Esther 6: 1 – 14
The Nominee for MVP Is
1 That night the king could not sleep. So, one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” 4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. 5 The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” 6 So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” 7 And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’” 10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.” 11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!” 12 Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. 13 When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.” 14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.
I was watching the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs and the fans were chanting about one of their favorite players the words ‘MVP’. I believe that most of you would know what this acronym means when used in sports. It refers to the ‘Most Valuable Player’ of the entire league.
We must however be careful to use this acronym freely about our daily conversations for you would be amazed at how many ways this term can be used. Let me share with you a few of these;
Most Valuable Professional (Microsoft recognition)
Most Valuable Primate (movie)
Most Valuable Performance
Most Valuable Product (PC computing award)
Most Valuable Point
Most Valuable Poet
And now the MVP award I want to give out for all the individuals involved in the book of Esther is the Most Valuable Person. I know that you are presently thinking of two candidates for this award Esther and Mordecai. Am I right? You might be surprised that there Is someone else Who deserves this award. You will find out shortly Who I am talking about.
This chapter is the pivotal point in the book. Prior to this chapter Haman was continually on the ascendancy and took the opportunity to seek to destroy Mordecai and the Jews. In this chapter, due to the king’s sleeplessness, Haman aims at greater glory for himself, but then has to grant it to Mordecai at the king’s command. What Haman has sought goes to Mordecai. From this chapter on Haman and his house will slide ever downwards, whilst Mordecai will be in the ascendancy, and the Jews will be delivered. And it is made clear that all this began due to an unseen hand at work behind the scenes which caused the king’s sleeplessness and the reading to him of the loyal act of Mordecai. To the Jew it would be clear that it was God Who was at work.
1 That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
On the very night that Haman was erecting a stake on which to impale Mordecai the king was unable to sleep. ‘The king’s sleep fled.’ And in order to fill in the time he commanded that the record of special court events be read before him. This may have been a book in which was written a memorial of all who had especially served the king. Ahasuerus was always eager to reward those who had done some singular service for him. He knew that these records would help to occupy his mind, and would be an encouragement to him, and might even send him to sleep. It may well have been that he had not heard them read for a while.
2 And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
And during the reading he learned how Mordecai had reported the plot of Bigthana (Bigthan) and Teresh, the palace officials with charge over the entry into the king’s apartments, in which they had planned to assassinate the king. Given the fact that Haman was planning Mordecai’s execution with the hoped-for agreement of the king this would clearly be seen by the Jews as pointing to the hand of God at work. They would have no doubt that God was acting in order to deliver Mordecai from Haman’s plot. But as usual the author leaves it to be inferred.
3 Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
When the king heard what Mordecai had done, (he may not necessarily have recognized who he was), he asked what honor and dignity had been bestowed on this Mordecai for it. His close servants informed him that nothing had been done for Mordecai. They may well have known this because nothing was recorded in the book. Or it may have been because they knew of Esther’s interest in Mordecai (it was she who had passed on the information that Mordecai had provided to the king in Mordecai’s name) and knew that he had received no special reward.
4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
Having learned of the failure to reward Mordecai the king was shocked, and indeed we know that it was his policy always to reward loyal service. So, he would want to remedy the mistake immediately.
Thus, he immediately asked who was ‘in the court’, that is, what high official with palace access was available to act in the matter. The king clearly considered that at least one high official would be available, and it may well have been routine for this to be so. The servants would, however, naturally look for the official who was of the highest level who was in the court. And because of his eagerness to see the king early before the banquet began, in order to arrange for the execution of Mordecai, Haman happened to be present there. He had come to obtain authority for the lifting up of Mordecai on an impalement stake, and he had no doubt concocted some story, or manufactured evidence, to justify his request. Possibly he considered that to expose Mordecai as the leader of the disreputable people whom he had previously described to the king (3.8) would do the trick. He clearly had no doubt that the king would accede to his request. His purpose in being there is explicitly stated to bring out the situation. But every reader would be aware that in fact Mordecai was now under the king’s protection. They would see the irony of the situation. Haman wanted to expose Mordecai on a stake in order to disgrace him, but instead he would shortly be required to ‘expose’ him to the people in order to honor him. and every Jew would see the hand of God in it. It was to be the turning point in both of their lives.
5 The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”
Then the king’s personal servants informed him that Haman was in the court. at which the king told them to call him in. Haman probably thought that such a quick invitation into the king’s presence augured well. And it would give him the opportunity that he was looking for.
6 So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?”
So Haman came in and the king asked him his advice on what should be done to the man whom the king wanted to honor? Haman was an extremely ambitious man, almost megalomaniac, and such favors had already been heaped upon him, including the present one of being invited to the queen’s personal banquet, that he could think only in terms of himself.
Thus, he thought to himself, “To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?” He had continually received such favors that they had taken possession of is mind. It was all he could think of.
