ESTHER
Week 7, Chapters 5 and 6
We are in Esther chapter 5 and as we began to examine it last week we found Esther in the
inner courtyard of the palace, going there unannounced and uninvited. Esther has forced this
confrontation with the king at the urging of her step father Mordechai in hopes of saving her
Jewish people from annihilation; and according to Persian Law a decision must be made on
the spot by the king whether to offer her clemency for appearing without being summoned, or
to dismiss her with the only penalty possible for her trespass being death.
Last week we read this chapter in only its Hebrew version. This week let’s read it with the
Greek additions included. I am reading from the Jerusalem Bible (an excellent resource, by the
way, for serious Bible students).
READ ESTHER CHAPTER 5 FROM THE JERUSALEM BIBLE
The Greek additions are interspersed between verses 1 and 4 and again the purpose is to
introduce the name of God into the book of Esther (because it is otherwise missing), and it is
also to introduce some “spin” that makes Esther a reluctant, frail, terrorized Jewish woman
who stands before a cold, menacing, egocentric gentile king, who is also her husband. The
Greek addition says: “ She leaned on her maid’s arm as though languidly, but in fact
because her body was too weak to support her……her heart shrank with fear.” And as
she approaches her husband we read: “She grew faint and the color drained from her face
and she leaned her head against the maid who accompanied her”. Next concerning King
Xerxes the Greek says: “his face afire with majesty looked on her blazing with anger”;
however God intervened and “God changed the king’s heart” by giving him a milder spirit.
I cannot accept these additions. No where in Hebrew version of Esther have we seen the king
as anything but kind to Esther when she is in his presence. No where do we find a cowering
Jewish girl who was kidnapped and robbed of her freedom, placed kicking and screaming into
the royal harem, forced to become the wife of the most powerful ruler on earth and
subsequently becoming the Queen of the world, and now she turns to jelly at the mere thought
of addressing her husband. But it does make for good theatre, and it does paint this gentile
king as a barbarian and a brute. The Hebrew version shows us a courageous, humble,
committed Esther who, after 3 days of fasting and prayer, knows that the Lord is with her and
she is ready to accept whatever her fate. The Greek however has a whimpering, weak, unsure
female that well fits the Greek stereotype for women in general. The Hebrew version shows a
king who is glad his beautiful wife has come to him, treats her in a respectful manner, even
though she broke protocol and was not formally invited, and is so taken by her courage and
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stateliness to come that he sees it as a compliment to him and so responds with affection and
generosity towards her. The Greek however makes him a typical ill tempered and impatient
potentate who initially rails at this woman for showing up and upsetting his day, and would
have her head removed if it weren’t for God miraculously and instantaneously changing the
king’s mind.
Some of these additions don’t even make sense. Mere handmaidens, lowly servants,
accompany Esther into the inner court of the palace where none but the highest authorities and
wealthiest of the Empire may appear? And only then if invited? Goodness, in the next chapter
we find Haman, 2
nd
in command over the Persian Empire, pacing around in the OUTER
courtyard of the palace hoping that the king will allow him in.
The king is open to hearing why Esther has come, and assumes that she has a request. And
her request (for the moment) is only that the king and his 2
nd
in command, Haman, come to a
private banquet that she has prepared. He of course has no idea what the issue behind all of
this might be, but Esther is most wise in arranging a private audience. After all the matter is
delicate and nothing that the palace guards and the king’s advisors need to hear about.
Verse 5 has the king quickly accepting (he’s proven to be an impulsive man), and telling one
of his servants to go find Haman and to bring him immediately so that the two of them can
attend Esther’s banquet. Or, as I choose to characterize it, we have a king who is thankful to
have an excuse to get away from the boring and tedious affairs of state, dealing with the self-
serving agendas of the endless line of aristocrats who seek his favor, and instead just go hang
out with his lovely wife for a few hours and have a nice quiet and pleasant meal and some
wine.
And as verse 6 says: “at the banquet of wine”, the king again asked Esther what she was
seeking. This banquet of wine probably doesn’t mean that the only thing served at Esther’s
banquet was wine, but rather that this was the pre-meal time when wine was customarily
served. And let’s face it: Esther no doubt wanted the king to be in a relaxed and happy mood
and what better means to achieve that than a few glasses of wine to start things off?
