Esther 5:9-14--Haman’s Pride

Esther 5:9-14
English Standard Version
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Haman Plans to Hang Mordecai
9 And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. 11 And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. 12 Then Haman said, “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. 13 Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.” 14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.” This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

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The story has gotten very "heavy," so it's time for the LORD to interject some comic relief into this play He's writing and directing.  Before that though, we need to bring the crisis to a climax.  Haman goes out from the feast that Esther has thrown for him and the king, and he's talking to himself (and everyone else) about how important he is that HE got invited to the queen's banquet and no one else besides the king was invited, and that he was invited to ANOTHER banquet thrown by the queen for him and the king the next day too.  It's fair to say that we're about to see "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" put into action.  First though, Haman is so puffed up with pride that he basically desires people to bow down and worship him (just like the devil did).  When he comes out of the gate, who would be there other than the one person in the world that won't bow down to him?  Mordecai is there, and neither bowed nor trembled before Haman.  While Haman kept his composure, it was then in that very moment that Haman hated Mordecai to the point of planning in his heart how he could murder him and get away with it (if Haman wasn't filled with the devil before this point, this might be the point in the story where that happens, much like how we saw Satan fill Judas when he decided that he would turn Jesus over the chief priests to be murdered).  The die is cast (quite literally, as the Pur was cast to fix the day of the execution of the Jews), and there will be no redemption arc for Haman.

Haman goes home and even with all the good things that happened to him that day, the only thing he can talk about is that Mordecai didn't bow down to him or tremble before him on his way home and it just ruined everything for him (it popped his bubble).  Haman's wife tells Haman that the only answer to his misery is to use his power and influence to execute Mordecai on gallows that are so big (75 feet high) that it would make an example of him, and everyone would know not to cross or slight Haman unless the wanted to become like Mordecai the Jew.  Then she said he could go the queen's feat in peace and be happy.  This pleased Haman greatly and he had the gallows built immediately, planning to go to the king first thing in the morning to have the king order the execution of Mordecai on those gallows.  God has other plans though--the comic relief I spoke of earlier.  We'll talk about that next time.