Transcript

The following are some examples of irony. In 1990, after 35 years working at Crayola, their retiring CEO, Emerson Moser, revealed that he was colorblind.

A man named Bill Hillman wrote a book called “How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona.” Despite his book being all about how to not be killed by bulls, he died three weeks after the book was released, killed by a bull.

In 2009, the “Guinness Book of World Records” named Jonathan Lee Riches the record-holder for suing the largest number of people. Angrily declaring that the Guinness Book “has no right to publish my work, my legal masterpieces,” he sued them.

Just before being shot and killed, the Governor of Texas’ wife said to John F. Kennedy: “Mr. President, you can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you.”

Q-tips, which are usually bought primarily to clean inside your ears, are sold in boxes that expressly warn: “Do not insert inside the ear canal.”

In 2011, the winners of an elementary school spelling bee in Utah received a trophy reading “Viewmont Spellling Bee, 1st Place,” with the word “spelling” misspelled.

And the most shoplifted book in America is the Bible.

Another example of irony is the demise of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, which we will examine in this message.

Esther 7:1-4: “So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

“And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

“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.”

Haman started this day by anxiously rising early to go to the king to request that Mordecai his enemy, who refused to give him reverence or respect, be hanged on the 75-foot-high gallows he prepared for his death.

Then standing before the king, mistakenly thinking he was to be honored that day by the king, Haman gave the king the recommendations for the great honor that was bestowed upon Mordecai for saving the king’s life years earlier.

Haman was then commanded by the king to array Mordecai in the king’s robe and parade him through the city of Shushan, giving honor to him as they went.

Humiliated by this turn of events, Haman returned home to share what happened with his wife and friends. As Haman did so, there was a knock at his door, and the last verse of chapter 6 reads,

“And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.”

Haman probably thought this day couldn’t get much worse, but it was about to.

Haman had attended a private banquet with the king and queen the day before. At that banquet, Queen Esther asked that the king and Haman attend a second banquet the next day, where she would make a request to the king.

This is what the king’s chamberlains came to Haman’s house to escort him to. Haman went to the banquet with mingled feelings. He was still mortified at the honor given to Mordecai and his part in it, while also proud to be invited to the second banquet.

Verse one of chapter 7 tells us that both “the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther,” as she had requested. And once again, it’s just the three of them: King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, and Haman.

We find the drama heightened at this point in the story. The plot has been filled thus far with guile, danger, reluctance, and bravery.

Haman did not know of the connection between Mordecai and Esther, and it’s important to remember that neither the king nor Haman knew yet that Esther was a Jewess.

As Esther 2:10 states, “Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.”

Esther was in a dangerous position, as she was about to identify herself with a minority group that Haman had represented to the king as subversive and problematic for his kingdom.

And now she was about to accuse his closest adviser of being an enemy and a villain.

If the king was angered at finding out that she was a Jew or if he sided with Haman instead of her, we know he could have had her dethroned and banished as he had done with Queen Vashti, or he could have had her executed with just a word.

Verse two tells us that during the second day’s banquet “at the banquet of wine,” or after the meal and at the time of the banquet when the wine was served, like at the first banquet at this time, the king asked Esther what her petition and request was.

King Ahasuerus again assured her and told of his willingness to grant and perform whatever she desired even up to half of the vast Persian kingdom, which simply meant that he would be generous with whatever her request was.

This is the third time the king asked her what her petition was (5:3,6)! He was having trouble getting a straight answer out of her!

The king asked her what her petition was when she first approached him in the throne room, but she simply asked him to attend a banquet she had prepared.

Then he asked her what her request was at the first banquet, but sensing the time wasn’t right and also by God’s leading, Esther wisely held back and delayed but promised to answer him at this second banquet.

And Esther kept her promise and now she answered him. With great courage, faith, and strength she delivered her petition.

She started with courtesy, making it clear that she wasn’t trying to tell him what to do, in saying, “If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king,”

Esther was very aware that the king might refuse her request and so she was duly cautious and humble.

And then, with great tact, diplomacy, and wisdom, she told the king that her petition was “let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.” She asked the king to spare her life and to spare the life of her people.

She did not just blurt out that “There is a man in your kingdom who plans to destroy all the Jews!” Rather, she appealed on a personal basis, and Esther’s request was directed toward her husband’s heart that his queen was in jeopardy of losing her life.

Esther asked for her life to be spared because she recognized that her fate was the same as theirs. She took Mordecai’s challenge to heart, when he had earlier told her, “Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews” (4:13).

Her life and the life of her people were inseparably joined. She believed that whatever happened to them would happen to her.

The king was probably stunned and perplexed, and it surely took him a moment for this to register and make sense. Who were her people? Wasn’t she a Persian? Why is her life in danger?

Esther continued by stating that “we are sold” which refers to the great bribe of silver that Haman had offered to the king in order to purchase the privilege of wiping out her people.

When Haman convinced the king to allow the decree, he said, “If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

This fact of “the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them” (4:7) had been relayed to Esther by Mordecai earlier.

