Esther 6:11-14 “People of Hope”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹And Haman took the clothing and the horse and he caused to clothe Mordecai and caused him to ride in the street of the city and he called to his face, “This will be done to the man which the king delights in honoring him.” ¹²And Mordecai returned to the gate of the king and Haman hastened himself to his house mourning and head being covered. ¹³And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to the all of his friends the all of which had happened to him, and his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If from the seed of the Jews Mordecai [is] whom you have begun to fall to his face, not you will be able to him because to fall you will fall to his face.” ¹⁴While ones speaking [intently] with him the eunuchs of the king arrived and they caused to hasten to go Haman to the banquet which Esther had made.

Before I leave these verses, I want to note something else. I’d like to observe the counsel one gets living in a world without God and coming from people without God. Just yesterday Zeresh and his friends flattered Haman’s pride and urged him to murder a man. Now, at this downturn in his life, they offer him no help or hope, but rather would drive him to despair. “You cannot stand against him,” they say. “You will surely come to ruin!”

Over the years, I have noticed that almost without exception, even when God has to pronounce judgment on someone, He invariably also offers hope. On the other hand, when the wicked counsel people in distress, they often only drive them further into despair. In deep remorse, Judas rushed back to the chief priests saying, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood,” and what was their response? “What is that to us? That’s your responsibility.” And what did he do? “He threw the money into the temple and went away and hanged himself.” Even those men (who were supposed to be religious leaders) gave him no help or hope but rather drove him to despair.

The Jewish people angered the Lord again and again and again from the time they left Egypt until finally He had no choice but to destroy them as a nation. For what amounted to about 800 years, He sent His prophets to warn them over and over. However, listen as the stroke of judgment finally has to fall: “Because you have not listened to My words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and My servant Nebuchadnezzar…and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants…I will completely destroy them…I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness…This whole country will become a desolate wasteland” (Jer. 25:8-11).

Sounds pretty bleak, yes? But then note what He adds, “And these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years…When the seventy years are completed…I will come to you and fulfill My gracious promise to bring you back to this place” (Jer. 25:11; 29:10). Even in one of the most horrible judgments in Bible history, the Lord still mingled it with hope. It seems to me, as my mind reviews the Scriptures, that God’s judgments are almost always accompanied by the invitation to repent and escape those judgments. Even the Curse itself came with the promise that the Seed of the woman would someday come and crush the head of the serpent.

But not so Haman’s friends. “You will surely come to ruin!”

What about you and me? Are we people of hope? Do we realize how important it is never to leave someone in despair? Do we choose our words carefully so that, even in dark hours, we give people hope? “Life and death are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). Eph. 4:29 tells us, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Here is another place where we must learn to speak for God. We must learn to consciously let the Spirit of God help us form our words as we would speak even casually to other people. If we do, we’ll be people of hope—not because we’re so clever, but because that’s the kind of God He is. Just think how often you’ve heard someone speaking and you were left with that overwhelming sense of “I could never do that.” That person might be talking about some great success of theirs, but somehow it only leaves you feeling all the more hopeless. On the other hand, we have all listened to someone else and found ourselves suddenly filled with hope. “I can do that,” we say to ourselves. “That really helps!” Which do you and I want to be? People who even unknowingly sow despair or those who infuse hope? Again, if we would be people of hope, I don’t think we’ll succeed because we’re so clever. We can succeed just because we’re consciously trying to speak for God, to let Him give us the words, to say to people what He would say were He the one standing here. Rest assured He will bless us and use us even if all we can do is try.

One minor thought I want to note is how Zeresh and the friends said, “Since Mordecai is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him!” Isn’t it interesting they know there is something different about Jewish people? For the most part, the world has always hated the Jewish people. Just like Haman, nations and peoples all down through history have persecuted and even sought to annihilate the Jewish people, from the pogroms of the medieval world to Adolf Hitler to the Arabs of today who would “drive them into the ocean.” And yet, there is that underlying seemingly universal knowledge that they possess a power greatly to be feared.

Pharaoh’s magicians warned him, “This is the finger of God!” (Ex.8:19). At the Crossing of the Red Sea, his soldiers cried out, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!” (14:25). Later, when the Philistines knew that the Ark of the Lord had entered the Israelite’s camp, they cried to each other, “God has come into their camp! We’re in trouble! Who will deliver us from the hand of this mighty God?  This is the God who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues!” (I Sam. 4:7-8). Only a hundred years before Esther’s time, the Babylonians had watched Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walk unscathed out of the fiery furnace, and no doubt everyone heard about Daniel’s miraculous deliverance from the lions’ den.

