Sermon Details

Sermon Notes

Please note that these are only notes, not transcripts, and as such are not identical to the recorded sermons. They also contain frequent abbreviations.

Introduction

1. Haman is a striking illustration of Prov. 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

   1. Haman is a proud man. His idol is self, and especially the glory of self.

      1. Haman loves above all things to be praised, to receive honor from others, esp. those whom he deems to be beneath him.

      2. Thus Haman’s dreams come true when King Ahasuerus commands all his servants to reverence Haman by bowing before him as he passes by.

      3. And Haman seems to be on the up-and-up: he is the king’s favorite, and now he seems to have attracted the attention of Esther at whose exclusive banquet he has been one of the two guests. And he is on the guest list for tomorrow.

   2. Haman is most likely wondering what other honors the King and Queen have planned for him.

      1. But Haman has been blinded by his own pride & selfishness.

      2. God has appointed Haman to fall, and the higher they are the harder they fall.

2. Haman will fall b/c Haman has stretched out his hands to destroy God’s people.

   1. What began as a petty argument between one Jew and this proud Amalekite has turned into a devilish plot to destroy Jesus Christ.

   2. Jesus Christ, of the Seed of Abraham and of David, cannot come to crush the devil on the cross, unless the line of David survives; and Haman’s decree stipulates the destruction of all Jews, men, women and little children.

   3. God has already placed Esther in a position to plead for the Jews, but God will also bring down haughty Haman. Haman’s riches, power and glory are slippery places on which the Lord has placed Haman to destroy him.

“HAMAN’S HUMILIATION BEFORE MORDECAI” 

I. A Wicked Plan

II. A Sleepless Night

III. An Unexpected Twist

1. A WICKED PLAN

   1. Haman, intoxicated with pride (and possibly also merry with wine), meets Mordecai as he leaves the banquet with Esther and the King. Mordecai refuses to stand up or move for him (5:9, the word “move” is to tremble).

      1. Haman could have responded in various ways to Mordecai.

         1. Haman could have ignored it.

            1. Haman was on cloud nine. He was the king’s (and he thinks, the queen’s) favorite. What difference if one insignificant Jew refused to honor him? Haman was “joyful and of a glad heart” (5:9). Why let M. spoil his day?

            2. Haman could have satisfied himself with the thought that he had cleverly arranged Mordecai’s death along with all of M.’s fellow Jews. He could wait.

            3. But Haman is too small minded and petty to ignore a slight like Mordecai’s. His mood changes immediately: “he was full of indignation against Mordecai.” Haman’s anger burned like a fire, a fire which would burst into an inferno and would destroy Haman himself.

         2. Or Haman could have reacted immediately without any self control.

            1. Haman could have cut M. down on the spot. We do not know what powers Haman had over life & death, but surely the king would have cared little for the murder of a Jew, esp. when all Jews were under a death sentence already.

            2. Haman could have turned back, and asked the King for an immediate death warrant against Mordecai. Haman could already name the charge: refusing to honor Mordecai was transgression of the king’s commandment.

            3. But 5:10, “Haman restrained himself.” Haman did not immediately react; and Haman’s hesitation, in God’s providence, makes all the difference.

      2. Haman goes home and calls together his friends and his wife, Zeresh; their advice is Haman’s undoing.

         1. Haman begins by boasting about everything which has happened to him.

            1. Haman is already very wealthy; he has a large, flourishing family, 10 sons; the king has promoted Haman above all other servants and princes in Persia.

            2. And it seems to Haman that things are about to get even better for him: Queen Esther arranged a royal banquet, and the only two guests were the King and Haman. And he has been invited to go to a second banquet the next day. What honor, what glory were Haman’s!

            3. Was the King planning to promote him even higher? That would explain Haman’s reaction in 6:6.

         2. But, says Haman, “all this availeth me nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate” (5:13).

            1. Haman could not be thankful for what he had received already. He could not be satisfied with power, riches and honor as long as there was one person who refused to honor him!

