Esther Lesson 12: The Enemy of The Jews Is the Enemy of God 

Chapter 7: 1-10

“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.“

When we ended last week, Haman was having a bad day. He had been commanded to honor Mordecai, his hated adversary, and then he went home only to have his wife tell him that things will not go well for him. The walk or ride to this banquet must have been one of the longest and stressful journeys of his life, and it probably ended too soon. Haman then had to walk past or ride past Mordecai again as he entered the palace. In verse 12 of the previous chapter, we see that Mordecai went back to his position at the gate once the parade and festivities were over for his tribute for saving the king’s life. So Haman had to go past him to get into the meeting with the king and queen.

• Haman’s Last Supper verses 1-6

I hope that Queen Esther made something that Haman liked. We don’t know if she prepared the meal herself or had her helpers do it; nonetheless, the banquet was set, the two most important people in Persia were before her, and she was about to make her petition to the king. We get the impression from the reading that the king got to the point, but the Bible often skips the time and ‘small’ things for the big picture. They may have had a good meal, enjoyed some banter, and were maybe at the dessert stage before this conversation that we have here transpired.

Finally, the time comes to get to the point, and the king begins by once again confirming his love for Esther. He tells her that she can ask for anything, even half his kingdom, and he will grant it. This was not to be taken literally, but rather it is to be shown as a sign of his affection for her. This was the basis for Esther to plead, and God made sure that she was in the right place at the right time under the right circumstances to make a difference.

Esther made a personal request to the king and still did not reveal herself as a Jew. She was well taught by Mordecai, and even in this very stressful situation, she was very tactful and careful in how she framed her words and request. If you go back to Esther 3:8, Haman also hid the name of the people that he was targeting to kill on behalf of the king. I cannot imagine what Haman was feeling when he heard Esther and knew that she was a Jew, the king loved her, and he had petitioned the king to kill her. Wow! His day just went from bad to worse, and the prophecy from his wife in chapter 6:13 that he would not prevail against Mordecai must have been ringing in his ears like a gong.

In verse 4, Esther makes an amazing statement; she was well-spoken and understood the hand of God. The Jews had been in slavery for hundreds of years in Babylon, even after the liberation that began under Cyrus. When the initial invasion took place in Daniel 5, many of the Jews remained in Babylon and served the king of Persia. Many like Mordecai had attained great positions of leadership, but a large part were still slaves.

Esther was willing to accept slavery; she makes that clear in verse 4. ‘Had we been sold into slavery, the king would have suffered loss, but I could accept that.’ She points out that the Jews were very valuable to the king of Persia, and no amount of money could compensate for their value as people and servants. She could have lived as a slave, but the idea of death and annihilation was going too far, and this was the basis for her petition: ‘King, my husband, the one who loves me so much and is not ashamed even here to show it, please save my life.’

• The Wrath of a King, verse 5-7

Once the enemy, Haman, was revealed, we do not know who the king was madder at, Haman or himself. As much as Haman was the instigator, his evil plan could not have been carried out without the king’s help and authority. What we do know is that Haman was about to suffer the wrath of king Ahasuerus. In Proverbs 20:2, we find this verse,

“The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion; Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life.”

Well, make no mistake, Ahasuerus had been provoked to anger, and he was about to set this right for the woman he loved, which means that Haman was about to forfeit his life. There is another verse that will show what was about to happen; one was about to suffer the king’s wrath and one the king’s favor. See Proverbs 19:12,

“The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like dew on the grass.”

Haman was about to meet the roaring lion, and Esther was going to enjoy the dew on the grass. We are not familiar with this kind of power in many cases today. Most of our political leaders cannot order the death of citizens without a trial and court case. But in this time, the king had the power of life and death in his hand and mouth. Jesus will have this kind of power and rule when He returns. He will have absolute power and reign in perfect judgment. There will not be any court of appeals in Jesus’ reign; His word will be final and His judgments perfect.

Poor Haman was now in a position where he was the hunted and not the hunter. He was the endangered and not the endangerer. It is amazing how he was now going to plead for mercy to the queen when he was working to kill the Jews just a few days ago. This man was not going to go gracefully into that good night. He was going to go kicking and screaming. The king returns from contemplating his anger and position to find Haman in the process of pleading to the queen for mercy, the mercy he was not willing to extend to others.

The Bible tells us that those who show mercy will be shown mercy. Haman was not a merciful man, and his family members were not merciful people. Recall that it was his wife who suggested they build the gallows. She would live to regret that. However, Haman was found sprawled across the queen’s couch and near her; this was not allowed. This was the king’s wife, and no man who was not a eunuch was allowed near her. The very angry king walks in on what appears to be an assault on the queen by the man who has schemed to kill her and her people. It is not until chapter 8 that the Jewishness of the Queen is revealed. In Jewish writing, they claim that Gabriel the Archangel pushed Haman so that he fell into the queen.

