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Esther Chapter
Six
Esther 6
Chapter Contents
Providence recommends Mordecai to the king's favour.
(1-3) Haman's counsel honours Mordecai. (4-11) Haman's friends tell him of his
danger. (12-14)
Commentary on Esther 6:1-3
(Read Esther 6:1-3)
The providence of God rules over the smallest concerns of
men. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without him. Trace the steps which
Providence took towards the advancement of Mordecai. The king could not sleep
when Providence had a design to serve
in keeping him awake. We read of no
illness that broke his sleep
but God
whose gift sleep is
withheld it from
him. He who commanded a hundred and twenty-seven provinces
could not command
one hour's sleep.
Commentary on Esther 6:4-11
(Read Esther 6:4-11)
See how men's pride deceives them. The deceitfulness of
our own hearts appears in nothing more than in the conceit we have of ourselves
and our own performances: against which we should constantly watch and pray.
Haman thought the king loved and valued no one but himself
but he was
deceived. We should suspect that the esteem which others profess for us
is not
so great as it seems to be
that we may not think too well of ourselves
nor
trust too much in others. How Haman is struck
when the king bids him do honour
to Mordecai the Jew
the very man whom he hated above all men
whose ruin he
was now designing!
Commentary on Esther 6:12-14
(Read Esther 6:12-14)
Mordecai was not puffed up with his honours
he returned
to his place and the duty of it. Honour is well bestowed on those that do not
think themselves above their business. But Haman could not bear it. What harm
had it done him? But that will break a proud man's heart
which will not break
a humble man's sleep. His doom was
out of this event
read to him by his wife
and his friends. They plainly confessed that the Jews
though scattered through
the nations
were special objects of Divine care. Miserable comforters are they
all; they did not advise Haman to repent
but foretold his fate as unavoidable.
The wisdom of God is seen
in timing the means of his church's deliverance
so
as to manifest his own glory.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Esther》
Esther 6
Verse 1
[1] On
that night could not the king sleep
and he commanded to bring the book of
records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Sleep —
How vain are all the contrivances of foolish man against the wise and
omnipotent God
who hath the hearts and hands of kings and all men perfectly at
his disposal
and can by such trivial accidents (as they are accounted) change
their minds
and produce such terrible effects.
Were read —
His mind being troubled he knew not how
nor why
he chuses this for a
diversion
God putting this thought into him
for otherwise he might have
diverted himself
as he used to do
with his wives or concubines
or voices and
instruments of musick
which were far more agreeable to his temper.
Verse 3
[3] And the king said
What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for
this? Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him
There is nothing
done for him.
Nothing — He
hath had no recompence for this great and good service. Which might either
happen through the king's forgetfulness; or through the envy of the courtiers;
or because he was a Jew
and therefore odious and contemptible.
Verse 4
[4] 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.
Haman —
Early in the morning
because his malice would not suffer him to sleep; and he
was impatient 'till he had executed his revenge; and was resolved to watch for
the very first opportunity of speaking to the king
before he was engaged in
other matters.
Outward court —
Where he waited; because it was dangerous to come into the inner court without
special license
chap. 4:11.
Verse 6
[6] So
Haman came in. And the king said unto him
What shall be done unto the man whom
the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart
To whom would
the king delight to do honour more than to myself?
Man — He
names none
because he would have the more impartial answer. And probably knew
nothing of the difference between Haman and Mordecai.
Thought — As
he had great reason to do
because of the favour which the king had shewed to
him above all others.
Verse 8
[8] Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear
and the
horse that the king rideth upon
and the crown royal which is set upon his
head:
Royal apparel —
His outward garment
which was made of purple
interwoven with gold
as Justin
and Cartius relate.
Verse 12
[12] And
Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning
and having his head covered.
Gate — To
his former place; shewing that as he was not overwhelmed by Haman's threats
so
he was not puffed up with this honour.
Cover'd — In
token of his shame and grief for his unexpected disappointment
and for the
great honour done to his abhorred adversary
by his own hands
and with his own
public disgrace.
