By Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
In last week’s message, Queen Esther invites Haman to be the only guest to attend the banquet she had prepared for the King. Afterwards, as Haman hurried home, even though he was very enthusiastic over such a grand honor, he became quite crestfallen and angry upon seeing Mordecai who refused to acknowledge him by not bowing as usual. However, he managed to keep his composure and earlier joy as he hurried home to share it with his wife, family and friends. He told them of his second invitation to return to the palace to eat with the King the next day. He was the only person in the Kingdom granted that honor. However, he also shared his dismay due to Mordecai’s disrespect towards him by not acknowledging his station. Afterwards, his wife, Zeresh, and all their family and friends came forth with a plan to rid him of his greatest adversary, Mordecai, by asking the King to let him be hanged on gallows. He rejoiced over the idea and had the gallows constructed.
On the night after the first banquet, God did not allow the King to sleep. He was guided by Him to order his servants to bring the book of records of the Chronicles to him. Included in the book was the record of Mordecai warning the King of two doorkeeper’s plans to kill him. Mordecai’s actions had saved his life. The King inquired of his servants what honors had been given to Mordecai for his honorable deed? They said, “Nothing has been done for him”.
Upon Haman’s arrival, he planned to ask the King’s permission to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared. But before he could ask the question, God intervened and the King asked Haman, “What should be done to the man whom the King delighted to honor?” Haman thought in his heart who would the king like to honor more than himself? He answered the king, “For whom the king delighted to honor, let the royal apparel be brought which the King used to wear, and the horse that the King rides upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head and let them be delivered by one of the King’s royal princes, that they may array the man with whom the King delighted to honor, and bring him on horseback through the streets of the city and proclaim before him. Thus, shall it be done to whom the King is delighted to honor”.
The King said to Haman, “Make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou have said, and do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, who sits at the King’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou have spoken!” Then Haman reluctantly took Mordecai the apparel and the horse, and arrayed him, and brought him on horseback through the streets of the city and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the King delighted to honor.” (Esther 6:1-11)