• The Gallows, verse 7-10

This year I have made the commitment to read the book of Proverbs all year, and there are some great verses that one comes across. In Proverbs 26:27, we find this verse,

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.”

Well, Haman did not dig a pit; he built the gallows. You may recall from a previous lesson that we explained that the gallows were not like we see in the great Western movies with a platform and a noose. These gallows were large spiked pieces of wood that stood up 50 cubits, about 75 feet into the air. These were visible from the palace. One of the king’s servants, a man named Harbonah, could see the gallows from the palace and suggested they be put to good use to execute Haman, even though he points out that they were made for Mordecai.

Haman had probably imagined watching Mordecai on this pole; he had planned it in his head and maybe even dreamed of it, but never in a million years did he picture himself on it. They took Haman and put him on the gallows for all to see. This was a gruesome death, and it could take a very long time to die. This spike would have traveled slowly up into the body as one wiggled on it, writhing in pain, eventually reaching the brain stem and killing you. The noise of death would have been heard everywhere and would have instilled fear in the minds of all who saw it.

The king’s wrath was appeased, and the enemy of the Jews was dead or dying. But there was still work to be done. Esther was saved, Mordecai would be okay in the king’s court, but the Jewish people in the 127 provinces of Persia were still in grave danger. This had to be dealt with; it was not enough that Esther was safe. ALL of the Jews had to be rescued as well.

We will get to that in the next chapter, but I want to draw a parallel from this to our lives today. There are many of us people who have been saved by Jesus. We have heard the Gospel and placed our faith in Him only for salvation and the washing away of our sin debt to God. Like Esther, we are saved from death, but unlike Esther, we do not make the news known to others. We are not telling others that Jesus will save them as well. Esther could have reveled in her safety and not cared about the rest of the Jews. But this could not be; Mordecai had instilled in her a sense of responsibility, and she had taken that even at the risk of her life. We need to take responsibility for the people around us that need Jesus and take the offer of salvation to them.

We, the children of the Lord God, have mortal enemies on earth. The most notable enemy is Satan, and he fights against us all the time. But in his service are many humans like Haman who hate the people of God and long to eradicate them. We are seeing this hatred more and more from some of our political leaders in both the US and Canada. There are laws being passed to limit speech, and there are laws being passed to make some of the Bible illegal to teach and preach. This puts us in the crosshairs of Satan’s minions, and soon we, like Esther and Mordecai, will find ourselves in grave danger. God will be our defense, and those that attack us are attacking God.

There is a possibility that we will be hurt and even killed for the name and cause of Jesus Christ. But God may send an Esther and a Mordecai to help us. We need to be faithful to Him in either situation. The apostle put it this way to remind us we are in a battle all the time: Ephesians 6: 10-13,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

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Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Chapter 6:1-14

“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.“

There is a song out right now by Toby Mac called “Help is on the Way.” One of the lines in the song is, “It may be midnight or midday, He’s never early and never late.” This is the testimony of how perfect God’s timing is; He is never early and never late. As we explore this passage here in Esther, we will see that God always has the upper hand, He is never caught off-guard, and He is always several plays ahead of any man and certainly ahead of Satan. God allows things to seemingly go unnoticed for His timing, for His glory, and for His purpose. If you recall, back in chapter 2:21-23, Mordecai found out that two of the king’s servants wanted to kill the king.

“In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.”

Mordecai told, and they were executed. The incident was recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Persia, much like we have the chronicles of the kings of Israel in the Bible. The king himself did not know about the incident personally; however, that was all about to change. Esther had made a move, Mordecai had prayed, and the Jews had fasted; God was about to show up and take on the enemy of Israel, Haman. Haman was about to experience the Lion of Judah in a way that he and the whole world would never forget.

• Sleepless Nights, verses 1-4

God knows just when you need a sleepless night. He keeps you up and gets His point across. This was the case with Ahasuerus; he could not sleep this night before the banquet that Esther had proposed. He is pacing the room, and unlike our time where we have TVs and Netflix, the king had the book of the chronicles of Persia read. As the steward was reading, he comes to the event that includes Mordecai and how he had basically rescued the king from an assassination attempt, and the king is astonished that he did not know about it. He is further astonished that nothing had been done to honor Mordecai. This was a serious matter; Mordecai was to be honored for his actions.

It would appear that Haman has a sleepless night as well. He was in the palace, and the king summoned him to get his opinion. It is kind of cool that God did not allow the king to divulge who he was speaking about to Haman. Haman, in his pride, thought that there was no one in the kingdom save he that deserved to be honored, and he went big. He dug down into his bucket list and pulled out all that he wanted for honor. The Bible tells us that pride comes before a great fall (Proverbs 16:18). Many people caught up in pride have no clue that their end has come, and they are not able to see the ‘writing on the wall.’

