9And Haman went out in that day joyful and pleased of heart and Haman saw Mordecai in the gate of the king and he did not stand and he did not tremble from him and Haman was filled with rage on Mordecai, 10and Haman restrained himself and he came in to his house and he sent and brought in his friends and Zeresh his wife. 11and Haman recounted to them the glory of his wealth and the many of his sons and all of which the king caused him to grow and which he raised him on the princes and nobles of the king, 12and Haman said, “Also Esther the queen has not caused to come in with the king to the banquet which she prepared except me, and also tomorrow I one called to it with the king, 13and the all of this [is] nothing smooth to me in all of time which I one seeing Mordecai the Jew sitting in the gate of the king.” 14And Zeresh his wife (and the all of his friends) said to him, “Let them make a gallows fifty cubits high and in the morning speak to the king and let them hang Mordecai on it and go in with the king to the banquet happy,” and the word was pleasing to the eyes of Haman and he made the gallows.
Well, well. Here we are again. The Bible is a book that allows us to “walk with the wise and be wise”—to watch and listen and learn as good people live their lives. However, it also parades before our eyes the wicked and affords us the same opportunity—to watch and listen and learn. “Beat a fool and the simple learn discretion.” In a sense, there is as much to learn observing the wicked as the righteous.
However…and I cannot assert this emphatically enough…you can only learn from the wicked if you realize “you’re the man.” In order to learn from them, I must humbly recognize I share with them the same sin nature. As the old saying says, “There but for the grace of God go I.” In order to learn anything from Haman, his wife and friends, I must see them in my own heart.
I say all of this because practically every modern commentary on Esther seems more than content to essentially mock at Haman’s evil and move on. They learn absolutely nothing from him because they can’t see him in their own hearts. On the contrary, the old commentaries (before around 1900), glean pages and pages of very helpful observations, precisely because they do see him in their own hearts. I would sadly observe that the modern church has almost totally lost the ability to learn anything from the Bible because they no longer see that it applies to their everyday lives. It has become nothing more than a book about “how to be religious,” if even that.
So, if you and I would benefit from this passage, let us pause and ponder the profound wickedness we see in Haman, his wife and his friends, realizing, in the end, it is our own face we behold in the mirror.
“And so Haman went out that day joyful and pleased of heart.” It’s nice that Haman is happy. Even a very wicked man finds things in this world to be “happy” about. But note here what it is that is fueling his “happiness.” What is it? His pride. Haman leaves Esther’s banquet swelled up like a toad. As he walks out, he is, in his own mind, a VERY big fish in a little pond. He probably had a couple of servants carry a mirror in front of him so he could admire himself all the way home! But suddenly someone pops his bubble. Mordecai doesn’t share Haman’s inflated opinion of himself.
And Haman’s response? “He was filled with rage.” But wasn’t he just a minute before “joyful and pleased of heart”? What prodigiously important event could have possibly so ruined the day of this extremely wealthy, powerful man? What happened? A man wouldn’t stand. There you go. Explains it perfectly, does it not? You and I have probably flown into a few rages just in the last couple of days because someone wouldn’t stand in our presence, yes?
I read one old illustration that went something like this: Take two pennies and hold them in your hand. What are they worth? Especially today we’d say, “Basically nothing.” Two cents. It won’t buy anything. Now hold them against your eyes and notice, how much do you see? “Nothing at all,” you reply, “The two pennies are blocking my vision.” But wait a minute—I thought we all just agreed that two pennies are worthless. Now we’re saying they can completely block our vision? When the two worthless pennies are before our eyes, suddenly we can’t see anything else that matters. We can’t see all the blessings and beauty that surrounds us. All we can see is two worthless pennies.
Isn’t that what is happening to Haman? He goes on below to brag about his great wealth, his many sons, his powerful position, and the honor Esther has accorded him. But, in his own words, “All this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”
That is precisely what the sin of pride does to all of us—it causes us to focus our minds on what is in the end worthless, and in so doing to completely lose sight of and the satisfaction of all the many blessings we do enjoy. We might more quickly recognize the problem as greed or discontent—which are just subtle forms of pride. We want something. We think we deserve something. We put its two pennies in our eyes and lose sight of all else that truly matters. I may not be plotting the murder of an entire people group, but I am just as capable as Haman of letting pride blind me to the things that really matter.
And therein is a lesson for all of us to take from this wicked man. When suddenly something has stolen our joy, when something has stirred serious anger in our hearts, when suddenly there is something filling our mind and our eyes, we need to step back and ask, “Lord, have I let pride get the best of me?” If I’m willing to pray that sincerely, and if suddenly the Lord does help me to see it is pride, then, as a believer, I have the wonderful privilege of repenting. I can remember my Savior who “made Himself nothing.” I can simply give up whatever it was I thought I deserved or whatever it was I so strongly desired, let those pennies of worthlessness drop into His hands and once again be free to see all the blessings that surround me.
In this, you could almost pity Haman. The man is a slave. He may be unfathomably rich, but he has no Lord to turn to. He has no one to help him see his evil pride for what it is. He has no one to protect him from himself. Notice where he says “…and I am invited with the king to Esther’s banquet tomorrow…but it gives me pleasure as long as I see Mordecai…” I have underlined the “I” twice because in the original language it is emphatic. In Hebrew the “I” is normally expressed as part of the verb itself. When they verbalize the pronoun separately, it is for emphasis. What does this tell us? Even the very grammar would tell us Haman is full of himself. And where does that get him? In spite of his great wealth, here he is miserable. That is always where our evil pride will leave us—miserable even if we’re swimming in an ocean of blessings. Such is life in a world without God.
Haman is a man without God. He is married to a woman without God and surrounded by friends without God. Is it any surprise they think the solution to their problems is murder? They are “of their father the devil and the lusts of their father they will do.” Herein, again, we see the nightmare of a world without God. Haman, living as a man without God, has surrounded himself with people without God. So when it comes time to seek their advice, do they point him to the real problem? Did anyone of them even suggest the possibility that Mordecai really isn’t that big a deal? You can bet they didn’t. You can bet they know better than to risk even the remotest possibility of crossing this man. They will tell him what he wants to hear. And, of course, their advice rises straight from the pits of hell.
His own wife urges him to murder a man. His circle of friends urge him to murder a man. Not one of them loves him enough to tell him the truth. Maybe it’s because they can’t see the truth. Maybe they have so many pennies stuck in their own eyes, they can’t see to warn Haman he’s got them in his? The blind lead the blind and they all fall in a pit. Such is the end of a world without God. Haman can’t see it’s Haman who needs to be murdered, not Mordecai. It’s Haman who’s ruining Haman’s life, not Mordecai. But he can’t see it.
Haman would show the world that you can get it all—you can get wealth and power and position, everything your heart could possibly desire—and still be a miserable man. The book of Ecclesiastes would teach us this, but Haman’s life shouts it. All the wealth in the world can’t protect you and me from our own proud hearts. It takes God in our lives to protect us from us. Haman, his wife, and his friends live in a world without that God, but the good news for the rest of us is that we don’t have to live like that. The fact is there is a God and He is very present and very available to anyone willing to open their heart to Him.
There is a great deal to learn from Haman. The old commentaries draw out so much more than I’ve scratched down here, but in the end we can conclude we don’t have to be Hamans. We can be an Esther or a Mordecai and live our lives free--free from our pride--free to enjoy the blessings the Lord has showered us with--free to trust Him above ourselves. Lord help us all to truly learn from Haman!
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