My point is that, in spite of people’s malignity toward the Jewish people, there is also a universal realization that they are different, that they are a people to be feared. While Zeresh and the friends saw Mordecai as nothing more than “one of those despised Jews,” they were more than happy to urge Haman to murder him, but the second they saw that old Jewish power arise, they knew Haman was in big trouble. “Since Mordecai is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him!”

It's worth pointing out here that this is precisely one of the consequences of life in this world without God. People deliberately pretend not to know there is a God. They pretend not to know there is Truth, that there is right and wrong and consequences to pay. Yet, time and again, they will run full speed right into the granite wall of reality. One way or another they’ll be forced to acknowledge the truth they’ve known all along. The fact is God is very real and very present. The strange power that resides amongst the Jewish people is still today one of those realities which people ignore to their peril. Who knows if Adolf Hitler could have succeeded in conquering the world, if only he hadn’t set himself against the Jewish people? The Arabs keep trying to overpower the nation of Israel but only end up with things like the 1967 war where that tiny nation utterly routed the armies of the entire Middle East. This strange power of the Jewish people is there to tell the world there is a Reality. Those who are wise will consider that carefully and respond accordingly!

There is a Reality. Haman ran headlong into it. Coming from his godless friends, that Reality was only a cause for despair. But hopefully, prayerfully, that Reality will come from you and me always seasoned with hope. He who is Reality is also Love. Let us then speak for Him and sow hope, not despair, in this world!

Esther 6:11-14 “Warned”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹And Haman took the clothing and the horse and he caused to clothe Mordecai and caused him to ride in the street of the city and he called to his face, “This will be done to the man which the king delights in honoring him.” ¹²And Mordecai returned to the gate of the king and Haman hastened himself to his house mourning and head being covered. ¹³And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to the all of his friends the all of which had happened to him, and his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If from the seed of the Jews Mordecai [is] whom you have begun to fall to his face, not you will be able to him because to fall you will fall to his face.” ¹⁴While ones speaking [intently] with him the eunuchs of the king arrived and they caused to hasten to go Haman to the banquet which Esther had made.

Oh, how the wicked do fall. Here we see in this singular incident the fractal of reality. In this world without God, it would seem that very, very bad people rise to the top and then reign in terror over everyone else. It would seem that us peons at the bottom are left to suffer helplessly at their hands. Especially as Christ-followers, we live all too aware that those “at the top” don’t like our beliefs and we’d better conform “or else.” As it says in Psalm 2:1-3, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us!”

The picture in those verses is that of a horse stamping defiantly, and so it appears to us, that the wicked are formidable and us essentially helpless before them. But notice what it goes on to say there in Psalm 2: “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh…” The God they pretend isn’t there suddenly thunders from heaven and right will be right and truth will be truth. He says to them, “I have installed My King on Zion, My holy hill,” then counsels them all, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way…!” (v.12).

The good news of reality is that God wins. The Hamans of this world are people who are ambitious, scheming, cold-hearted, arrogant, cruel, and bald-faced liars. They often appear to be very powerful and, in fact, do great damage, but for us seemingly helpless people who suffer at their hands, there is one thing we can be assured of: God knows the every breath of the wicked and can overrule them at any moment. As Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no power over Me, except it were granted to you from above” (John 19:11).

The good news in this world without God is that they’re wrong. There is a God and the real truth is that “the Most High rules,” and, because He rules, love and right and truth will win in the end. For you who have chosen to live for love and truth and right, you needn’t despair when you see the wicked triumphing. The Hamans may decree your ruin. The Hamans may build their gallows to hang you on. However, you have the privilege of faith – of believing in One who rules and will wisely intervene according to His perfect wisdom. We have Someone to trust!

As you and I would go to work (sometimes under very wicked bosses) and live our lives (under a very corrupt and wicked government), we can go on living for love and truth and right assured we live under the smile of Him who will win in the end. We need that.

Notice here in this passage the profound difference between wicked, proud Haman and faithful, humble Mordecai. Mordecai did what was right when he overheard the plot against the king. Then he continued to simply do his job though forgotten and unrewarded, unacknowledged for so many years. Then suddenly he gets propelled to great honor. Then what does he do? He returned to his job at the king’s gate. That’s it. See how steady he is. Because he can trust God, he can simply, humbly, consistently just be Mordecai, love and raise his adopted Esther, and go every day to do his job. Whether he is or isn’t rewarded and whether he is or is not recognized, he just keeps being Mordecai. That is precisely because he lives for something far higher than his own personal advantage. Faith and humility enable him to be a man of integrity through all the highs and lows of living life.

