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. Chapter 7 is the climax and highlight (but not the end) of the book of Esther.

   1. The previous chapters have been building up to this point.

      1. On the 13^th day of the 1^st month of the 12^th year of King Ahasuerus Haman, in response to a personal slight by Mordecai the Jew, publishes a decree to destroy all Jews.

      2. Shortly after this, Mordecai brings the matter to the attention of Queen Esther, who, unbeknownst to anyone in Shushan, is herself a Jew.

      3. At length, she is persuaded to risk her life by appearing uninvited before King Ahasuerus, which she does with initial success. Esther does not reveal her request but invites the King & Haman to two banquets.

   2. Esther does not even reveal her request at the first banquet. She asks instead for the presence of Haman and the King at a second banquet. This delay is disastrous for Haman and almost disastrous for Mordecai.

      1. Mordecai almost ended up impaled on a huge pointed stake in Haman’s yard before the second banquet.

      2. Esther’s delay contributed, again in the providence of God, to a sleepless night for the King, which makes him even more eager to hear Esther’s request.

      3. The sleepless night also leads to a strange twist in the story which we saw last time: Haman wanted to impale Mordecai but he is forced to honor him by the king himself.

2. In chapter 7, Esther finally makes her request and at the same time she must reveal a secret that she has been hiding from the king for five years. She is a Jew and therefore she is included in Haman’s murderous decree.

   1. From the perspective of the three at Esther’s banquet this is an awkward dinner.

      1. Ahasuerus is eager to know what is troubling the Queen.

      2. Haman has had a very bad morning and is seething b/c of his humiliation before Mordecai but things are going to get a lot worse for Haman.

      3. And Esther is anxious: everything hangs in the balance for her. How will the king react? Will Haman succeed in winning over the king? Can the Jews be saved?

   2. With the eyes of faith, we can see that both angels and devils are watching with bated breath.

      1. With the Jews’ existence hanging in the balance the devil has made another attempt on the life of Christ.

      2. How will God save His people this time, for save them He will. Esther has come to the kingdom for this moment. Haman will fall and the Jews will be preserved as Esther pleads her life before the king. And all this for the sake of the coming of Jesus Christ.

“HAMAN UNMASKED AND PUNISHED”

I. Esther’s Shocking Revelation

II. The King’s Furious Reaction

III. Haman’s Terrible Punishment

1. ESTHER’S SHOCKING REVELATION

   1. As Esther, Ahasuerus & Haman gather for the second banquet the moment of truth has come for Esther. She must reveal all to the King, and the King offers her encouragement to speak.

      1. The King is anxious to know what is troubling Esther.

         1. Ahasuerus’ mind is swimming with questions, so much so that the matter has disturbed his sleep.

            1. What would move his Queen to risk her life by appearing before him unannounced the day before?

            2. Why did the Queen insist that Haman be present? Was he involved? Was it a political matter in which Haman could help?

            3. And fresh in his mind is the foiled assassination plot which Mordecai had uncovered and for which Mordecai has just been honored. Is there perhaps another such plot? [This is the third time Ahasuerus has asked Esther: 5:3; 5:6; 7:2. He needs to know! And he is becoming a little impatient].

         2. To encourage Esther to speak the king adopts an appropriate tone. He wants to give her every incentive to make her request known.

            1. Her addresses her as Queen Esther: she is not just any supplicant but the Queen herself. She has an honored position, a special place in Ahasuerus’ court. Surely she can have confidence that the King will listen to his Queen?

            2. He makes a promise: “it shall be granted;” “it shall be performed” (v. 2).

            3. His offer to Esther is exceedingly generous: up to half the kingdom (5:3, 5:6, 7:2). We do not take that literally. It is a flamboyant way of saying that he will not deny her. [Ahasuerus has no idea what is troubling Esther and is not at all prepared to hear the truth].

      2. And what of the other two? What of Haman? Haman is not prepared either.

         1. Haman is not a happy guest at the royal table. All of his plans for that morning have gone wrong. He expected honor and glory and was humiliated by having to honor Mordecai.