Esther told the king that she and her people had been sold “to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.” Esther used the language of Haman’s decree here, which read,

“And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, TO DESTROY, TO KILL, AND TO CAUSE TO PERISH, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month…” (3:13).

We see Mordecai’s wisdom in sending her a copy of the actual decree, as it gave Esther’s petition more authority and weight when she was able to recount the words of that decree.

And at this point, Esther revealed that she was a Jew, because the decree was for the overthrow and slaughter of “all Jews.”

Concerning being sold, Esther added that “if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue,” or if all this had just been a matter of her and her people being “sold” into slavery, she would not have said anything, but being “sold” for destruction and slaughter, she could not keep quiet.

If there had been an edict that sold the Jews into slavery, this might have been changed later down the road. But for her people to be annihilated, you cannot undo that, so she had to say something.

Esther added, “although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.” The term “countervail” means “compensate.” Esther added a subtle argument, appealing to the good of Persia and the king’s pocketbook.

She was saying that whether they were sold into slavery or sold for destruction, by losing the Jews the king was being financially damaged and losing a tremendous resource of money and taxes for his kingdom, injuring the king’s revenue beyond the possibility of compensation.

And to lose the Jews also would have caused the king great “damage,” as in losing them and their services he was losing a people who were a great resource and an industrious and productive asset to his empire for which he also could never be fully compensated.

The enemy that desired to destroy the Jews could never pay enough or ever approach the proper compensation for all that the Jews brought to the Persian empire.

Esther was again referring to Haman’s bribe and was telling the king that even ten thousand talents or 750,000 pounds of silver could not be considered as compensation to the kingdom for the loss of a whole nation of people throughout all their generations.

The king had blindly trusted Haman and not given his decree much attention, as Haman had presented it in such a way as a problem being solved for the good of the king and the kingdom, and the king believed Haman knew what he was doing.

But Esther pointed out that the decree was actually to “the king’s damage” and it was in his best interests to do something about it.

Hearing all this, the heart of the silent guest at this dinner must have failed, knowing he had brought about an edict that required the murder of the queen of Persia!

Esther 7:5-7: “Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

“And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

“And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.”

Esther’s petition had a dramatic effect on King Ahasuerus. After Esther’s request, the king answered and demanded to know who it was, who was “the enemy” she spoke of, and where was he, this one who had dared to scheme such a diabolical thing in his heart.

The king wanted to know: “Who would dare to destroy the queen? And who would dare to destroy her people?” The words “durst presume,” or DARE “presume in his heart,” reflected the depths of the king’s emotion here.

It’s hard to imagine that the king did not know or had entirely forgotten who had been responsible for this recently written and published decree for the entire empire.

And Esther 3:15 states that “the decree was given in Shushan the palace.” So Ahasuerus might have asked his questions just to make sure. Even before he heard the name of the enemy from Esther, he might have already known.

But it’s also very possible that the king, in his preoccupied fog of being king, had absolutely no clue who it was, because he trusted Haman implicitly.

The queen had wisely invited Haman to the banquet for just this moment.

After the king asked who it was, with no hesitation, Esther turned and looked at Haman, “And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.”

The king asked, “Who is he, and where is he?” And she answered: “This wicked Haman” who was sitting right there with them at the banquet.

The king’s chief officer, the second-in-command of all Persia, was the adversary and enemy who had plotted the whole thing to destroy all the Jews.

Esther revealed the truth about Haman: that he was not a trustworthy and loyal servant of the king, but that instead, he was an “adversary and enemy,” more concerned with his own interests than the benefit of the king or his kingdom.

Haman was a wicked man who allowed his pride, hatred, rage, and desire for revenge to supersede his devotion to king and country.

After being exposed for who and what he truly was before the most powerful man on the face of the earth, verse 6 states, “Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.” Haman was dumbfounded and terrified.

In 24 hours, Haman’s life progressed from HONOR at being the distinguished guest at Esther’s first banquet, to HUMILIATION at having to give honor to Mordecai and parade him through Shushan, to HORROR at being exposed by the queen as an adversary and enemy by his decree to exterminate the people of the queen.

At this point, verse 7 states, “And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden.”

The king was startled by the turn of events, and he was furious, thus, he stood up from the table and walked out to the palace garden. He needed some time to collect his thoughts before he acted.

He was angry at being manipulated into this decree. But how could he now punish Haman for a decree that he personally approved and had given his ring to create and seal it? So, he needed time to think.

Warren Wiersbe put it well about what was behind his wrath, “Ahasuerus was a man with a short temper, but on this occasion his anger must have been volcanic. His masculine pride was hurt because he had misjudged the character of Haman.

“He had made a fool of himself by promoting Haman and by giving him so much influence. The king had also erred in approving the decree without first weighing all the facts. As a result, he had endangered the lives of two very special Jews: Mordecai, who had saved his life, and Esther, his beloved wife.”