The king repeats his offer of willingness to grant whatever her request, no matter how large
(“up to half of his kingdom” being an expression, not an actual offer of co-regency). But Esther
is coy; she doesn’t want to hurry matters and so suggests yet another get together. The subtle
message she hopes her husband perceives is that her time with him is more important to her
than the issue at hand. No doubt the objective is to disarm the king and make him even more
amenable to considering her request. But she also carefully again includes the unsuspecting
Haman, who will let down his guard thinking how wonderful it is that the Queen sees the king
and Haman as an inseparable team. After all, we’ve seen that Haman craves, demands, the
respect and adulation of everyone and so Esther is intentionally feeding that craving.
A lot is happening very quickly. After 3 days of fasting, the very next day Esther approaches
the king, and on that same day he comes to Esther’s banquet. The day after that there will be
another banquet; so while the first chapters of Esther take place over months and years, we’re
dealing with hours now.
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On the day of the 1
st
banquet, Haman leaves feeling on top of the world. The honors he is
receiving he feels he deserves but nonetheless he is giddy over having achieved so much of
his hopes and dreams of power and position to go along with his vast wealth. But his giddiness
is short lived thanks to that stubborn old man, Mordechai the Jew. As Haman leaves the
company of the king and queen he walks by the King’s Gate on his way home and there sits
Mordechai. After the 3 days of fasting Mordechai has exchanged his sackcloth for regular attire
and is back on duty at his assigned place of operation: the King’s Gate. The key word is sitting
because as Haman approaches Mordechai remains seated. The words of verse 9 that
Mordechai neither rose nor moved towards Haman mean that Mordechai simply ignored
Haman; he never even acknowledged his presence. Let us remember that it was protocol and
custom for everyone in the empire to respectfully acknowledge highest government authority
and especially so the man who was 2
nd
only to the king. Haman’s mood was destroyed. He
was livid and no doubt humiliated because the King’s Gate was a busy place and others in the
regime would have noticed the blatant disrespect shown to Haman by Mordechai. We must
understand; this act was worse than an insult. In the Middle East, life is controlled by the social
dynamic of shame and honor (and still is to this day). Haman was shamed; and there are only
2 solutions to erasing the shame: the offender has to profusely and publically apologize, or the
offender must be killed by the person (or family of the person) who has been shamed. For a
Middle Easterner it is not possible to live without honor and no price is too great to keep it or to
regain it. This cultural principle will play a central role in what happens next.
But, Haman shows restraint and doesn’t immediately react; instead he goes home and calls
for his wife and family friends (his advisors, really) to come to him. Haman began by puffing
himself back up by bragging about his wealth, and having 10 sons (having many sons was a
sign of favor by the gods), and how he was hobnobbing with the king, and reveling in how
much power he now held in his hands (after all he had arranged to have an entire race of
people destroyed merely because he didn’t like ONE of them). And yet with all this money and
all this power he was frustrated and just couldn’t be happy because this darned Jew,
Mordechai, wouldn’t give in to him and bow down and show him the honor that he and his
position of preeminence demand. In verse 13 we overhear Haman, after his boast, saying to
his wife, family and advisors: “Yet NONE of this does me any good at all as long I keep
seeing Mordechai the Jew remaining seated at the King’s Gate”.
I find this so interesting and as perhaps the creation of a pattern that emerges from here
forward in the Bible and in human history regarding the relationship between gentile nations
and Jews. It is fascinating that modern oil rich Arab nations as well as the poorer ones, and
every kind in between, are obsessed with Jews and Israel. They simply cannot be happy or
content as long as a single Jew remains on this planet, let alone can they accept the notion of
Jews having their own tiny nation near to them. According to the official population statistics of
each of the 21 Arab or Arabic speaking nations of the Middle East, their combined populations
in 2014 are right at 400 million people. But they just can’t live with, and say they feel
threatened by, Israel and its Jewish population of less than 7 million (an almost 60 to 1 ratio).
