December 08, 2010
What are you asking for? What is it you want? This is the second time the king has asked Esther what she wants. Esther's request? "Let me live. Let my people live. This is what I want." Esther didn't ask for things (half of his kingdom). She didn't ask for life plus things (wealth, power, and control). She simply asked for life. She tells the king that she and her people have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed, and completely wiped out! King Xerxes asks, "Who has done this? Who is he?" KJV - "Who has presumed in his heart to do so?" Psalm 140:1-2 - "Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day."
When the king found out it was Haman he was so angry he left the room. When he comes back in the room he sees Haman begging Esther for help. This angers the king even more. One of the king's servants says, "Look, a seventy-five foot platform stands near Haman's house. This is the one Haman had prepared for Mordecai." The king replied, "Hang Haman on it." So Haman was hung on the very platform he had prepared for Mordecai. The consuming anger and revenge he felt for Mordecai destroyed him, not Mordecai. His anger did not destroy the person he was angry with. It instead destroyed him.
That very same day the king gave Esther everything Haman had left when he died. And Mordecai was given the king's signet ring that the king had taken back from Haman. Esther put Mordecai in charge of all that Haman owned. Esther 8:7 - "Because Haman was against the Jewish people, I have given his things to Esther, and my soldiers have hanged him." Accountability happens. The world calls it Karma. All throughout scripture there are examples of the evil that someone else devises in their heart against an innocent person being exactly what happens to them. Haman reaped what he tried to sow, all because Mordecai wouldn't bow down. Haman's anger grew from just wanting to kill Mordecai, to killing all Jews, to possessing (taking from them) everything they owned. And what happened? Haman's "head was covered with the trouble his lips have caused" and he lost his life, eventually his son's life, and everything he owned.
Haman had already sent out the decree that all Jews should be killed on a specific day. It was sealed with the king's signet ring and it could not be repealed. The king gave his ring to Mordecai and told him to do what he needed to do. Mordecai wrote a new decree, sealed it with the king's ring and sent it throughout the land. "The Jewish people in every city have the right to destroy, kill, and completely wipe out those who attacked them." They also had the right to take by force the property of their enemies. They had the right to strike back at their enemies. Notice that they were not the aggressors, but they had every right to vigorously defend the attacks of their enemies who wanted to "kill, destroy, and take everything they owned."
Next Entry: Esther 9:1 – 10:3
What are you asking for? What is it you want? This is the second time the king has asked Esther what she wants. Esther's request? "Let me live. Let my people live. This is what I want." Esther didn't ask for things (half of his kingdom). She didn't ask for life plus things (wealth, power, and control). She simply asked for life. She tells the king that she and her people have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed, and completely wiped out! King Xerxes asks, "Who has done this? Who is he?" KJV - "Who has presumed in his heart to do so?" Psalm 140:1-2 - "Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day."
When the king found out it was Haman he was so angry he left the room. When he comes back in the room he sees Haman begging Esther for help. This angers the king even more. One of the king's servants says, "Look, a seventy-five foot platform stands near Haman's house. This is the one Haman had prepared for Mordecai." The king replied, "Hang Haman on it." So Haman was hung on the very platform he had prepared for Mordecai. The consuming anger and revenge he felt for Mordecai destroyed him, not Mordecai. His anger did not destroy the person he was angry with. It instead destroyed him.
That very same day the king gave Esther everything Haman had left when he died. And Mordecai was given the king's signet ring that the king had taken back from Haman. Esther put Mordecai in charge of all that Haman owned. Esther 8:7 - "Because Haman was against the Jewish people, I have given his things to Esther, and my soldiers have hanged him." Accountability happens. The world calls it Karma. All throughout scripture there are examples of the evil that someone else devises in their heart against an innocent person being exactly what happens to them. Haman reaped what he tried to sow, all because Mordecai wouldn't bow down. Haman's anger grew from just wanting to kill Mordecai, to killing all Jews, to possessing (taking from them) everything they owned. And what happened? Haman's "head was covered with the trouble his lips have caused" and he lost his life, eventually his son's life, and everything he owned.
Haman had already sent out the decree that all Jews should be killed on a specific day. It was sealed with the king's signet ring and it could not be repealed. The king gave his ring to Mordecai and told him to do what he needed to do. Mordecai wrote a new decree, sealed it with the king's ring and sent it throughout the land. "The Jewish people in every city have the right to destroy, kill, and completely wipe out those who attacked them." They also had the right to take by force the property of their enemies. They had the right to strike back at their enemies. Notice that they were not the aggressors, but they had every right to vigorously defend the attacks of their enemies who wanted to "kill, destroy, and take everything they owned."
Next Entry: Esther 9:1 – 10:3
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