“Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.  But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.”  Esther 7:3-4

The gallows that Haman ordered to be built on which to hang Mordecai we assume was constructed right away.  That following night, the king could not sleep and asked for the book of records to be read before him.  He discovered that it had been Mordecai who had reported the two chamberlains who were plotting to kill the king.  One would think the king would have enquired about that when the two were caught.  He wanted to know what had been done for Mordecai to reward him for this great deed and was told that nothing had been done for this hero.  Later, Haman came to speak to Ahasuerus to get permission to hang Mordecai on the gallows.  The king asked him what should be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor.  Well, of course, Haman assumed that it was himself of whom the king was referring.  Haman said that he should be given royal attire and a crown to wear and a horse to ride upon throughout Shushan.  The king agreed and told Haman to arrange it, and then Ahasuerus shocked Haman by telling him to prepare all of this royalty for Mordecai.

Can you imagine what was going through the mind of Haman about now?  He was going to have to participate in honoring his archenemy.  Mordecai was supposed to die this day, not ride on a beautiful horse wearing royal apparel with a crown upon his head.  This was supposed to be for Haman.  This is where assuming gets us into trouble.  However, Haman complied with the king’s command, very grudgingly.  We wonder about how Mordecai felt about all of this attention.  He was just a humble Jew and likely didn’t want this kind of attention, but he, too, couldn’t refuse the king’s orders.  I doubt that Mordecai took any pleasure in this humiliation of Haman.  Jesus said in Matthew 23:12 that whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but Haman didn’t appear to learn this lesson.  After the parade, Haman returned home disgusted and sickened by how he had to serve Mordecai.  He told his wife and friends about the entire event.  However, his wife and friends gave him some advice that they should have given him to begin with:  if Mordecai is truly a Jew, then you will not prevail against him, but you will be the one to fall before him.  In a short while, chamberlains came to escort Haman to Esther’s second banquet.

Again, Ahasuerus asked Esther what it was that she desired.  She finally gave him the reason why she had been arranging these two banquets.  She was very respectful of the king and informed him that she and her people were to be slain.  She continued by saying that if instead they were to be sold into slavery, she would have kept quiet.  After all, slavery and bondage were nothing new to the Jewish people.  The king became very upset and asked her who and where was this person who dared to do such a thing.  By his response, Ahasuerus must have been very far removed from the daily administration of his kingdom.  Did he not remember the decree for which Haman asked? (3:7-11)   He had given his signet ring to make the decree official.  How could this king not remember that his right-hand man, Haman, had received his permission to do whatever he desired to an entire nation of people?  Also, this is apparently the first time that Ahasuerus discovered that Esther was Jewish, but it didn’t seem to concern him that she had kept that secret.

Esther identified the adversary and enemy as “this wicked Haman”.  Can you imagine the fear that came over Haman?  Did his mind go back to what his wife and friends had said to him earlier that day that he would be the one to reap what he had sown?  The king was apparently so furious that he went out into the garden to cool off.  It seems to me that Ahasuerus bore some of the guilt for he signed off on this plan to annihilate an entire population of people in his kingdom without even questioning as to who these people were, and why was Haman so intent upon punishing them.  Surely, he was now questioning how he could have been so reckless and trusting of a man who was so evil.

When the king returned into the palace, Haman had fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was reclining.  It was not unusual to recline at banquets in ancient times.  It could be that Haman, in approaching the queen to beg for his life, tripped and fell upon the bed.  I can’t imagine him thinking that she would be more favorable to him if he was on her bed.  When the king saw Haman on Esther’s bed, he assumed that Haman was going to sexually attack her.  He asked Haman, “Will you force the queen also before me in the house?”  By this time, servants had apparently been called, had come, and placed a veil over Haman’s head and took him away.  One of the king’s chamberlains told the king that Haman had built a 75-foot-tall gallows on which he planned to hang Mordecai.  Ahasuerus ordered Haman to be hanged instead.  Those who are filled with hate will be destroyed by it.  Haman discovered that the hard way.

Next time:  God has rescued His people once again.