Haman had no clue that he was about to be destroyed, but before he ever got there, God was going to turn up the heat on him by first making him honor the man he hated the most. I do not think that Haman was unaware of what Mordecai had done. After all, he was closer to the regular folks of the palace than the king.

Haman was filled with himself, and here is the question he asked in his head: “Now Haman thought in his heart, ‘Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?'” It was impossible for Haman to think that anyone other than himself could have deserved any kind of accolades. If it were me, I would want to wear the king’s robe, ride the king’s horse, and have the whole town cheer me on. Haman wanted to be king for a day. I cannot imagine the shock he felt when he was told to take Mordecai, his enemy, and do all these wonderful things to him. Oh, man, talk about your worst day ever!

Haman’s day was not getting off to a good start, and maybe someone not so full of pride may have seen the hints from God that this was not going to turn out your way. But Haman was blind. Pride makes you blind to God’s warning. Pride makes you think that you are above God and that He will never show up to call you out.

• Haman’s reluctant obedience, verse 10-12

Haman would have honored anyone other than Mordecai. But he did what he was told and obeyed the king. He took Mordecai and gave him Haman’s dream day. Haman had to watch or maybe even help Mordecai put on the Royal robes, mount the Royal horse, wear the Royal crest, and be paraded in town for all to see and cheer on.

This must have been a waking nightmare for Haman. I cannot imagine how he must have felt thinking that Mordecai, this dirty Jew, was getting all the accolades that he, Haman, deserved. This was supposed to be his best day, and it turned out to be his worst so far. But God has more plans for him, plans that make this day look like a walk in the park. Soon a day would come that would make Haman long for this day. There is a title to a great sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, preached in 1741 by Jonathan Edwards in the US. All too often, we forget that sin is hated by God. We the sinners are loved, but if we refuse God’s love and kindness, if we turn our minds and hearts away from His grace and mercy, then we are left with an angry God who hates sin, and we have to suffer the consequences.

Haman was not an idiot. He knew the history of the Jews, and he knew that no army, no nation, and no one had ever successfully eradicated the Jews. They thrived even in captivity and prospered in every nation they lived in. The same happens to this day in 2021. Haman knew that he was shaking his fist at the God of Israel, but he was too filled with pride to realize that he could not win. If you mess with the Jews, you are messing with God. Do not provoke God; you cannot win. Haman was about to find that out; sadly, his education would be at the University of The Hard Way.

In contrast, Mordecai was still in mourning, and he was reluctant as well in receiving the accolades. We are told that as soon as the ordeal was over, he went back to mourning. The issue at hand was more important than some swanky trip down the middle of town wearing clothes and riding a horse that he did not own. It was just pretend. Mordecai had the life of a nation to deal with, and he needed to be back praying and fasting for the safety of his people and asking God to help. Mordecai may not even have known that God was already working, that the situation with Haman and the parade was all a part of God’s plot, and ‘the game was afoot’ as Sherlock Holmes would say.

• Others can see the end, verse 13-14

Remember, a few moments ago, I mentioned that pride blinds us to the dangers around us. Well, it would appear that everyone in Haman’s household understood what was happening. They could see the handwriting on the wall. His wife, upon finding out what happened and that Mordecai was a Jew, immediately drew the conclusion that Haman was in big trouble. They knew that he would not prevail against the Jews. These word from verse 13 must have haunted him all the way to the palace:

“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.'”

Let me say that this proclamation is just as true today. We need to be very careful when we elect political leaders regarding where they stand on the relationship with the nation of Israel.

The Abrahamic Covenant from Genesis 12:1-3

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'”

This covenant predates the Law, and it has not been ended by Jesus’ New Covenant. As well, if you take a look at Genesis 15, you will see that God makes a covenant with Himself to preserve and protect Israel. Abraham was asleep for the whole ceremony. God, Yahweh, is the protector of Israel. Over the centuries, God has allowed and, in fact, has used other nations to punish Israel. From the Philistines to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and yes, even the Germans in the modern era were used by God, but they could not destroy the nation. They were only allowed to go so far in the matter of harming Israel. Haman was not even going to get there. He was going to be squashed like a flea, and God would bring great victory.

That trip to the palace would have gone by quickly, and he reluctantly went to the banquet not knowing what would happen next, but with a foreboding sense that all was not well in ‘Hamanville.’ Just to refresh your memory, no one knew that Esther was a Jew, and in obedience to Mordecai, she had kept her heritage a secret. Add to that the fact that Ahasuerus loved Esther, and Haman had been checkmated by God before the game was even begun. Haman was about to fall into the hands of an angry God.

What about you and me? Do we defy God? Do you defy God’s love and reject the loving sacrifice of His Son? Then you, too, one day will fall into the hands of the angry Living God, the same one who took down Haman. Repent; the end is near. Jesus is the ONLY WAY of salvation for all men everywhere (Acts 4:12).

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca