THE REACTION OF HAMAN’S REVENGE
ESTHER 7:10
Some two thousand years ago a man on his way to work in a vineyard passing through the suburbs of Shushan, the capital of Persia, going down one of the avenues he saw a man hanging from the gallows near the royal palace.
The body was swaying to and fro with the morning breeze, and vultures circling about.
As the man stood there staring at the body, another worker came along and asked "Who is that hanging there?" The man told him "That is the body of Haman."
The man said "What! You don’t mean Haman the king’s prime minister, who lived in the capitol building with the carved lions at the gate?"
Yes replied the man. It is him. The king’s Prime Miniseter who had these gallows built for the Jew Mordecai, The foster father of the queen.
But yesterday the king commanded that Haman himself be hanged on these gallows which were intended for Mordecai. It was in all the papers."
The headline was this "Haman hanged on his own gallows." That was the reaction of Haman’s plot for revenge.
The book of Esther is one of the most fascinating books of the Bible. It is very readable with the pictures it paints of palaces that could have come out of the Arabian Nights.
In this book men rose and fell; The proud are brought to their knees, and the humble are raised up. Princes and nobles party while the common people are left to worry about what comes in the morning. Plots and conspiracies are hatched and frustrated, you’d think you were reading a script for some soap opera on TV. Love, hate, pride, fear, revenge, faith---all these passions and emotions, worthy and unworthy, which sweep through the souls of men, appear in this unforgettable book.
This is one of two books in the Bible in which the name of GOD does not appear. But although HIS name does not appear you can feel HIS providence, HIS sovereignty, and HIS truth appears on every page.
Let’s take a moment and look at the backdrop to this great story. Because of her pride she would not go into the banquet of Ahasuerus, the Xerxes who invaded Greece and was defeated at Salamis, and display her great beauty for the King’s drunken princes and noblemen. So Queen Vashti was set aside; and the beautiful Jewess Esther, put forward by her cousin and foster father Mordecai, was elevated to the throne.
Now about this same time Haman was promoted to the second place in the Persian Empire. He undoubtedly won his post by his great ability as an administrator.
Like so many other leaders, Haman did not belong to the nation he was the prime minister of. He was not a Persian but an Amalekite, a people hostile to the Jews. Napoleon was not a Frenchman, but an Italian Corsican; Hitler was not a German, but an Austrian; Stalin was not a Russian, but a Georgian; Joseph was not an Egyptian, but a Hebrew.
So Haman became second in command of the Persian Empire. He was not a Persian but an Amalekite. He is one of the most graphically painted characters in the Bible and certainly one of the most ugliest-Monstrous in pride, hate, revenge, conspiracy, and appalling in his final fate and judgment.
Yet there are things about Haman from which we can all study and gain, as we watch him hang from those gallows which he had built for Mordecai, seventy-five feet high. Imagine the height of those gallows. Haman was going to have Mordecai seen from all around.
When Haman was elevated to his lofty post, everyone showed him reverence. When he came down the steps of the palace, or drove around the capital, all the men bowed to him and showed him honor.
All except one and that one was the Jew Mordecai, The queen’s foster father. This one exception to the chorus of praise and adoration with which Haman was greeted with everywhere filled him with mortification and rage.
It cast a shadow over all his fame and splendor. It was the one fly in his ointment, which as the wise man said, "causes the whole ointment to stink."
We don’t know why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman. Maybe they didn’t like each other. It could be that one was a Jew and the other an Amalekite.
Perhaps on Haman’s uniform there was some sort of idol and because Mordecai was a believing Jew he refused to bow down.
Whatever the reason, it was a conspicuous display of courage and independence. For the general habit is to bow down and honor those who are honored by others.
THE FOOLISHNESS OF PERMITTING ONE THING TO RUIN HAPPINESS
The first important truth that is preached by Haman’s hanging body with vultures swirling above is the foolishness of permitting one thing to ruin happiness and poison the soul.
That was Haman’s first great mistake. Here was a man of great position, wealth, and land holdings. From India to the Aegean Sea there was a long line of bowing princes and nobles.
But there was one exception that Jew Mordecai. Haman forgot the thousands of others who had paid him tribute and could only focus on the unbowing Mordecai.
From the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and the Caucasian Mountains on the north, clear down to Arabia and the Numidian deserts in Africa, there was not a palace, a garden, a grove, a slave, or a ship that Haman could not have had for the asking.
Yet all he could focus on was this one obscure Jew who would not bow to him. All this, Haman said referring to his riches and splendor and glory, "Yet all of this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate." (Esther 5:13 NASU)
Absolute ignorance!
