The End of Haman

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Esther 7 and the End of Haman

If you would allow me, I want to read chapter 7. It's not that long before we get started. If you would, Esther chapter 7, verse 1. So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, what is your wish, Queen Esther?

It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Then Queen Esther answered, if I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish and my people for my request, for we have been sold.

I and my people to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.

Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, who is he and where is he who has dared to do this? And Esther said, a foe and enemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

And the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and went into the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king.

And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?

As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, moreover the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high.

And the king said, hang him on that. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated. This scene in the book describes to us the end of Haman. Chapters five through seven and parts of chapter eight together, they form the climax of the story.

And as we have been looking at this section as a whole, five through seven and a little bit next time into eight, I trust you've seen the importance of some of the themes that we have drawn out and the seriousness of them.

If you think of chapter five beginning with Esther going before Ahasuerus, to this chapter closing with the very death of Haman. I think it's clear that the whole book comes together in these chapters here.

Everything is being pulled together at this point. And I'll be honest with you as I've studied this, it seems to me that in this intersection so to speak, where all this traffic flows from this book, at the very center of it in these chapters is Christ.

I was speaking with our brother Shane earlier this week about this sermon and he reminded me of one thing. I think I needed that that week. And that is that we ought to see Christ here. And it's true.

Do not Moses and the prophets, all the scriptures speak of Him. And it's the greatest joy and really the greatest freedom of any man to be able to proclaim nothing to you but Christ and Him crucified.

And knowing you, I trust that that is exactly what you want to hear. Is it not? Is that not what you desire today? You may have come here hoping for this Easter Sunday sermon. Well you might not get that, because we try every week to give you Christ.

And I want to give Him to you from Esther 7, that we will behold Him in all His glory. I pray by God's grace that we would see Him. And He is there even in the fall of wicked Haman for us to look at. Trust that when we look at Him we'll be convicted of sin, that we would run to Him, that be encouraged to trust in Him and be comforted by His work.

That's what I aim to give you, because that's all I can offer you. You might say, I might not, I can't see Him. As Spurgeon has said, we make a road to Him. And I believe there's a highway here that leads us to Him.

So what I want to do is walk through this destruction of Haman under two main headings. Very simple. First, Esther speaking in verses 1 through 6. This is where Haman is finally identified as an enemy of the Jews and his plot revealed.

And then secondly, I want to look at the wrath of the king in verses 7 through 10. And that's where his downfall will come to this most terrible conclusion. But before we pick up in chapter 7, I want to briefly remind you again of what has occurred, what has happened leading up to this point.

Again in chapter 5, that's where really you remember the tension began to build when Esther decided to go to the most powerful man in the world at the time, trying to somehow save the Jews that were to be killed in 10 months time.

And humanly speaking, against all odds, she was not put to death, even though the law of the land had not allowed her to come before the king uninvited. She was granted life by Xerxes and allowed to ask of him whatever she desired.

But instead of getting straight to the point, she invites her husband and Haman to this feast. They gladly join her at that feast. And once again, she's asked about her request to make it known, but she replies in the same manner she did the first time with yet another invite to a second feast, of which she says she will finally make her wish known.

And then we come meanwhile to chapter 6, between these two feasts, where Haman plots to kill Mordecai before that appointed day in the 12th month. The goal was to murder Mordecai even before attending this second feast so that Haman could enjoy it truly and fully.

But we saw that that plan was spoiled by divine providence when the king could not sleep that night and remembered what Mordecai had done to him. And to Haman's dismay, he was the one that had to lead Mordecai with great humiliation to him through the city, when Mordecai is dressed in royal robes, seated on the royal horse.

And Haman had to proclaim that this is how the king treats those he delights to honor. Well, chapter 7 brings all of that now to a conclusion. We've seen Haman's pride and his humiliation, and now we'll see that his fall brought to completion.

And it begins when Esther makes her true request known now. You see this our first heading, Esther speaking. The end of Haman begins in verse one and two, really in this unsuspecting manner, right? Him and Xerxes have joined the queen for the second banquet on the second day, surely an occasion once again for joy and gladness.

