(Gospel in the Book of Esther) 3. Haman Hanged on His Gallows — Roy Hession

Reading Esther 6–7

Will you turn once again to the book of Esther. We're going to read chapter 6 and chapter 7. This is a Bible reading and we don't dismiss the straight reading of the Word of God as of not a supreme importance it is.

Yesterday we saw Esther going in to intercede on behalf of her people and all she did was to invite the king and Haman to a feast and when she got them there all she did was to invite them a second time.

And we saw verse 9 how Haman went forth that day joyful and with a glad heart. But his joy was only spoilt by the fact that there was Mordecai refusing to tremble and prostrate himself before him. And he told his family all the wonderful promotions he'd had and then he said in verse 13 yet all this availed me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

And then his family suggested well why should he sit there any longer you needn't wait for the 13th day of the 12th month. Let a gallows be made a 50 cubits high tomorrow and speak to the king that he hang Mordecai upon it and then you'll go in and really enjoy your banquet.

Chapter 6. On that night could not the king sleep and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the Chronicles and they were read before the king and it was found written that Mordecai had told of Dixana and Teresh two of the king's chamberlains the keepers of the door who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

And the king said what honor and dignity has been done to Mordecai for all this. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him there is nothing done for him. And the king said who is in the court.

Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king's house to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's servants said unto him behold Haman standeth in the court and the king and the king said let him come in.

So Haman came in and the king said unto him what should be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor. Now Haman thought in his heart to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself.

And Haman answered the king for the man whom the king delighted to honor let the royal apparel be brought which the king uses to wear and the horse that the king rideth upon and the crown royal which is set upon his head and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes that they may array the man with all whom the king delighted to honor and bring him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaim before him thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor.

Then the king said to Haman make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou hast said and do even so to Mordecai the Jew that sitteth at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.

Someone said to me that God was rather a humorist, nothing very humorous for Haman that day. And even Mordecai was astonished. Extraordinary turn of events that he never even anticipated. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse and arrayed Mordecai and brought him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaimed before him thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor.

And Mordecai came again to the king's gate but Haman hasted to his house mourning and having his head covered and Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him if Mordecai I be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him thou shalt surely fall before him.

And while they were yet talking with him came the King's Chamberlain and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared. But he didn't go in merrily. He went in with a heavy heart full of solemn foreboding as to what was coming upon him.

So the King and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the Queen and the King said again unto Esther on the second day of the banquet of wine what is thy petition Queen Esther and it shall be granted thee and what is thy request and it shall be performed even to the half of the kingdom.

Then Esther the Queen answered and said if I have found favor in thy sight oh King and if it pleased the King let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request for we are sold I and my people to be destroyed to be slain and to perish but if we had been sold for bomb men and bomb women I had held my tongue although the enemy could not countervail the King's damage I think that means that if it had merely been slain we had been sold to be I wouldn't have said anything but we are told to be destroyed and no matter what money may come into the King's treasury nothing can compensate you for the services of this pack of people who are already performing valiant service for your kingdom.

I think that's what that means. Then the King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the Queen who is he and where is he that doth presume in his heart to do so. And Esther said the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.

Then Haman was afraid before the King and the Queen and the King arising from the banquet of wine in his walk went into the palace garden to cool down perhaps. And Haman stood up to make requests for his life to Esther the Queen for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the King.

Then the King returned out of the palace garden into the palace place of the banquet of wine and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the King will you force the Queen also before me in the house.

As the word went out of the King's mouth they covered Haman's face and Harbona one of the Chamberlain's said before the King behold also the gallows fifty cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai who had spoken good for the King.

It's standard in the house of Haman. Then the King said hang him thereof. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the King's walk pacified. On that day did the King Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews enemy unto Esther the Queen and Mordecai came before the King for Esther had told what he was unto her and the King took off his ring which he had taken from Haman and he gave it unto Mordecai.

And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Well it's very good reading isn't it. And there it stood recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of the Medes and Persians and it seems it was from there that the Hebrew copies took it and were guided to include it in the canon of Scripture.