            1. Haman is prob. in bad mood but he dare not show before the king & queen.

            2. Perhaps, Haman thinks, he can still use this dinner party to his advantage. He is still in the king’s good books and thinks that the queen likes him too.

            3. Haman does not know Esther’s real reason for inviting him: to expose and unmask him before the king!

         2. Esther is filled with anxiety. She prepared for three days & nights before she appeared before the king; she got past the first hurdle; but now she must make known a secret she has been keeping from the king for five years.

            1. Esther is a Jew, not a godly Jew, not a praying Jew, but a Jew nonetheless. And all Jews are under the death sentence because of Haman’s decree.

            2. She sits opposite two men: one man is the most powerful man in the world whose ring is affixed to the decree; the other is the king’s right hand man, a man who with very little effort has persuaded the king to destroy all the Jews.

            3. Now, she must reveal that she is a Jew so that she can save her own life, M’s life and all the lives of her people the Jews. How will King react? Will Haman be able to turn A. against Esther? Will Esther go the way of Vashti or worse?

   2. In verse 3, Esther answers the king. She treads carefully before an absolute monarch who has been drinking wine and is known for his instability & bad temper.

      1. Esther is not hasty in her speech (Read Proverbs 29:20).

         1. She does not blurt out her request (“Oh save me from death!”).

            1. She does not presume or make demands but speaks thus, “If I have found favour …” “If it please the king …” This is a polite and disarming way to address the king.

            2. She does not become hysterical or lose control of her emotions but gradually builds up to the main issue.

            3. And in so doing she appeals to what she knows will move the king: she does not appeal to his sense of justice or to his mercy or to his humanity or to his wisdom [Ahasuerus, as Esther knows, does not possess such qualities].

         2. Instead Esther makes a direct appeal to his pride, his self-interest.

            1. O King, your queen, the one you are very proud of, your beautiful, elegant wife, she is in danger.

            2. Notice how Esther’s first request is for herself: “Let my life be given me at my petition” (v. 3). Ahasuerus does not give a fig for the Jews. He cares about his Queen, and Esther plays on this fact.

            3. Her next request explains the first: “and my people at my request.” E’s life is in danger b/c someone is planning to kill E’s people are therefore E. herself.

         3. We are not told what effect Esther’s words had upon Haman yet, but Haman was not stupid. The Queen was speaking about a people whose lives were threatened, and now she was associating herself with that very people.

            1. There is only one people whose lives are under threat and that is the Jews. He, Haman, had written the decree himself only a few months earlier.

            2. Esther’s words can mean only one thing: Esther is a Jew, and he, Haman, has inadvertently plotted to murder the Queen and all the Queen’s people.

            3. But Haman cannot say anything because he may not interrupt the Queen.

      2. Esther continues her explanation and in so doing underlines the malice of Haman’s decree and the reasonableness of Esther’s petition.

         1. To Haman’s horror Esther begins to quote from Haman’s own decree, the one Haman worded and the one sealed with the King’s ring.

            1. Verse 4: “For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish …” Compare 3:13. Sold to be destroyed, the Queen and her people!

            2. But, says Esther, if it had only been a matter of slavery I would have been silent. Esther could have lived with the prospect of being sold into slavery with the Jews. The Jews had been slaves before. For slaves there is still hope. But the threat of annihilation moves her to speak.

            3. How monstrous: someone threatens the Queen’s life, and the Queen is in such dire straits that she would be willing to be made a slave if that meant her life would be spared. No wonder she had appeared so suddenly before the King. He had never imagined anything as serious as this!

         2. Verse 14 is somewhat difficult to translate because of the ambiguity of language. The word countervail means to be equal. Compensate, counterbalance or offset are good modern synonyms.

            1. The word “enemy” in verse 14 means a squeezing or a narrowing; it either means the one causing distress (the enemy) or the distress itself.

