Having A Bad Day Series

Ester 7: 1 – 10

Having A Bad Day

1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!” 3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.” 5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?” 6 And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?” As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.

Do you have bad days? Perhaps today listening to me is just such a one. But let me cheer you up a little. Here are a few quotes relative to having a bad day;

. Your car horn sticks on the freeway behind a motor cycle gang.

. The worse player on the golf course wants to play you for money.

. You get home after a stressful day and the evening news is showing emergency routes to evacuate

. You wake up to the soothing sound of running water and remember that you just bought a water bed

. You call your wife and inform her that you would like to eat out tonight and when you get home there is a sandwich on your porch.

. Everyone is laughing but you

Today we are going to discuss how the man Haman is going to have a very bad day. No one would want to be in his shoes.

If you look back to chapter 5.4-14, the First Banquet was described, at which Esther began her appeal, a banquet which caused Haman to be exultant, so much so that he prepared a stake for his arch-enemy. Now we have the second banquet where the situation reverses. Esther finalizes her appeal, and Haman is brought to despair, and is impaled on the stake that he had prepared for Mordecai. And the turning point around which this was change was based was the king’s night of sleeplessness, and the learning of Mordecai’s loyalty. It was clear that God had intervened on behalf of His people.

7.1 ‘So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.’

This was in accordance with chapter 5 verse 4 where Esther’s request was that the king and Haman come to her banquet, ‘Let the king come and Haman’. The fulfillment of the request is continuing. Esther’s plan is coming to completion.

7.2 ‘And the king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, queen Esther? and it will be granted you, and what is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it will be performed.”

The first day was of course the previous day, the day of the first banquet. That too was ‘a banquet of wine’. Note how this verse is very similar to 5.6, but with the addition of ‘on the second day’ and ‘Queen Esther’. This is a continuation of the first feast, but the king’s request is more formal and more exalting of Esther. He is now expecting her reply. Courtesies have been fulfilled. Now as his Queen she may make her request. And he assures her again that whatever she asks will be granted.