Verse 13
[13] And
Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen
him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him
If Mordecai be of the
seed of the Jews
before whom thou hast begun to fall
thou shalt not prevail
against him
but shalt surely fall before him.
Wise men —
The magicians
whom after the Persian manner he had called together to consult
upon this strange emergency.
Verse 14
[14] And
while they were yet talking with him
came the king's chamberlains
and hasted
to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.
To bring —
Who was now slack to go thither
by reason of the great dejection of his own
mind.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Esther》
06 Chapter 6
Verse 1
On that night could not the king sleep.
The power of a sleepless night
A trifling circumstance to record. Ah! how important are little
things: the
unnoticed things are the life-blood of the world. In a great palace we think of
the marble and the stone
the cedar and the iron
but who thinks of the mortar
and the nails? And yet
in the architecture
mortar and nails are as important
as pillars and columns and beams. Thus in the architecture of the world
and in
the conduct of its moral affairs
trifles are the mortar and the nails.
I. The first thing
I see here is a wonderful lesson in the illimitable plan of providence. How
events ripen to the close! How crime matures itself to its doom! Amazing is the
work of providence. You see two distinct sets of actions progressing at the
same moment. The election of Esther
the choice of a merely capricious king;
the elevation to dignity:
the integrity of Mordecai; the ambition of Haman: the desire to crush the Jews; the yearning
desire to save them. All these things are working together. You remember “My
Father worketh hitherto
and I work.” And “all things work together for good to
them that love God.” Calmly and surely proceeds the Divine plan
and
unaware
of the Divine idea
proceeds the infernal plan. See how triumphantly Haman
looks at the letters of persecution signed with the signet of the king: and see how he gloats
as the morning sun shines over the black gallows-tree
and never for a moment
suspects it to be his own. The poor blind fool checkmated by himself!
ingeniously rearing his own scaffold
and twisting the rope for his own neck.
You will perhaps say to me
And the answer perhaps only pushes the inquiry
farther back. “Why did He allow Haman to be near the court at all?” The answer
must be
that God and providence are not the capricious and intermeddling
agencies you have sometimes supposed: they prosecute their own path
and Satan
and sin prosecute their path too. On they hasten
every step hastens to
judgment; every movement winds the entangling coil of circumstances more
irretrievably around them.
II. How
from the
wide sweep of immense providences we descend to trifles! How the scheme of
providence includes and encloses the small details of human affairs! I will
extract three other lessons--
1. How remote
and yet
how distinct and minute
are the operations of God’s providence! Here
was a circumstance connected with the history of the Church
with the
preservation of God’s people
and with the conservation of Divine truth
and
the advent of the Messiah. How small a place is Shushan and the whole of Media
and Ahasuerus!
2. See the perfect compatibility
nay
unity
of prayer with the
plans of providence. The prayers of Mordecai
the mournings of the Jews
they
are the operating causes round the sleepless couch. The prayer so troubled the
couch
that the king could not sleep.
3. May I not apply it yet once more
and ask you the meaning of some
sleepless nights
some troubled days? (E. P. Hood.)
Ahasuerus’ sleepless night-the Divine government
1. Who is the sleepless monarch on this night?
2. What was the book he read that night?
3. What was the discovery he made that night?
4. What was the result of the discovery that night?
Two things
at least
came out from the king’s sleeplessness this
night.
Truly
this was a memorable night
From this subject we may learn
a few lessons in connection with God’s government of the world.
I. He often works
out his purpose through the free workings of depraved minds
unconscious of his
influence. The brethren of Joseph
prompted by evil passions
sell him to the
Ishmaelites
and he is borne a slave into Egypt. They are free in their wicked
counsels and deed; but
unconsciously to themselves
all the while they are
carrying out the purposes of Heaven. The same with Vespasian and Titus in their
destruction of Jerusalem. Though a spirit most fiendish moved and directed
these bloodthirsty and ambitious pagans
yet they wrought out almost with
letter minuteness the long-threatened judgment of Heaven. As nature moves on to
the magnificence of summer
as well through cloudy skies and thunderstorms as
sunshine and serenity
so providence advances its purposes
as well through
such a mind as that of Ahasuerus as that of Peter
or of Paul.