That's how Haman had felt after the first feast the day prior. And certainly after returning home weeping with his head covered following this humiliation he had just experienced at the hands of Mordecai.

Another feast with a royal couple would be a great opportunity to have his spirits lifted once again, but that will not be the case. And it becomes very obvious fairly soon at the wine drinking at this feast.

This is an interesting point that the writer makes because this wine drinking was a very familiar custom by the Persian rulers. They would use this time to make very serious and very strategic decisions.

One historian says that this was a time where vital matters were at times discussed. The Persians used to discuss them once drunk and once sober to make sure one was honest and clear in judgment. How that works, I do not know.

But this will indeed turn out to be a matter of grave importance, really of death and life. And neither the king nor Haman, they can't anticipate how vital that time is and what's to come. And so it's no surprise really to see Ahasuerus then ask Esther once again for a third time now about her wish and her request.

It says, Ecclesiastes says there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak. And by God's providence, the time to speak had now come despite the risk that remained for her. After all, she's accusing the second highest or the highest ranking official rather in the land, the closest ally and confidant to the king.

It would be her word against his. And it is Xerxes who holds her life and that of the people in his hand. But the time has come and so Esther speaks. She finally answers the question. Finally, she fulfills the purpose for why she had initially come to the king.

In verse three, she said, if I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish and my people for my request. She asks for her life and the way she does this is very personal.

She appeals to her husband's delight in her. Says, if I have found favor in your sight, if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish. The hasher always understands that the very life of his queen here is in danger.

But Esther also identifies with the people now. You remember she had previously not made known she was a Jew. And now her destiny is one with the people. They live, she lives, they die, she dies. And she goes on in verse four to give us the very reason why she makes this request.

For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent for affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.

Step by step she begins to reveal this plot of Haman. She directly actually is referring here to this edict that had gone out to all the provinces with the instructions to kill all the Jews. She uses the exact same words that we find in the letters that went out in earlier in chapter three verse 13.

She even refers to having been sold to death. Remember Haman had offered 10 ,000 talents of silver for the destruction of this people that apparently did not obey the laws of Persia, that had different laws and were of no benefit to the kingdom.

She says if they had been merely sold into slavery, she would not have brought the case to the king. The affliction would not have been worthy to mention to him, not worth bothering him with. But the burden of death is too great, the loss to the king too great, and requires her to intercede.

And despite referring to the edict and the selling of Haman, her husband is not connecting the dots. He seems to have no clue what his wife is talking about. Perhaps Haman is beginning to understand. He certainly will in a moment because the king quickly asks Esther to clarify who is he, where is he, who has dared to do this?

He's astonished, he's infuriated that someone would do such a thing to his queen. He wants to know who did it, who it is that targeted his wife. And Esther tells him in verse six, a foe and enemy, this wicked Haman.

Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. I want to pause here for a moment and I want to consider the statement that Esther makes regarding Haman in this downfall. We've touched on this earlier in chapter three, but I think it's worth bringing up again at this point as everything comes to a conclusion regarding Haman.

If you would turn to a couple of passages. First Samuel 15. Once you're there you can put a finger in there and pre-low Deuteronomy 25. You remember that when we first met Haman, the writer said him opposite of Mordecai.

Mordecai was introduced as a Jew, a Benjaminite, and Haman as an Agagite. And as an Agagite, Haman is connected to a man named Agag who was king of the Amalekites. And he was at enmity with a certain Benjaminite named Saul, the first king of Israel.

And so if you are in first Samuel 15, you'll see in verses two and three that Saul had been given a very specific command from God in regards to the Amalekites. It says, thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came out of Egypt.

Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Now to figure out why Saul was commanded to do this, you can turn to Deuteronomy 25 verse 17.

This is Moses speaking to Israel, recounting some of the history. And he says, remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt. How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God.

Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

You shall not forget. That's what Saul is being tasked with. The Amalekites had attacked Israel as they were leaving Egypt. And most importantly, they did not fear God. And in verse 7, forgive the going back and forth in 1st Samuel there, we read that Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah, as far as sure, which is east of Egypt.

And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them.

