starts with the meek approach here by saying, “if I have found favor in the eyes of the king.” She here is making it seem as though the king was in full control of his fate when by now we already know who, humanly speaking, is in control. It’s Esther. And then come these words from Esther in verse 8, she says, “and if it seems good to the king to give heed to my petition and to do my request, may the king and Haman come to the feast which I will prepare for them.” In other words, she’s saying, “I’m having another party tomorrow and you should come. In fact, you should bring Haman again. And I’ll tell you everything then.” The suspense is building as Esther, this young Jewish girl, now has the most powerful king in the world and his evil lackey, Haman, essentially eating out of the palm of her hand. She is totally in control here.

Now back to Haman. Of course, he is completely oblivious to all that’s happening here. As he eats and drinks with Xerxes and Esther he is totally off guard. And now having been invited back for this second feast the following day his sense of pride and self-importance is only growing. By now surely he’s viewing himself as more and more important in the kingdom of Persia. He is aware that his star is rising and that his future is secure.

Now, the question that’s often asked at this point, by scholars and Bible students and pastors is, why a second feast? Out with it, Esther. Esther again, already has Xerxes and more specifically Haman, right where she wants them. She already has the king’s ear, she already has the king’s favor. He’s asked her multiple times now what she wants and he’s even offered her multiple times now to grant her request. So what’s going on here? Why didn’t Esther capitalize on this moment, spill her guts, point the finger at Haman while she had the opportunity? Was she losing her nerve, was she getting cold feet?

Again, I don’t think it’s either of those; I think, instead, this is another example of Esther’s being shrewd. And the shrewdness of the way that she was operating is highlighted by the very language she uses in verse 8, where she says -- note what she says -- she says, “if I have found favor in the eyes of the king,” and then look at this part, “and if it seems good to the king to give heed to my petition and to do my request.” Did you catch that? It’s subtle. With the way that she framed her invitation to Xerxes, Esther was already tying her attendance at this second feast to his giving his advance agreement to actually give her what she would eventually ask for. By attending, he would be agreeing to grant her her petition. And by attending, he would be doing her request. In other words, simply by showing up, the way she phrased her statement, her response here, simply by showing up the king would be implicitly committing himself to granting whatever request Esther would eventually make to him. She was carefully maneuvering the king into this position where he would be obligated to do whatever she asked whether he knew it or not.

And of course, Esther not only wanted Xerxes there at this second feast, she wanted Haman there, too. Verse 8, it says, “may the king and Haman come to the feast which I will prepare for them.” You know Haman, of course, was the ultimate mastermind behind the planned slaughter of the Jewish people and so Esther wants him there for this ultimate confrontation and showdown. And she wanted to force the king’s hand with Haman there to make a decision about Haman which would seal his fate. There would be no chance for King Xerxes to go talk to another foolish counselor. He would have to decide then and there when they had this second feast. She wanted Haman to go to the gallows as he rightfully should and didn’t want there to be any wiggle room beyond that. Again, she’s being thoughtful here, she’s being careful, she’s being tactical.

And then, note these words at the end of verse 8, she says, “and tomorrow I will do according to the word of the king.” In other words, somehow here, even in inviting Xerxes and Haman to her feast and seemingly having total control over the situation and them, Esther here manages to imply that by the two men attending her feast, her banquet, she would be following the orders that had been given. And namely, she’d be following the orders of Xerxes by telling him ultimately what she wanted from him.

As we turn to verse 9 we come upon a real turning point in the narrative. Verse 9 says, “Then Haman went out that day,” meaning he went out from the first feast. And note what’s recorded next, it says he was “glad and merry of heart.” So here was Haman, this second-in-command figure in the kingdom, this power player under King Xerxes. He had bent Xerxes’ ear to pass this law which would result in the eradication of the Jews. He had even celebrated, we saw back in Esther 2, the passage of this law by having some drinks with Xerxes out on the back porch. And now he’s not only been invited to one but to two feasts hosted by Queen Esther, feasts which were to be attended exclusively by the king and the queen and him. And so feeling flattered and realizing he’s this up-and-comer, he’s sailing and he’s riding high. And on top of that, having enjoyed some wine at Esther’s place, it says he’s “glad and merry of heart,” he’s tipsy, his cheeks are flushed, his speech is slurred, his head is spinning, he’s drunk.

And look what happens next, in verse 9 it says, “Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate.”
And then what comes next is what really stands out. It says, speaking of Mordecai, he “did not stand up or tremble before him.” Now, immediately before this Haman had been walking on air as he left dinner with Xerxes and Esther as one commentator put it, he’d been under “the intoxicating effects of prestige.” But this sight of Mordecai and Mordecai’s refusal to stand up and Mordecai’s refusal to tremble before him immediately brought Haman back down to earth. Back in chapter 3 you remember Mordecai had refused to bow down to Haman. In fact, it was Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to Haman which precipitated Haman in going to Xerxes to get the law, the edict, that would mandate the slaughter of the Jews. Now though we see that Mordecai’s taking matters a step further. See, as it is today, it was a common practice in these times, in Esther’s time, to stand, to rise, when a person of honor walked in. It was a way to show respect for them and the office that they held.

