Haman’s Magnificent Fall | Sunday, July 4, 2021

So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. And on the second day... the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!" Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated..." So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?" And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!" So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. (Esther 7:1–6)

When the devil overplays his hand, the gallows built for the innocent become the platform of his own fall.

Imagine Losing Your Rights

It is July 4th, 2021. Most of you will recognize the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, published 245 years ago today. If you live under that declaration and the Constitution that followed, you are grateful for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and you agree that it is self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.

But imagine you did not have those rights. Imagine your people once had them, but they were stripped away when you were exiled from your homeland to be prisoners and slaves in a distant land. Most of your relatives were killed in the battles leading to exile; your capital was obliterated. Those exiled were forced to change their names, speak a new language, and worship false gods—often in horrific, immoral ways. If they refused, they were thrown into fiery furnaces or cast to hungry beasts.

Then that wicked nation was overcome by another, and your people were largely liberated and given opportunity to return home. Some returned; many did not, having built lives and families in exile. For forty years or so they simply blended in and lived their lives. This is the setting of the book we are studying—the Old Testament book of Esther.

A Decree of Annihilation

You knew your history: your people in Egypt as slaves, their deliverance, their wilderness wanderings, the conquest of the land, the early monarchy. You knew the names—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel. You were a freed people living as much as possible in peace—until one day a decree from the king was read and posted publicly in the marketplace.

The decree said that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, every one of your people, the Jewish people, was to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated throughout all the provinces of Persia—young and old, little children and women, in one day. And you are left to wonder: why such hatred? Why such hatred for this people in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the Promised Land, under the Babylonians in 586 B.C.?

It is not a hatred confined to twenty-five hundred or thirty-four hundred years ago. It was alive eighty years ago in Europe, two hundred years ago in Russia, in Spain in the fifteenth century, in Rome in the first and second centuries, and today still in the Middle East. Why such hatred for this people—and yet they remain a people? Why such blessing for this people?

It Goes Back to Abraham

If you have been part of this church for any length of time, you know I love history, especially the history surrounding the things of Scripture. When you see today's world through the lens of biblical history, it becomes clear there is something more to history than what is seen on the surface. That has been our recurring point all summer through Esther: there is something more to reality, something more to life, than what is apparent.

So why such hatred? It goes back to Abraham—not Abraham Lincoln—the father of the nation of Israel. Abraham was born in Ur, about two hundred miles from Susa where Esther lived, roughly fifteen hundred years before her. When Abraham was seventy-five, God called him.

Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1–3)

Why, four thousand years after Abraham, is there still a Jewish people? Why do nearly half of the almost eight billion people alive today—Jews, Christians, and Muslims—look back to Abraham as a vital figure of faith? The answer is in these three verses. God said to Abraham: follow Me by faith, and I will make you a great nation, bless you, make your name great, and through you bless all the families of the earth.

It's Really About Jesus

Let me clue you into something important. The blessing of Abraham—and the hatred and cursing of Abraham and his descendants—is not ultimately about Abraham or the Jewish people. It is about the One who would come through and from Abraham. There is something going on behind the scenes, in what I call the unseen realm.

This hatred is not about Abraham; it is about the God of Abraham and His working in the world, and about the enemy of God opposing that work. The blessing is about the most important descendant of Abraham: Jesus. The opposition against Abraham's descendants is opposition against God's plan to bring Jesus of Nazareth into the world thousands of years later. That is why there is such hatred—it's all about Jesus.

And as I emphasized last time: in this battle between God and the devil, the devil always overplays his hand. You can be absolutely certain of it. God is at work behind the scenes, and the adversary working against Him always overplays his hand.

A Faith That Can Be Tested

This matters because hardly a week goes by that I don't get an email or have a conversation with some stressed-out Christian who looks at all the chaos and confusion of the world and is freaked out. Maybe that is you—uneasy about the news, the podcasts, the social media barrage coming at us constantly over the last eighteen months.

It is in times like these that we discover whether we really believe what we say we believe. I think it was Warren Wiersbe, the great Bible teacher who recently passed away, who said, "A faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted." The apostle James writes that the testing of our faith produces endurance and patience, and ultimately brings about maturity. God is at work behind the scenes, the devil is opposing that work, but the devil always overplays his hand.

The Story So Far

We are in Esther 7 today. Over the previous six weeks: Esther 1 gave us the fall of Queen Vashti, who disobeyed the king and was removed. About four years later, Esther 2 brought the rise of Queen Esther, secretly a Jewish woman, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then, some four or five years later, came the ascent of Haman the Magnificent—his name means "magnificent." All Persia was commanded to bow to him, but one man refused: Mordecai, the older cousin and guardian of Esther. Haman was filled with wrath, and his hatred moved him to plot not only Mordecai's death but the destruction of all his people, the Jews.

In the midst of this came Mordecai's declaration of faith.

"Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:13–14)

In the realm of men, it was Mordecai's refusal to bow that brought Haman's wrath. But there was more going on in the unseen realm, where the enemy was at work to destroy the plan of God—God's plan, given in Genesis 12, to bring the blessing of Jesus through Abraham. God is doing something in this world much bigger than Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Esther, and Mordecai: the redemption of all people through a descendant of Abraham. The devil is trying to destroy that work.

When Should We Disobey?

Pay attention here, because this is important. There are times when we must refuse to follow the dictates of the authorities. That is what Mordecai did—commanded to bow and effectively worship Haman, an enemy of God, he refused. There has been much talk about this lately because of all the shutdowns and mandates of the last sixteen to eighteen months, and many people, in churches and out, have asked whether it is time to push back against the authorities.