            2. Either, Esther means that the enemy (Haman) would not be able to compensate for the loss which the king would incur by the loss of the Jews from his kingdom. Haman promised the king 10,000 talents of silver, an amount which Mordecai reported to Esther (3:9, 4:7). Even if the Jews were sold into slavery, says Esther, that would not be worth the 10,000 talents of silver that the enemy (Haman) promised.

            3. Or, Esther means that the subject would not be worth troubling the king about if, it were only a matter of being sold into slavery. “No such distress [of slavery] would justify disturbing the king.” [Since the Hebrew is ambiguous, Esther probably meant both: first, Haman has given the king a bad bargain; and second, the queen is reasonable but has been placed in dire straits by the seriousness of the threat to her life and that of her people. Esther’s words are designed to evoke pity and to shock the king into action while at the same time preparing to expose Haman to the king’s face].

2. THE KING’S FURIOUS REACTION

   1. The King’s immediate reaction is disbelief. He demands to know who the culprit is, where the culprit is, but does not see that the culprit is right under his nose.

      1. Ahasuerus does not understand that Esther is describing not only Haman but Ahasuerus himself but Esther does not implicate Ahasuerus in her accusation.

         1. Ahasuerus shows himself here to be a foolish, naïve and irresponsible king, a king easily manipulated by flatterers and unable to act without advice.

            1. Ahasuerus has a very short memory. Two months prior to this he and Haman had sat down to discuss this very issue, the annihilation of a certain people.

            2. It is true that Haman had been very sly & deliberately vague with details, but could Ahasuerus not have worked it out? After all, how many genocidal decrees of mass-murder had Ahasuerus issued in the past few months?

            3. Clearly, Ahasuerus rules by proxy. He indulges himself with wine, women and song and leaves the details to others.

         2. Ahasuerus bursts into furious anger: the word wrath in the Bible means “heat” or a “burning.” Ahasuerus burned in fury.

            1. Ahasuerus’ anger reminds us of the anger of another king, David, “And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man …” (II Sam. 12:5).

            2. David hadn’t seen his guilt until Nathan pointed at him: “Thou art the man!”

            3. But Esther dares not point her finger at Ahasuerus and say “Thou art the man!” Instead, she points to Haman!

      2. Haman must have seen this coming as soon as Esther started her speech, but now the devastating accusation makes Haman terrified (“The enemy and adversary is this wicked Haman” [v. 6]).

         1. Esther’s accusation is threefold.

            1. First, Haman is the adversary, that is, he is the one who has made life narrow or difficult for Esther & her people and is squeezing them from the earth.

            2. Second, Haman is the enemy, that is, he is personally hostile & filled with hatred against Esther and E’s people & this is his motive for seeking their life.

            3. Third, Haman is wicked, that is, Haman is morally evil, at heart a vile, base person. And he has filled his heart with wickedness [Notice how Esther frames her accusation in such a way as to make Haman be first and foremost an enemy and hater of the Queen. Only secondarily is Haman, according to Esther, an enemy of the Jews. Of course the opp. is true: Haman did not know that Esther was a Jew. His hatred was for Mordecai and then for the Jews].

         2. There is something terrifying about the anger of an absolute monarch such as King Ahasuerus. The book of Proverbs brings this out.

            1. “The wrath of a king is as the messengers of death; but a wise man will pacify it” (Prov. 16:14). “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favor is as Jew upon the grass” (Prov. 19:12).

            2. This king was notorious for his rage: he killed all the workers of a bridge destroyed in a storm; he ordered the sea whipped for defying him; he put away his wife Vashti. What might he do to one who threatened the Queen’s life?

   2. The King is so angry that he leaves the room to cool off (“And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden” [v. 7]).

      1. He understands now that he had been deceived by Haman, a man he had trusted and elevated to be his closest advisor.

         1. What a fool the king has been! How could he have trusted Haman!

            1. Haman had come to the King with what seemed to be a reasonable idea: there is a people who are not worthy to live; not in the king’s profit to tolerate them.

            2. But evil never sounds so evil when it is in the abstract: but this was not abstract, it affected the king himself, his queen and her people.