Well, Mordecai was having none of that with Haman. Previously he had refused to bow down to Haman, now he refuses to rise up for Haman. And he’s not even trembling or stirring when Haman walks in the room. Basically he can’t even be bothered to acknowledge Haman’s presence. And now, as Haman staggers on by after the banquet, super proud of himself and also intoxicated, Mordecai stays put. It’s an utter sign of disrespect.

And Mordecai’s refusal had an effect on Haman. Look at the end of verse 9, which says that “Haman was filled with wrath against Mordecai.” Haman couldn’t handle the slight. Haman’s whole world revolved around his fragile ego. And so Mordecai’s refusal to show him honor and respect popped his delicate little bubble of self-importance. It turned his joy into wrath, wrath toward Mordecai, a man who dared to interfere with Haman’s idol of self and prestige and rank and honor. And unable to let Mordecai’s slight roll off his back, Haman here could only think of revenge; an egocentric megalomaniac, he could only think in terms of retaliation and destruction.

Now, at first Haman didn’t reveal the tempest that was brewing under his tunic, the fire that was raging under his collar. No, quite the opposite. Look what verse 10 says, it says, “But Haman controlled himself.” Now one might think, wow, that’s great, good for you Haman. Haman’s growing, he’s learning, he’s seeing the wickedness and the pride in his heart and he’s putting those sins to death. What we actually see happening though is the opposite. Though it seems from those first few words of verse 10 that perhaps Haman learned a lesson in restraint and self-control, the context of this passage doesn’t bear that out.

Rather, what happened as we read on in verse 10 is that Haman went home to self-soothe and in doing so he gathered a bunch of ‘yes-types’ around him, namely his wife and his friends, to bolster his confidence and to make him feel better about himself. Look at the rest of verse 10, it says, he “went to his house, and sent for and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh.” In other words, Haman wasn’t about to let Mordecai’s defiance ruin his party. Instead, he was going to keep trying to spin this as positively as he could. He was going to gather a crowd and rally an audience to make himself feel better, though he was secretly seething.

And now with already-supportive family and friends around him, verse 11 says, that “Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches and the number of his sons and every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.” So once back into the comforts of his own home, Haman went about the task of boosting his own bruised ego. And he did so, first, by reminding them of how rich he was, it says that “Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches.” And next, he recounted for them of how reproductive he was “and the number of his sons.” And then, Haman reminded them of how relationally privileged he was and he reminded them of “every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.” Now, remember his audience here were his friends and his wife. Do you really think they didn’t know that he was wealthy? Do you really think that they hadn’t seen and witnessed his meteoric rise through the government in Persia? Do you think they were unaware, especially his wife, that he had all these sons?

Haman’s boasting continues, verse 12, it says “Haman also said, ‘Even Esther the queen let no one but me come with the king to the feast which she had prepared; and tomorrow also I am called to come to her with the king.’ ” So the self-awarded accolades keep piling up. As Haman couldn’t help but gush over the fact that he was the only one, he was Esther’s only distinguished guest, not only that day but the next day for round two. As the human author of Esther writes of the disgusting pride that Haman struggled with and grappled with and that swallowed him up, it’s as though the author of Esther is screaming at us, the audience, remember the words of Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction.” It’s as though the author here is screaming Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s lofty pride will bring him low.”

Reading on in verse 13, Haman would next reveal and admit that, notwithstanding all of his boasting, all those things he was boasting in and boasting of were fleeting, look at verse 13. These are the words of Haman to his friends and to his wife, he says “Yet all of this is worth nothing to me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” So as far as Haman was concerned none of what he’d acquired, none of the accolades, none of the invitations to feast number one with the king and the queen, or feast number two with the king and the queen, were worth anything so long as Mordecai continued to refuse to give him the honor and the respect that he believed he was due. What Haman was doing here, whether he was conscious of it or not, was taking the veil away from his heart idol, revealing his heart idol. It was now obvious from his own words, not to mention his actions throughout this book, that public displays of honor and prestige and self-glory were Haman’s idol. When that idol was being fed through things like invites to feasts and words of acceptance and acclaim, he was happy, euphoric even. But when that idol was starved and taken away from him, Haman experienced these competing feelings of anger and emptiness.