            2. In fact, everything Haman had meant nothing to him without the bowing down of Mordecai.

            3. This is a classic example of “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

         3. How important is the praise of man to you?

            1. How important to you is the opinion of others? How angry or resentful do you become when others do not recognize your talents, your gifts, your skills?

            2. How much of your service in the home, in the school, in the workplace, in the church is done to gain honor for yourself? How much do you crave the praise of men, the pat on the back?

            3. Will you serve without this? These are questions the Word of God impresses upon us as we examine the character of Haman.

   2. We believe, as Xians, that all things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28) but also all things work together for evil, against them that hate God. We see this in the case with Haman.

      1. In God’s providence, Haman complains to his friends, and in God’s providence, Haman’s friends offer him some wicked advice.

         1. Had Haman kept his grievances to himself the advice of Zeresh and his friends would never have been made and especially not on that day, the worst possible day as will become clear.

            1. It would have been better for Haman if he had never had the wife and friends that he had. Haman’s friends and family were a snare, a curse to him.

            2. It would have been better for Haman if he had been a poor man, with no resources, and no power. His wealth and power were also snares to him.

            3. But Haman was accountable to God for how he used his wealth and power. He should have used them for good. He chose wickedly to use them for evil and to promote himself, not to glorify God.

         2. Haman’s friends & family suggest that Haman build a gallows, and request permission the next morning from the king to hang M. on the gallows and then with M. out of the way he can go merrily with the king into the banquet.

            1. The gallows would stand 50 cubits high: that’s 75 feet or 23 meters, as tall as a five or six storey building. Such a gallows could be seen all across the city.

            2. Haman and his friends wanted a public execution for Mordecai, so that Haman could relish watching Mordecai suffer. No doubt if Haman’s plan had succeeded, the whole city of Shushan would have witnessed the execution.

            3. And the gallows stood in Haman’s house so that he, Haman, could have a front row seat. This would give Haman great satisfaction just before he would go to enjoy the Queen’s banquet. What a cruel, vindictive man!

      2. So, without delay, Haman called workmen to build a huge gallows. He wanted it ready by the morning. It was probably late afternoon already, and the workmen could well have worked through the night to finish the project.

         1. We can imagine Haman sitting up watching the workmen construct the gallows, savoring the moment, looking forward to the next morning.

            1. Haman would be up the next morning bright and early. He wanted to make his request as soon as possible.

            2. And he thought that the king would be easy to persuade. It had been easy to persuade the king to annihilate an entire people without any evidence.

            3. How much easier will it be to persuade the king to execute Mordecai!

         2. But, Haman did not reckon with God who preserves M. & destroys Haman.

            1. You might ask: Why does God preserve Mordecai? We have seen that M. was not godly, but God has a purpose with M. for the Jews’ salvation.

            2. Esther is helpless without M. Both are necessary for later events in the book. But God uses Haman’s enmity against M. to bring about Haman’s destruction.

            3. God has a way of doing that: turning the tables on the wicked!

2. A SLEEPLESS NIGHT

   1. That night all things conspire against Haman so that even little things serve Haman’s destruction.

      1. Chapter 6 brings us into the bedchamber of the world’s most powerful man, “On that night could not the king sleep …”

         1. The emphasis in the verse is that night.

            1. That night when Haman’s men were building a gallows for M.; that very night when H. was planning to ask the king to hang M., the king could not sleep.

            2. If the king had slept that night, Mordecai would have been hanged on Haman’s gallows. If the king had been sleepless the next night but not that night, Mordecai would have died. That night is very significant.

            3. Lit., we read, “sleep fled from the king.” God took sleep from the king, and when God takes sleep away, no one can sleep.

         2. We are not told why the king could not sleep in the providence of God.

            1. Perhaps he had indigestion from the eating & drinking at E’s feast: unlikely.

            2. Perhaps he heard noises of hammering and sawing in the distance: unlikely.

            3. The most likely reason is that the king was troubled: the events of that day had unsettled him. E., at great risk to her life, had appeared before him with an urgent request, but she would not tell him why. The king’s mind was probably working overtime: what could it be? Is there some threat to the kingdom? We do not know. Suffice to say that Jehovah is sovereign over the king’s sleep.