II. He always
overrules the conduct of sinners foe the overthrow of their own plans. The very
destruction which Haman and his accomplices plotted for Mordecai and the whole
Jewish people came upon themselves. On the lofty gallows that Haman had raised
for another
he was hanged himself. Thus it ever is. The men of Babel build a
tower in order to be kept in close social combination; but that structure leads
to their confusion and separation. The Egyptians rush into the Red Sea in order
to wreak vengeance on the fleeing Israelites; but the channel in which they
sought to bury their enemies became their own grave. It is the very nature of
sin to confound itself. Its struggles for pleasure will lead to misery; for
honour
will lead to degradation. Sin always conducts the sinner to a result
never sought
never intended. What sinner aims
as an intelligent purpose
at
the blasting of all his hopes
the loss of all his friendships
the everlasting
ruin of his soul? Yet to these
every sin he commits is conducting him. Like Haman
every sinner is building
his own gallows. Sin
when it is finished
bringeth forth death.
III. He sometimes
works out his purposes by means apparently most insignificant. (Homilist.)
The sleepless night
I. How God
operates to mighty ends through inconsiderable agencies. We are apt to measure
God by standards established between man and man. The Divine greatness is regarded
as that of some very eminent king:
what would be inconsistent with the dignity of the potentate is regarded as inconsistent with
the dignity of God; and what seems to us to contribute to that dignity is
carried up to the heavenly courts
or supposed exist there in the highest
perfection. But we should gain a grander and juster idea of our Maker by
considering in what He differs from men
than by ascribing to Him
only in an
infinite degree
what is found amongst ourselves. It is not by putting unbounded
resources at the disposal of God and representing Him as working through
stupendous instrumentality that we frame the highest notions of Him as a
sovereign and ruler. There is something sublimer and more over-whelming in
those sayings of Scripture
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou
ordained strength
” “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise
the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty
” than in the most magnificent and gorgeous descriptions of dominion and
strength. Christianity
for example
diffused through the instrumentality of
twelve legions of angels would have been immeasurably inferior
as a trophy of
Omnipotence
to Christianity diffused through the instrumentality of twelve
fishermen. When I survey the heavens
with their glorious troop of stars
and
am told that the Almighty employs them to His own majestic ends
I seem to feel
as though they were worthy of being employed by the Creator. But show me a tiny
insect
just floating in the breeze
and tell me that
by and through that
insect
God will carry forward the largest and most stupendous of His purposes
and I am indeed filled with amazement. And is there anything strained or
incorrect in associating with an insect the redemption of the world? Nay
not
so. In saving the race whence Messiah was to spring
God worked through the
disturbed sleep of the Persian monarch
and the buzz of an inconsiderable
insect might have sufficed to break that monarch’s repose. When God interfered
on behalf of His people groaning under the bondage of Pharaoh
it was with
miracle and prodigy
with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; but I fall
before Him as yet more amazing in wisdom and power
when I find the bloody
purpose of Haman defeated through such instrumentality as this: “The king could not
sleep
” etc.
II. The setting
under a right point of view of the utility of prayer. It is often objected against prayer that it
seeks for miracles and expects God to interrupt at our call the established
course of things. It may be that when the Jews betook themselves to prayer
that they looked for visible and miraculous interference
as in other
emergencies when God bared His arm in defence of His people. Although I
thoroughly believe that were a case to arise in which nothing short of a
miracle would meet the circumstances of a servant of God
the miracle would not
be withheld; yet I am satisfied that it is not required that there should be
miracles in order to our prayers being granted
neither does the granting them
suppose that God is variable or changes in His purposes. There was no miracle
in His causing Ahasuerus to pass a sleepless night: a little heat in the atmosphere
or the
buzzing of an insect
might have produced the result; and philosophy
with all
its sagacity
could not have detected any interruption of the known laws of
nature. Neither were God’s purposes variable
though it may have actually
depended on the importunity of prayer
whether or not the people should be
delivered. God’s purpose may have been that He would break the king’s sleep if
prayer reached a certain intenseness; that He would not break it if it came
below that intenseness; and surely this would accord equally with two
propositions--
1. That the Divine purposes are fixed and immutable.
2. That notwithstanding this fixedness and immutability
they may be
affected by human petitions
and therefore leave room for importunate prayer.