For it revealed the hand of God so unmistakably and was indeed a turning point in their nation's history. But for that they would have been largely exterminated. Now yesterday and the previous days we have seen first of all the wicked plot that Haman hatched and which seemed to succeed so well so much so that the Israelites were under sentence of death only waiting the hour of its execution.

On the 13th day of the 12th month the letters had already gone out. Everybody was prepared to knock off old scores and destroy utterly that people. Then we saw that that condemned people nonetheless had a representative one of their own right in the king's palace Esther and we saw yesterday that she was prepared to go in and intercede on behalf of her people.

The Reversal of Haman’s Plot

Now what was planned is quite evident by the God who was standing in the shadows was something more than an alleviation of the situation for Israel. It was something more than a delay of execution. It was even something more than a cancellation of the edict.

In any case as we shall see tomorrow to cancel that edict was virtually impossible. Another way had to be found round because the laws and needs of persons couldn't be altered. But more of that tomorrow.

No what was planned was something more than even that. If it were possible what was planned by God was first of all the humiliation and utter destruction of the one who'd engineered the plot against his people.

More than that what was it. What was planned was the exhortation of Mordecai to a place as high as Haman even higher so that the people would always know there was one of their own supreme Prime Minister over the whole thing and their delivery was based on those two facts.

If there was some sort of alleviation or even remission of that edict as long as Haman was there they would never feel safe. They would have an enemy right in the king's palace. And even if he was removed how would they know who the next Prime Minister would be.

They could only feel really at peace and assured if there was a Mordecai one one of their own entrusted with supreme authority and who would exercise it continually on their behalf. And so their deliverance would be based on complete solid foundation.

And that was what was done. And it wasn't just they were saved from death as we shall see tomorrow it was the most complete reversal. They took them captive as it says somewhere whose captives they were.

Those who thought to have a dominion over them found that Israel had the dominion over them instead it was the most glorious victory. I like to think that phrase. It says thanks be unto God who loved us.

Salvation as More Than Forgiveness

In Romans 8 we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Isn't there a difference between a conqueror and a more than a conqueror. Maybe there is a conqueror is a man who fights who wins after a fight.

But more than a conqueror is one who wins without a fight and the whole thing falls right into his hands. And that certainly was what was planned and what actually happened on behalf of Israel. Now what is planned for us is something more than the forgiveness of sin.

Something more than the fact that God's getting a big time. Something more than the fact that perhaps God will listen to the pleadings of his son on our behalf. That's a very wrong thought ever to have.

Jesus did not have to persuade our reluctant God to be merciful to us. It was a merciful God who provided the Savior to be our substitute and thus give him righteous grounds on which to stay. No it was something more the mere remission of penalty mere alleviation of our situation.

God's going to effect our salvation in style above all. He's going to get some glory out of it. He's going to do it in such a way that heavenly intelligences will fall down and wonder at the wisdom and the grace of their God.

They're going to be surprised as well as me. God is going to affect the humiliation and the complete destruction of Satan's power. If that is not removed we don't know where we are from day to day. We may feel all right today and have a sense of forgiveness.

But if Satan has still got his right to condemn as Wesley called it Satan's mortal power you don't know where you are. You may still go back into the old ways of darkness. No. God's going to deal with our enemies.

He's going to deal in the blow from which he will never recover. More than that God is going to put one at his right hand our Mordecai who's going to be entrusted with all authority in heaven and earth.

And who's going to use that authority for one purpose the blessing and prosperity of the weakest and the most sinful of his people. And our deliverance from sin and its power. Our salvation depends on those two glorified the fact that Satan's power has been destroyed and the Son of God has been exalted to God's right hand given all authority and it's all.

He's all there. He's there only and all for us for his people. And there are many scriptures that speak of this salvation in the grandest way possible. It says in Ephesians he when he rose he led captivity captive just that he himself became a captive father.