Then there is Haman. Proud and wicked and as they say, “Soon glad, soon sad, soon mad.” As unstable as water. It is notable that, in his arrogance, he thought he could use Xerxes to accomplish his own evil plot against Mordecai. However, that very Xerxes says, “Go, do it all for Mordecai,” and unknowingly humbles this wicked man, so swelled up with his own self-importance. The Great Haman is forced to parade his most bitter enemy through the streets in honor!

It is interested that some of the old writers suggest the reason why Haman would even suggest these honors – the king’s clothes and riding on his horse – was because he had his own sights set on the throne. I suspect they are right. When Haman thinks of himself as honored, what does he see? He sees himself in a king’s robe, riding on a king’s horse, with people bowing everywhere he goes. I would carry it all a bit further and surmise that, if he hadn’t been hung from the gallows, it would have been only a matter of time before he himself made a play for the throne. The pride of his heart would have deceived him until Xerxes became the despised Mordecai in his heart, the only obstacle between him and what he thought was the glory he deserved.

Then see Haman in the consequences of his pride. The king gives him what is in reality a simple assignment. “Lead a man around the city and honor him for me.” How big a deal is that? Any one of probably a thousand of Xerxes’ servants could have done it and walked away. In fact any decent person would actually be glad for Mordecai. What’s wrong with seeing someone else honored? Nothing, unless my heart wants that glory for itself. At worst, most people could have done it just because they were told to.

But what about Haman? He is totally devastated. It’s the end of his world, the utter ruin of his day. He has to rush home in deep disgrace to gather his wife and friends to cry on their shoulders. Mordecai goes back to his responsibilities. Haman leaves off minding the king’s business to run home and mind his own. We see that what Haman’s evil does is that it makes him a man who, when he is honored, he swells up like a toad, then the slightest affront pops his big, pompous bubble and leaves him devastated. And through it all, we can see that he’s minding not the king’s business but his own.

Once again, if we would profit from this story, let us be reminded, “You’re the man.” Pride will do in my heart and life exactly what it did in Haman’s. Whenever I am honored, I need to stay very close to the Lord, not put too much stake in those honors, be thankful for them, but then let them be a motivation to return to my duties and just be faithful. When I find myself galled by something someone says to me or about me, when I find myself angry over how I’ve been treated, I need to recognize the real problem is my wounded pride. I need to beg the Lord to help me see it and repent quickly. Haman reminds us the Lord isn’t kidding when He says, “The Lord resists the proud,” and “Pride goes before a fall.”

We stand warned.

“God gives His grace to the humble.” “Humility comes before honor.” You and I can be Mordecais or we can be Hamans. We can be stable, faithful people or we can live tossed like a ship in a storm. But notice, the real choice is not simply whether we’ll be stable or tossed. It’s whether we’ll be humble or proud. The “stable or tossed” are simply the very predictable consequences of what you or I do with this evil monster called pride.

Once again, we stand warned.

God help us.

 

Esther 6:4-10 “Hope”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁴And the king said, “Who [is] in the courtyard?” and Haman had come into the outer courtyard of the house of the king to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows which he had built to him, ⁵and the servants of the king said to him, “Look! Haman [is] one standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶And Haman came in and the king said to him, “What to be done in the man which the king delights in honoring him?” and Haman said in his heart, “To whom does the king delight to do honor more than from me?” ⁷And Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king delights in honoring him, ⁸let them bring the royal clothing which the king has clothed in him and a horse which upon it the king has ridden and let be given a royal crown in his head^{. 9}and give the clothing and the horse upon a hand of the man of the most noble princes of the king and let them clothe the man whom the king delights in honoring him and let them cause him to ride upon the horse in the street of the city and let them call to his face, ‘Thus it will be done to the man which the king delights in honoring him!’” ¹⁰And the king said to Haman, “Hurry to take the clothing and the horse as you have said and do thus to Mordecai the Jew, one sitting in the gate of the king. Do not let fall a word from the all of which you have said.”

For those of us who have to live and work in this “world without God,” these seven verses offer great hope. What we have before us is frightfully wicked leadership—the two most powerful men in this nation—who possess great power to hurt us, our families, and friends. Then, not only do they have the power, but that is exactly what they intend to do with it. Xerxes would bring great harm on his people primarily because he has no concern at all for them. He has other (selfish) agendas besides being a good king and working for the welfare of his people. He would hurt them through his neglect.

