I really enjoy the Old Testament. When I first began reading the Bible through every year, the Old Testament seemed daunting, like a huge desert to travel through before I got to the green pastures of the New Testament. But the trip didn't seem that bad. In fact, the Old Testament is ripe with valuable material for the christian to absorb.
Most folks are familiar with the story of Esther. I was really struck this year with the irony of Haman. Esther chs 2-7 record the detailed account of the story, but I'll give the brief phone-guy version. Haman is promoted above all the other princes in the kingdom of Persia. Full of pride in his elevated state, he struts about while everyone bows before him; everyone but the Jew Mordecai. Even though the king commanded everyone do so, Mordecai would bow before no man, and this really ate Haman up. What follows is a classic case of over reaching. Haman, a man of Amalekite ancestry (read 1 Samuel 15 for one of many accounts of the people of Amalek), decides not to destroy just Mordecai, but to use the occasion to convince the king to destroy the entire race of the Hebrews living within the kingdom.
Haman successfully convinces the king to decree that the Jews be eradicated from the land, but didn't know that the kings new queen is in fact a Jew (it was a secret, no one in the kings house knew). Esther, the queen and our heroine, discovers Haman's plot against her people and risks her life to approach the king uninvited (women didn't have the rights we are accustomed to) to tell the king...."please come to my banquet, and bring Haman with you." Well, attending a banquet with just the queen and king really stokes the already inflated ego of Haman and he leaves the banquet with an invitation to come back the following evening. His pride turned to rage when once again Mordecai refused to bow to him as he strode past. Haman could wait no longer, he ordered a gallows built to seventy five feet high in order to hang Mordecai and be rid of him for good; he only needed to let the king in on his plans.
The king had a dilemma, Mordecai had foiled a plot to assassinate the king and had never been duly honored. He wasn't sure how to reward Mordecai but who should show up at just the right time to help but Haman. Believing the king intended to honor him, Haman told the king that such a one should be arrayed in the splendor of the king and lead about on a magnificent steed by the kings most noble prince, who would shout, "This is what you get if the king really likes you." Things begin to turn sour for Haman at this point as the king loves Haman's suggestion and informs Haman that he'll be leading Mordecai about in the manner in which he just suggested. Ouch! But it gets much worse for Haman.
Haman's friends and counselors told him at this point that he was doomed and they were right. At the second banquet with the king and queen, Esther reveals to the king a plot to destroy her and her people and fingers Haman as the source. I can imagine that Haman must have turned white as a sheet. The king left the room furious, obviously stunned by the turn of events. When he returns, Haman is touching the queen in some way, probably grasping on to her to beg for mercy, but no matter what the reason, you don't touch the kings harem no matter who you are. Haman has sealed his fate. The gallows constructed by Haman for Mordecai would be used to execute Haman.
All throughout scripture, indeed through history, we see God's provision for his people. God has sent punishment in the form of invaders and conquerors, but has always preserved a remnant. The Jewish race with us today is just further evidence of a God that keeps his promises. God has also promised his care to those of us "grafted in" by the gift of grace, Jew and gentile (Jn 10:27-29; Lk 12:22-34). Of course, there is another great lesson here; Pride comes before a fall. Or a hanging.
Christine's 1st Birthday Blog
9 years ago