The UN says that Israel occupies 7/10
ths
of 1% of the land mass of the Middle East. But that
insignificant piece of land is just too much for them, according to the Arab League. It’s not fair,
they say; Arabs occupying 99.3% of all the land in the Middle East is not sufficient and the
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remaining .7% is the bane of their existence. They are willing to lose countless of their soldiers
and their children to endless wars, spend enormous sums of their government budgets on
military capabilities, and to make the Jews and Israel a central and hateful topic of their
children’s education indefinitely until Israel capitulates.
Europe, which is historically anti-Semitic, is openly and unapologetically sympathetic towards
the Arab position, and the present USA administration is beginning to lose its moral high
ground and has a new and perceptible tilt towards the Arab viewpoint that the presence of a
defensible Jewish nation in the Middle East is an unwarranted antagonism towards the Arabs.
Why? There is no logical or rational explanation for it, anymore than why Haman couldn’t take
it in stride that but a single Jewish person in the entire city of Susa who showed him disrespect
controlled his mood and his countenance. Mordechai’s stiff-necked attitude of hostility towards
Haman overrode the joy of Haman’s vast wealth, his blessing of 10 sons and a loyal wife, and
now a position of power, privilege and prestige surpassed only by the king. And even more
radically irrational, Haman’s conclusion was that his only solution to the irritation was that the
Jewish people as a race must be exterminated; then he could finally be happy.
As we have learned, this madness is actually a spiritual issue and not a political matter; good
versus evil; God versus Satan because Haman, and today the Arab world in general (although
not every last Arab), carries hidden within their souls the spirit of Amalek. And sadly this same
spirit has been dominant in Europe for centuries, and is now surfacing in those who run our
American government at the highest levels. And this is why the story of Esther is contemporary
and relevant to Christians as well as Jews; and it is why we need to pay attention and pay
heed and to pray earnestly for Israel and the Jewish people to recognize their Messiah,
Yeshua. Because for them, in this present world, there is no other deliverance possible. It was
the same for the Jews of Persia. They had no hope, no means to save themselves as the
enemy was too determined, too numerous, too powerful, having every advantage. God was
their only hope then, and He is their only hope now.
Zeresh, Haman’s wife, and his bevy of friends and counselors advised that Haman build a
wooden structure and thereupon execute Mordechai. Let me point out that while most Bibles
including the CJB say that the structure was a gallows that is not the case. The Hebrew word is
ets, and it doesn’t mean gallows; it means tree or pole, or can be stretched to mean most any
kind of wooden structure. Hanging by the neck until dead was not a means of execution in that
era. Rather the “hanging” meant to take the already dead corpse and to impale it, hang it like
a side of beef on a meat hook, on that wooden tree or pole. The purpose was to warn,
desecrate and humiliate.
Now the one problem with this 14
th
verse is the suggestion that the wooden pole be
constructed 50 cubits high; this is at least 75 feet or the height of a 7 story building! And this
was to be erected directly in front of Haman’s house. And most scholars will say that such a
height is ridiculous and can’t be accurate. I will say that I agree with them, but for different
reasons than they usually decide upon. It was common then, as now, to use hyperbole in our
everyday speech when we’re passionate or excited about something, and this hyperbole that
we find in this passage should be taken in this sense and so it is meant to be taken figuratively.
That is, when my wife tells me to come running that there is a cockroach the size of a Buick in
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the bathroom, she doesn’t mean and I don’t picture, Bugzilla. When I say I have raked a
mountain of leaves in my backyard, it just means there’s a big pile, not something resembling
the Matterhorn. The point is, the irate and inconsolable Haman was told by his family that he
ought to build an impalement pole 50 cubits high (50 being a round number) only because it
was an exaggerated expression of taking the most extreme revenge; not because they really
meant that this thing ought to stretch even higher than the palace walls.
Needless to say, the mere thought of impaling the limp body of his nemesis Mordechai on his
front lawn pleased Haman to no end, and so he ordered it done. But also notice that the issue
of shame and honor is central to his decision. I told you earlier that for a Middle Easterner the
only acceptable solution Haman had to recover his honor was to kill the one who had taken it
from him (Mordechai was certainly never going to apologize). And by displaying the corpse of
the offender literally at his front door, in such a public way, then he will have avenged the
public humiliation Mordechai had heaped upon him. Everyone will be on notice that Haman’s
shame has been dealt with and his honor has been restored.
