Esther
7
AT THE SECOND
BANQUET ESTHER DENOUNCES HAMAN, AND
THE KING CONDEMNS
HIM TO BE IMPALED ON THE CROSS
PREPARED
FOR HAMAN (vs. 1-10). Esther had promised to
make her true petition at the second banquet (ch.5:12), and now
kept her word. When the king for the third time put the question,
“What is
thy
petition, queen Esther? and what is thy request? It
shall be performed,
even to the half of the kingdom,” she opened all her
mind. “If I have found
favor in thy sight, O king, and if it seem good to the king, let
my life be
given to me at my petition, and my people at my request” (v. 3). My
supplication is for my own life and for that of my people — no less a
danger than this has moved me. “We are sold, I and my people, to
be
destroyed, slain, made to perish.” Had it been anything less than this, had
we
been merely sentenced to be sold as slaves, I had kept my peace (v. 4);
but
that did not content “the enemy” — we are, one and all,
to suffer
death. Esther’s answer must have made all clear to the king —
that his wife
was
a Jewess; that her life was forfeit, like those of her countrymen, by
the
terms of the decree; that Haman was “the enemy” whom she feared. But he
will assume nothing, he will have all clearly set before him, and therefore
he
asks, “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to act
so?” Then comes Esther’s final declaration, clear, direct,
unmistakable:
“The adversary and enemy is
this wicked Haman” (v. 6), this man here
before you, this man who eats our salt, and would take one of our
lives.
Fiercely angry, but confused and hesitating, the king rises
from the
banquet, and quits the room, stepping probably through an open
door into
the
palace garden, Now is Haman’s last chance. Can he
excite the pity of
the
queen? Can he prevail on her to intercede for him and make his peace
with the king? He entreats, he supplicates, he “falls
upon the couch” on
which Esther reclines, in his eagerness to win her consent (v.
7.) At this
moment the king reenters the room (v. 8), and takes advantage .of
Haman’s breach of etiquette to accuse him of
rudeness to the queen. The
attendants see in the accusation a sentence of death, and “cover
Haman’s
face” (v. 8). Then one
of the eunuchs, who knows all the circumstances
of
the case, anxious for that kind of retribution which is known to moderns
as
“poetic justice,” suggests that the cross prepared for Mordecai will
serve
well for the execution of Haman. The king readily
consents to the
suggestion (v. 9), and Haman is impaled on
the cross which he had
erected for his enemy in the court of his own house (v. 10).
1 “So the
king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the
queen.”
The king and Haman came to banquet (margin - drink).
In
Persian feasts the solid dishes were few, and the time was
mainly passed in
drinking and eating dessert (Herod., 1:133).
2 “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.” And the king said again. Esther had
promised to let her real
request be known at this banquet (ch.5:8). The
king
therefore once more gives her the opportunity. On the second day. On the
second occasion of being entertained by Esther.
3 “Then
Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found
favor 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:” Let my life be
given me, etc.
First of all, I ask at the king’s hands my own
life, which is threatened (ch.4:13);
secondly, I ask the life of my people, in whose sentence it is that I am
involved.
Some rhetorical skill is shown in separating the two, so as to make
them
correspond to the two clauses of the king’s address ‘‘What is thy petition?”
and
“What is thy request?”
Spare our Life! (v. 3)
Was ever so unexpected a request presented as this? When
the king in his
capricious favor offered his consort whatsoever she desired, even to
the
half of his kingdom, she asked what might have been naturally enough
implored from the royal clemency by some wretched malefactor
condemned to expiate his crimes by death. Give us, me and my people, our
life! How strange a
boon to beg! A queen high in favor, at a royal
banquet, to ask that her life should be spared, and her kindred
delivered
from an unjust and violent end — in fact, a massacre! Thus were the
eyes
of the
king opened to the infamy of his minister, and thus was Esther made
the
agent in the redemption of
of
the request which, as suppliant sinners, we are bound to offer before the
throne of grace. It implies:
only lately come to know of the peril in which she and her
countrymen and
countrywomen stood. Awake to the impending danger, she was
emboldened to urge her plea. So with us. A worse
enemy than Haman has
plotted against the children of men. A worse fate than massacre awaits
those who fall into the snare of the foe. The word of God comes
to us as a
word of warning, urging us to “flee from the wrath to come.” (Matthew
3:7) Bondage is bad, but death is worse.