Haman, on the other hand, is aggressively wicked. He actually plans to hurt people!

That is, sadly, the exact kind of leadership you and I find ourselves under today. There are many people in our government and in our companies who can cause us all great harm simply through their neglect. The don’t do their jobs. Congress is case in point. They long ago completely forgot the entire reason they’re there is to work together for the good of the American people. Instead, they are so caught up in their scheming for power and money, they hurt this country deeply precisely because they don’t do their job. Unfortunately, sitting next to them are others who actually have wicked, evil agendas to aggressively destroy this country, to deprive us of our rights, and to oppress us and our children. Our government is run by wicked, evil people just like Xerxes and Haman.

It is also sad that too many companies are no different. I have said for years the biggest problem in this country is not poor leadership, it’s no leadership. Managers today think their job is to sit at their desk and hope the phone doesn’t ring. The fact is that good management is very hard work. Unfortunately, few have any intention of working hard at their jobs. They are more than willing to collect a manager’s salary, but like Xerxes they see it only as a position of ease and wealth for themselves. Then like Haman there are those corporate climbers who will happily crush others in their own personal quest for power and wealth.

As has been true before, I can be accused of being negative. I will maintain I’m just being realistic. The picture before us is a picture of our world. It was Esther and Mordecai’s world, but it is ours too. If you and I would love well in this world, this is the kind of world we’ll have to do it in!

This is precisely where hope enters—if we join the few who see the God who is there. Though His name may not be mentioned in this passage, can there be any doubt it is Him who is clearly in charge here? It would take a committed atheist to believe this is all happening “by chance.” The king has no idea why he can’t sleep this night. His servants “just happen” to read the account of Mordecai. While others have been richly rewarded in the last five years, Mordecai was not. Haman arrives very early in the morning, gets ushered into the king’s presence, but meets him fresh off his chagrin at having overlooked Mordecai. It “just happens” the king has something so urgent on his mind he doesn’t even give Haman a chance to launch his nefarious scheme. And what is the outcome of it all? “Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Hurry. Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.”

In fact, “The heart of the king is in the Lord’s hand” (Prov. 21:1). “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” That was precisely the lesson Nebuchadnezzar had to learn some 100 years earlier. It was Daniel’s hope in Babylon. It is Mordecai and Esther’s hope in Persia, and it is our hope in our world today. The Most High rules. All things will “work together for good to them that love God…” Though we may see extremely wicked people in power over us, yet we can know that the Lord is still on His throne. As Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no power over Me except it be given you from above” (John 19:11). The Most High rules.

The other huge lesson we should all take from this passage is to see the horror of a proud heart. Haman himself is a lesson in the folly of pride. The Bible warns us, “Humility comes before honor, but pride goes before a fall,” and “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble.”  In his pride, Haman “thinks in his heart, ‘Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?’” Conceit. Too high an opinion of himself. Impressed with himself. And where does it get him? At the very moment he thinks he’ll enjoy one of his greatest successes—seeing Mordecai hanged—he instead suffers his most unimaginable disgrace, and must instead publicly honor the very man he hates.

Once again, if you and I would profit from these verses, we must see the Haman in our own hearts. I am just as capable of getting too high an opinion of myself, and when I do, I can know for certain where it is leading. Pride goes before a fall. I can rest assured it will not end well. We must learn to be seriously mortified by the thought of our pride.

As I type these words, however, I am painfully aware that my evil pride hides itself from my eyes. It is a self-deceiving sin. “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” While it may be patently obvious to everyone around me that I am “full of myself,” I may not see it at all. Here is a place where we need to call out to God to rescue us from ourselves, to help us to see when we’re being proud, then to give us the grace to humble ourselves and whatever it is, just stop it! Without the Lord, I will be a blind slave to my evil, self-destructive pride, but, with His help, I have the hope of being rescued from it!

Haman suffers a fate that to him must have been unthinkable and unimaginable. The Lord might as well have dropped a 20-ton block out of the sky and squished him where he stood. That’s where pride got him, and that is where it will get you and me. Fortunately, we also have the examples of Esther and Mordecai to encourage us. With the Lord’s help, we, like them, can be humble people. We can be a force for good in our worlds instead of being like Haman who, in his pride, inflicted only misery on those around him.

And too, like Esther and Mordecai, we can rest assured our God is in control. Though we live and work under evil people, even those with wicked intentions, we have the hope of reminding ourselves what Daniel taught us, “The Most High rules in the nations of men.”