The king stood up and Haman also stood. Seeing the king’s reaction and watching him storm out from the banquet in anger, Haman knew the king was no longer for him but against him and that he was in a precarious situation.

Haman was experiencing the truths of Proverbs 16:14: “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death…” and Proverbs 19:12: “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion…”

Haman found himself standing there with a difficult decision to make, and he had three options available to him. He could try to follow the king into the garden to attempt to reason with him. But that wasn’t a good option because he knew the king was angry and “he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king,” as verse 7 says.

He could try to flee the palace complex, but if he tried, he would probably be stopped, not make it far, or eventually be captured.

So Haman turned to the best possibility left to him: the mercy of the queen. The evil that Haman saw that was determined against him was the doom of his death.

Haman knew that an inescapable death sentence was likely coming, so he hoped Esther might show mercy and intercede for him before the king.

So the man who condemned all Jews to die, then made “request for his life,” to a Jew, “to Esther the queen,” and he begged Esther for his life to be spared.

When the king was for him, Haman strutted about like a peacock: proud, boastful, barking orders, treating others with hatred, malice, and cruelty.

But now that the king was against him, this “big man” suddenly became very small as he reacted with fear and cowardice and groveled at the feet of the queen.

Esther 7:8-10: “Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

“And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.

“So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.”

Proverbs 16:5 states, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” We find that to be the case here with Haman who was definitely proud in heart.

As Haman begged Esther for his life to be spared, in the intensity of his pleading he fell on “the bed” or couch on which Esther was reclining by the table for the banquet.

The timing could not have been any worse for Haman. Just as he threw himself on that couch, the king walked back into the room where the banquet had been held and was shocked to find Haman lying on Esther’s couch.

This sight enraged the king. He viewed Haman’s posture in the worst possible light, and he said, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house?”

The king interpreted it as an assault on his queen. He saw it as an act of violence against Esther, rather than a plea for mercy. And this was the final straw. Haman’s fate was now sealed, and the king waited for no explanation.

Thus, verse 8 reads, “As the word went out of the king’s mouth.” That “word” was the word to punish Haman with death, the word of execution, and as soon as the king said it, the king’s servants “covered Haman’s face.”

This action was done because now he was a condemned criminal who was no longer worthy to look on the face of his king.

Earlier, Haman had covered his own head because of his humiliation in having to honor Mordecai, but now his head and face were covered by others in preparation for his execution.

Word had spread throughout Shushan quickly that day about the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai. This isn’t hard to imagine since this impalement stake was standing at 75 feet, seven-and-a-half stories high, so all could see it in Shushan.

In verse 9, “Harbonah, one of the chamberlains” is mentioned. This man was also mentioned in chapter 1, verse 10, as one of the members of the king’s seven-man council “that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king.”

Harbonah advised the king to “Behold,” or “Look” at the impalement stake which was towering high over his city at Haman’s home.

Harbonah explained to Ahasuerus that Haman had built it for Mordecai, “who had spoken good for the king,” or had done good for the king in saving his life. This was the first that the king heard of Haman’s plan to kill Mordecai.

The death sentence had already been past, but this was just confirmation that Haman was indeed “wicked” as Queen Esther had said. This Jew, Mordecai, had saved the king’s life in the past, and Haman wanted to kill not only Mordecai, but all the Jews.

Charges piled up against Haman. First, he manipulated the king into a plan to kill the queen’s people. Second, he was perceived as having attacked and assaulted the queen. And third, he planned to execute the man whom the king had just honored for saving his life.

Whatever the king wanted was the law. He was the judge, jury, and executioner. Hearing this about Haman’s scheming against Mordecai and the gallows he had built for him told Harbonah to: “Hang him thereon.”

With great irony and by God’s working and providence, Haman lost his life on the very instrument he had enthusiastically prepared for the death of Mordecai. Now, he was condemned to die there instead.

Reminiscent of Haman, Psalm 7:14-16 reads, “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief…He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate [or crown].”

The greatest example of this was when Satan thought that he had won the victory by influencing the religious leaders, working through Judas, and getting the crowd to cry out for Christ’s crucifixion, but the cross turned out to be the instrument of Satan’s defeat.

On this day, Haman had paraded Mordecai through the streets of Shushan, and now he was paraded through the streets with his face covered and taken to the impalement stake at his house.

And as commanded, “they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” Haman’s body was pierced, impaled, and left there to hang on that 75-foot-high gallows, and all Shushan saw the fall and end of Haman.

The progression of Haman’s life in the Book of Esther was: Honored, Humiliated, Horrified, and Hanged.

And instead of Haman’s wrath being “pacified” at the site of Mordecai being hung on that gallows, it was the king’s wrath that was pacified at Haman being hung on it.

And as it’s been said correctly, “Haman, as the Jews’ enemy, illustrates the ignominious end of the Antichrist, the last great foe of the Jewish people. As Haman almost succeeded in annihilating God’s people, so also will the coming man of lawlessness.

“As Haman’s end came by royal decree, so will the Antichrist by the word out of the mouth of the coming King of kings.”