Esther - Lesson 6

• Let's review:

• Chapter 1 of Esther introduces King Ahasuerus as a king over the Persian empire around 484-481 BCE ruling from the capital city of Susa.

  • This was a time the empire was preparing to go to war with the Greeks.

  • The second part of chapter 1 unveils Queen Vashti’s refusal of the command from King Ahasuerus to come display her royal crown and her beauty, and how an edict was brought by the 7 advisors to the King for the disgrace brought upon the King and kingdom.

• In Chapter 2 we were introduced to Esther and Mordecai as the search for a new queen was carried out.

  • Esther is crowned queen and Mordecai saves the life of the king.

• Chapter 3 introduces Haman, who is elevated by king Ahasuerus, and shunned by Mordecai, and displays he is the enemy of the Jews with intensions to exterminate them from the kingdom.

• Chapter 4 displays the response to Haman’s edict of Jewish extermination by Mordecai; the Jews’ mourning, and Esther’s decision to approach the king.

• Chapter 5 The king receives Esther to his court and desires to honor her wishes while Haman is focused on Mordecai’s death.

Esth. 6:1 During that night the king could not sleep so he gave an order to bring the book of records, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.
Esth. 6:2 It was found written what Mordecai had reported concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, that they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
Esth. 6:3 The king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
Esth. 6:4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace in order to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him.
Esth. 6:5 The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”
Esth. 6:6 So Haman came in and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?”
Esth. 6:7 Then Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king desires to honor,
Esth. 6:8 let them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed;
Esth. 6:9 and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’”

• Verse 1 describes the night after the first banquet with the queen and Haman for the king, he was unable to sleep.

  • In this sleepless state he decides to have the book of records called here the chronicles read to him.

    • Not sure if this was what his standard process was for getting back to sleep or if this is a king who does work when he can’t sleep to not waste time.

  • These official records called chronicles are referred to elsewhere in the scriptures like Ezra 6-7.

• These two chapters highlight communication requested from king Darius. There were those questioning if it was lawful for the Jews to be building their temple. Darius searches for the requested records.

Ezra 6:1 Then King Darius issued a decree, and search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.
Ezra 6:2 In Ecbatana in the fortress, which is in the province of Media, a scroll was found and there was written in it as follows: “Memorandum —
Ezra 6:3 “In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits;
Ezra 6:4 with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.
Ezra 6:5 ‘Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God.’

• In Esther 6:2 the details of what was read to the king are highlighted as the chronicles revealed how Mordecai had reported two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, Bigthana and Teresh, and how they had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

• King Ahasuerus is now in the twelfth year of his reign. See Esth 3:7.

  • The chronicles would now contain all the detailed records up to this point in the king’s governance of the kingdom.

  • Yet the specific part of the records brought to the king that night deal with the heroic act of Mordecai given through the scriptures in Esthers 2:21-23.

• In verse 3 the logical question from the king is how was Mordecai honored for his loyalty.

  • The simple answer from the king’s servants who are attending him at his early hour of the morning respond nothing was done for Mordecai.

• The time period from the event of Mordecai saving the king’s life recorded in Esth. 2 would seem to have taken place close to the time Esther was crowned queen and there had been a second gathering of the virgins, though we do not have a specific time of separation of these two events.

• Mordecai was already sitting in the king’s gate when he saved the king’s life so we know the honor of sitting in the king’s gate was not tied to the event of saving the king’s life.

• This would have been an oversight on the king’s part as well as for those who were in service to the king.

  • There should have been someone who made sure this faithful act of Mordecai was rewarded.

  • A display of loyalty for the king of this magnitude would be a very big deal and worthy of high praise from the king and the court.

• In verse 4 we see the king wants no more delay in publicly honoring Mordecai and he wants to remedy this immediately, the king asks, “Who is in the court?”

• We find God’s providential hand at work as we discover Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace.

  • Every detail is given for us to picture the narrative unfolding.

• This is not the inner court as was defined as the court no one was to enter without being summoned, that Esther had entered.

• Haman was in the outer court and this may have been where those who desired to speak with the king would wait to see if they would be called into the inner court.

  • Haman was here because he was going to talk with the king about hanging Mordecai. This would have been an interesting conversation to hear as Mordecai was still loyally serving the king sitting in the king’s gate at this moment in time.

• Haman was ready to move forward with Mordecai’s destruction as we hear the gallows were prepared for this event, all Haman needed was approval from the king.