The one thing that Haman could not obtain spoiled all the pleasure and satisfaction for what he did have. It was this kind of ignorance that the world went astray in the beginning.
The man and woman were placed in such a beautiful garden that was well watered by four branches of the river which flowed through it.
Every tree that was pleasant to look at as well as good for food was there. All these pleasures they were permitted to enjoy.
There was only one tree they could not eat from and that was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So the man and woman passed by all the other trees to concentrate on this one tree. Because of their nearsightedness toward this tree they ate of the fruit and were driven from the garden. How often have we seen this scene repeated?
The centering of our thoughts and desires upon one thing that we can’t have.
One forbidden tree has turned men and women out of the garden of peace and contentment.
One thing not possessed and impossible have spoiled great realities and possibilities.
One unbowed head hides a thousand friendly greetings.
This kind of thing happens in the social and church world. Hearts are filled with bitterness and unrest because, although hundreds of doors are open to people, the one that has the unwelcome sign hung above it is the one we must go through.
It happens in the world of singers and artists, of preachers and prophets. The one dissenting note of criticism causes the praise of others to be out of tune.
Cleopatra, the enchantress of the Nile, cast her spell over Mark Antony and over Julius Caesar; but when she was repulsed by the cold Octavius, afterward she put the asp to her heart.
So it goes in life that souls brood over one act of discourtesy and unkindness. They are displeased because one apple of their eye could not be reached.
The wiser thing to do is to rejoice in what you have and waste no tears of longing or disappointment over forbidden fruit.
Take the positive and forget the negative. Think about those who love you and forget about those who don’t.
Shakespeare had Hamlet say this, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." This is only a half truth because there are things which are bad no matter what you think about them.
Yet it is true that things in themselves trivial and insignificant, dwelt upon and brooded over, for any length of time shall assume great and terrible proportions which are unreal.
THE FOOLISHNESS OF REVENGE
The second truth that is written as if on a billboard on that body of Haman hanging on the gallows prepared for Mordecai is the foolishness of revenge.
It was bad enough for Haman to allow the slight by Mordecai to be put upon him and overshadow all that he had and had accomplished for King Xerxes, as well as destroy his peace of mind.
But what followed was much worse. His wounded vanity and pride brought forth hate, and hate brought forth revenge, and attempted revenge brought forth degradation, ruin, and death.
Haman had planned to revenge himself on Mordecai alone, but conceived and brought forth the worst and most dangerous plot against the people of Israel that the world had ever seen until the days of Hitler and the terrible concentration camps where Jews perished by the hundreds of thousands.
He planned to destroy Mordecai; but Mordecai was to perish in a massacre which would take the life of the whole Jewish people.
With this in mind Haman went to the king and, without giving the name of the people, said to him, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain. If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed." (Esther 3:8-9 NASU)
Xerxes was probably quite drunk, and probably didn’t even check to see who these dangerous people were, but took his signet ring and gave it to Haman and told him to get out his decree of mayhem and destruction and sign and stamp it with the royal ring.
This Haman did and sent it out to all the far flung reaches of the Persian Empire by the fastest horses and couriers he had at his disposal.
“To destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.” (Esther 3:13 NASU)
Then Haman well pleased with himself and the ease with which he persuaded the king to go along with his plot of conspiracy, "the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in confusion." (Esther 3:15 NASU)
Now enters the unnamed actor, the final authority on all human events, that GOD whose name is not spoken or written in this book.
Moved by the earnest appeal of Mordecai, who told her that she had come to the kingdom for such a time as this that she might deliver her people from death, Esther, not asked or sent for, went into the presence of Ahasuerus to plead for her people.
When she touched the top of the scepter which was in the hand of the king, he said to her "What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given to you."
Esther did not ask the king right away what her chief request was instead she asked the king to have Haman come for a banquet she had prepared.
Haman was the only other man besides the king who was invited. But as he left from the banquet proud and happy, with a swagger in his walk and a smile in his heart, he was going down the steps of the palace, he saw something that cast gloom and despair on his evening and stole all his joy and happiness.
It was that Jew Mordecai who did not rise to greet him or salute him as he passed.
When he got home that evening he blew a gasket. Complaining to all his friends and his wife that this Jew Mordecai refused to bow before him every time he passed him leaving the king’s gates. "What good is for me to be as wealthy and powerful as I am if this Jew does not bow to me."
Unfortunately Haman had a wife, Zeresh, who suggested to him the next step in his downfall and ruin.
She was a wife like Jezebel, who, when Ahab came home complaining that Naboth would not sell him the vineyard he wanted she told him to charge him with false charges have him stoned so he could take possession of the vineyard.