And “the
wages of sin is death.”
(Romans 6:23)
saying, “If I perish, I perish!” Yet she was
encouraged by the gracious
demeanor and the generous promise of the king. Therefore she said, “If I
have found favour in thy sight, O
king, and if it please the
king.” We have
no need of such “ifs” in our approach and our prayer to the King of
heaven. He “delighteth in mercy.” (Micah 7:18) “If we confess our sins,
He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9) Our hope
in Divine mercy is well founded;
for it is founded both upon DIVINE PROMISES and upon the
“unspeakable gift” (II Corinthians 9:15) which is both the means and the
pledge of the gift of
pardon and the gift
of life.
so selfish as to ask that she and her kinsman, Mordecai,
might be spared;
her desire was that the whole nation of the Jews might be
delivered. Similar
was the attitude of Paul, who said, “My heart’s desire and prayer to
God
for
myself accursed from Christ [although unnecessarily so since Christ died
to do the job! - CY – 2014] for my brethren,
my kinsman according to
the flesh.” (Ibid. ch. 9:3) When we
seek salvation through
Christ we cannot seek it for
ourselves alone; we shall pray:
Ø
for our
households,
Ø
for our nation,
and
Ø
for our race.
“Thy light, that on our souls hath shone
Leads us
in hope to thee:
Let us not
feel its rays alone —
Alone thy
people be.
O bring our dearest friends to God;
Remember
those we love;
Fit them
on earth for thine abode,
Fit them
for joys above.”
4 “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.”
For we are sold, I and my people. Haman has paid our price,
has
given ten thousand talents for us, and you, O king, have sold us to him.
The reproach is covert, but clearly contained in the words;
and so the king
must have understood Esther. To be
destroyed, to be slain, and to
perish. The use of three synonyms for one and the same thing is
not mere
verbiage, but very expressive. “We are sold, all of us, to be overwhelmed
in one universal,
promiscuous, unsparing destruction.” Although the
enemy could not
countervail the king’s damage. “Although, even in
that
case, the enemy (Haman) could not (by the payment
that he has made)
compensate the king for the damage that he would suffer by losing so
many
subjects.” So Gesenius,
Rambach, Dathe, and others.
But it is simpler, and
Perhaps better, to understand the passage as Bertheau does: “for the enemy
(Haman) is not worthy to vex the
king,” or “is not worth vexing the king
about.”
5 “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?”
Who is he? Ahasuerus asks the question to
“make sure,” as we say — not that
he
could really be in any doubt. That
durst presume. Rather, (ὅστις ἐτόλμησεν –
hostis etolmaaesen – that hath presumed - Septuagint).
6 “And
Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.
Then Haman was
afraid before the king and the queen.” The adversary and
enemy. Esther adds a second term of reproach — “enemy” — stronger than the
one
which she had used before (v. 4), to stir up the king to greater anger.
7 “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. 8 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
king’s mouth, they
covered Haman’s
face.” Ahasuerus rose up
from the banquet “in his wrath” —
he could no longer remain quiet — and
entered the palace garden, on which
Esther’s apartment probably looked; partly, perhaps, to
cool the first heat of
his
fury in the open air; partly to give himself time for reflection, and consider
what he would do. Haman also rose from table, and
standing near her, began
pleading with Esther for his life, which he felt that she, and she
alone, could
save. Evil, he saw, was determined against him
by the king; but a woman’s
heart might be more tender, and he might perhaps move the queen to allay the
storm that she had raised, and induce the king to spare him. He therefore
pleaded with all the earnestness in his power, and at last threw himself forward
on
the couch where Esther reclined,
seeking perhaps to grasp her feet or her
garments, as is usual with suppliants
in the East. At this crisis the king returned,
and
misconstruing Haman’s
action, or pretending to do so, exclaimed aloud,
“Will he even
force the queen with me in the house?” The
terrible charge brought
matters to a
conclusion — it was taken as a call on the attendants to seize the
culprit and execute him. They
covered his face, apparently,
as that of a
condemned man not worthy any more to see the light, according to a
practice common among, the Romans (Liv.,
1:26; Cic. ‘pro Rabir., 4:13)
and
the Macedonians (Q. Curt., ‘Vit. Alex.,’
vi. 8), but not elsewhere
mentioned as Persian.