      2. But Jehovah is also sovereign over how the king reacted to his sleeplessness.

         1. The king of Persia has any number of possible ways to while away the hours of a sleepless night.

            1. Ahasuerus could have called for musicians to play soothing music to him, or for dancers or jugglers to amuse and entertain him.

            2. Ahasuerus could have summoned women out of his harem to sleep with him.

            3. Ahasuerus could have called a physician, wise man or astrologer for advice.

         2. But none of those things would have helped preserve Mordecai or bring about Haman’s destruction, so Ahasuerus is led by God in His secret providence to do something else: to call for a book.

            1. Perhaps when you cannot read you choose to read a book. The king could have chosen any book: poetry or an entertaining story. He didn’t have a Bible.

            2. But he chose “the book of the records of the chronicles of the kings of Persia.”

            3. Why that book? Two reasons have been given:. Because it was boring & therefore a good cure for insomnia. The chronicle was a list of events and policy decisions. It was like official government records, dull & dry as dust. The other reason, and prob. closer to the truth, was that the politics of the kingdom were on the king’s mind & they might stimulate his thinking.

   2. Moreover, Jehovah guides the servants to read a certain volume of the chronicles.

      1. The chronicles of kings were not in one, pocket-sized volume but many scrolls.

         1. Remember that King Ahasuerus had been ruling for 12 years already and the chronicles also contained the records of the kings before him.

            1. There must have pages of history concerning wars, taxes, crimes and punishments, but only one of those pages had info. for the downfall of Haman.

            2. And that page recorded an event which happened five years prior to this.

            3. As the servants drones on about various historical events in the empire his eyes fall upon a certain portion and he reads “And Mordecai told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.” M. had saved the king’s life.

         2. As the servant reads the king is alert. There is something missing. Usually such actions on behalf of the king are rewarded.

            1. How was Mordecai rewarded? Where is the record of Mordecai’s reward? But, answered the servant, “There is nothing done for him.”

            2. Persian kings were very careful to reward loyalty, and it was a blot on Ahasuerus’ reign that he had failed to reward Mordecai for saving his life. Such an oversight had to be immediately rectified. And the king is impatient.

            3. The king needs advice immediately. It is morning. Is anyone in the palace?

      2. You can see from this history how important timing is, that God’s timing is always perfect, and that the timing could not have been worse for Haman.

         1. Mordecai had not been rewarded five years earlier. That might seem like an insignificant matter but it also part of God’s perfect plan.

            1. God saw to that Mordecai would not be honored at the time when he might have expected it.

            2. If M. had been rewarded 5 yrs previously the history would be so different.

            3. But what are (to speak from an earthly perspective) the “chances” that Mordecai’s noble act of saving the king’s life which was buried deep in the records would be unearthed the very night Haman was building a gallows for Mordecai’s execution! Truly, there are no coincidences with God.

         2. Haman, too, in God’s providence built a gallows for Mordecai on that same night, and planned to have Mordecai executed that very morning.

            1. Haman could have had Haman hanged days or weeks before this, had he so chosen, but he picked the worst possible day to make his plans.

            2. Any other morning, the King would have granted Haman’s request, but this morning he will not even have the opportunity to make the request.

            3. Both Haman and the King have Mordecai on their minds, for two very different reasons, but royal protocol requires that the King speak first. In God’s providence, Haman is in the palace, bright and early, ready to advise the king on how to reward Haman’s arch enemy. The irony is delicious!

3. AN UNEXPECTED TWIST

   1. As Haman comes into the King’s presence the King has a question, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” (6:6).

      1. Haman’s answer shows how proud he really is: he immediately jumps to the conclusion that the King intends to honor him, Haman!

         1. It might seem an understandable mistake. After all, everything in Haman’s life indicates that some further honor is to be bestowed on him!

