We begin chapter six as we left chapter five...with insomnia. We have two men who cannot sleep that night, the night that began Nisan 17: Haman and Achashverosh.
1That night sleep deserted the king, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, be brought in and read before the king.
The literal Hebrew for the first part of this verse was “the sleep of the king was shaken”.
I’m sure that all of us have had our nights of being able to not sleep peacefully, for a variety of reasons. Back in the day, when I worked full-time as an educator, I never slept well before the first day of school. Never. It was not that I was unprepared or fearful, but rather the anticipation of greeting the students and in some cases their parents, on this momentous day of the school year.
We are on the cusp of Thanksgiving Day, here in real, live time. Doubtless, some hostesses-with-the-mostesses will likewise be wakeful.
The scriptures are not explicit as to why the king was unable to sleep. However, the commentators have their conjectures about this. Here are some of the thoughts that likely could have been running through his mind:
Some say he had a nightmare about Haman trying to kill him with a sword. That seems a bit “out there”, but it is not unreasonable to think the king might have been mulling over Esther’s actions in inviting Haman to not one, but two banquets with herself and the king. He also might have been turning around in his head her approaching him unannounced, her strange use of pronouns in the invitations - - do you remember? “them” in the first invitation and “him” in the second? We’ve gone over that in a previous teaching. Her refusal (to that point) of telling him her petition. It was all quite strange!
Some say he was fearful he had been poisoned at the banquet earlier that day, and that explained his insomnia. But, that then he reasoned Esther and Haman had eaten the same food...
I wonder if seeing Haman build a 75-foot tall gallows in his backyard had any effect on the king? Surely he had to wonder... “Your majesty, are you aware your vice-regent, Haman, is building a 75-foot tall gallows in his back yard?” The king certainly must have been surprised by this news, as it had just begun construction a mere hours earlier, and Haman had not yet mentioned it...what could Haman be up to?! What could Esther and Haman be up to?!
If you were a monarch in the ANE, you were always looking over your shoulder, because someone was always out to take your power from you. And the larger your empire, the more a monarch had to lose, the greater his potential enemies. I read a Facebook post yesterday about the contributions of the Jewish people to the world. It quoted that great early-American president, John Adams, who was both a tzaddik (righteous man) and an ardent supporter of the Jews.
“In a world that revered the warrior above all others, survival of the fittest was the highest value. If you could get it, you took it. The cost in human life was irrelevant. Judaism introduced the altruistic concept that peace amongst men was preferable to my tribe’s enrichment.”
I don’t think we fully realize today just how different the ancient world was before God called Abraham and began to cull away a people for himself. It was thoroughly pagan and uncivilized, mostly polytheistic and savage.
As a result of his insomnia, the king did something you and I might have done. What do you do when you have a sleepless night? I don’t know about you, but when I have sleepless nights, it does me little good to just continue to lie in the bed. What I have to do is to “press the reset button”, so to speak. I’ll get up and read or surf social media or something else to “reset” my mind. Then, I’ll go lie down and try again. It is usually a successful strategy!
I can think of nothing more boring to read that the civil records of the municipality. In doing genealogical research, I’ve gone to courthouses and seen such books of “chronicles” (which means “happenings” or “events”). They are not great bedside reading!
Again, we don’t know his motivations for choosing this particular strategy. The commentators have theorized other reasons, which I offer as potential context:
He asked that the records be read to him because he might have left an oath unfulfilled.
Because someone might have done an invaluable service and he might be viewed as ungrateful
Vs. 2 and 3
2It was found recorded there that Mordecai had revealed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the door, had conspired to kill King Ahasuerus.
3The king asked, “What honor or recognition has been shown to Mordecai for this?” The king’s servants that attended him replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”
It is not known how this escaped the king’s attention, but obviously there was a communication breakdown somewhere. It’s not a stretch to wonder if perhaps Haman had somehow interfered with the story, so that Mordecai would not receive the recognition and reward he deserved.
Some believe that, by not knowing the facts, and by hearing the story in a distorted form, that Haman had somehow taken the credit for foiling the plot, averting the coup, and that this is why Achashverosh promoted him to such a high position in his kingdom. In other words, Haman allowed this case of “misplaced reward” to occur and never corrected the king’s lack of understanding.
Furthermore, it has been put forward that the king’s chamber attendants knew of this malfeasance and, out of their extreme dislike for Haman, chose this particular place in the book of chronicles of the kingdom, to being reading aloud to their insomniac king.
