SIRANI, Giovanni Andrea, Esther before Ahasuerus, 1630s, Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest

Haman’s Plot of Genocide

For Such a Time as This:Defining Moments

Esther Chapter 5

Courage Under Fire

What’s your high… and low?

Esther 5:9-1212“And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the

only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has

invited me along with the king tomorrow. 13But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that

Jew Mordecaisitting at the king’s gate.”

A plot to make things better for Mordecai

Esther 5:10-1414His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him,

“Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai

hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.”

This suggestion delighted Haman,and he had the gallows built.

Esther 6

Sleepless is Susa:

God’s work in spite of rotten circumstances

You’ve got to be kidding me

Esther 6:10-1110“Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Get the robe and the horse and do just as you

have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you

have recommended.”

11So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”

“Man falls according as God’s providence ordains,

but he falls by his own fault.”

~ John Calvin, Quoted in R. C. Sproul and Jerry Bridges, The Providence of God Study Guide (Orlando, Fla.: Ligonier, 1990), page

69.

“Man falls according as God’s providence ordains,

but he falls by his own fault.”

~ John Calvin, Quoted in R.

C. Sproul and Jerry Bridges, The Providence of God Study Guide (Orlando, Fla.: Ligonier, 1990), page 69.

This week’s message:Painful Irony – Esther 7

A nice (second) banquet

Esther 7:1-21So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, 2and as they were drinking wine on that

second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it

will be granted.”

Esther drops the bomb

Esther 7:3-43Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found

favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4For I and my people have been sold for destruction

and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would

have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”

An Unhappy King

Esther 7:5-65King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a

thing?”

6Esther said, “The adversary and enemyis this vile Haman.”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

Two men in difficult situations

Esther 7:77The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed

behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

“Can he punish Haman for a plot he himself approved? If he does so, won’t he have to admit his own role in the fiasco [and lose face]? Moreover, he has issued an irrevocable law; how

then canhe rescind it?”

~ Michael V. Fox, Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther, 86.

What did I agree to?

Esther 3:8-98 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among

the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s

laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9If it pleases the king, let a decree

be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury

for the men who carry out this business.”

[Haman’s] choice was either to follow the king, who had bolted in anger from

his presence, or to flee the room, suggesting guilt and inviting pursuit.

Haman is trapped. Even in the presence of others, a man was not to

approach a woman of the king’s harem within seven steps.

~ Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible, 262.

This just keeps getting worse for Haman

Esther 7:88Just as the king returned from the palace garden

to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Hey, I’ve got an idea!

Esther 7:9-109Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the

king, said, “A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman’s house. He had it made for

Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!” 10So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared

for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

The first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, comments:

“And from hence I cannot forbear to admire God, and to learn hence his wisdom and

justice, not only in punishing the wickedness of Haman, but in so disposing it, that he

should undergo the very same punishment which he had contrived for another; as also,

because thereby he teaches others this lesson, that what mischiefs any one prepares against another, he without knowing of it, first

contrives it against himself.”

~ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, in The Works of Josephus, trans. W. Whiston (Lynn, Mass.: Hendrickson, repr. 1980), page 241.

Developing Twists:

Developing Twists:

Irony

Developing Twists:

Irony

Human Evil andDivine Justice

IRONY

• Fatherless and old couple become founders of Israel

• Extreme dysfuntional family Israel become foundation

• Joseph sold into slavery

• The redemption of Judah

• A bunch of slaves get freed from the strongest nation

• Red sea crossing

• Pharoah’s Chariots

• Water from Rock

• David and Goliath

• Gideon and 300 soldiers

Matthew 7:1-51“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in

the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3Why do you look at the speck

of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck

out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will

see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Mark 10:29-3129 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in

this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them,

persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last,

and the last first.”

Luke 12:13-2113Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell

my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in

the abundance of his possessions.”

Luke 12:13-2116And he told them this parable: “The ground of a

certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no

place tostore my crops.’

18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I

will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things

laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’

Luke 12:13-2120“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Acts 9:1-2, 151Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out

murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters

to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way,

whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem…

Acts 9:1-2, 151Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out

murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters

to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way,

whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem…

 

15But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before

the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he

must suffer for my name.”

2 Corinthians 12:8-108Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it

away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in

weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s

power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in

hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Developing Twists:

Human Evil andDivine Justice

“Driven by uncontrollable pride and arrogance, Haman had plotted to slaughter the Jewish people because his lust for power over others could not be satisfied as long as Mordecai the Jew refused to bow to him. Given full reign, pride, like greed and lust, is

insatiable. Haman does not appear to be anti-Semitic in the modern sense of the word, for he would probably have been willing to commit genocide

against any population if it satisfied his megalomaniac pursuit of honor and power. His plan

to take revenge on one man by annihilating his entire race was an evil of demonic proportions, regardless of who those people were. The enormous stature of

Haman’s evil is pictured in the seventy-five-foot height of the gallows he unknowingly constructed for himself. His sudden and unpreventable destruction

was the just reward of such an evil mind.”

“But the story moves to a new plane of theological significance precisely because the

people he picked on happened to be the Jews, the people Yahweh had chosen as his own. Speaking better than she knew, Haman’s own wife, Zeresh,

predicted that because Mordecai was Jewish, Haman could not stand before him, but would

come to ruin (6:13). While inviting us to reflect on the question of who gets life and who does not,

the author of Esther reveals the nature and destiny of human evil and the mysterious

workings of divine justice.”

~ Karen Jobes, (1999). Esther. The NIV Application Commentary (pages 171–172).

Exodus 17:8-9, 148The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites

at Rephidim. 9Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the

Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands….”

 14Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a

scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will

completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:21-2221For since death came through a man, the

resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will

be made alive.

Romans 5:6-106You see, at just the right time, when we were still

powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to

die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his

blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10For if, when we were

God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more,

having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

2 Corinthians 5:21God made him who had no sinto be sin for us, so that in him

we might become the righteousness of God.

Gospel Application

Gospel Application

As we approach communion today,

who are you in this story?