• Both the king and Haman are in a rush to accomplish what is on their minds.

• In verse 5 the servants bring their answer to the king telling him Haman is standing in the court. Then we hear the king summon Haman by exclaiming, “Let him come in”.

• Verse 6 Haman is brought before the king and a question is posed to Haman, “What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?”

• The heart of Haman is yet again displayed as the only thing Haman can think is, “Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?”

• The king does not begin by asking Haman why he was in the court at this time.

  • The king is focused on taking care of the business on his mind.

  • It may have been the common practice wait in the outer court for an opportunity to have an audience with the king.

• Haman is distracted by his pride thinking the king is about to honor him so the reason for his visit to the king of asking to kill Mordecai is now not the first thing on his mind.

• Haman was a very superstitious person as we saw in Chapter 3 and his casting of lots to determine the perfect time to move forward on his plans.

  • Here the king just happens to usher Haman in when Haman desired to speak with the king and so Haman may be feeling like things are lining up to carry out his plans.

• The king does not reveal to Haman who he wants to honor before asking what can be done to honor. This is a parallel to Haman not revealing the people group he wanted to exterminate in his proposal to the king in Esther 3:8.

  • In verses 7-8 Haman responds to the king’s request. He begins by repeating the king’s words that this is to be done for the man the king desires to be honored. Missing is the repeated phrase ‘if it pleases the king’ that has been uttered prior to any questions or suggestions being given to the king.

Esth. 1:19 “If it pleases the king, let a royal edict be issued by him….

Esth. 3:9 “If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed,…

Esth. 5:4 Esther said, “If it pleases the king, may the king and Haman come this day…

Esth. 5:8 if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king

• Haman does not ask why this person should be receiving honor to help him find an appropriate way to honor this person.

• Then Haman reveals the picture he has in mind.

  • The first thing is that a royal robe the king has worn should be sought out.

  • This honored man must be made to look like the king.

• Then a royal horse known to be the king’s should be found and also will be arrayed in appropriate royal attire.

  • The crown on the horses head could be affixed using the mane.

• In verse 9 everything is put together as Haman can see himself being arrayed in the robe and being lifted up on the horse and finally lead though the city square.

• An extra measure of honoring was to be established at it would not be a servant lifting the man up it would be one of the king’s most noble princes.

• For the finale this noble price would proclaim for all to hear, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor” as this parade moves through the public square.

  • There is no doubt in Haman’s mind the king was going to honor him.

  • There is no thought the person going to be honored might need to receive some form of monetary reward of elevated position of any sort because Haman had not even entertained the thought it could be anyone other than himself.

• The song to best describe Haman could be, Carly Simon’s ‘Your So Vain’ with the popular lyrics, “I bet you think this song is about you, don’t you don’t you?”

• Haman’s heart could not be filled with more self aggrandizing vitriol.

  • He is relishing the thought of what is about to happen for him.

  • He began and ended his words to the king with, “the man whom the king desires to honor.”

Esth. 6:10 Then the king said to Haman, “Take quickly the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate; do not fall short in anything of all that you have said.”
Esth. 6:11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.”
Esth. 6:12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning, with his head covered.
Esth. 6:13 Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him.”
Esth. 6:14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastily brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

• Verse 10 demonstrates the king likes the idea Haman has presented and he assigns Haman the role of the king’s most noble prince.

  • The king begins and ends his instructions with, “as you have said” reminding Haman this is all his idea to begin with.

• The king indicates the immediate nature of what he wants done saying, 'take quickly’.

• From a literary perspective these words are used to convey the quick pace of the events unfolding.

• The king then speaks the most devastating words Haman could image hearing by telling Haman he is to do all this for Mordecai the Jew, the one sitting at the king’s gate.

  • To add the salt in this wound for Haman the king clarifies he want everything carried out just as Haman had pictured for the king.

• Haman has just received a mighty blow to his ego as the king is going to honor someone other than him and on top of that is it going to be Mordecai, the Jew.

  • The last thing Haman had been thinking about Mordecai was envisioning him hanging from the gallows he just had built the night before.

  • Haman’s every waking thought had been about the destruction of Mordecai and in an instant his world comes crashing in as the king is going to honor this Mordecai instead.

  • Not really a good time to ask the king about following up with a gallows hanging for the same man now, Haman is now silenced on making his request.

• The king clearly knows Mordecai is identified as a Jew.