But he led captivity captive. A captor who had captured him became a captive and all the chains of his captivity were led away too. The whole wretched Belsen concentration camp cleaned up. And then it says it's in Deborah's song.

Not only that you are to lead your captivity captive lead thy captivity captive. Because he's led our captivity captive you may too. And God intends that his people should be on top and not underneath.

That they should lead them captives whose captives they were that they should be more than conquered loved them in all things triumphant in the Bible sense of triumph and victory. And so that was what was planned.

The Reign of Sin and the Reign of Grace

Now will you turn to what I think is a very important scripture Romans 5 23 5 21. Rather Romans 5 21. As sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ.

You have there the reign of sin. And the reign of grace sin reigning sin having dominion over men tyrannizing them again. I remind you what the reign of sin consists in. It doesn't only consist in the fact you find yourself keep on doing the same sin.

You may have no particular bad habit but you're completely under the reign of sin. Nonetheless the reign of sin is its guilt is its power condemned. And on top of that much trouble apart complications prepare.

And because you can't know something better in life there's nothing else but to go on committing the same sin to get a little bit more pleasure. But had you found something better in life you wouldn't be falling to that same sin.

But sin has power is reigning us condemning us giving us a continual sense of wrong in the whole world. If they're sensitive at all are dogs with a sense of not being good enough. Usually they forget it in the world.

They've only got to come to a conference like that. And they've got it real bad. And that some here have got it real bad. You feel you're not good enough. You feel out of place. You feel a fish out of water.

Sometimes it's so acute that people have longed to get away from Apogalli. Two weeks ago a girl came. She spent one night. The next day she went. She said everybody's been so sweet. But I felt absolutely outside.

She's under dominion of sin. You see not one particular thing. Just she knew what sort of life she'd been living just away in the world. And then oh I'm not in this. I'm too bad. I'm not good enough. I can't stand this light.

That's the reign of sin that being under the dominion of sin. And we're having it the whole time in one way and another. And there's lots more coming for it lots more on that basic sort of sense of not being good enough and having a sense of guilt.

There's going to be a lot more built. And if you die in your sins the ultimate will be eternal death. That is not cessation of being but separation from God forever. And it would seem from the scripture conscious separation from the only source of happiness.

And all this is based on law. In sin it's right to reign over us. The very Lord of God does. The very law says the wages of sin is death in all its various forms. And the one who's engineered the whole situation and delights to add to it and rub salt into the wounds is safe.

Therefore we therefore we see the reign of sin as sin hath reigned unto death. From Adam's day to this sin has been reigning with a moral right to reign because we have done what we have. We're under the dominion of sin both in this life and if we don't repent in the next life forever.

But this verse talks about another reign the reign of grace. Now shall we get this very clearly that in God's vocabulary the opposite to sin is not good. But in the world's way they talk about good and evil the forces of good and evil but a lot of nonsense.

There aren't any forces of good that are anything a match for the forces of evil over the good. No. In God's vocabulary the opposite to sin is great. In your thought is it sin and grace. The reign of sin the reign of grace.

Man's in ready God's grace great. But you know what races. It's the undeserved love of God. Emphasis on being undeserved. And the love of God is undeserved. He doesn't love many of the unders that the deserving cases because there aren't any his love is for those that don't deserve it.

And the more the less desert there is the bigger the abundance of great. You can't defeat grace. For that reason you can't defeat. It isn't just a side attribute of the divine nature it is God. This is what Jesus revealed.

We see God the God of all grace. The tanks not a count to them. What's the kind to give men what they don't deserve. To heap benefits upon benefits on the head of those that could otherwise be accounted as enemies.

If you want a modern phrase rather a long word but I like it magnanimity big-hearted. And when we were in Germany when I use this I became the interpreter. Now look I'm going to talk about great and I'm going to use this word magnanimity.

We've got the German word. Yes easy gross heads big-heartedness. Oh we mark a man's offenses. And we're not going to give a little bit more than he deserves in towards our children. How grudging I found myself to be not so God he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust.

