Esther 7-8 The Fall
Esther is leading up to telling the king about her heritage and Haman. The fall of Haman is only moments away; on two fronts.
Esther has been hiding her heritage everyone since coming to live with her uncle. It’s time that secret is broken. A time and a place for every purpose under Heaven. This is the time and the place. Haman will be undone by Esther’s revelation. Let’s rejoin our story as the king and Haman go to Esther’s second feast. Lead on Holy Spirit. I want to follow.
♥ ♦ ♥
Knocking resounds on Haman’s outer door. As the door is opened, Haman hears his name being called. He turns from his friends and goes to the source of the sound. The king’s eunuch stands outside the door waiting.
“It is time for Queen Esther’s banquet. You will come with me now.”
Haman looks back at his friends briefly, then goes with the king’s servant to the place where the queen is waiting. He tries his best to forget about the morning’s activities.
The two men walk in companiable silence until Haman is placed before the king.
“Haman. The queen awaits. Let’s not keep her waiting any longer.”
Haman bows and follows Ahasuerus to the banquet room. Esther waits inside the door and welcomes them both.
“I pray that you enjoy the feast I have prepared for you this day. And, thank you my king for inviting me to dine with you.”
Ahasuerus escorts Esther to her couch and then takes the one next to hers. Haman takes the one on the other side of the king. The servants wait until all are settled before bringing the dishes for the guests. Great food and wine abound. Esther is careful to drink only a tiny portion of wine, and she nibbles at her food. Her stomach is in an even bigger knot today. She silently prays for the right words to say to the king, when the time is right.
After the meal has been consumed, the men lay back on their couches. “An excellent feast my dear, but I don’t think I better make this a daily ritual. I won’t be able to fit through the door after a month of eating like this” Ahasuerus laughs.
Haman nod along with the king.
“I am glad that it pleased you both.” Esther tells herself that it’s not time yet.
Ahasuerus raises his goblet to the servant for more wine. When it is filled, he turns to look Esther in the eye. “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled” (Esther 7:2).
“Now” Ester says to herself. She carefully answers the king. “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king” (Esther 7:3-4).
Ahasuerus eyes widen in surprise before turning to the hardened steel of anger. “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”
“Here is comes” thinks Esther. “The king will either support me and my people or Haman.” To the king, Esther answers; “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” (Esther 7:6) Esther says while raising her chin towards Haman.
Ahasuerus nearly throws himself from his couch. He storms from the room and goes into his garden. Here he paces while he considers the problem. Anger is boiling in his heart. How did he let Haman convince him to kill Esther’s people. He cannot lose Esther. But what should he do about the scheming Haman.
From the look on the king’s face as he left the room, Haman KNOWS that he is as good as dead; if the queen doesn’t intercede on his behalf.
Haman comes to kneel by Esther’s couch. “I did not know that you were a Jew, my queen. I never would have made such an edict, had I known.”
“You are angry with ONE man, yet you decide to annihilate an entire people for your own pride’s sake.”
“You saw the king’s face. He is going to have me killed; for something I didn’t know about!”
Esther says nothing. Her eyes are hard and her lips are firmly shut.
“Please! My queen! Intercede on my behalf with the king. He will spare my life if you ask him to” Haman continues.
Esther still says nothing.
The king is composing himself in the garden. He is ready to go back in and answer the queen’s request. As he enters the room, Haman, in a desperate move to convince the Esther to save him, falls across the foot of her couch and grabs her feet in supplication.
The control the king fought so hard to gain in the garden slips from his grasp at the sight of Haman falling all over the queen.
“Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” (Esther 7:8) roars the king.
One of the servants in the room immediately takes a cloth and covers Haman’s face. He too knows that this man is as good as dead. Harbona, the king’s eunuch, who has been looking on throughout all that has transpired speaks up.
“Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high” (Esther 7:9b).
Haman wants to ask how Harbona knows this, but knows it will serve him no purpose. Instead, he hears as the king pronounces his sentence and method of execution.
“Hang him on that” (Esther 7:9c) Ahasuerus orders.
Harbona and the other servant in the room seize Haman and begin dragging him from the room. As they near the door, where the king stands, Ahasuerus grabs Haman’s hand and rips his signet ring from his hand.
As he is being taken from the room, Haman tries to resist, but the king’s eunuchs are strong. They are the king’s bodyguards and stronger than any three men. Haman has no choice but to accompany them. He is pushed, pulled, dragged and carried all the way to the gallows he had build just one day ago.
Haman cries out as he is taken to the top of his gallows. “I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”
Esther and the king watch from the balcony as Haman is hanged on his own gallows. As the noose is yanked tight by the weight of Haman’s body falling through the air, Esther turns her face and buries it in Ahasuerus chest. He wraps his arm around her protectively and watches until Haman’s body is completely still. His wrath is satisfied.
