Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduce:
A few weeks ago, we witnessed God cause King Ahasuerus’ sleep to flee from Him.
We also saw how Mordecai’s victory and Haman’s defeat were foreshadowed.
The week before that, we observed how Esther won favor with the king and had been promised that he would grant her request.
Haman had plotted the destruction of Mordecai and his people.
He had gallows built for Mordecai, but we just read that and will now ponder how someone else hanged on them instead.
Our text this morning answers a question we have answered before: What happens to God’s enemies?
To arrive at a complete answer, please ponder three aspects of our text.
Retell:
To begin, Brothers, sisters, and friends ponder the path of Haman’s devastating defeat (1-4).
After his humiliation earlier that day, Haman was paraded off to the Queen Esther’s seconded feast.
He and the king arrived.
As they did after the first feast, they sat and drank wine.
The king had already promised to give Esther her request twice publically.
She had postponed revealing what her request was both times.
Now he offers to grant her request a third time.
Look in verse two.
He asked her, “What is your wish, Queen Esther?
It shall be granted you.
And what is your request?
Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”
We find the first part of the queen’s reply in verse three.
Look there.
She answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.”
Esther answered the king point for point.
Her wish is her own life.
Her request is the lives of her people, which she does not name explicitly.
Her reason for this request is found in verse four.
Look.
She continued, “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 been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”
Her and her people were sold for 10,000 talents, the sum Haman promised to pay.
Their destiny was to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated, which is the exact phrasing of Haman’s edict.
She then appeals to the king’s self-interest.
She would not have bothered the king had her people only been sold into slavery, for that at least would have benefited the king.
However, the annihilation and destruction of her people would bring him no benefit but significant loss, including His queen, manpower, and taxes.
10,000 talents would not cover the benefits of having these people alive even if they were enslaved.
The way she makes her request and gives her reasons is prudent.
She leaves out the identity of the persons responsible for the plight of her people, which technically included the king.
Instead, she states the situation to provoke an emotional response from the king.
Rather than getting personal out of the gate by mentioning how the king and his right-hand man are to blame, she states the issue in a way that invites the king to be angry at the unnamed person responsible.
As the prophet Nathan did with King David, respecting his dealings with Bathsheba and Uriah, Esther wanted the king angry and on her side before exposing the culprit of heinous evil (2 Samuel 12:1-15).
The path of Haman’s devastating defeat is the prudent maneuvering of Esther and, as we saw last chapter, the covenant faithfulness and controlling providence of Yahweh.
You have pondered the path of Haman’s devastating defeat.
Also, ponder the proclamation of Haman’s devastating defeat (5-8).
The initial reply of the king comes out like bullets firing out of a machine-gun.
Look at verse 5.
The king said, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”
Esther’s plan had worked.
The king is furious and on her side.
When you hear shocking and infuriating news, you likely respond similarly to the king with rapid questions, elevated volume, and an angry tone.
Esther’s reply matches the questions of the king.
It is swift and pointed.
Look at verse 6. Esther said, “A foe and enemy!
This wicked Haman!” Can you imagine Haman’s mouth gaping wide and pale white face as the queen and king now both glare at him?
He was definitely more terrified than some of you are of snakes, spiders, or anything you fear.
He was trapped with only one end in sight, death.
King Ahasuerus stormed out of the ancient French doors of the banquet hall and into the garden within his palace.
He had realized that not only was Haman at fault but so was he.
He had by negligence signed off on the death of his beloved queen and her people.
How could he save her and them while also saving face?
Meanwhile, Haman was in an even more difficult spot.
He knew the king was determined to harm him.
His only hope was the queen with whom he was now alone.
Even by staying in the room, he was transgressing court custom, being alone in a room with one of the King’s women.
He should have exited with the king rather than stayed alone with the queen.
However, you can see why he would stay to get the favor of Esther.
She held the heart of the king.
When the king returned, he came at the exact moment that Haman was falling on the couch on which Esther reclined.
A man should not come within seven steps of the king’s woman in the presence of others.
This sealed his fate and gave the king a way out of his dilemma.
He could now save face for his negligence, signing off on Haman’s murderous scheme, and have Haman hanged for “assaulting” his wife.
So he said in verse 8, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?”
Though it is doubtful that Haman intended to actually assault the queen, it is convenient for the king if he attempted to do so.
Upon hearing this question, the king’s men knew what must be done; they covered his face in preparation for his execution.
The devastating defeat of Haman is proclaimed at once when Esther points out that it is he who is behind the murderous plot to kill her and her people.
Haman recognizes his own devastating defeat when he bows down before the Jewish queen.
Note the irony of this specific action.
All of this began when Mordecai, a Jew, refused to bow to Haman, an Agagite.
Now it is Haman, an Agagite, who bows before Esther, a Jew.
Finally, the king likewise proclaims Haman’s devastating defeat when he goes out in anger and returns to accuse him of assaulting Queen Esther.
You have pondered the path and proclamation of Haman’s devastating defeat.
Lastly, ponder the poetry of Haman’s devastating defeat (9-10).
Now, what would be done to Haman?
The king, as usual, welcomes the advice of others.
Look at verse 9. Harbona, the king’s eunuch, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.”
Harbona even threw in another reason for having Haman killed, namely in desiring to kill Mordecai Haman could be considered to side with those who desired to kill the king.
The large 75-foot wood stake or gallows, as the ESV translates it, had been prepared by Haman at the advice of his wife to have Mordecai hanged upon it.
These gallows likely had no noose from which a criminal hanged and was strangled.
Instead, it was a large stake upon which the criminal was impaled.
Now at the king’s word, Haman would hang on the cursed tree.
Read the remaining portion of verse 9 and verse 10 with me.
The king said, “‘Hang him on that.’
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then the wrath of the king abated.”
The type of poetry I want you to ponder is not verse but poetic justice.
The death of Haman fits the crime of Haman.
As the proverb says, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling” (Proverbs 26:27).
Or, in this case, “Whoever builds gallows will hang upon them.”
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