Esther 6:7-12

"And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor. And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered."

Thinking to exalt himself, Haman describes the treatment that he would like, being the man (surely) that the king would delight to honor. He was in for a big surprise!

But what is going on here? For those who are not familiar with the story, Haman was a man in the government of Persia at the time that the Jews were in captivity. Mordecai, a Jewish man, refused to pay reverence to Haman. This was because Haman was an enemy of the Jewish nation. Haman realized that he was being snubbed by Mordecai, and arranged, with the king’s unknowing permission, to have the Jews annihilated. Extra venom was in his heart against Mordecai, however, and he determined to have the man hanged. Intent on his business, Haman entered the king’s chamber determined to secure permission to do the deed.

As he entered the king stopped him short, and asked Haman what he thought ought to be done for the man that the king would delight to honor. Some time before Mordecai exposed a plot to have the king assassinated. The very night before Haman arrived the king could not sleep. So he had the chronicles of the kingdom read to him. When they came to the part about Mordecai saving the king’s life, he asked what honor had been done to Mordecai for his deed. Nothing had been done, and so the king asked his right hand man, Haman, what should be done. So Haman answers, as recorded above.

This very event marks the beginning of the end of Haman. Thinking that he was honoring himself, he found himself honoring the man that the he had intended to hang. The king wanted to honor this man, and so how could he hope to have him hung? Within the day Haman himself was hung on the gallows he had built to execute Mordecai. Before long, Mordecai was in the place in the government that Haman once occupied. The Jews were spared.

The parallels with the LORD Jesus Christ are rich. He was despised and rejected of men. The ones of the government of His day refused to believe that He really was the Messiah. He was rejected by them, and those that were in power arranged to have Him killed. Yet, before His death He was honored by the ones that had rejected Him as He rode on a donkey. He, too, waited outside the gate as scripture tells us in Hebrews 13:12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." It was outside of the city where He suffered for the sin of mankind. Even though He was God, yet He had to wait outside and suffer before He would be exalted. One day He will be glorified on the earth. Philippians 2:9-11 reminds us, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Just as Mordecai was ultimately honored, so will our LORD Jesus Christ be one day honored by all mankind. In this ancient story of the salvation of the Jews from their enemy we see a picture of the plan of God. "They are they which speak of me", Jesus said if the scriptures. And certainly they do.

One of the interesting things about the book of Esther is that there is no mention of any of the names of God. Supposedly, those who compiled the Old Testament many years before Christ even thought to leave this book out for this reason. Yet God’s great hand in the circumstances is unmistakable. It is not the story of a huge coincidence that happened to turn out well. It is the story of God working behind the scenes in what appear to be rather mundane events to bring His will to pass. So the king couldn’t sleep, so he happened to read from that very book that told of what Mordecai had done, so Haman showed up at just the right time to be used to turn his plans on his own head.

This is how God works in every life. We like to see the flashy, He goes for the sublime. And when we see what He has done we are all the more amazed. How great is God!

HJK