Esther 4 records Mordecai’s response to the news of Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews. Mordecai dressed in sackcloth and mourned, as did many of the Jews throughout Susa. When Esther heard about Mordecai’s response, she didn’t know why he was acting in this manner. She sent one of her eunuch’s to Mordecai to find out what was happening. Mordecai sent word to Esther of the pronouncement against the Jews, and also that she must go to the king and plead for relief from it. Esther sent a response saying the king had not called for her for thirty days, and according to the law if she went to him without being summoned, she would be sentenced to death. Mordecai’s response has become one of the most famous in the Bible. After saying deliverance would surely come for the Jews by some means, and that Esther would not be spared from the pronouncement if she did nothing, Mordecai asked, “But who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther’s ascent to being queen was certainly divinely orchestrated. She had access to the king who could do something about the situation and save her entire race. It was up to her to act. Esther’s response was to call all the Jews in Susa to fast from food and drink for three days. She would do the same, and then she would go to the king. We see Esther’s faith, as well as her willingness to obey her uncle and follow his advice even when it might mean her death. It’s always easy to exercise our faith when it doesn’t cost us anything. The true extent of our faith and obedience is seen when to exercise it means to pay a significant price.
Esther 5 starts with Esther going before the king. He raises his scepter to her and offers to fulfill any request she has even to giving her up to half his kingdom. Esther responds with a seemingly innocuous request: Let the king and Haman come to a meal she would prepare for them. The King agreed. At the meal he asked Esther again what she wanted? This time Esther asked for the king and Haman to come to another meal she would prepare for them the next day. The king agreed. Haman went out overjoyed at the favor he had been shown. Yet, when he thought about Mordecai who would not show him honor, he became angry. He went home and shared his mixed emotions with his family. They suggested he build a gallows seventy-five feet high and have the king hang Mordecai on it the next day. The idea pleased Haman and had the gallows built.
Esther 6 begins with an account of the king not being able to sleep. He had one of his aides bring him the book of the records of the events in his reign and he turned it to the place where the account of Mordecai’s exposing the plot to assassinate him was recorded. He asked what had been done to honor Mordecai for his noble act. When the king was told nothing had been done, he called Haman in and asked him what ought to be done for a man the king wanted to honor. The prideful Haman assumed he was the one the king would want to honor, so he suggested the king would put one of his own robes on the man, set him on one of the kings horses, place one of the king’s crowns on his head, and then have one of the king’s nobleman parade the man through the city proclaiming this is what happens to a man the king wants to honor. The king agreed this was the perfect response. Then he told Haman to go out an honor Mordecai in that manner. Can you imagine the humiliation Haman experienced in that moment? The man he had vowed to have the king execute was now being elevated by the king, and he was the one who had to proclaim Mordecai’s fame throughout the city. Haman’s wise men told him this was an indication Haman’s downfall had started, because Mordecai was a Jew. They were more than right! The last statement in the chapter tells us Queen Esther sent for Haman to come to the banquet even as he was talking with his wise men.
In Esther 7, Haman and the king attend Esther’s banquet. Once again, the king asked Esther what she wanted and promised to give her up to half his kingdom. Esther asked for her life be spared and that of her people. She told the king she wouldn’t have bothered him if the edict was merely for them to be sold into slavery, but she was asking him to spare their lives. The king wanted to know who would do such a thing? Esther answered it was the evil Haman. At this the king left the room in a rage. Haman stayed behind to beg for his life. He fell on Esther to plead for his life, just as the king returned. He saw it as Haman attempting to assault Esther, and had his men cover Haman’s face, which meant he stood condemned to die. One of Esther’s eunuchs mentioned the gallows Haman had constructed to hang Mordecai, and suggested it be used for Haman. It was. No greater example of how evil has a tendency to turn on itself can be found in the Bible, than in the life of Haman. His intense hatred for one man–Mordecai, which was based on Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow down before Haman, because of his religious beliefs, ended up turning into a generalized hatred for all Jews. This happens all too often, among us human beings. We generalize a real or imagined fear or hatred to others, and soon it consumes us. Haman’s condemnation came because he condemned an innocent man and then an innocent nation. The example is extreme, but we must learn from it. That way we won’t make the same mistake on a small or large scale ourselves.
As we turn to Matthew 11 once again, we find John the Baptist sending some of his disciples to ask Jesus whether He was the Messiah or not? John was in prison, because of calling King Herod to task for taking his brother Phillip’s wife for himself. John expected Jesus to be the conquering Messiah so many had awaited. Jesus’ response to the disciples was to quote Isaiah the prophet, and to remind John that Jesus was doing exactly what the Messiah was predicted to do–healing, teaching and preaching. As John’s disciples returned to him with the message, Jesus called the people to recognize John as the one who ushered in His ministry. He also said no one was greater than John up to that moment in history, but the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than he. Jesus’ ministry established a whole new era in human history. He would establish a new covenant between God and humanity, and we must remember how vastly different the time in which we live is than the Old Testament era. While Jesus words here are only at the beginning of the new era, because He hadn’t yet died, risen again, returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to every believer, they are still a strong reminder of the blessing we have because we live on this side of the new covenant He came to establish. The remainder of the chapter shows us how vital it is to respond to Jesus’ message, because He condemned some of the towns in Israel that had experienced the blessings of His ministry but did not respond to them.