The fact is that all the sin of man hasn't been able to provoke God to be man's enemy. For one second he is man's friend although man has still his back to him. Now I ask you which you think is greater man's sin of God's grace.

Well sometimes it takes some believing but you've got to believe it grace which is greater than all my sin. And you've seen going to have a rain and not grace. And is it going to be that the rain of sin is going to be shown to be greater and more gripping of the rain of grace.

Never. And this is what God is working out what he's going to demonstrate ultimately to a wandering universe. The ray that as sin hath rained unto death even so grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ.

And we live in the day we've got to realize it have it revealed to us. We live in a day when grace reigns. And as we shall see through the work of our Lord Jesus the rain of sin has come to an end potentially from his side.

And you needn't be under that Dominion for one moment longer than it takes you to repent and call sin sin. The rain of sin and death is all says Wesley and all may live from sin set free. Satan has lost his mortal power just swallowed up in victory.

Satan’s Attack on the Promised Seed

But listen grace has got to reign through righteousness. It's got to have a foundation as solid and as legal as sin's raining my God to know that thou art just gives rest and peace within I could not in a mercy trust which takes no count of sin.

And what we've got pictured for us in these this next incident of Esther is the establishment of the reign of grace wasn't enough for a has you is to have kindly thought toward the Jews as long as Haman was there as long as he had any right over the people it's got to be settled on the most just and deepest foundations.

And so that's it. Grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Am I right when I say this is a marvelous all-inclusive text reign of sin the reign of grace. But grace reigning through righteousness.

And that's what you've got pictured for us here. Now turning back to our story we don't need to go too much of the details. As he read it and it no one could tell it more graphically than you've already heard in the Bible.

Now more Haman has succeeded in bringing the nation he hates for more decay I say under death it's only a matter of waiting for the hour and they're finished. But now he turns from the people to Mordecai coming out joyful.

He sees this man refusing to grovel like the others do and he's so full of raw. And it's the one thing of spoiling everything. And whereas he can tell us so many things that have come to him he says in six in 513 all this out they this means nothing.

So long as I see the Mordecai the Jews sitting at the king he just couldn't wait for the 13th day of the 12 month he to wreck a special and peculiar vengeance on this one man and his family said well why not.

And they conceived the plan of building the gallows in his backyard. Is that God. And then him going in to ask the king that he should hang Mordecai upon. Please turn the cassette over. Now do not fast wind it in either direction.

Now that is exactly parallel in the great matter of our redemption. The devil has exceeded in bringing the whole human race subject to death. He seems to have trapped. He's got he's ruined the world which God made to the sorrow of God's heart.

But all this to various did nothing. So to speak says as long as there's one person higher than me along us the Lord Jesus the Son of God yet occupies the preeminent place and sought for my ambitions to take that place.

And so Satan turns all his attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that in the Gospels. What was that massacre that Herod was provoked to institute of the children. If it wasn't Satan trying to kill the promised seed.

But God protected that precious babe. What was the temptation the wilderness. But a subtle way of accomplishing the overthrow of the Son of God so that Jesus should fall down to Satan. And you use Satan's means to win the world.

What was that sudden squall in the lake of Galilee in which the boat nearly sank. If it wasn't Satan trying to drown all that I've got a great it'd be nothing as long as there's Jesus the Eternal Son.

And now he's left heaven. I couldn't touch him there. I've got my chance. And eventually he conceived the plan of erecting a gallows. And the Hebrew word isn't a tree together on which he would hang the Son of God.

But he couldn't do it until God said so again and again the Lord Jesus said my hour is not yet come. At last he said this is your hour and the power of darkness. And God said now's the hour not the hour of defeat.

It's the hour of victory. Let him do it now. And Satan found his opportunity. He stirred up Jews and high priests and the cry went out. Crucify him. Crucify. This is your hour said Jesus. And the power of darkness.