The next thing that happens in the story is so much more than a coincidence. Instead, it shows the very hand of God. The two insomniacs interact. At that very moment in which the king has an epiphany about Mordecai, the king becomes aware that there is a person in his outer courtyard in the dead of night. Again, this happens on Nisan 17, and this date is going to become increasingly significant in our study...but not quite yet. However, this is “light bulb moment” of the king’s is a huge turning point in the story. AND, this turning point occurs almost dead-center in the middle of the book, as well, which is another significant fact I will expound upon later.
Vs. 4 and 5
4The king said, “Who is in the courtyard?” Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5The king’s servants answered, “Haman is standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him come in.”
Notice the phrase “that he had prepared for him”. It does not show up in the English, but in the Hebrew, the phrase “for him” (lee) can be read two ways, either as the gallows which Haman built for Mordecai OR the gallows which Haman made for himself. One has to wonder if this ambiguity is deliberate....
I will tell you that the Jewish commentaries are very definite in their ideas about this. They aren’t ambiguous at all about it. They say that, despite his evil intent and purposes, the purposes of God Almighty were greater, and that from the very beginning, the gallows was designed for Haman.
Haman is walking to a trap of his own making, and he has no idea. Now, if you were the king, and you had already had your antennae up concerning Haman, would you not wonder why he was standing in your courtyard in the middle of the night? In the king’s mind, “could he have come here to kill me?”
At that point, the king decides to give Haman a test, of sorts, before Haman can say even a word...The king completely ignores Haman’s bizarre nocturnal behavior and poses to him the following scenario. Perhaps, he sees Haman being there so unexpectedly as fortuitous, so that he could establish the facts and test Haman’s loyalty, as well as humble him a bit, that is, “take him down a peg or two”.
Vs. 6
6When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for a man whom the king desires to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor rather than me?”
Surely, Haman was stunned at being summoned, since the king never entertained visitors (even the vice-regent!) in the middle of the night. Accordingy, Haman was almost certainly expecting to be asked, “why are you here in the middle of the night? What is so urgent it cannot wait until morning?” Instead, Haman is asked a question that, from his perspective, came out of left field”, although it does not appear to have caught him off-guard at all.
As to Haman’s answer, it is supremely egotistical and self-absorbed, reflecting his character, or lack thereof. In some versions, we see this phrase, “Haman said in his heart...”
The natural and more reasonable response from Haman might have been, “who are we talking about and what did this man do?” That way, Haman could have tailored his “reward” to the situation. But, no, in his own limited frame of reference, he could conceive of no one the king would want to honor more than he. There was, therefore, no need to ask, as far as Haman could tell.
It has been said that one of the differences between a righteous person and an evil person is that the evil person operates in the domain of his own heart, is led by his heart, which we have been told elsewhere in Scripture is “desperately wicked”, whereas the righteous person keeps his or her own heart in its place. The wicked person is a prisoner to his own riotous emotions, while the righteous one masters them. One of the more famous examples of this is in Psalm 53:1 “The fool says IN HIS HEART there is no God.”
And, his answer was bizarre in its inappropriateness. It reeks of a lack of respect for the position of king. It creates a situation of almost caricature! I’m amazed that Mordecai was not thoroughly embarrassed by it, when it was actually carried out. Let’s look at Haman’s answer more closely.
Vs. 6-9
7So Haman replied, “For the man whom the king desires to honor,
8let them bring a royal robe that the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on his head.
9Then let the robe and the horse be placed into the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them clothe the man whom the king desires to honor and parade him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming, ‘This is what is done for a man the king desires to honor!’”
In this translation, the word “king” appears six times, the biblical number of man. Haman’s bizarre answer has at its essence this: “I want to be king”, or that is how at least King Ahasuerus might have interpreted it. How could he not?! Haman is essentially saying, “give the honoree the king’s things, the king’s crown, and (the king might have inferred...) perhaps even the king’s queen!” It is the direct opposite of submission to God, essentially the rebellion of the very first sin: “I want to be like God. I want to be king of my own life.”
Haman has lost all ability to realize how he is perceived by others. He has become, like most wicked people, a prisoner in his own heart, enslaved to his evil desires.
Vs. 10
10The king said to Haman, “Go quickly! Take the robe and the horse, just as you suggested, for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate! Do not neglect anything that you recommended.”
