Spoken With Love: Week 2 Day 6

Esther 7

Haman Impaled

So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, 2 and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”

5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbona,one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!” 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

My how the tables have turned! This phrase actually came from a sermon by Robert Sanderson in 1634, “Whoever thou art that does another wrong, do but turn the tables’ imagine thy neighbour were now playing thy game, and thou his.” It was in reference to the table games that people played (backgammon, chess) and the idea of switching sides in the middle, so you were stuck with the set-up you had designed now working against you.

This is just what Haman experienced. In the rest of the chapters we read of a new edict signed that allowed the Jewish people to defend themselves, and that’s exactly what they did. In fact, fear of the Jews spread so quickly that many in the provinces converted to Judaism! Esther took her appointment seriously, and God worked mightily through her to save His people. While it is nice to imagine ourselves as the Esther in the story, what can we learn from the other characters? Here are a few questions I invited the Holy Spirit to help me consider:

Is there anyone I need to give an honest, but hard word to like Mordecai did for Esther?

Are there any ways that, like Haman, I have been prideful or scheming lately that I need to take to God in repentance?