7And the king rose in his anger from the banquet of wine into the garden of the palace and Haman stood to seek upon his soul from Esther the queen because he saw that the bad from the king was finished on him. 8And the king returned from the garden of the palace to the house of the banquet of the wine and Haman [was] one falling on the couch which Esther [was] on, and the king said, “Will [he] also violate the queen with me in the house?” The word went out from the mouth of the king and the face of Haman was covered. 9And Harbona, one from the eunuchs to the face of the king, said, “Also, look! The gallows, which Haman made to Mordecai who spoke [intensely] good on the king, standing in the house of Haman fifty cubits high,” and the king said, “Hang him on it!” 10And they hung Haman on the gallows which he had caused to prepare to Mordecai and the anger of the king abated.
One more thing I’d like to note before I leave this passage. There are several verses in the Bible that say something like, “Whoever digs a pit may fall into it…” (Eccl. 10:8). It is worthwhile to stop and ponder how this is illustrated in Haman. Seeing this happen to Haman, I also want to note how reasonable God’s judgments are. I think we naturally imagine that God sits in Heaven with His assortment of lightning bolts, ready to strike down anyone who “breaks the rules.” Let’s consider whether this is true in Haman’s case.
In Haman, first of all what we see is a man absolutely full of himself. In 5:11 we listened to him boasting to his wife and friends about his “vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.” Then in v.12, he says, “And that’s not all, I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.” Notice that everything Haman said was true.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to know more about how Haman came about this “great wealth”? We meet him and he’s more than ready to murder people to get what he wants. I would suggest to you this isn’t the first time he’s pursued his wealth and power by literally having someone else killed. In one way or another, he is no doubt in the habit of stepping on other people to advance himself. Even the very fact that he has accumulated this “vast wealth” speaks of his insensitivity and cruelty. Back in 3:9, we noted how he offered to the king “I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury for the men who carry out this business (annihilating the Jewish people).”
As I said, commenting on that verse, “Ten thousand talents of silver is a fantastic sum of money. There’s probably no way today to determine absolutely how much that was worth, but it is somewhere in the 100’s of millions or even billions of dollars.” Haman was so wealthy, he could give away such a fantastic sum of money and still be wealthy. Now, I ask, were there no poor people in Persia? Did everyone in the Persian empire have a nice house, closets full of clothes, and a full refrigerator? Surely everyone had access to the very best of medical care, right? We all know the answer to these questions is “No, no, no.” I realize this is very common in this world without God, but the insensitivity and cruelty I find astounding. It’s shocking to think that someone could be that wealthy, yet turn a blind eye to the desperate needs of so many people around them. Of course the world yet today is filled with such people, but that in no way diminishes the incomprehensible cruelty it exposes. Haman was just such a man.
And where does all of this get Haman? He says himself, “All this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate” (5:13). Stop and think how utterly trivial this is. Here we have a man of almost unimaginable wealth and power and position, and what is it that is ruining his life? One simple man who won’t bend over at the waist. If Haman was a humble man, he probably wouldn’t even notice. He’d be too busy going about his own affairs to even care. What did David say when Abishai wanted to kill the cursing Shimei? “If he is cursing because the Lord said to him ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’,,,Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to” (II Sam. 16:10,11). David could brush it off precisely because he wasn’t full of himself. Haman’s arrogance actually kept him from enjoying his wealth! The Lord doesn’t need to clobber him with a lightning bolt. The man’s sin beings on him his own judgment.
In that blind arrogance, he completely misinterprets Esther’s interest in him, takes her invitations as one more reason to swell up like a toad, then orders a gallows built 75 feet high to hang Mordecai. Then we hear the king say of Haman, “Hang him on it!” and we immediately read, “So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.” The man dug a pit and now we see him fall in it.
Was there ever a more just judgment on any man? We see here again my point that the Lord didn’t have to throw any lightning bolts at all. Haman built a gallows on which to cruelly murder an innocent man and he himself ends up dangling from it. If I could peek ahead, it gets worse for Haman. See what happens to the family of this man who would “destroy, kill, and annihilate” other people’s families. In 8:14, we read, “An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.” We never read again of his wife Zeresh, but if she lived, what incredible grief overtook this woman who would advise her husband to murder other people. In a moment, Haman, the man who would destroy other people’s families, has his own family utterly decimated.
In this world without God, people call it “karma.” We are all very aware of this reality in our world, that what people do will one way or another come back upon them. We’re all aware of that, but no one ever stops to ask why that would be true. If we’re all just a bunch of evolutionized amoebas living in a world subject to nothing but blind chance, why would there even be karma? If there’s no one in control, why should there be karma? On the other hand, if we believe this universe was created by a God of love and justice, then karma makes perfect sense. In a world actually run by a good God, we can all agree that Haman certainly got what he deserved.
I want to suggest for all of us that we should learn from Haman. In Matt. 7:2, Jesus said, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In Luke 6:38, He said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” My grandfather used to recite, “There was a man, they thought him mad. The more he gave, the more he had.”
The thing about God’s world is that it works both ways. We can either be people who dig pits and fall in them, or people who sow kindness and unintentionally receive it in return. We can build gallows to hang our Mordecai’s on and end up hanging from them ourselves, or we can be Esther’s and even risk our lives for others, only to have our name go down in history for that love and courage.
How much more just can that be?
There is, in fact, such a thing as karma in our world, but it is not some arbitrary force. There is a good and loving God who very justly and logically makes it part of our lives all day every day.
Too bad Haman never learned that. Lord help us to make sure we do!
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