Why did the king tell Haman to hurry? “Go quickly”, he said. Perhaps he wanted this “test” of Haman conducted prior to that day’s banquet. And, the king also told Haman to adhere to all the details of the plan. It is well-known that, when an evil person is directed to do something he or she does not want to do, corners WILL be cut. The best “mama” example of this is when you tell your child to clean his room. S.M.H. Do our children ever do a good job of that, especially a young child? We mamas almost always had to go back and inspect their work, didn’t we? Why? Usually because the child did not want to do it, wanted to move on to something more exciting or fun as soon as possible. And, so, he or she did “the bare minimum”, if that. LOL
The king wanted to be sure Haman did not cut one single corner in honoring Mordecai. It is suggested by the commentators that he also wanted the public to know that the reward given to someone who reveals a plot against the king is greater even than the reward given to Haman. The result would be, then, that anyone else who revealed a similar plot against the king would be encouraged to reveal it to him. This included the nagging suspicion that some nefarious plot between Esther and Haman was afoot.
Vs. 11 and 12
11So Haman took the robe and the horse, robed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city streets, proclaiming: “This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor.”
12Afterwards, Mordecai then returned to the king’s gate, but Haman rushed to his home, grief-stricken and with his head covered.
What a contrast, after the parade charade was over! The righteous-living Mordecai humbly and faithfully returned to his former position, namely that of the Sanhedrin which convened and made decisions for the Jews, at the king’s gate.
We might think that Haman reacted the way he did because of the ignominy of leading Mordecai through the streets. But, there is a Midrashic story that gives a little more background. It seems that Haman’s daughter was on a rooftop, watching the procession go by. Thinking that it was Haman on the king’s horse and Mordecai leading him, she emptied a chamberpot onto her father’s head! When he stopped and looked up at her, her shock was so great that she lost her balance and fell off the rooftop, thereby killing herself. So, in that context, it is possible he returned to his home grief-stricken and having his head covered in mourning, because he was mourning the loss of his daughter - - which was another “strike” against Mordecai, in Haman’s estimation.
Isn’t that just like the wicked? They frequently blame others for their own shortcomings, mistakes, and outright deliberate sins. They are frequently moving and operating in a distorted reality. Here’s another example of that, from Haman:
Vs. 13
13Haman recounted to his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom you have begun your downfall, is of Jewish descent, you won’t be able to stand against him. In fact, you will certainly fall before him!”
It sounds as though the advisors Haman had invited to his home in verse 10 had hung around to find out the outcome of his going to see the king earlier that day. The word in verse 13 translated “happened” is the Hebrew word “kah-RAH-hoo" which means “a coincidental happening”. Haman did not see any evil omen at all in the “coincidence” that his going to see the king about getting Mordecai hanged had collided with the king deciding to honor Mordecai. However, it appears that Zeresh and the advisors had a firmer grip on reality. His friends became advisors, “wise men” in some translations, who knew this juxtaposition of events was no coincidence. Mordecai’s “star” was ascending, and with him, the Jews. And, they saw that Haman’s “star” was on the wane, on its way down, by comparison. After all, when he had left that morning, he had left as the vice-regent of the empire, once invincible, yet he returned in a mere few hours covered in human waste, acquired while performing the duties of a stable boy, a very vulnerable state. They spoke prophetically.
If Haman found their advice concerning, the Scriptures do not say. But, surely he must have! Yet, we are told this in verse 14, to end the chapter.
14While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came and hurried Haman along to the banquet Esther had prepared.
So, a lot can happen in a matter of a very short period of time. By the time for Esther’s second banquet, on Nisan 17, Haman is no longer the trusted confidante of the king, no longer his “drinking buddy” that we saw in chapter 3. Through his own actions (as well as Esther’s actions) the king has become highly suspicious of him.
The table is set and the wine is poured for the second banquet, as this portentous date of Nisan 17 continues to unfold. Will Esther be able to do what needs to be done, without getting herself killed in the doing of it? We’ll continue our study in chapter 7, next week.
Speaking of banquets, here in America we are in the middle of Thanksgiving Week, with cooking of the bird upon us. If you have not thawed your turkey by this point, it is likely too late, I’m sorry to tell you. I want to wind up my time with you this week by sharing some thoughts on this very American holiday.
There is a movement afoot in our country to diminish the importance of Thanksgiving Day, and it seems it might be because as a people we have become less thankful. It used to be that the December holiday décor did not make its appearance until after Thanksgiving. Around here, I saw people starting before the end of October! It just seems to get earlier and earlier! Abraham Lincoln was wise enough to declare Thanksgiving Day a national holiday during his tenure as our country's 16th president.
Why is it important to have a recognized national day of thanksgiving? I believe it is important to remind ourselves as a nation and as a body of believers of the apostle Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
16Rejoice always,
17pray constantly,
18in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Messiah Yeshua.
19Do not quench the Spirit,
20do not despise prophetic messages,
21but test all things, hold fast to what is good,
22keep away from every kind of evil.
