From Fasting To Feasting Series

From Fasting to Feasting

(Esther 6:1-10:3)

1. The expression, "bad hair day" has become popular within the last 10 years.

Dear Word Detective: I mentioned to a co-worker that another co-worker had been really grouchy and snapped at me over some little matter, and the first co-worker replied that maybe the other person was just "having a bad hair day." I made a fool of myself by replying that she had looked just fine to me! … I have heard the phrase often since then, but where did it come from? -- Sandy Curtis.

Well, live and learn, and welcome to the world of bad hair days. It does seem that your co-worker was using the term figuratively to mean that the person was simply having a difficult day, but literal "bad hair days" when your hair misbehaves are no fun either, and may actually have serious psychological effects on the victim. A study conducted in 2000 at Yale University found that a day when a person’s hair asserts itself in a lumpy, frumpy, flippy, flat or frizzy fashion can cause debilitating feelings of low self-esteem and vulnerability. Surprisingly, researchers found that men are more likely than women to be thrown for a loop by bad hair. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the study was underwritten by a shampoo company.

Tracing the exact origin of "bad hair day" hasn’t been easy. William Safire, in a column on this topic in 1993, traced the phrase to a 1991 comment by comedian Gary Shandling (known for asking "Is my hair all right?" as part of his stand-up routine). In 1995, TV personality Jane Pauley claimed on a number of occasions to have coined the phrase sometime back in the 1970s.

But research by American Dialect Society … uncovered the earliest verified use of the phrase in print, a 1988 column by Susan Swartz in the Houston Chronicle. Significantly, Swartz herself doesn’t claim to have invented "bad hair day" herself, and suspects she may have picked it up from nearby teen-aged girls. But since she is apparently the first one to use the phrase in a published work, Susan Swartz is credited in the Oxford English Dictionary for bringing us "bad hair day."

2. Those of us who are balding beg for an "any kind of hair day." (source: www.word-detective.com/072104.html)

3. But today we are going to see a man go from sitting on top of the world to fall all the way down and then some…the ultimate bad hair day for a man named Haman.

Main Idea: God sometimes does the absurd by turning "sure things" completely around.

I. Haman and MORDECAI Switch Destinies (6:1-8:2)

A. Act 7: The Turning Point – Haman Made to HONOR Mordecai (6:1-14)

1. When Insomonia changed a nation!

2. Had servants read the chronicles of the kingdom

3. Read about Mordecai saving king from assassination, realized not rewarded

--Haman was an early bird

--probably there to ask the king permission to execute Mordecai

4. Asked Haman how to honor a man; supposed it was himself…

--royal apparel, kings crown, king’s horse, paraded led by high official

5. After this, Haman and his wife knew they were goners…

--look at chapter 6, vs. 12-14

B. Act 8: Esther’s Second Banquet, Haman’s LAST (7:1-10)

1. King Xexes says, What is your request?"

2. My lives and the lives of my people are sold for destruction

3. Who is the evildoer? …this vile Haman

4. King leaves to the garden to cool off

5. Haman throws self on Queen Esther who is on her couch, begging for mercy

6. King thinks he is trying to molest her

7. Servants offer information that Haman had planned to hang the man who saved the King’s life, namely, Mordecai; the king orders Haman to be hanged on that same gallows

C. Act 9: Mordecai and Esther Given Haman’s WEALTH (8:1-2)

King gives Esther the land, Esther reveals how Mordecai was a relative, the king gives Mordecai Haman’s signet ring…

II. The Jews Are DELIVERED (8:3-9:10)

A. Act 10: The King Adds Another LAW (8:3-17)

1. He cannot revoke the first law

2. But he asks Esther and Mordecai to write another law

3. Note the law is 8:11

4. Note the result in 8:15-17

B. Act 11: The Jews Not Only SURVIVE, But Also Kill Enemies (9:1:10)

C. Act 12: Extending the KILLING (9:11-19)

--all together, 75,000 enemies of the Jews are killed

III. The Fasting TURNS to Feasting (9:20-10:13)

A. Act 13: The Fest of PURIM Introduced (9:20-9:32)

An annual festival celebrated in March by Jews to this day

Everybody hisses and shakes rattlers every time Haman appears

Re-enact the story of Esther

The names Esther and Mordecai are still popular first names for Jews today

B. Postscript: Mordecai Becomes the New Grand VIZIER