Consider four important things about civil disobedience. First, we disobey the authorities when they command us to do what God has forbidden. Second, we disobey when they forbid us to do what God has commanded. In either case we have the right and the responsibility to obey God rather than men.

But the next two are just as important. Third, we only disobey when we are prepared to suffer the consequences of our actions. Fourth, we only disobey when we are prepared to trust God for the outcome. If you cannot check off these four boxes, then you fall under Romans 13: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."

The Declaration of Independence closes with these words: "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." The founders were trusting in Divine Providence and accepting that they might die for what they were doing. You must be prepared for the consequences.

Esther Puts Herself on the Line

Mordecai and Esther could check off those boxes. Esther responded:

"Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" (Esther 4:16)

She was willing to accept the consequences, and even though God is not explicitly mentioned, she was trusting in the Lord. She would go before the king—civil disobedience—and if she perished, she perished.

So in Esther 5 she went before the king, was received, and invited the king and Haman to a banquet. There the king asked what she wanted, up to half the kingdom, and she invited him to a second banquet. That night the king could not sleep, and Haman, restless with fury over Mordecai, went home where his wife and friends urged him to kill Mordecai. While Haman planned the execution, the king was being reminded that Mordecai had once saved his life—and the king resolved to honor the very man Haman wanted to kill.

So when Haman came to speak about killing Mordecai, the king interrupted, asking what should be done for the man the king delights to honor. Assuming it was himself, Haman described an elaborate honor—and was then required to bestow it on Mordecai. The devil always overplays his hand, and God is working behind the scenes.

Haman's Fall

Then queen Esther answered... "Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue..." (Esther 7:3–4)

If it had only been slavery—from which Cyrus had already delivered them—she would have kept silent. But this was annihilation. When the king demanded to know who would dare such a thing, Esther named "this wicked Haman," and Haman was terrified.

Let me draw out some things from this. First, God is working even when I think He is inactive. In all the anxiety and weight of this past year and a half—the politics, the health crises, the injustices people constantly talk about—if you are a believer in the God of the Bible, remember: God is working even when He seems inactive.

Second, God is working, but there is an enemy working against Him. This foe is not God's equal—not equal in power, intelligence, or resources. He is a created being. But there is a real opposing force, visible from Genesis 3 through all sixty-six books of the Bible.

Third, God is working, but Esther still had to put herself on the line. Christians often divide over the sovereignty of God versus the responsibility of man, but Scripture holds both as true. It was God's providence, not Esther, that kept the king awake and had Mordecai's deed read aloud. Yet Esther still had to fast, pray, go before the king illegally, set up the banquet, and petition for her people. God is working, but He still has something for you to do. Have you considered that maybe God has something for you to be doing right now that you are not doing?

Hang Him on It

Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden... So Haman returned, and behold, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was, as the king came back from the palace garden... Then the king said, "Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?" As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. (Esther 7:7–8)

This is beautiful irony—comedy in the midst of tragedy for Haman. The man who thought himself magnificent, with his high-handed plan to destroy Mordecai, now lay pleading for his life, because the devil always overplays his hand and God will accomplish His work.

Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, "Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai... is standing at the house of Haman." Then the king said, "Hang him on it!" So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath subsided. (Esther 7:9–10)

God is never explicitly mentioned in Esther, yet through the fall of Vashti, the rise of Esther, the ascent of Haman, Mordecai's refusal, the king's sleeplessness, and the reading of Mordecai's deed, God is working even when we think He is inactive. And Haman is killed on the very gallows he built.

There Is Still Much for Us to Do

With Haman's death you might think the story is finished—but three chapters remain, which leads to one more important point: God is at work, but there is still much for us to do. Hundreds of years after Esther came the blessing of Abraham to this world: Jesus, God coming into the world. All of it—from Genesis 3 to the Gospels, including the story of Esther—is part of that one story. That is why the enemy came against the working of God through Abraham's descendants.

Jesus came two thousand years ago, was crucified, and said on the cross, "It is finished." That would seem to be the end. Yet why are we still here two thousand years later? Because God is at work, but there is still much for us to do. To see the conclusion of Esther's story, you'll have to join us next time.

Do You Really Believe?

There is a reason God led us to Esther this summer. There is much chaos and confusion in our broken and fallen world, especially noticeable this past year, and it can weigh on us, stress us, and fill us with anxiety. In the midst of it we need to step back and ask: do I really believe what I say I believe?

Do you really believe that God is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? That is what faith is all about, and Esther reminds us that God is working even when we don't see His plan clearly. When you come to know God as He is revealed in Scripture, you realize that in the end, He wins.

A friend told me this week: it doesn't matter what the score is in the third quarter if you know you win the game in the end. When Jesus said "It is finished," He was speaking of future history not yet come to pass. If you know that in the end Christ wins, then the things going on around us may still cause anxiety, but we can roll them onto the Lord, saying, "God, I know You're working, and I know that in the end You win."

So the question is: what part does He have for you to play? It just may be that God has placed you in your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, your classroom, for such a time as this. Are you fulfilling the purpose for which God placed you there? Ask Him: "God, help me to see what You want me to do."

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray as we close today on this Independence Day that You would help us to be in that right space of mind to come before You with our anxieties, our concerns, and our fears, casting our cares upon You, trusting that You do care for us. And then in that place, to ask, Lord, what do You want me to do? Maybe, just as Esther and the Jewish people paused to pray and fast, that is what we need to do this week—maybe not three days, maybe just an afternoon—to pray, "God, what do You want me to do in this situation?" Because it just may be that You have placed me here for such a time as this. God, help us to have faith enough to see that You are working, to trust in Your working, and to step into the work You have for us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.