All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. Saul did not obey what he was commanded. He spared Agag, who as king was arguably the most important person of that nation, as well as some of the flock that Saul deemed as good, that the Lord had said to destroy.

If you remember the rest of the story, Samuel will come and hack Agag to pieces. Now what does all that have to do with Esther 7? You see Haman is identified as an enemy of the Jews. He is an enemy in a line of enemies that goes back centuries.

And as an enemy of the Jews, he has set himself against the God of the Jews. And what Saul did not finish in 1st Samuel 15, God will now do here in the destruction of Haman through Esther. God's will will be done.

His enemies and the enemies of his people will be defeated. They will not stand. That's what we see here. And we see this in the second half of the chapter. After Haman has been exposed for what he really is, wicked, a foe, an enemy.

His plan has come to light. And as soon as that happens, he's terrified. He had no idea Esther was a Jew. Didn't know that Mordecai and Esther were related. That he would share the plight of the people with her.

That she would then be able to speak with the king. His world was beginning to come crashing down on him very fast. And he recognized it. He knows that he's in grave danger. His wife had warned him about this previous chapter.

He immediately understands that the wrath of the king is set against him. That's what we see in verses 7 through 10. The wrath of the king. Look at verse 7. And the king arose in his wrath from the wine drinking and went into the palace garden.

But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther. For he saw that harm was determined against him by the king. Hasherah is filled with wrath. Leaves the place of the wine drinking. Goes into the garden.

Now many have speculated here why he leaves. That's all we can do. Speculate really. Some have suggested that he withdrew to figure out a way now to save his own reputation. To determine how to punish Haman without having to take blame for what has happened.

After all he was the one that gave Haman the authority to make that decree that commanded the destruction of the Jews. The edict had been signed in his own name and sealed with his ring. Well he will find an answer to that dilemma very shortly while the king leaves.

There's another thing going on. Haman stays to beg for his life. It's interesting the tables have turned drastically. See a day ago, just the previous night really, Haman could easily set his wrath against Mordecai, right?

Delighting in the very thought of killing him. So much so that he professed it would have increased his ability to enjoy the second feast so much more. It was easy for him to direct his wrath at another.

But now that he faces the wrath of another, another that is more powerful than him, he's mortified. So he begs for his life and hope that Esther perhaps will sway the king. Perhaps she would intercede for him as well.

But at that very moment in verse 8, the Hasheuris returns and he sees Haman falling on the couch before Esther. And immediately he says, will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?

And as soon as these words really leave his lips, Haman's head is covered. The problem of what to do has been solved. Whether this wicked man was actually planning on harming the queen or not didn't even matter really.

It looked enough like it for it to spin that way. Haman is condemned already. He's not to look at anyone. He's not worthy to be looked at. The sentence is pronounced. And even if Xerxes knew what Haman was doing, the man had just broken another royal protocol.

No one was actually allowed to be alone with the woman of the royal harem. Haman should have left when the king left. Even in the presence of others, one scholar tells us, a man was not supposed to approach a woman of the king within seven steps.

But Haman's problem was he had nowhere else to go. He's trapped. If he ran, it's as much of a confession as anything. And where could a man of his reputation and renown possibly hide in the kingdom? All he could do out of fear was beg for his life, throw himself at the feet of a Jew, begging of the one he had sold to death at the wrong time in the wrong place with no favorable result.

That's Haman's final action. His end has come. The one before whom everyone had to bow is taken away with his head covered like a criminal. Taken away to most disgraceful death. The death is swiftly pronounced in verse 9 and 10.

Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king said, moreover the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king standing at Haman's house 50 cubits high. And the king said, hang him on that.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated. Things go from bad to worse. It's real that he had actually intended to murder the very man that Xerxes had honored earlier that same day.

The man had saved the king's life. Haman wanted to put to death. Another great irony in the fall of this enemy of God's people. He's now being hanged on the very gallows that he had made for Mordecai the night before.

What an exchange, what a reversal of things. That the wicked prideful man should die by his own devices on the very gallows that he had made for his enemy. He had dug his own grave without knowing it.