The king lifts Esther’s face towards his with a gentle finger. “I give you the house of Haman and all his worldly goods. Now explain to me the length and breadth of this matter.”
“I am a Jew; one of the people Haman set his heart on wiping from the face of the earth. He was enraged by Mordecai, the Jew. He did not bow to him or tremble before him when he walked by. Instead of dealing with Mordecai, he sought to kill ALL the Jews in the empire.
This Mordecai is the man you honored just this morning for saving your life. He is also my uncle. He raised me as his own daughter from the age of seven, when my parents died. His father is my father’s brother.”
“Bring Mordecai to stand before me” commands Ahasuerus.
Mordecai is beside the king’s gate when Haman is dragged from the palace. He assumes that this is the work of Esther and the Lord. He watches from his place as Haman is propelled through town. He loses sight of them for a while until the emerge on the huge gallows that stands above the city at the home of Haman. Mordecai KNOWS who the gallows were built for. And he sees who they actually serve.
Mordecai is beyond grateful to the Lord and Esther. He kneels down on the hard pavement and offers praises to the Lord.
“Thank You for watching over my life, Lord God of all Israel. I am but one in a vast family of Yours. Thank You for taking notice of my plight and for saving Your people from that wicked man.”
While Mordecai praises the Lord, Harbona returns to the king and is sent on another errand. He comes to stand beside Mordecai.
“Mordecai, the king wishes to see you. The queen has told him who you are to her as well as to himself.”
Mordicai rises and follows Harbona to the throne room. Mordecai bows before the king as the Lord has set him in authority. When Mordecai rises, Ahasuerus steps down from his throne. He pulls his signet ring from his right hand and holds it out to Mordecai. “Use this wisely. Not like Haman did. For he used it to assuage his own pride and vendettas.”
“I will guard it with my life and use it to grow your kingdom.”
Esther approaches her uncle and hugs him tightly. When she releases him, her face is wet with tears. “Mordecai, my uncle, I give you the house of Haman to rule over.”
Esther weeps for several reasons. She weeps because she no longer had to hide her heritage. She weeps because Haman is no longer a threat to Mordecai. She weeps because the king has elevated her uncle. And she weeps because her people are still not safe from the decree Haman has made.
Esther comes and falls down at Ahasuerus’s feet. She weeps, crying bitter tears over the fate of her people. Ahasuerus holds out his golden scepter towards Esther. She sees it, touches the end of it and rises to stand before the king. With tears still falling down her face, Esther pleads for her people’s safety.
“If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” (Esther 8:5-6).
Ahasuerus shakes his head before answering. “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked” (Esther 8:7-8).
Ahasuerus calls for his scribes. The king gives them instructions as soon as they arrive. “Mordecai is going to give you a proclamation. You are to translate it for all the provinces into their own languages, including the Jews so that they may read it.”
Mordecai and Esther send up quiet prayers for Mordecai as he speaks to the scribe in the king’s name. Ahasuerus is listening in, but says nothing.
“In the name of King Ahasuerus, to the Jews in all the provinces of the empire of Persia. The Jews who are in every city are allowed to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods, on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.”
The king nods his head as he hears the words of Mordecai. The Jews will be able to defend themselves against ALL attackers, but they are not allowed to attack without provocation. Seeing the king’s nonverbal sign of approval, Mordecai seals the edict with the king’s signet ring.
It is already the third month of the year and there are 128 provinces to reach with this message. The king’s swiftest horses are called upon to carry the messengers and the message far and wide. Wherever the message is read, the Jews rejoice. They KNOW that this is the hand of their God, showing them favor once again.
The Jews are so excited about the edict that in many provinces they declare a holyday. Many of the other people in the provinces proclaim themselves Jews, for the fear of the Jews is upon them.
Mordecai is raised up in the service of the king. He is given a royal robe of blue and white, a great golden crown, and an outer robe of fine linen dyed purple. He is hailed by all the city of Susa as second to the king.
(to be continued)
The Jews are safe. The king couldn’t change his original edict, but the second edict gives the Jews permission to strike back; when the day comes.
God has His children SAFE in His hands. Yes, there are hard times, but we are NEVER alone. And, no matter what comes, we are HIS! He works things out in this world according to HIS plan. We have to trust him and be willing to step up and help when He calls us. Esther could probably have ridden the tide in safety in the king’s house, but she was called upon to act. “If I perish, I perish” she said. This is the same attitude Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego had. “I will follow Him, no matter what happens to me.”
Father God, help me have that same attitude when You call me to act. I don’t know if there will be a time when I will be faced with a ‘life or death’ choice, but if I am, hold me tight. Give me the strength to say what Esther said.