To accentuate Haman’s ruthless and amoral character, to end the chapter we’re told that he
was so delighted at the prospect of murdering Mordechai and having his shame removed that
it raised his mood, and his wife essentially said: there, there, everything’s OK now. Run along
and have a nice time with the king.
Let’s move on to chapter 6.
READ ESTHER CHAPTER 6 all
As a matter of housekeeping just know that there are no Greek additions to this chapter. The
Hebrew version that we just read is all there is.
Verse 1 begins, “that night” the king was having trouble sleeping. “That night” is referring to
the last sentence of chapter 5, so it is taking place within hours of Haman’s meeting with his
wife and advisors and the decision to erect an impalement pole in front of his home for
Mordechai to hang.
I said last week that this section of the story reads like a comedy. Well the coincidences,
misunderstandings, role reversals, and resulting embarrassments all pour out of what happens
next. And it is funny, and it is most appropriate to laugh (unless, I suppose, you are a Haman
supporter and don’t much care for Jews). Just like many of us who can’t quite enter our sleep
mode for some reason, and we lay there on our beds staring at the ceiling or tossing and
turning, we might turn on some music, or read a book, or in some cases listen to a person
talking until we fall asleep. In fact I have a grandchild who (I’m told) used to listen to my Torah
Class CDs to help him go to sleep (never quite decided how I ought to take that).
So I guess Xerxes wasn’t much of a reader and he calls a scribe to come in to his bed
chambers with the royal records (essentially the minutes from the various meetings the king
has had), and read them to him until he falls asleep. And wouldn’t you just know it, the record
the scribe chose just happened to be the time when Mordechai brought news of an
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assassination conspiracy and it saved the king’s life. And when the king hears this, he doesn’t
recall rewarding Mordechai for performing such a good and loyal deed on the king’s behalf.
The king’s servant looks at his records, and says no, nothing was ever done.
Well, just at that moment the king notices that Haman is pacing around in the outer courtyard
of the palace, obviously hoping the king might see him. He is in the outer court because had he
come to the inner court he would have risked what Esther risked; coming unsummoned to the
king requires death unless the king rules otherwise. So here is Haman, on his way from his
meeting with his family, having just authorized the installation of an impalement stake to stick
Mordechai on, hoping to bring this matter before Xerxes for his approval. After all, Mordechai
was a Persian government official and Haman certainly wanted the king’s approval. And this
happens at the same moment that the king just realized he had never properly honored
Mordechai for saving his life! Haman despises Mordechai and has arranged for his death; the
king thinks Mordechai is a great guy and deserving of an award for saving his life.
But even more, the king has already elevated Haman to a high position, and yet he has also
promised Esther (twice it would seem) to happily grant whatever is her request. And of course
Haman’s intent is the opposite of Esther’s request. Haman is digging a deep hole for himself
but he has no idea of it.
So the king, being a generally gracious man according to the Hebrew version, sees his 2
nd
in
command standing outside and bids him to come in. What perfect timing the king thinks! The
king doesn’t do anything without seeking an advisor for council and now such good fortune
that an advisor just happens to be standing the courtyard! So the king decides to delegate the
decision on just how to honor Mordechai to the man who is about to murder him. But it gets
better.
As the king and Haman begin to converse, the king is thinking about Mordechai as the man he
intends to honor, but Haman is thinking the king must be speaking about him. Haman is a
glutton for personal honors and recognition and so he is blind to everything else. After all he
just spent the day before as the one and only guest of the king and queen, and was in the
morning going to again receive the same honor. Who else could the king be speaking of but
Haman?
So Haman responds with his self-serving advice of what the king ought to do, and it’s a
doozie. First the person being honored should be adorned not with merely royal garments, but
with royal garments from the king’s personal wardrobe. The honoree should then be paraded
around the city not only on a horse from the royal stables, but on the same horse that the king
uses and the horse adorned with a crown. And to top it all off, the king’s most respected
official should place the royal garments on that person, and put that person on the king’s
horse, and personally lead that horse around Susa, shouting and proclaiming that persons
greatness. This was chutzpah to the max. And it probably aroused at least a bit of suspicion by
the king because kings learned early (if they survived long enough) to always be on the lookout
for the slightest hint of someone who had their eyes on the throne. Essentially Haman asked
for every vestige and symbol of the monarchy of Persia to be bestowed upon himself (not
realizing that the king had intended it for Mordechai). While we’re not told so, it is hard for me
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not to conclude that Haman had become so swelled up with self-importance that he was
actually contemplating the possibility of himself one day becoming the King of the Persian
Empire. Had not everything else he had aspired for and sought, worked out to his benefit?