The proverb proves true, whoever digs a pit will fall into it and a stone will come back on him who starts a rolling. And these outrageously high gallows, you remember 50 cubits to present Mordecai, the one who had not shown him honor end up becoming a display for his own evil.

The only exaltation Haman now has is the height at which he hangs there dead for all to see. No honor from man. The pride in his heart really was the road he had taken from honor to humiliation to this graceful and infamous death.

He's become a victim of his own evil and only after his death the king's wrath is abated. Now what do we do with this, with these final hours of Haman's existence and destruction? I want us to consider this, that evil will be exposed.

Haman's evil is exposed. He had manipulated the king to get what he wanted in the destruction of the Jews. He never thought it would backfire, much less that he'd die for it. Just like he was sure the king would delight to honor him and no one else, so he was sure his evil would have no consequences.

Did he get away with it? He never thought he would have to pay for what he desired in his heart to do. You see that is the deceitfulness of sin and evil. It convinces us to believe that we can hide it.

You think that you have a grip on it, that you can control it, somehow wield it safely. Think it will not be found out. The arrogance of foolishness of evil is so great. You think we can keep it under wraps without any consequences.

To think that has destroyed many. Hidden sin has destroyed numerous relationships between all sorts of people. To keep nurturing it here and there. If it's not killed, it will kill. Even if it's not found out by man, it's most definitely known by the Lord.

The problem is sometimes that doesn't bother us much, does it? We're so steeped in it. We're much more afraid about man finding out about our sin and the shame of it than we're worried about the Lord knowing and what He thinks and how we have offended Him.

Shame before man is more terrifying to us than shame before God. I ask you, what are you currently hiding? What are you ashamed of before men but not before God? You ought to think about that. It will ruin your fellowship with God.

That's why some of you have less joy, less contentment in the Lord. He just doesn't seem sweet anymore. He doesn't seem precious anymore. When you think of Christ, it seems to do nothing in your heart.

Oh that the Holy Spirit really would convict us and bring us to repentance. To bring our sin to the Lord. To confess it. To kill it. To no longer hide it and keep it around like some sort of pet. I want to urge you, let Him deal with it now.

Today. Not when your day has come. Secondly, I want to note the need of intercession. This is a terrible thought. Some of you in this room have to seriously consider this. Supplies to the young people, to your kids.

You have to ponder this. Once Haman's evil is exposed, he sees that the king has set himself against him. Now he's filled with terror. The only person in the kingdom more powerful than he has directed his wrath directly against him.

There's nothing he can do. He's helpless. He's trapped. It's too late for him. There's no one that intercedes for him. Everyone that had bowed before him showed him honor. Now that his destiny is sealed, none of those who honored him actually stand up for him.

None of the servants. Not Harbonah the eunuch. Nobody. All he can do is plead with Esther to no avail. She only intercedes for her people. See it's no different in the New Testament. Christ intercedes for his people.

He gave his life for his sheep. And those that are not in him, hear me, those that are not in him, you have no intercessor. You see we're all either in Adam or in Christ. Are we not? And all are born in Adam through whom sin came into the world.

And death through sin and death to all men because all sin. In him all die. But in Christ all shall be made alive. And so who represents you? Is it Adam? If it is him, you have no intercessor before God.

The one who brought death cannot bring life. If you're still in Adam, you will receive death. Unless you come to the one who is much more powerful, in whom the fullness of the grace of God is poured out on you.

Brothers and sisters, this need for an intercessor should be a great comfort for you. Really you should stake everything on it. You see Paul compares Adam and Christ, right? In Romans chapter 5. And he speaks how how death came to all through Adam.

But then there's this verse. There's this verse Romans 5 .15. It is a precious verse. Oh we would do well to know it. It says, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one's trespass, that being the sin of Adam in the garden in the fall, much more, Christian, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Did you catch this? There's tremendous comfort here. There's enormous confidence to be found in your intercessor. That one that represents you. Do you see what Paul is saying? He's not saying that a greater number of people will receive grace than have died in Adam.

That's impossible. No. Adam's fall was so horrendous it brought death to every human that has ever lived. But much more has the free gift of the grace of God in Christ abounded for many. Do you get it?

