Esther 6:1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
2 And it was found written, that Mordecai had 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.
3 And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.
4 And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
6 So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?
7 And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,
8 Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:
9 And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.
10 Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.
11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.
12 And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered.
13 And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.
The Scriptures are clear that God is not crippled by man’s rebellion. In the book of Numbers we read of a false prophet named Balaam. Balaam is a very clear picture of New Evangelicalism. He knew the right words to speak. He knew how to fool people with his rhetoric. He was a false prophet and God eventually had him killed. Prior to that, Balaam went to prophesy over Israel at the bidding of the king of Moab. On the way, God needed to show Balaam that He was not impressed with his deception. At one point, God used Balaam’s donkey to speak to Balaam. God does not need a man. If there is no man around that is willing to speak on His behalf, He can use a donkey. In the New Testament, Jesus declared that if the Pharisees could have stopped the people from exalting the Lord Jesus Christ as He entered Jerusalem the week before His crucifixion, the rocks would have cried out. God is not crippled by the lack of obedience by those who should know better.
In our study of the book of Esther thus far, Mordecai has taught Esther to be quiet about who they are. He just wants to live a quiet life and he is willing to compromise what he knows to be right, in order to try to just get along with people. God did not approve of that, and He was working behind the scenes to exalt His name. Haman, a pagan who hated the Jews, convinced the king to allow him to write letters to all the provinces in the Persian empire, commanding the Gentiles to kill all the Jews they found on a specific date.
Mordecai all of a sudden had some concern about his people. He had a sudden change of mind and now wanted Esther to tell the king who she was and who Mordecai was. The threat of death will often change a person’s position, unless of course the person is saved and walking humbly with the Lord.
Esther was trying to use psychology to get the king into the right frame of mind to tell him who she was and the threat that Haman’s letter was to her people.
God chose to use a better approach to prepare king Ahasuerus to think differently. We read in verse 1 of our text that the king could not sleep after that first banquet that Esther had hosted. Since he could not sleep, others would also be kept up. He commanded the the book of records be brought before him. He was not going to read it himself. He demanded that it be read before him.
As they were reading through it, they came upon the record of Mordecai alerting the king of an act of treason within his kingdom. The king wanted to know what reward had been given to Mordecai for this important act of loyalty that he had done. It was discovered in the book that nothing had been done for Mordecai to reward him.
As the king and his men were discussing this matter, the king wanted to know who was in his court. He has had a sleepless night and now it is daytime. Haman had entered the king’s court. He had come to seek permission to hang Mordecai on the gallows that were being built at his house.
Haman certainly did not have the fear of the king that Esther had expressed earlier. Haman was ready to come with his request, and the king was anxious to seek counsel on this matter of Mordecai. He had a special relationship with Haman so what better person to ask counsel regarding this matter. The king did not mention the details of what he had discovered during his sleepless night. He did not allow Haman to make his request. The king’s matters took precedence over his subjects. The king simply wanted to know what should be done for the person that the king delighted to honour.
Haman was such a vain person that he could not possibly think of anyone the king would want to honour more than himself. Haman was like those who are currently running for the leadership of the Liberal party. They are all corrupt individuals who would be better suited to clean out a dirty pig pen, than to run a country. They are all boasting of how they know exactly how to handle Mr. Trump and his threat of tariffs. They have all been willing to kiss Mr. Trudeau’s feet for the past nine plus years, but all of a sudden they have broken ranks with him and each one knows exactly how to turn around the failings of their party. We will see how gullible the people of this country are when the vote is called for the next leader and then when it is time to choose who will lead the nation for the next four or so years.
Haman came up with a very generous plan as to how the king could honour the person he believed needed to be recognized publicly. What Mordecai had done was worthy of notice. He had foiled a deadly plot against the king. Others needed to see the importance of being loyal to their king.
Haman gave his elaborate counsel to the king. He could just picture himself being paraded through the streets, dressed in the king’s royal apparel, and riding on the king’s horse and even wearing the king’s crown. This would surely elevate Haman to a higher level in the kingdom.
In verse 10, the king identified who the man was that he wanted to honour. It was not Haman. It was Haman’s enemy, Mordecai. Haman was to prepare Mordecai with all the things he had suggested for himself, and to put him on the king’s horse and then Haman was to parade Mordecai through the streets of the city and loudly proclaim how the king would treat a person that he wanted to honour.
In verse 12 we read that after this was taken care of, Mordecai went back to the king’s gate and Haman hurried home in mourning. Things were not going well for him. Mordecai and Esther had nothing to do with this. It was God who would not allow a king to sleep and caused him to search through the records to see what had taken place in recent times.
Rather than Haman going home and boasting, he had his head covered. He was in mourning. He was in shock.
In verse 12 we read that Haman reported all that had happened to his wife Zeresh, and to his friends. Zeresh had enough sense to know that Haman’s plans were backfiring on him. Mordecai was a Jew and he had been given this great honour by the king. How could the king then allow for him to be hanged on a gallows? What was the crime? There was no reason to treat Mordecai with contempt. He had done a very good deed for the king. Haman had a serious problem on his hands. How would he ever turn this around for his benefit. Zeresh did not see any way to turn this into a victory for Haman. He had cooked his goose. More trouble awaited him.
Keep in mind the king has not slept the previous night. Esther has a banquet prepared for the king and Haman the next night. The king was able to deal with a matter he overlooked in the past. However, he would be a tired man and knowing his mental state, he would not be in a very good mood at this time.
We will pick up on this account further on. As we have already noted, God is in charge. He will honour His Word. The Jews are His chosen people. The name Israel, the name He gave to the Jews, has His name as the last two letters of the name. God was not going to allow His people to be destroyed. He would show the Persians that the Jews could not be destroyed. The people needed to turn to the true God rather than listen to a fool like Haman.
Today, it is wise for us to listen to the true God, rather than false teachers. We have the Scriptures. We can know the truth. It is not likely that our P.M. is going to establish a new holiday to honour true born again Christians. We do not need that wicked man to defend us. We, those who are saved, need to submit ourselves to the true God and we need to honour Him. We need to remind others that God is in charge of the climate. We need to remind others that it is evil to develop viruses in labs and seek to destroy people through such methods. We need to remind people that a baby developing in the womb is more than just a ‘fetus’. It is a human being. We need to remind people of the need to be born again. The time is short. Eternity is a long time. No one will manipulate God to be something that He is not. No one will change His Word to make it an unholy book that condones sin.
When you look into the mirror of God’s Word, what do you see? Do you look into that mirror, or are you offended by the truth and choose rather to follow some liar who has rewritten God’s Word to suit his or her sinfulness? False teachers will not advocate for you after death. Each person will stand and answer for themselves. The lost will stand at the great white throne judgment seat and the Lord will open the books and they will speak for themselves. No one will dare to dispute what God has recorded in those books. The sentence for all who appear at that judgment will be the lake of fire. The degree of punishment will be suited to each individual. The duration of the time spent in the lake of fire will be for all eternity. There will be be no parole, and no shortening of the time. The time to turn to the true God is now. He is in charge. He is holy. No sin will enter heaven. No unrepentant sinner will enter heaven. Only those who are saved through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, will be in heaven. Be sure you are one of those. If not do not delay to turn to the true God today and be saved His way.
Pastor Bartel