            1. Has Haman not been promoted above all the other servants of the king? Has the king not commanded that all his servants honor him? Has Haman not been invited to two different banquets with the King and Queen?

            2. And how fitting, he thought, that on the day M. will be hanged, he, Haman, will be exalted even further. And M. will have to watch just before he dies.

            3. And here was the king asking him, Haman, how he, Haman, should be honored. Why, all Haman’s dreams were coming true!

         2. So, Haman, without a trace of humility, begins to describe the highest honor which he, Haman, wants.

            1. He does not hesitate. Perhaps he had been fantasizing about such a thing for some time. Not riches or power: Haman wants public recognition, acclaim by the masses; to be paraded through the city.

            2. Haman wants what the king has. He wants to get as close to the throne as he can without being king himself. That ambition can wait. The king’s robe (not just a robe fit for a king, but the king’s actual robe), the king’s royal steed, the king’s crown upon the horse’s head & one of the king’s most noble princes.

            3. And let the honor be as public as possible: let it be proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor” (6:9).

      2. Imagine H.’s horror when the king said, “Make haste … and do to Mordecai!”

         1. Haman had been describing what he, Haman, wants, but the reader knows that Haman is really describing what is to be done to Mordecai.

            1. What a brilliant example of men talking at cross purposes. Again, delicious irony. If there is one Bible story where we are tempted to laugh it is here.

            2. Haman could take back none of his words: the royal robe, the royal horse, the royal crown, the public acclaim all were given to Mordecai. M., not Haman, is now the king’s favorite. And the king says, “Let nothing fail … [6:10]

            3. And Haman is forced, trapped by his own words, publically to honor the one man he hated and the man he wanted to hang.

         2. And how does M. react? We are not told. He is passive thru the whole affair.

            1. But one thing we notice: Mordecai does not refuse the honor.

            2. He does not object when the whole city come out to honor him. Is that honor not as great or greater than the honor he, Mordecai, refused to give to Haman?

            3. Is this not another indication that Mordecai’s refusal to honor Haman was not a scruple against committing idolatry! [But M’s honor is only a momentary blaze of glory for after his procession on the king’s horse he returns to sit at the king’s gate, presumably no longer wearing sackcloth].

   2. Haman returns home thoroughly humiliated: everything he had planned the day before has been turned upside down (6:12)

      1. If Haman is hoping for a sympathetic ear from Zeresh, his wife & his friends he is disappointed. They who offered him the advice of building a gallows for Mordecai can see the writing is on the wall.

         1. They see M.’s sudden success and Haman’s sudden defeat as a bad omen.

            1. One thing is for sure: the gallows in Haman’s yard will not be used on Mordecai. Haman can hardly ask permission to hang M. after this.

            2. Surely it would be wiser to dismantle the gallows as soon as possible before word reaches the king that Haman has built a gallows for M, the man the king delighteth to honor?

         2. Mordecai, say Haman’s friends, is a Jew, and you have begun to fall before him, and before all the Jews. “Thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him” (6:13).

            1. Haman, a proud son of Agag, an Amalekite, plotted to destroy the Jews, but God is fighting against Haman (Read Num. 24:5-7).

            2. Haman’s friends were speaking in superstition, not faith; but they were right.

            3. God fights for His people for the sake of His covenant promise, for the sake of Jesus Christ. No power can prevail against God’s people, His Church in the OT or NT. And in this chapter we see that even seemingly small things work for the destruction of God’s and our enemies.

      2. But, as Haman & friends are discussing this there is a knock at the door. The king’s chamberlains arrive to bring Haman to his banquet with Queen Esther.

         1. The events surrounding Mordecai’s exaltation and Haman’s humiliation have taken up most of the morning. Haman has no time to prepare, to think or to react. The King and Queen must not be kept waiting.

         2. But, the gallows for Mordecai stands ominously & unused in Haman’s backyard.

         3. And all things are moving rapidly toward Haman’s destruction & our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!