Well, in verse 14, we’re told that Haman’s wife and his friends were these great enablers of his idolatry. Rather than telling him simply to ‘cut it out,’ Haman’s godless, pagan family and friends proposed a solution to make Haman feel better and their solution was to have Mordecai murdered. Verse 14 says, “Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, ‘Have a gallows fifty cubits high made and in the morning say to the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it; then go gladly with the king to the feast.’ And the word was good to Haman, so he had the gallows made.” So the Book of Esther is filled with examples, we’ve seen many already, of unwise counsel given to people in positions of power. We saw that in the early chapters of Esther when Xerxes was given various forms of really poor counsel.

Now, it’s Haman’s turn. The first bit of counsel they gave Haman is to have a gallows made fifty cubits high. Fifty cubits high would mean 75 feet tall. As I’ve mentioned before, the gallows here, I don’t believe, would have been like what we think of a wild, wild west American gallows, where there’d be a frame and a rope tied down beneath it. Instead, a gallows in these times, this would be a wooden stake, a 75 foot high wooden stake whose purpose was to impale and fully pierce through whoever was placed upon that stake, that pole. That was the typical means of Persian execution in these days. So the suggestion that was offered by Haman’s wife and his friends was that Mordecai be impaled on a 75 foot high pole above the tree line for everybody to see. Not only was Mordecai to be executed then, he was to be humiliated. And that would serve as a lesson to anyone who would in the future dare to disobey or challenge Haman.

Well, at that point, suggested the family, moving on in verse 14 (real nice family, by the way), after saying you should impale Mordecai at 75 feet up in the air, they say that way you can “go gladly with the king to the feast.” “We just impaled a guy on a pole, what’s for dinner, that’s the counsel. And then, at the end of verse 14, and really proving the type of stock he came from we see this about Haman, “And the word was good to Haman, so he had the gallows made.” Haman loved the idea of having Mordecai executed; he loved the idea of having Mordecai impaled and displayed publicly and humiliated for all to see. And so he conscripted some men as it says here to have the gallows made.

As far as Haman was concerned it was Mordecai who was going to the gallows. But as we’re going to see, as we continue this story in just a few short months in September, it was actually Haman who faced that fate. Now he didn’t know it yet but Haman was preparing his own doom as he was the one who would, in fact, be going to the gallows. Proverbs 5:21-22 was about to come to life for Haman in a very real and in a very terminal way. Proverbs 5:21-22 says, “For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yahweh, and He watches all his tracks. His own iniquities will capture him who is the wicked one.” That’s where we’ll end tonight, remembering that line from Proverbs 5:22, that “His own iniquities will capture him who is the wicked one.”

That’s a good reminder for anyone here tonight who has not put their faith in Jesus Christ.
If that describes you that you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, you either openly reject Him, you openly reject this whole silly thing called Christianity, or you come to church your whole life and are simply deceived.

Know that the Bible, God’s Word, if you are outside of Christ, if you have not believed upon His name and upon His death, burial, and resurrection, know that the Bible, God’s Word, describes you as wicked as it does here in Proverbs 5:22. Know that you are a sinner. As we all are. Know that you are a transgressor. Know that what you deserve and what you will get, as punishment for your sins, is an eternity spent in the bowels of hell. But also, know that God has provided a way and only one way for your sins to be forgiven, for your soul to be saved, and for you to be delivered from the wrath that is sure to come. And that way is Jesus Christ -- who is the way, who is the truth, and who is the life. In John 14:6 says, nobody comes to the Father but through Him. Not through Mary, not through Mohammed, not through good works, good deeds, not through Joesph Smith, or any other false system of religion. The way, the truth, and the life is Jesus Christ.

So if you haven’t already, before it’s too late, believe in Him. Trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross by dying for your sin. So that you might have your sin forgiven and have the hope of eternal life secured. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

Let’s pray. God, thank You, for a chance to be in Your Word again this evening. It is incredible to me every time I get to come up here, what a distinct privilege it is to stand up here and simply proclaim Your Word. And to know whatever book we’re in, no matter how old the book is, or seemingly dated the book is or how overlooked the book is in modern pulpits around the world, we know that it is profitable. We know that You will use it. We know that You will transform Your people through it. And we know You’d be glorified through the faithful handling and proclamation of Your Word. God, thank You for everybody here this evening, for coming back for a Sunday evening service in the rain. Thank You for the seniors again and their faithful legacy and witness through their high school years. I do pray for each one of them that they would go on in the years ahead whether it’s a gap year or college years or whatever you have for them, I do pray that Jesus Christ would be central in their life, in their future marriages, in their future parenting, their future careers. Whatever You have for them God, I pray that Christ would always be at the core of what they do and who they are. And may that be true of each of us as well. May we not lose or allow the luster of the gospel to lose it’s shine. God, may we continue to remember who You are and who we once were and what we now have become in light of what You have done through Christ. God, would You be greatly glorified and honored in our lives this week. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.