The grace of God is more powerful than the fall of Adam. Calvin put it as simple as anybody could have put it. He says Christ is much more powerful to save than Adam was to destroy. Isn't that glorious?

That Christ is better than Adam. That He's a greater Savior, intercessor, mediator than you are a sinner. I don't know what's greater than that. And that's why you can bring these hidden sins, no matter how long they've been around, you can bring them to Him instead of clinging to them because He's greater than Adam, greater than your sin, He's greater than Esther.

And think about this. He goes before the Father and He says, because I have found favor in your sight, because you are pleased in me, because I live, let my people live, let my bride live for which I have died.

He doesn't have to plead. He doesn't have to ask for it. He has the right to go and say that for His people, the very ones He represents. Lastly, I think we see that we ought to have confidence in the faithfulness of God.

We see God's faithfulness, His faithfulness to His word, to His covenant. See the promise made regarding the offspring in Genesis 3, the promise of the sea to Abraham, every other promise that followed He will do and fulfill.

That's why He preserves the life of the Jews through Esther and destroys their very enemy, so that all these promises will be fulfilled in Christ. And even if all things seem to hang in the balance as it seemed for the Jews in ancient Persia, you can be confident right here and right now that the war is won.

Yes, some individual battles may feel like losses to us, and will not be 100 faithful, but God's promises are not dependent on you. They depend on the faithfulness of God and the work of Christ. See the Father and the Son, they have made an agreement to save and redeem and to bless the people and to do so completely from regeneration all the way to glorification, no matter what happens in between.

So that's why Romans 8, 30, this golden chain of redemption, it speaks as if these things are already done because they are in Christ. They are sure, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. They're completed actions.

They're done in Christ. They cannot be undone. And you cannot void the work of Christ for you, just as sure as the penalty for sin is the reward of life for those in Christ. It's hard to believe for us sometimes though, isn't it?

We must quicker believe in the truthfulness of God's justice than the truthfulness of his grace, even though it's just as true. You can't believe the words of Christ, brother and sister. Let me remind you of some of them.

And notice what he says each time. He said to the thief next to him on the cross, truly I say to you, you'll be with me in paradise. In John 5 he says, truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. And then to the crowds in John 6 again, truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. You see, because the Lord is faithful to his word.

Because every single word of his is truthful and pure. You can believe not only the passages that condemn, but the ones that encourage, that strengthen, that draw you to Christ. The Lord was faithful in the time of to words spoken centuries before that.

And he will remain faithful to his word in Christ regarding you today, tomorrow, for all eternity. And even when man sets themselves against you, when the enemy accuses you or any other affliction brought on by the fallenness of nature, or the fallenness of man comes against you, none of them will ultimately prevail.

They will not defeat you. They will not undo you. They will not make void the promises of God for you in Christ, even if the might of an entire empire stands behind them. That's where you can press on, where we can press on.

Even when we see these legislations that seek to come against us. That's why the church will continue to be built and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Because a sovereign God is faithful to his every word that he has spoken and will bring judgment on the wicked and an infinite amount of grace on those in Christ.

Brethren and sisters, don't hide your sin from him. That intercessor, the greater intercessor, so far superseding Adam and your sin and your ability to sin. Let us bring it to him and trust in his word and the very promises of God preserved in this book for us.

Let us trust and lean. Let's pray. Oh father, what a precious Christ. What a glorious Christ. A perfect Christ. Oh, no longer represented by Adam wherein him. No longer an enemy of God, but very children of God.

Lord, he is the most precious thing. Would you please draw us more to him? Oh, make us see him so much clearer still. Show us more and more greater glimpses of him. Do not allow us to separate this fellowship by our sin that we keep, but to always come running to this perfect intercessor.

Oh, so much greater, infinitely greater and better at saving than we are at sinning. And then Adam was at destroying. Oh, strengthen us to hold on to your promises, to take comfort in the very words of Christ, that all those who believe in him will have eternity.

That our greatest enemy death has been defeated and that we will with him one day rise again and be with him face to face for all eternity. Thank you for listening to another.

Sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word. Finally, you can visit us at our website graceedmonton .ca.

We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you and we hope to see you soon.