One of my most enduring memories of the Thanksgiving season is from my childhood. I had (and still have) a beloved aunt, now 96, who lived with her preacher husband and four sons in Huntington, WV. Many years, we would travel there from Georgia, to celebrate Thanksgiving. I remember one year that my cousin, Paul, and I went bike-riding. I thought Huntington was a very exotic and exciting place. One of the reasons was that my cousins lived in a "vertical house" - - basement, main floor, second floor and, wonder of wonders, attic! (We lived in a ranch with a creepy, dirt floor basement at the time.) Another reason was the cobblestone streets in their neighborhood. They were beautiful but, when you tried to ride your bike over them, they nearly beat you to death! It was a rough ride!
I've mentioned before that I have spent some other "Thanksgivings" feeling ... not so thankful. Perhaps this was true of you this year. Perhaps this Thanksgiving and upcoming Hanukkah season is for you "a rough ride".
In contrast to the happy Thanksgiving memory I described above, the Thanksgiving Day of 1997 was not so idyllic. In fact, it was awful. My father had died less than a week prior, and we spent Thanksgiving Day, my mother, brother and sister and I, not enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving meal, but instead writing thank-you notes to those friends and loved ones who had sent flowers to my father’s service, two days earlier, and eating funeral food leftovers with what little appetite we had.
While Thanksgiving Day is a cherished holiday, when many of us intentionally gather to thank God for each other and for our other many blessings, God makes it plain in His word that we should be thankful daily in ALL circumstances. (Example:1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
This, frankly, seems crazy, does it not? (Yeah, I mean, Psalm 92:6 ESV says "the fool can't understand this"). It's a tall order, for sure.
Almost every day, for a person my age, I learn of a friend or loved one or friend-of-a-friend, who has received devastating news. How does one thank God for that? When one does not feel at all thankful?
The secret is . . . praise, even if it is "forced praise", praise you don't feel like giving, a focus on the Almighty when you'd rather focus on yourself and your challenges in this life.
To quote Dr. Michael Youssef - - - {underlines are mine}
"Oh, you may begin your praise out of a sense of duty. You may come to God only out of obedience and begin praising Him without having a completely thankful heart. But once you start praising God, you cannot continue for long without that negative spirit breaking. I have seen this happen over and over again in my own life. No matter how bleak or sad my circumstances, I am uplifted as I praise the Lord. As I honor God for who He is and for the glorious things He has done, my eyes are opened to God’s abundant provision and blessing."1
Nowhere in the Psalms or other places in Scripture where we are commanded to give thanks and praise to God do we find "if and when we 'feel' it". What and how we feel is irrelevant, in this matter.
We are commanded to DO it. And, the harder it is do it, the louder we should do it. Often in the Bible people who were "getting serious" with God were LOUD about it. Prime example: Mordecai in his sackcloth and ashes, mourning loudly through the streets of Shushan.
Almost in every case when someone gets bad news they ask, "please pray for me". Of course, what they are requesting is that we pray and enlist others to pray that the adverse circumstances will change, just as the early Christians prayed for Peter to be released from prison. That is right and good! (May we have more faith in praying than that group of early believers did, because when Peter showed up at the door after being released, they were surprised to see him!)
However, let me encourage you as you pray, to begin with praise.
Isaiah is a good example for us here. In his book, chapters 15-24, he is prophesying woe upon woe upon woe on practically every nation in his part of the world. But, in chapters 25 and 26, he just stops . . . and praises the LORD! Isaiah 25:1 (NIV) - -
O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.
I love how Isaiah declares the truth that God is perfectly faithful - - not sometimes faithful, but perfectly faithful! And, Isaiah praises God for the marvelous things He is going to do! Furthermore, our loving God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Nothing that He allows to touch us surprises Him in the least.
Praise is, then, the appropriate first step in our praying. When we begin by praising God, our thankfulness then follows as the Holy Spirit fills us up with Himself. In the middle of his anguish David "got" this. He was one who praised loudly. Note what he proclaimed in Psalm 69:30 (ESV) - - - -
I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
If you are currently fallen at the feet of our Savior, grabbing onto His feet and ankles with all you have in you, begging for a change in your circumstances, hold on tight as you begin to praise him. Your pain and your fear are real. He hears you!
Remind us of the sword You have already placed in our hands, the weapons you have already given us to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). As we swing the weapon of prayer, may we always begin with reminding ourselves of how perfectly faithful and loving and good You are. Thank you for the marvelous things you are doing and will continue to do in and through us, Lord! In Jesus' name, amen.
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