7 And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’”
It is a mistake to think that this meant that the man would simply be ‘king for the day’. Far from it. It would be a life-transforming experience. No man could publicly wear the king’s own royal clothes, and ride publicly on the king’s own horse, and be proclaimed as a king’s favorite by one of the noblest in the land, without being loaded with riches and honors. By it he was being proclaimed as one of the king’s close favorites, under the protection of the king himself, and the people would then look to see what the king would do for such a man. The king would have to follow the proclamation with suitable gifts, for his very honor would be at stake. In the event the king made Mordecai Grand Vizier (8.2). We should see the two events as closely linked. The king would now have been looking for some vacancy with which to reward Mordecai. Had Haman not fallen he could not have been made Grand Vizier but he would undoubtedly have granted him some position almost as important. When the Grand Vizier’s position did become vacant it opened up the perfect reward, especially now that he knew that Mordecai was related to his queen. Furthermore, it would be axiomatic that such a man’s body would be seen as almost sacred. Nothing evil could be allowed to befall him. To have assailed him would have been to assail the king himself. So the moment that this happened to Mordecai, Haman would know that he could no longer hope to have him impaled. To have even suggested it would have been an act of treason.
Haman was, of course, thinking of himself. But had the king thought that he might well have refused. To have taken the second greatest man in the realm, and clothed him in the king’s own royal clothing, and ridden him on the king’s own horse in public, might well have been seen as proclaiming him as his heir presumptive. Indeed, Haman, in his megalomania, might have had that in mind.
10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”
We can imagine Haman’s shock when the king told him to make all haste and take the king’s own royal apparel and the king’s own horse, and himself honor ‘Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate’ in this fashion. This was no doubt the title by which Mordecai was known in the royal chronicle. And the king urged that Haman fulfil what he had suggested in every detail. Haman was left with no option. But he must have been seething inside. Instead of displaying him on a stake, he would have to display him as a king’s favorite.
11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
As a highly trained courtier Haman would have been expert at covering his feelings before the king. But now he also had to hide them before the people. We can tell how deeply he felt it by what follows when he went back in despair to his friends. It bit deep into his very soul. But he was left with no alternative. So no doubt seething inside, he took the king’s apparel and the king’s horse, clothed Mordecai in the royal apparel, and caused him to ride through the open space of the city. And in the process, he proclaimed, and every word would have been forced out, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”
The very proclamation indicates that there was more to what was happening to Mordecai than appeared on the surface. The point was that the man whom the king desired to honor would be covered with royal favour and would be given a kind of royal status. It indicated that the king was going to show Mordecai high favor. What followed would simply be a carrying out of the privilege now shown to him. He could never go back to what he was. It was only a matter of time before he was duly honored with wealth and position as one who had been in the king’s very stead. And Haman knew it. What now lay ahead for Mordecai was state honors, not stake ‘honors’.
12 Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.
The book of Esther is full of contrasts, and this is one of them. On the one hand Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. taking his place there ready to serve the king, his future bright before him. Haman returned to his house, grieving over what had happened, and with his head covered, a sign of his extreme unhappiness. It was also symbolic of his future. Mordecai was on the way up. He was on the way down.
13 When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”
Once home Haman told his wife and all his friends all the details of what had happened to him. They had no doubt been waiting eagerly to learn how his case had prospered, no doubt hoping to be rewarded for their advice if things had gone well. But in the event things had not gone well with Haman’s purpose, and they quickly altered their advice. Let Haman beware. If Mordecai, before whom he was beginning to fall, was a Jew, then he could not hope to prevail against him. They had failed to say that on the previous day, but the turn of events had made them think again. And they had remembered how in the past the Jews had enjoyed remarkable deliverances. Thus, anyone who stood against them should be careful. They could only lose out. The implication behind their words, was that God was on the side of the Jews.
There is a clear indication here that within the Persian Empire the Jews stood out. They were a people apart, whether for good or ill. And as the centuries have proved, such separateness can often invoke both jealousy and hatred, as well as admiration, as indeed it would for the Jews. There were no doubt many in the Persian empire who had a grudge against the Jews’ although having said that it is evident that, at least in Susa, they were not looked on in the main with animosity. Otherwise the people would not have been ‘perplexed’ at what was threatened against them (3.15).
14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.
And even while they were talking palace officials arrived with the aim of bringing Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared with all speed. This was a regular feature of oriental feasts. Honored guests would be escorted to the feast (This may suggest that they felt the matter was now urgent and must be fulfilled expeditiously, or that Haman was eager to attend the banquet as a kind of remedy for his hurt pride.
Now as we close let me ask you who the MVP award should go to. Out and out the One Who deserves this adoration Is none other than our Wonderful Holy Father God Yahweh. For throughout His Providence has opened up amazing occasions.
