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. 9and 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.”
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