  • This would be further evidence the king had not known or made the connection of the edict Haman had issued regarding the Jews.

• In verse 11 Haman does exactly as the king has directed.

  • There was most likely not a lot of enthusiasm as he put the royal robes on Mordecai and helped him up on the horse.

  • These men were known to be enemies by those who served in the king’s gate though it appears the king was unaware of this conflict.

• Haman probably did not have much fervor as he makes the necessary declaration before those in the public square.

  • The very declaration he had repeated to the king when he thought it was going to be words spoken of him now are repeated in public regarding Mordecai from Haman’s lips.

• It is not stated in the scriptures but it would seem logical Mordecai would have been told why this honor was bestowed on him.

  • Afterall this was to make up for the oversight of not honoring him five years earlier when he had taken steps to save the king’s life.

• We can only speculate on what would be going through Mordecai’s mind right now.

  • He does not know all that has transpired overnight in the king’s palace, but he did know he and the Jews had just spent the past three days fasting and praying for God’s deliverance from this very man’s evil design for their destruction and now the very next day this strange event unfolds where Haman has to give honor to Mordecai and praise him before all the people of the city square.

• In verse 12 the sense of urgency in the timing continues as when all this pomp and circumstance is completed Mordecai goes back to the king’s gate to work but we hear Haman ‘hurried’ home.

• There is no detail given about Mordecai’s reaction to this parade of honor bestowed on him.

• Haman is also described as being in mourning with his head covered for this trip home.

  • Haman is mourning for himself whereas just days earlier Mordicai had been in public mourning for his people.

• In verse 13 when Haman arrives home he gathers his wife and friends to listen to him as he repeats all that has happened to him since they had last seen him leave to ask for permission from the king for Mordecai to be hung on the gallows he had built.

• The new information put forth by Haman cause his advisors, referred to as wise men, and his wife to offer words of concern for Haman.

  • Those words clearly say if this man you have set against is of Jewish origin then you will not win over him but you will fall before him.

• Those within Haman’s inner circle are as superstitious as Haman was when he cast lots to determine when he should take action against Mordecai and the Jews in the kingdom and they see the signs of the recent events as having dire meaning for Haman.

  • They believed signs have supernatural meaning.

• Secondly it is not beyond the realm of possibility that wise men were familiar with the history of the Jews.

Josh. 2:8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof,
Josh. 2:9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.
Josh. 2:10 “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
Josh. 2:11 “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

• This was true of God’s people and some who knew history might be familiar with this but there was a very recent event involving the Jews these advisors of Haman may have been familiar with as well.

• Remember back to the Ezra scriptures we looked at earlier where the request to know what had been decreed for the Jews had been research from the chronicles and had been reinstated, there is more to that story.

Ezra 6:6 “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and your colleagues, the officials of the provinces beyond the River, keep away from there.
Ezra 6:7 “Leave this work on the house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.
Ezra 6:8 “Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the River, and that without delay.
Ezra 6:9 “Whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and anointing oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request, it is to be given to them daily without fail,
Ezra 6:10 that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
Ezra 6:11 “And I issued a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this.
Ezra 6:12 “May the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence!”
Ezra 6:13 Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence, just as King Darius had sent.

• King Darius was Ahasuerus’s father so this would not have been an event from long ago but one they could have been familiar with in current history.

• In Esther 6:14 we see there is an ongoing conversation taking place with Haman, his advisors and Zeresh when we are told there is an interruption as the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastily brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

• Human’s head must be swimming with all the events of his night and day swirling around, trying to make sense of it all.

• Chapter 6 is the momentous turning point in the narrative.

• The events unfold quickly for Haman:

  • v1 the king could not sleep so he gave an order

  • v4 the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court

  • v5 the king said, “Let him come in.”

  • v10 “Take quickly the robes and the horse

  • v12 Haman hurried home,

  • v14 While they were still talking with him

  • v14 the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastily brought Haman to the banquet

• Compare the quick pace to how Esther has been more methodical and is moving in a slow and steady pace, asking for fasting for three days prior to any action.

  • Dressing in her royal robes to be in the presence of the king.

  • Preparing a banquet for the king yet not presenting her request at the first banquet and willing to prepare a second banquet for the king.

• There are other contrasts between Chapter 5 and 6.

• Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court and Haman desired to where royal robes.

• Esther appears as a queen yet Haman is dressing Mordecai as a royal king.

• Esther has the golden scepter extended to her but Haman is summoned by the king.