Women with a Story to Tell. Esther.11. Now the Shoe is on the Other Foot.

The king has shown kindness to Esther and invited her to come into the court. Now she is at the height of power, before the ruler of the largest empire of its time. Under Xerxes (c. 475; or some argue that it was later under Artaxerxes) the empire stretched from Libya to Pakistan and encompassed around 50 million people. 

 Much of the empire was made up of conquered and displaced peoples (the Persian homeland is only Iran), but the empire was also known for its religious tolerance and fair treatment. The problem that the Jews find themselves in is the result of scattered ethnic hatred, corruption, and bribery which seems to happen in any empire or country. One man, Haman, with the ear of the king and a ‘voluntary’ contribution to the royal treasury has scheduled the empire-wide oppression of the Jews. 

 The Jews considered their options, Mordecai arranged a protest on Esther’s orders and has appeared unannounced before the king. They found a way to address this issue through faithfulness, fasting, and prayer. So far, so good.

”The king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be given to you.” Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have prepared for the king.” Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Esther answered, “This is my petition and request: If I have won the king’s favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and then I will do as the king has said” (Esther 5: 3-8).

 Interesting. Esther did not just blurt out her concerns in the first meeting of the king and his highly placed advisor, Haman. Blunt force will not work here; she must be cautious. She has to carefully maneuver the pieces in this chess match and spring the trap when it will catch Haman off guard. I said she was smart; actually, smarter than we think. When you go up against power, you must consider your assets carefully and use them wisely (Bill Mefford, The Fig Tree Revolution, 94-108).

 What does she have in mind? Let’s see how it plays out.

 “Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was infuriated with Mordecai; nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Then he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh, and Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the ministers of the king. Haman added, ‘Even Queen Esther let no one but myself come with the king to the banquet that she prepared. Tomorrow also I am invited by her, together with the king. Yet all this does me no good so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate’. Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Let a pole fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hung on it; then go with the king to the banquet in good spirits’. This advice pleased Haman, and he had the pole made” (Esther 5: 9-14). 

 Esther has set a trap and Haman is walking right into it with his eyes on the prize, and that is what distracts him. He makes preparations to hang Mordecai on a 75 foot pole, and that shows how distracted he is. What he takes as fame and flattery puffs him up so that when the trap is sprung, he will be like a deer in the headlights.

 Is God in on this? I have said before that, ironically, the name of God, YHWH, is not once mentioned in the book of Esther, but God’s fingerprints are all over the events that are happening. These are the marks of the ‘hidden God’. God is certainly implied by references to the great escapes that the Jews have had as well as the attention to fasting, which is not an end in itself but is necessary to set the stage for prayers of intercession and pleading. What happened?

 “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 kill 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” (Esther 6: 1-3). 

 I wonder why the king couldn’t sleep? Further, why did the king think that having a scribe read official records of court events would help? Does reading put the king to sleep as it does to many people? Or, as the king seems to think, is some supernatural force trying to remind him that he has an unpaid debt, a relationship that needs closure? There are lots of events and lots of records. Olmstead, last century’s expert on the Persian Empire, comments on the library at Susa. He reports that a great mass of inscribed clay tablets still exist which include business records, lists of taxes and fees received by revenue officials, army supplies and movements, and, of course, court records like the one the king is listening to (A. T. Olmstead, 1948, History of the Persian Empire, pages 68-70).  

 Now that the issue has been revealed, the king wants to correct his oversight and honor the one who saved the king’s life. Mordecai must be thanked for his integrity. That’s how we treat whistleblowers, we thank them.  

 ”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 hung on the pole 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’” (Esther 6: 5-9). 

 The bait is set. Haman thinks that the king is talking about him, so he imagines the best honors that could be given. There is poison in this bait, but neither the king nor Haman know it.

 ”Then the king said to Haman, ‘Quickly, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew 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’” (Esther 6: 10-11).

 Ouch! That hurt! Humiliations galore for Haman. It may at first sound like a strange coincidence but, come on, really? Even Haman’s wife and family did not think it was a random occurrence.

”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.” (Esther 6: 12-13).

 Well, maybe it will all blow over. Maybe what was done behind closed doors will never see the light of day (however, see what Jesus says, Luke 8: 17).

”While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared” (Esther 6: 14).