To be condemned of God would render us unable to see
Him. As light dazzles,
so
God’s purity alone would blind us. Our own sin will be the covering. When
death shall throw his black pall over us, unless mercy lifts it,
our own hands will
never tear it away. We should examine our hearts, and see
whether there is any
cherished sin which may eventually lead to our rejection and
condemnation.
Let there be no “veil” on our hearts as on those of
that there may be no covering our faces as Haman’s
was covered.
A Crisis, a Plea, and a
Deliverance (vs. 1-7)
We have here:
1. A most serious crisis. “So the king and Haman
came to banquet with
Esther the queen” (v. 1). The culminating point in this great issue is now
reached. The lives of the chosen people of God throughout all
her
provinces, hang on this interview between an arbitrary sovereign, his
wife, and his minister. Except the wife shall prevail over the crafty and
all-
powerful statesman, the race must die by one cruel blow.
2. A powerful plea. At the king’s invitation (v. 2) the queen makes her
appeal in simple but forcible language. She appealed:
a.
to his affection
for herself: “Let my life be given me at my petition,
and my people at my request” (v. 3);
b.
to his pity for a
suffering people: “We are sold,” and sold not even to
bitter bondage, but “to be destroyed, to be slain, and to
perish” (v. 4);
c.
to his sense of
what was politic: the loss of so many subjects would be
greatly to “the king’s damage” (Ibid.).
3. A great deliverance (vs.
5-6). Having readily consented to the
slaughter of thousands of his subjects, the king with equal
readiness
consents to their lives being spared. He appears to have been
shocked at
the
idea of what was contemplated; but he had not reckoned on the
sanguinary decree including his own wife in its evil range. We learn:
Divine Ruler should allow His
Church to come into such terrible danger,
barely escaping from utter destruction; why He should sometimes
permit
such fearful atrocities to be inflicted, not interposing, as
here, to save them,
but allowing the beheadings, burnings, burials alive,
imprisonments, etc. on
which so many skies have looked down in different centuries; why
He
should allow a Haman of ancient times,
or an Alva or Claverhouse of more
recent times, to wreak such cruelties on the people of God, and
why He
should choose such instruments to avert and overthrow as one
woman’s
beauty — this we cannot tell. God does and suffers many things
which we
do not understand. He declines to interpose when we should
have
confidently expected His aid. The truth is that HE IS TOO HIGH AND
TOO GREAT and we are too low
and too small to understand Him.
“His way is in the
sea, His path in the great waters, and His
footsteps
are not known.” (Psalm
77:19) “His ways are past finding
out.”
(Romans 11:33) We are but very little children before Him,
and must
wait awhile; we shall understand hereafter what we know not now
(John 13:7).
did Esther think, when she was first accepted as queen, that
she would do a
good work for her race which should never be forgotten. But the
hour
came for her to make a great attempt; she made it, and
succeeded. Her
success was due to her courage and her charms and her address. But
these
were the outcome of a life of virtue and piety. By the exercise of
these she
had “bought up the opportunity” (redeemed the time), and “when
the
occasion came she was equal to the occasion.” Wisely use the present, and
when the hour of opportunity comes you will be ready to
speak, to strike,
to suffer, or to save.
WISDOM. Judging
from the notion of mere worldliness, we should say
that Abasuerus occupied the most
enviable position in
that great empire, he held in his hand all that men usually
desire. But
judging from a distance, impartially, and in the light of God’s
truth, how
little should we care to be such as he was. How unlovely the
haste and
passion of the man. Hungrily seizing the opportunity of
reimbursing his
treasury, he makes a decree which would have the effect of
slaughtering a
race, of ultimately weakening his resources, and of taking the
life of his
own queen. Happily, but accidentally, in the right mood when
the chance is
given him of retrieving his error, he turns with characteristic
passion and
precipitancy on his favorite minister, and wreaks vengeance on his
head.
Moral littleness in high places
is very pitiable.
EFFECTS. How
amazed was Ahasuerus to find that in striking at the
Jews
he was aiming a blow at his own wife, and so at himself. All
our actions,
good and bad, stretch further and come closer home than we
realize at the
time when we do them.