Did you not. But no but did you not know how it was going to end. You say oh God what about those twelve legions of angels. Send them quick. The whole of life purpose is in jeopardy. It was nothing of the sort this is the purpose by which he's going to set a captive race free more decay.

I didn't actually have to go the way of the one whom he pictured. Jesus had to actually hang on those gallows. But that was the way by which Satan was going to lose his mortal power over the sons of men.

The Cross and the Judgment of the World

Will you turn to John chapter 12 verse 31. And these are the words of the Lord Jesus as he enters the shadow of the cross. Now is the judgment of this world. John 12 31. Now shall the prince of this world because out.

And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. He wasn't talking about being lifted up on a throne which is so what great wonderfully merited. But being lifted up on a cross. And he says I'm going to draw all men unto me.

And by that cross men are going to be set free whom Satan has enslaved. And so they he let them do it. And there was joy in hell for three days. There's an old hymn in Sankey. And you've still got some of your best ones in Sankey.

By weakness and defeat he won the Medan crown trod all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down. And so we've got a wonderful picture of the complete overthrow of our ancient enemy and the robbing of all his power over us.

There are really is in this passage two things along this line. The first is that hey man is made to be the instrument of more decay eyes exaltation. You know the story. We had a little laugh. Didn't we at it.

And rightly so and Mordick and Heyman had the terrible humiliation of being the actual one who led the enrobed Mordic AI through the throne and the faintest armor to all. That's the first thing that God's achieved.

You see there was really in a sense no need for this little bit that hey man could have been hung in his gallows without it. But you see well it's what sort of what you call poetic justice. You know that word poetic justice.

And I have seen case after case in the scripture that God's judgments are poetic again and again in the prophecies the things that happen to Israel they're poetic. They exactly balance that which God is judging.

You see God's an artist. Oh we know he's an artist in grace. But you know God is an artist in judgment enough. We've seen it in our own damn generation. The artistry of divine judgments on Mussolini. We needn't go to the story of it how it all happened.

Meditators come. But God is the dictator of dictators. And he knows how to put men down who rise against his son in his own time in his own way. The artistry of the judgment of God on Hitler. And so would it be.

I will overthrow overthrow overthrow till he comes whose right it is to reign on the gate. Greatest act of artistry of God will be the overthrow of the final Antichrist. It will be poetic. And so it was here.

And so it is in our redemption. Satan's been made to be the actual of the exaltation of the very one we wanted to help you turn to Philippians 2. You see the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. Philippians 2.

It's such a well-known passage. We won't read all of it. It begins in verse 5 the particular section let this mind begin you which was also in Christ Jesus. And then we're given the seven steps down which the Son of God took for us from the top throne of glory to that cross on Calvary.

He didn't only become obedient unto death but to a special form of death. The death of the cross not the death of the bed not a disgraceful and dying on a bed. Winston Churchill will one day die on a bed.

But Jesus died on a cross engineered by Satan. And a cross was a punishment reserved for criminals just what the devil wanted. He is really humbled. Notice it succeeded in accomplishing the death as he thinks of the Son of God by the utter humbling.

But look verse 9. Wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. You know Jesus has been exalted to the highest station the universe of all angels demons and men having to bow if not now certainly one day before him.

But that isn't because he's the Son of God Mary. Wherefore God has highly exalted because he was humbled so low. For that reason God has given him all the greater place in the universe. You see it's just a exemplification of that word.

The Lord himself said he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. None humbled himself permitted himself to be humbled so low as the Lord Jesus. Therefore God gave him an exhortation commensurate with a very humiliation which the devil wrecked upon him.

And so in a sense Haman Satan has contributed to the glory of the Son of God. And we worship him as the lamb. Those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified are the theme and the ground of his praise and glory.

Christ’s Death Destroys Satan’s Authority

But more important than that just as Haman was hanged on his own gallows the same can be said of Satan. Would you like to see the scripture that talks about Satan being hanged on his own gallows Hebrews chapter 2.