So once again the theme of honor and shame arises. And since Haman is in the process of
restoring his personal honor that had been taken from him by Mordechai (for publically
humiliating Haman), what better way to assure this his shame is dead and buried than to be
paraded around the Persian capital city in the king’s own robes and led by a high and known
government official?
But then the other shoe drops. In verse 10 the kings says: great idea! Now you go and do this
for Mordechai the Jew! And by the way, don’t leave out anything you suggested to me. Well, if
you were Jew reading Esther by now the tears are streaming down your face and you are
gasping for air as you can’t stop laughing.
And it appears that the king has no idea of the hatred between Mordechai and Haman. His
palace isolation, much like for Esther, disconnects him from the everyday life of his citizens.
But it had to be known far and wide of the enmity between Mordechai and Haman because it
was so public and visible. So how much more it was going to impact and the news would
spread like wildfire, when Haman leads Mordechai around the city shouting his praises. Haman
wasn’t going to be foolish enough to not obey the king. He did as he was told, and the
humiliation was unbearable.
So at the end of the royal pony ride, Mordechai (who had to be having the time of his life and
relishing every second of this moment) dismounts and walks back to his seat at the King’s
Gate; where this whole mess started in the first place. Haman heads for home, mourning his
fate and wondering how it could have all come to this. He finds his wife Zeresh and his friends
waiting for him and he spills his emotions to them oblivious to the reality that a lot more than
hurt feelings was at stake, here.
His wife and friends can see what his hatred and humiliation have blinded him to. Since
Mordechai is a Jew, and since Haman is the one who has ordered all the Jews in the Empire
killed, and since the king now sees Mordechai as a valuable ally that was worthy of the highest
royal honor, Haman has just slit his own throat. He can’t win.
I have a friend who is a Palestinian Arab and Christian. He was a former sniper commander for
Yasser Arafat and a former Muslim. He escaped from the West Bank after attempting to kill a
person he knew, in order to avenge an insult, and came to the USA. Here he met Christ and it
changed his life. He is now a missionary to the Muslims and lives in Jericho.
I once asked him why the Arabs hated the Jews of modern Israel so much. His answer
surprised me: unbearable humiliation. He said that a question that the officers in Arafat’s army
often asked themselves in private was: how could so few Jews defeat so many Arabs? Battle
after battle, war after war since Israel became a Jewish State in 1948; the enormous, well
armed, combined armies of several Arab nations could not drive the Jews from their homeland.
Worse, Israel had turned the tables and captured the West Bank and Jerusalem from Jordan,
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the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Sinai from Egypt. The Arabs hated Israel all the more
because in the culture of shame and honor, Israel had heaped shame upon them with their
victories. And every time the Arabs tried to recover their honor by attempting yet again to
defeat Israel, the result was nothing but more shame heaped upon them. Can you hear the
echoes of the story of Esther as Haman, who hates the Jews with a fire than can’t be
quenched, keeps finding himself defeated as his plans go awry? Haman has every advantage.
He is powerful, wealthy, has hordes of advisors and the king’s ear anytime he wants it. On the
other hand Mordechai is just an ordinary man; a Jew whom God has decided shall survive.
Haman can’t win and he doesn’t understand why. As a result his hatred for Mordechai
increases in direct proportion to his inability to affect the solution he so desperately desires:
extermination of Mordechai and all the Jews.
Chapter 6 ends when Haman, still fuming, hears a knock on the door as the king’s officials
come to him telling him its time to go to Esther’s quarters for that next banquet that he’s
probably forgotten all about in his despair. No doubt he’s torn; on the one hand he desperately
wants the honor and the trappings of such a privilege as to be privately dining with the king and
queen; on the other he just wants to hide under his bed for a while and lick the wounds of his
humiliation.
We’ll eavesdrop on that banquet and watch some pivotal happenings in chapter 7 next week.




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