9 “And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king,
Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high,
which Haman had made
for Mordecai, who spoken good for the king, standeth in the house
of Haman. Then the king
said, Hang him thereon. 10 So they hanged
Haman on the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai. Then
was
the king’s wrath pacified.” Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before
the king. Rather, “Harbonah, one of the chamberlains (eunuchs) that served
before the king, said.” The “eunuchs that
served before the king” were those of
the
highest grade, as appears from ch.1:10. Harbonah was
one of
them. Who had spoken good for the king. Or, “who spake good.” The
reference is to his detection of the conspiracy (ch.2:22). In the
house of Haman. This had not been mentioned previously. It adds one
touch of extra barbarity to Haman’s
character, that he should have
intended the execution to take place within the walls of his own
house.
As in the case before us, the time will come when the
oppressor shall be
brought low, and the lowly and righteous shall be exalted. If not in this
world; then assuredly in the general judgment. (“Some men’s sins are
open beforehand, going before unto judgment; and some men they
follow after. Likewise
also the good works of some are manifest
beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.” (I
Timothy
5:24-25)
“The Lord reigneth;” and though He may have reasons we
cannot fully understand for permitting the temporary reign of
injustice, the Judge of all
the earth shall assuredly do right.
(Genesis
18:25) Whether
in this life or the Final Judgment, the suitability of
the
punishment to the sin of the life will clearly be seen! It will be the outgrowth
naturally of our sin, and not an arbitrary infliction on the part of
God. Despisers
of
parents, oppressors of the weak, the
intemperate and sensual, will find how
fitting is the retribution to the sin, and will have to confess,
as Haman must
have done in his heart, THAT IT IS JUST!
Wrath Pacified (v. 10)
Ahasuerus, unlike Jonah, “did well to be angry.” (Jonah 4:9) Haman had
plotted against the life of his favourite
queen, and one of his most serviceable
friends, and against an unoffending community. And he had all but
usurped
the
royal authority in causing the gallows to be reared on which be
intended that Mordecai should be put to death. A righteous anger
led to
what would have been deemed in him, an arbitrary sovereign, a just act of
retribution. And only when the judicial sentence was carried out
against the
offender was “the king’s
wrath pacified.”
Ø
This is sometimes
righteous. “Be ye angry and sin not.” (Ephesians 4:26)
Indignation against wrong
and wrath with the oppressor are virtues,
without which man is scarcely human.
Ø
Anger is always to be
treated with suspicion. We are all prone, like
Ahasuerus, to be angry with what hurts ourselves, and our sense of
our
rights and dignity, rather than with what
is evil in the sight of the Lord.
Let us ask ourselves whether our
anger is justifiable — is sympathy with
the Divine righteousness, or is mere selfish passion.
Ø
Anger should not be
compounded with personal revenge. Wrath may be
pacified by malevolent action, and then “sin lieth
at the door.”
Ø
God is angry with
the wicked every day. (Psalm 9:11)
The Scriptures
represent Him as regarding the evil-doing of men with displeasure
and
with wrath.
Ø
In the midst of
wrath God remembers mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2) This is the
message of the gospel, which does not conceal God’s indignation at
sin or
his displeasure with the sinner; but shows that He is just, and the Justifier
of the believer in Christ. He condemns the sin in pardoning the sinner.
“Thou wast angry; but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst
us.” (Isaiah 12:1)
Let us rejoice that God is pacified and reconciled. Let us accept His offers of mercy.
Let us seek to share His placable
and forgiving spirit.
The Terrible Consummation of a Wicked Life
(v. 10)
Our first impulse on reading these words is to praise Ahasuerus for his
faithful administration of justice; for if ever a man deserved
summary
vengeance at the hands of the law, it was Haman.
But a little reflection
must correct our judgment. The whole transaction reveals the fickle,
passionate, unscrupulous disposition of the tyrant. Without any
apparent
reason, or at least without any regard to his merits, he had made
a special
favorite of Haman, and had lavished upon
him all the honors at his
command; and now, in a fit of uncontrollable rage, he hurries him,
without
any
pretence of a trial, to a felon’s death. Flatterers
are the most unreliable
of men. Those who lick the dust at your feet in prosperity are
the most
likely to tread upon your neck in adversity. There is but one step between
“Hosanna to the Son of David,” and “Away with Him! crucify Him!” The
king’s servants, who vied with each other in their obsequiousness
to
Haman while he enjoyed their master’s favor, were now so eager
to
execute him that they could scarcely wait for the sentence. The
text is in
many respects one of the most striking in the whole Bible, and is fraught
with weighty and permanent lessons. Note:
sometimes happens that the ungodly flourish in the world to such an
extent
that our faith in eternal righteousness is staggered. We could
point to men
whose road to power was paved with injustice, treachery, and
bloodshed.