And done so by the Lord Jesus whose death he tried to arrange Hebrews 2 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death through a death that Satan himself engineered but of course not without cost of mission was designed that through death he might destroy that is bring to nothing him that had the power or the authority of death that is the death.

He has the authority of death. He's the right to see to it. The wages of sin really are paid out to us in full. And not only physical death but every other form of spiritual death that comes he has the authority of death.

He's got the whole world. And he's thought to impose that death on our Savior. But by doing so he circumvented his own over. Because the only reason why Satan had the authority of death because it was a sin.

And say. And Jesus dealt with his the ground on which he had his power. If you want to kill whales you don't go to the tropics. You're going to go to the Arctic. You want to deal with elephants. You don't have to go to the the Arctic.

You've got to go to the tropics. You've got to deal with a thing on its own ground. And say. And Jesus dealt with Satan on the thing which was his ground sin. It was unknown to Satan. He was there made in the eye of a holy God an offering for the sin of the whole world.

Christ as Surety and the Believer’s Freedom

The sacrifice was complete and Satan found he'd lost the ground on which he based his empire sin. Now I want you to look at chapter 7 verse 3 in Esther. Esther's intercession when she at last came to it is in chapter 7 verse 3.

If I have found favor in thy side O King. And if it pleased the King let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we we not only then we are sold I and my people to be destroyed.

I wonder could we think of it this way. The Lord Jesus became our surety by divine appointment. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. You might have thought that his personal store of holiness was such as to be able to pay our debt and for him yet to remain enough in undisturbed relationship with his father.

But our debt was such that it extinguished for the time being his own personal store of merit he died. He couldn't sustain the world's sin without bearing the full penalty. And so he was identified with us in the deepest way possible.

My sins became his my place at the place he took. Do you think he could say to the father so to speak from the cross. Let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. I think we can.

And then what can he ground such a petition. If he's taken the sinners place then you ought to be there forever. He's grounding on the value the infinite value of that eternal precious blood so great that enough for all the sins for which he stood surety.

And we read in Hebrews 13 you can turn to it that God brought him again from the dead house by the blood of the everlasting covenant. But for the fact that there was power wonder-working power in that blood he would have been there still and we would have condensed it.

But up from the grave he arose raised by the very power of that precious blood which was enough up he rose and with him all his people. God granted him his life and the people and his debt of his people at his request.

And because he's free I'm free. And the scriptures go further. It isn't merely Jesus dying for us but because of that fact you can count that you have died yourself to sin. You can count it as if you finished with the penalty of sin because you've already paid its penalty and there's no more coming to you.

That's what says in 2 Corinthians 5. You know that verse. We thus judge that if all be one died for all then all died. It's as if you actually did die yourself. For as if someone pays your bill the creditor doesn't matter mine too much.

Who it is that pays it. He writes it down as if you pay now. That is the simple argument of the epistle to the Romans chapter 6. Perhaps we return to that. I've milled over this chapter for years got a lot of blessing out of it but made it very complicated for myself.

Now verse 7 he that is dead is freed from sin. Again I say what is this freedom from sin which the Bible talks about and which the hymns talk about. So many of us are trying to read into it. It's a place where you don't get temptation and when there's never any fall and where you really begin to sprout wings.

Well my wings have taken an awful long time sprouting. And I can't say that I'm free from this thing. In that sense can you. And what's more this freedom from sin. It's mentioned six times in Rome three times in Romans is put incidentally being made from sin.

You became service to God. And I used to say like feel like saying hey say Paul we want a whole chapter on being made free from sin. And I've come to see it's much simpler than that. It doesn't need a whole chapter.

Indeed it's the subject of the whole epistle to the Romans. We've made a great mistake by telling ourselves that up to chapter 5 the subject is justification and 6 7 8 is sanctification. Well if you still think that is right carry on.

But I used to it I but I think I've come to a simpler explanation which has brought peace and release to my heart being made free. If the power of sin is its ability to cleanse to condemn you and it cuts you off from God and puts you in the dark.