Seeing the invisible God - Part 4

God is nowhere and everywhere in the Old Testament book of Esther, says Carla Lindsey. Part 4 of 5.

Have you ever felt humiliated? You sent out an important email to important people and it had embarrassing mistakes through it. You backed the car into something right in front of people you were trying to impress. You thought you had ‘that thing’ nailed, but were publically told you weren’t even close.

We’ve probably all had moments similar to these. Ones that still make us cringe when we think about them. Ones that you would rather I hadn’t just reminded you about—sorry! Feeling humiliated is horrible!

James Barrie describes life as a long lesson in humility. Humility seems to be something we all need to learn from time to time. It also seems the amount of humiliation felt is directly proportional to how sure one feels immediately prior to being humiliated. You see, humility is best learned when pride is at its peak. It’s when we have a long way to fall, that the fall hurts the most.

Pride comes before a fall

Jesus said that ‘those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (Luke 14:11)—and that’s exactly what we see happen in Esther chapters five and six. Haman, the villain of the book, falls a long way. He learns that pride truly does come before a fall.

We are picking up the story in Esther 5:9 where Haman, who hates the Jewish people and has a plan to have them all destroyed, has just enjoyed a private dinner party with King Xerxes and Queen Esther. Unknown to Haman, Esther is a Jew.

When Haman left the palace and headed home after the party that night, he was ‘happy and in high spirits’ (5:9). After an extravagant evening of wining and dining with the king and queen, he was buzzing!

But in an instant his mood changed. As Haman walked home, he passed the king’s gate and there he saw Mordecai. Mordecai was a Jew and, unknown to Haman, was Esther’s parental guardian. As Haman passed Mordecai, Mordecai once again did not show the respect that Haman felt should have been given to one in his high position. Mordecai failed to stand or to bow.

Such disrespect made Haman’s blood boil!

His delight abruptly turned to wrath, but he restrained himself and carried on home. When he got there, he summoned an audience. He called his friends and wife and proceeded to boast. He boasted about his great wealth. He boasted about his many sons—sons were greatly prized in Persian culture.

According to Esther 9:7–10, Haman had 10 sons who held important positions, although an extra biblical source says he had 208! He boasted about the ‘ways the king had honoured him and how the king had elevated him above the other nobles and officials’ (5:11). At the height of his boasting, as his head grew to bursting point, he told his friends, ‘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’ (5:12). Bible scholar Joyce Baldwin describes Haman at this moment as ‘overwhelmed with his own sense of importance’. But this arrogant boasting would stand in complete contrast to the extreme humiliation that was coming right up.

Haman had everything. On the one hand, everything seemed to be going so well for him; but on the other, he told his friends there was just one thing ruining it all. Just one small irritation that stopped him enjoying everything he had: Mordecai. All Haman had gave him no satisfaction as long while he saw that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate (5:13). Haman just couldn’t ignore Mordecai. He couldn’t let it go. Haman allowed one insignificant person to stop him enjoying all of his life.

Here’s an idea!

Haman’s wife and friends came up with a great solution to the ‘Mordecai problem’. They advised Haman to ‘have a gallows set up, reaching to a height of 50 cubits, and then ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it’ (5:14). I guess that’s one way of taking care of the problem!

Kill Mordecai and then the source of Haman’s irritation would be gone. Life could be enjoyed again. Why wait a few months for Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews to come into effect when Mordecai could be dealt with now?

The Persians were the ancient masters of slow, cruel and humiliating executions. They invented crucifixion, along with other creative methods of getting rid of trouble makers. Most Bible translations have Haman building a gallows, but there is no evidence that the Persians executed by hanging. The Hebrew word for ‘gallows’ can also be translated ‘tree’ or ‘pole’. So it is unlikely Haman intended to hang Mordecai, and more likely that he intended to either crucify Mordecai on a tree, or carry out the Persian speciality and have him impaled on it.

Some scholars have argued the height of the tree is exaggerated; after all, at 50 cubits it would have stood 75 feet (or 23 metres) tall. It could be that the tree/pole stood on top on another structure, such as the city wall, or it could just be that Haman wanted something so big to make a spectacle of Mordecai’s death and send a message to anyone else who failed to respect him.

