Mordecai’s Recognition and Haman’s Fall
Notes
Transcript
Everything in this story is built like a pyramid
Jews enemy rises and plans destruction
Haman’s Edict
Esther’s first feast
The king remembers and honors Mordecai
Esther’s second feast
Mordecai’s Edict
Jews enemies fall and their destruction is planned
What has happened thus far?
What has happened thus far?
We see a kingdom obsessed with pleasure
Weak king, always drunk
We see crazy parties and orgies
Sexual competition
We see even the Jewish “heroes” are products of the kingdom
Esther is kidnapped into sex slavery and becomes a queen
Mordecai exposes a plot
We see Haman (celebrated one = celebrity) acting as the opposition to the Jews
He hates Mordecai and opposes him—he plots to have him killed, but he can’t even wait because Mordecai isn’t celebrating him
We see plotting of the good guys and the bad guys
Haman builds a massive (75’) stake on his land
Esther’s “when I die, I die”
She finally goes to the king and starts her request with more parties
We see crafting and cunning of the secondary characters
Mordecai gives Esther instructions
Everyone gives the king instructions
His wife and friends give Haman instructions
We see a ton of coincidences
The king happens to be drunk one party and gets mad at his wife which leads to a kidnapping of basically all the girls
There happens to be a beautiful Jewish girl who was raised a Benjaminite
She happens to sexually impress the king
Her adoptive dad happens to overhear a plot to kill the king which happens to be written down in the annuls
There’s a bad guy who happens to raise to power, and his name happens to be celebrity
He casts lots and it happens to be a far away date
Esther happens to get the king’s approval (she could have died)
Haman happens to complain to his wife when his friends are there
He has gallows built and there happens to be a party the same night
We see all of these crazy things, but we don’t see God
Because He is behind the scenes here.
Book about irony
Book about irony
We are at the climax of the story now, so what do we need to know?
Esther is a book all about irony
Wile E. Coyote - paradigmatic example
What does he do?
His actions in setting up the piano perfectly balanced to kill the roadrunner
What should we do when we read this account:
Look out for coincidences
Look out for irony
On that night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of records, the annals, and they were read to the king. It was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus. Then the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
I’ll do this first one.
What irony do we see?
The king can’t sleep, so he something read to him that disturbs him and makes him more awake
What coincidences do we see?
Out of all of the records, it just so happens to be the record that points to something he has to do.
All while Haman is coming
The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. So the king’s servants told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.” So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king wishes to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials; let him robe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.’ ” Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to the Jew Mordecai who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” So Haman took the robes and the horse and robed Mordecai and led him riding through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.”
What irony do you see?
Haman explains his desire for himself and it’s used to honor his enemy!
Not only his enemy, the freaking guy he was there to what? Have executed
What coincidences do you see?
Haman just happened to be there early in the morning right after the king just so happened to have a sleepless night
Haman just so happened to “know” the king wanted to honor him and just so happened to know exactly how he’d like to be honored!
Side Note: What are miracles?
They are typically natural events that God causes to happen at strategic times!
Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him.”
While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”
What irony do you see?
His wife, who he was going to for comfort, prophecies against him!
Haman was making his request in secret and darkness, but Esther made it publically and tactfully
What coincidences do you see?
All of this happened to happen right before Esther’s banquet!
The kings eunuchs happened to arrive while his wife was still prophesying against him and took him to this party
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
What coincidences do you see?
Haman just so happened to be right next to the king when she pointed him out
He had recently told his men to make the gallows—they just so happened to be ready right when the king was ready to execute
What irony do you see?
Haman was pleading for his life and lost it quicker because of it
Haman was hung on the same gallows that he had made for himself
Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree:
Gallows is a giant tree/ construction of wood—Haman becomes a cursed Satan figure here!
So what?
So what?
This is history, but it’s also kind of “wisdom literature” which is another way to say philosophy or moral wisdom
Life is designed just like this story:
People take drugs to achieve control and they are the most out of control people you’ll ever meet.
Some people idolize their beauty, so they focus on all of their imperfections and start thinking of themselves as uglier than they’ve ever imagined.
Others try to get fulfillment out of pornography and ruined their ability to be fulfilled.
Psalms and Proverbs are filled with prayers for this sort of justice, and it’s exactly what God gives to us, He treats us like Wile E. Coyote:
We are crushed by the weights of our own traps, and it will kill us
Desire for Beauty, or sex, or tech to a lot of people we know are the giant piano that will keep them from getting it. Why?
Because we are perfectly rewarded for our actions, but God reverses all of this
When we read the gospel, we see that Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, and the rulers and authorities did, so what do we expect? (Another Mordecai)
When we read the gospel, we see that Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, and the rulers and authorities did, so what do we expect? (Another Mordecai)
Justice/ Irony—we expect Him to be interrupted
Barabbas is supposed to be up there
Pilate, the Roman ruler is supposed to be up there
Caiaphas, the corrupt priest is supposed to be up there
Judas is supposed to be up there!
God did it wrong, right? NO
The great irony here is that it was justice, the irony here is that Jesus wasn’t paying for Himself, He was paying for us.
The great irony here is that it was justice, the irony here is that Jesus wasn’t paying for Himself, He was paying for us.
Now, even though we are like Haman, focused on ourselves and getting that one thing, Jesus came in and flips the script
You want control: give up control of your destiny, and God will give you a better plan
You want beauty: Jesus will make you a perfect, spotless, priceless bride that He wants to show off
You want fulfillment: you weren’t designed for one aspect of pleasure, you were designed to have a purpose alongside the Spirit of God Himself
That’s the irony of the climax of Esther!