Many an upright heart, crushed
for its very uprightness, has poured forth,
in contemplating such men, the despairing complaint of the
Psalmist,
“Verily! have cleansed my heart in vain,
and washed my hands in
innocency.” (Psalm 73:13)
But a careful observation of facts would
doubtless show that even in this world excessive wickedness
frequently
brings about its own requital. Pharaoh perished in the
licked the blood of Ahab in
his throne. There are circumstances about the case of Haman which
separate it from all others, but in its essential features it is
but one among
thousands. Three elements in Haman’s
character may be mentioned which,
while they contributed to his temporary success, led to his
final ruin.
Ø
Boundless ambition.
Ø
Boundless pride.
Ø
Boundless cruelty.
Some think that Haman was an Amalekite; and we
are told that the
Amalekites, for their hostility to the Israelites, had been singled
out for
retribution. The Lord said to Moses, “I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17:14) The threat
was not carried out at once; for ages the footsteps of justice
seemed to linger,
and the delay had only intensified their malignity. But here
the last of the
race dies upon the gallows, for after this they disappear
altogether from
history. Piety runs in
families, and so does wickedness. God’s blessing
rests upon families, and so does His curse. This is not due to
haphazard,
caprice, or favoritism; but there is always a definite cause for
it. Think of
the Stuarts of
the rights of the people, and seeking self-aggrandizement at
the expense of
righteousness, they sinned no less against Heaven than against humanity.
But, as if pursued by an
inexorable fate, they were hurled from the summit
of power to the ignoble obscurity which they so richly
deserved. Let us
beware of committing “presumptuous sins,” lest they
should taint our
families, and doom them as well as ourselves to eternal disgrace.
incident before us is one of those incidents which cannot be
accounted for
except on the supposition of an overruling
cunning baffled, crime punished, impiousness abashed in such a
wonderful
way, that to attribute the whole affair to mere chance would
be the height
of folly.
Ø Haman was degraded
just when he thought of reaching the goal
of his ambition. The highest dignities
of the kingdom, next to those
enjoyed by the
king, were his already. His vanity, his love of authority,
his fondness for display
had nothing to desire. And now the only
annoyance that disturbed him
was about to be removed and the people
which he hated was about to be annihilated — and he was about to
become absolute master of the
situation. Henceforth he would be
admired, courted, envied by all the world. But, alas, it was not to be.
“There are many
devices in a man’s heart;
nevertheless the counsel
of the Lord, that shall stand.” (Proverbs
19:21) Haman
had left that
counsel out of his calculation; hence, when he thought of
attaining
the climax of honor, he was plunged into the abyss of shame.
Prosperity
is the worst thing that can happen to the wicked man.
Adversity may
mellow his heart, and produce reflection, repentance, and
reformation;
but a course of unbroken triumph only hardens his heart, and
hastens
the inevitable catastrophe. “For when they shall say, Peace
and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman
with child; and they shall not escape.” (I Thessalonians 5:3)
Ø Haman perished on
the very gallows that he had erected for another.
This was probably the bitterest
ingredient in his cup of woe. Imagine his
chagrin, his confusion, his despair, when he found that the huge
instrument
of death which he had set up at such great expense to punish
his unbending
antagonist was to be employed for no other purpose than his own
execution! And who knows but that Mordecai himself was among the
crowd who witnessed the scene? There was an awful fitness about
the
punishment. Later ages have with one consent pronounced it just. No
utterance commends itself to universal approval with greater force
than
this: “Whoso diggeth a
pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone,
it
will return upon him.” (Proverbs 26:27) We are reminded here that as
virtue is its own reward, so sin is its own punishment, Haman died on a
gallows of his own construction; so shall every impenitent sinner
perish
through his own waywardness. “Thine own wickedness shall
correct
thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee.” (Jeremiah
2:19)
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