            3. That is the devil’s tactic in all ages: dehumanize the people you will destroy. Hitler did that with the Jews: he had to make them sound less than people so he could justify killing them; abortion is the same. There would be fewer abortions if the abortion industry spoke of killing babies instead of fetuses.

         2. And now the king was without an advisor. Haman, his most trusted advisor, has turned out to be a traitor.

            1. Haman had made wicked insinuations against the Jews. They were different and scattered; they were rebellious and did not keep the king’s laws.

            2. And so it looks to the king, Haman was plotting to kill the Queen. And Esther does not correct this impression of Haman. She encourages it.

            3. So, the King walks in the Garden trying to think of what he can do.

      2. It becomes very clear to Haman that he is in serious trouble with the King.

         1. See v. 7, “he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.”

            1. By evil, Haman understands punishment. And when the king is angry the punishment you can expect will be severe.

            2. No wonder we read that Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. The queen had exposed him and the king was angry.

            3. Now a proud Haman becomes a man groveling and pleading for his life.

         2. Haman really had two possibilities: none of them were promising.

            1. He could follow the King into the Garden and seek to explain to him that he did not know that Esther was a Jew, that he would never have sought to harm her, that it was all a terrible misunderstanding.

            2. But he judges that Ahasuerus is too furious, so he seeks mercy with Queen Esther. Haman would have given anything: his riches, his power, his glory. He would have served Esther as a slave if she would speak to the king for him.

            3. So Haman stands up and to make request for his life to Esther, but as he does so he makes a fatal move.

3. HAMAN’S TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT

   1. Haman makes a miscalculation: as he approaches Esther to beg for his life, he falls.

      1. Verse 8 tells us that Haman had fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was.

         1. The bed was a couch on which Esther reclined. It was not a bed for sleeping.

         2. Probably, as Haman approached the couch he knelt down beside her and took hold of her robe or her hand to try to plead with her.

         3. Possibly, Haman tripped and fell onto the couch by accident. But whatever happened he ended up in a compromising position with the Queen. Court etiquette forbade any man but the king and his eunuchs to come near or touch the queen. Haman, in his panic, broke royal protocol and would pay with his life.

      2. Haman has no time to recover himself because right at that moment the king returns from the garden and cries out in anger, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house?” (v. 8).

         1. By that he means, Haman is trying to force himself sexually upon the queen, to rape her; and he is so brazen about it that he does it while the king is there.

         2. Now, it is very unlikely that the king thought that Haman was actually trying to attack Esther but it gives the king a convenient excuse to get rid of Haman while saving face. Haman was not put to death for the decree but for attempted rape.

         3. Esther, again, says nothing. She makes no attempt to clear up the misunderstanding. She allows Haman to be punished, ironically, for a crime he did not commit. The king’s servants understand too because they cover Haman’s face, a sign that the man was marked out for execution.

   2. At this point another of the King’s chamberlains mentions Haman’s gallows for Mordecai. This is the final nail in Haman’s coffin: he plotted to murder the Queen, her people; he tried to rape the queen in the presence of the king; and now he even wanted to kill Mordecai who saved the king’s life and who only that morning the king commanded him to honor! What a monstrously wicked man!

      1. So, Haman is impaled on the stake which he had prepared for Mordecai.

         1. This is poetic justice and God’s just retribution against an enemy of God and of God’s people. It reminds us of Psalm 7:15, “He made a pit and digged it and is fallen into the ditch which he made.”

         2. But the hanging of Haman tells us something else: Haman was cursed for “cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” Haman bore his own iniquity, perished in the guilt of his sin, bore his own curse and went to hell.

      2. But we are no better than Haman. We, as sinners, deserve to bear the curse of God. But we do not bear our curse. Christ bore our curse on the cross.

         1. But Christ could only bear our curse if Haman’s decree failed. Had Haman succeeded there would be no Christ to bear our curse; and how fitting that the man who conspired to destroy God’s people should himself be cursed.

         2. But the book of Esther is not finished. Haman’s hanging is a highlight but Haman’s evil work outlives him. And to that we return next time. Amen!