Haman thought his wife and friends’ suggestion to eliminate his problem was brilliant. He wasted no time. He had the structure built right away and planned to go to King Xerxes early the next morning to get permission to have Mordecai executed.

God’s hand at work

Meanwhile, as Haman was busy hammering and sawing into the wee small hours, Xerxes was tossing and turning in his bed. Ancient biblical translations and commentaries  say that ‘God took the king’s sleep away’, although but the standard biblical text doesn’t say that—it just says that Xerxes couldn’t sleep. But when we see what happens as a result of the king’s insomnia, it certainly seems that God had his hand in it. God may be ‘invisible’ within the book of Esther, but he is still at work!

Since Xerxes couldn’t sleep, he had the annals of his reign read to him. Five years earlier, Mordecai had stopped an assassination plot against the king and this had been recorded in the annals (2:23). When Xerxes was reminded of those events, he asked what reward Mordecai had received only to discover there was no record of Mordecai receiving any reward. For a king to have failed to give a reward in such circumstances would have been considered very shameful. According to Herodotus, Persian kings were known for rewarding benefactors promptly and generously. Such an oversight would have reflected badly on the king, so he needed to set it straight at once.

If you’ve been following this series then you’ll remember that Xerxes didn’t do a lot a thinking for himself. True to form,  he needed to ask someone else how he should reward Mordecai. But who could Xerxes ask? He’d been reading all night and the dawn was just beginning to break. Who would be in the court so early? As it happened, Haman was. Ironically, that was because Haman was on his way to ask the king to authorise Mordecai’s execution.

But before Haman could get his request out, Xerxes made one of his own. ‘Haman’ the king asked, ‘What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?’ Notice that Xerxes didn’t name the man he wished to honour, just as Haman hadn’t mentioned the people he wished to destroy (see 3:8–9). Haman, with his head now so big he nearly couldn’t get in the door, thought excitedly to himself, ‘Who else would the king want to honour but me?’

A just reward

And so Haman came up with the most extravagant reward he could. One more valuable than wealth and that was all about public honour. Haman advised Xerxes to bring his royal robes and a ‘horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honour, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honour!” ’ (6:8–9)

The royal robes were of great significance. Wearing them was a sign of the king’s special favour and signalled that he was sharing his own power and stature. Horses wearing crests may sound odd, but Assyrian and Persian sculptures depict horses with crowns on their heads. A herald announcing the honoured man would draw everyone’s attention. Haman’s pride must have been growing even more as he anticipated receiving this honour!

And then the king named the man all this was for. Mordecai. And told Haman that he was to be Mordecai’s herald.

Can you imagine Haman’s face? White. Shocked. Mouth gaping.

What could he say? He couldn’t argue, especially since he had suggested the reward to start with. Haman had no choice. He had to do as the king asked.

Haman must have been mortified as he led Mordecai through the streets declaring his honour. Mordecai who had refused to honour Haman, was instead given the greatest honour by Haman.

After this, Haman felt such shame that he covered his head as a sign of grief and mourning. He rushed home and told his wife and friends what had happened. He hoped for some comfort, but got a different response. The Persians were very superstitious and saw this turn of events as a change of fortune, a bad omen. Instead of making Haman feel better, they told him, ‘Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!’ (6:13)

In other words, ‘This is not going to end well.’ And they were right.

While Haman was still talking to his friends about what had happened, his escorts arrived to take him to the Queen’s banquet. He was hurried away, no doubt upset and still trying to deal with what had happened and what his friends had just told him. But he was thrown into a dinner party where things were about to get much worse.

In one 24-hour period, Haman went from feeling on top of the world to feeling utterly humiliated. His pride was the beginning of his undoing, and his story is a sobering reminder to us all to walk with humility.

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by Carla Lindsey (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 3 october 2015, pp 20-21.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.

Points to ponder

Is there something out of your control that’s stopping you enjoying life?
    
How can you let this go and move on?
    
In what do you boast?
    
To whom do you need to give honour/acknowledgement/thanks?