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!