She was like Macbeth’s wife, who said to the hesitating soldier, "Infirm of purpose, lend me your dagger."
So Zeresh said to Haman, "Who are you? Aren’t you the Prime Minister of Persia? Are you not second in command to the King? Yet you allow this little Jew spoil your happiness! This is what you need to do. Build a gallows seventy-five feet high and then ask the King for permission to hang Mordecai. Then tomorrow you can go singing into the second banquet."
Haman said "That is just what I will do." So he called his carpenters together to have the gallows built that very night, seventy-five feet high.
That night the city resounded with hammers as the gallows were being prepared for the hanging of Mordecai. But now here is a very important sentence in this book where the name of GOD is not mentioned.
This great sentence showing GOD’S providence: "That night the King could not sleep."
Had it been the night before or the night after everything would have been OK Mordecai would have been hanged and the Jews destroyed.
But it was this night that the king could not sleep. In his restlessness he had his secretaries bring him the history of his reign and read it to him so that he could be entertained and possibly fall asleep.
But he came to a part where two of his princes had conspired against him to kill him, but Mordecai had overheard them and reported it to the king and saved his life.
As he listened the king became rather interested and had them read that part again. He asked when he heard that a second time if anything had been done to honor this man for saving his life. He was told nothing had been done.
The king’s sleepless night had now turned into morning and the sun was rising over the Ulai River, the scented groves of the garden and the palaces of Shushan.
A messenger came to the king to announce that Haman had come early to ask for permission to hang Mordecai.
When he heard that Haman was there, he had him come in. When Haman came in the king said to him, "I had trouble sleeping last night. So I had the history of my kingdom read to me. I learned of a man who did me a great service and I would like to honor him for his service. You have some good ideas. What would you suggest for honoring this man?"
When Haman heard this he immediately thought to himself the king wants to honor me. "This is what I would do for the man of honor your majesty. Bring forth a royal robe and the royal crown and have the man wear the royal robe and crown and put him on the King’s horse. Then have one of the princes lead the horse through town calling out the man’s name so that everyone in the community will know the King is honoring this man."
The king looked at the calm, cool, and collected Haman for just a moment. It shall be as you have said. You shall be the prince and Mordecai the man of honor.
When the parade was over a dejected Haman returned home, humiliated, and frightened. His wonderful wife and friends were there to support him telling him he was in for it now. I told you that you should leave Mordecai alone.
Haman went with a heavy heart to the second banquet trying to have a stiff upper lip, but when he got there the boom was lowered on him by Queen Esther.
She told the king of the plot by Haman to have her people destroyed. The king outraged ordered for Haman to be put to death.
As they were leading Haman away they asked how he should be put to death. "He built a seventy-five foot gallows for the hanging of Mordecai, hang him there." said the king.
And that was the end of Haman. There was how the workman going early to the vineyard came upon a body swinging in the morning wind with the vultures hovering overhead.
Such was the reaction of Haman’s revenge.
The slight that Mordecai put upon him, passed over ignored, would have allowed him to live and die in peace and honor. Wounded pride and vanity are always a danger. They not only dim the light of the SON, but tempt to sin.
In 1800 the Democrats – or Republicans as they were known then – put Jefferson and Burr on the ballot as their choice to lead the nation as president, and the second highest vote getter in the electoral college would then become vice-president because they only voted for president then. Jefferson and Burr each received seventy-three votes each. This sent the election into the House of Representatives.
On the thirty-sixth ballot, Jefferson was elected president, and Burr became vice-president.
One of the determining factors of the defeat of Burr was the influence of Alexander Hamilton with the Federalists, who held the balance of power in the House.
Hamilton wrote letters in which he said that Burr had "Formed himself upon the model of Cataline." In a letter to Bayard of Delaware, Hamilton wrote, "I could scarcely name a discreet man of either party in our state who does not think that Mr. Burr the most unfit man in the United States for President."
Because of what he said about him and also because of what he said in 1804, for the governorship of New York, Burr determined to get his revenge and called Hamilton out. But that fatal shot that ended Hamilton’s life on the "tragic shores of Weehawken" also ended the career and happiness of Burr. Burr spent the remainder of his life a fugitive and vagabond on the face of the earth.
Later Burr admitted it would have been wiser for him to have taken the sensible view that the world was big enough for both Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.
"Behold how great a matter a little fire starts." Malice blots out life’s perspective. Woe to him who spreads his sail out to that wind. Wise was the apostle who said: "BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." (Ephesians 4:26-27 NASU).
The person who harbors ill feelings toward another is doing what Haman did, giving "a foothold to the devil."
Jesus taught us a far better way when He said, "You have heard that it was said, ’YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45 NASU)