Comparatively I should not be encouraged
were I told that what disquieted the
monarch was the standing of a spectre by his bedside in an unearthly form
which in unearthly accents upbraided him for leaving Mordecai unrequited. But
when I observe that the king’s rest was disturbed without anything
supernatural; that all which God had to do in order to arrange a great
deliverance for His people was to cause a sleepless night
but so to cause it
that no one could discern His interference
then indeed I learn that I may not
be asking what the world counts miracle
though I ask what transcends all power
but Divine. There is something encouraging in this to all who feel their
insignificance. If the registered deliverances
vouchsafed to the Church
were
all deliverances which had been effected through miracles
we might question
whether they formed any precedent on which creatures like ourselves could
justly rest hope. We dare not think that for us armed squadrons will be seen in
the heavens
or the earth be convulsed
or the waters turned into blood. But
look from Israel delivered from Pharaoh to Israel delivered from Haman
and we
are encouraged to believe that God will not fail even us in our extremity
seeing that He could save the people through such a simple and unsuspected
process as this:
“On that night could not the king sleep
and he commanded to bring the book of
the records of the chronicles.” (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The sleepless night
There may have been three or four reasons for this restlessness.
1. The care of his kingdom.
2. The revolving of ambitious schemes.
3. His raging passions. His passions often showed themselves in a
ridiculous way. When he came back from his Grecian expedition he was so mad at
the river Hellespont for breaking up his bridge of boats
that he ordered his
servants to whip that river with three hundred lashes.
4. A troubled conscience. There is nothing like an aroused conscience
to keep a man awake when he wants to sleep. There was a ruler who one morning
was found with his sword cutting a nest of swallows to pieces. Somebody came up
and said
“Why do you cut that nest of swallows to pieces?” “Why
” he replied
“those swallows keep saying that I murdered my father.” The fact was
that the man had committed the
crime
and his conscience
by Divine ventriloquism
was speaking out of that
birds’ nest. No
Ahasuerus could not sleep. The more he tried to sleep
the
wider he got awake. All around about his pillow the past came. There
in the
darkness
stood Vashti
wan and wasted in banishment. There stood the princes
whom he had despoiled by his evil example. There were the representatives of
the homes he had blasted by his infamous demand that the brightest be sent to
his palace; broken-hearted parents crying
“Give me back my child
thou
vulturous soul!” The outrages of the past flitting along the wall’
swinging
from the tassels
crouching in the corner
groaning under the pillow
setting
their heels on his consuming brain
and crying
“Get up! This is the verge of
hell! No sleep! No sleep!” (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The sleepless night
How many different causes or occasions there may be of the
sleepless night! Some cannot sleep in the remembrance of recent sin. Some are
kept waking by great sorrow. Some by brain excitement. Some in very weariness
of overwork. (A. Raleigh
D. D.)
Sleep a necessity
Without it human life would soon come to an end. It would burn
rapidly away. (A. Raleigh
D. D.)
Men sleep or wake as God wills
Kings have no specific to secure healthful rest; rather they are
apt to miss the best specific
hard work and a good conscience. (A. M.
Symington
B. A.)
Resource in sleeplessness-
A good book is a better resource in sleeplessness than
drugs. (A. M. Symington
B. A.)
Divine providence
I. Note the minute
universality of God’s supervision and control. The notion of many is that
providence is concerned only with great matters. But those who so believe
forget that perfection in anything cannot be secured without attention to
details
and that great issues often hinge on apparently very trifling affairs.
A sleepless night is in itself no very important thing. Again
it is a matter
of little moment what a man shall do to fill in the hours of sleepless ness and
keep himself from ennui; but if Xerxes had adopted any other plan than
that which he followed
or if the attendant had chosen to read from any other
section of the chronicles of the kingdom than that which he selected
there
would have been nothing to recall Mordecai’s services to the king’s
remembrance. Once more: if Haman had not come
to the court at the time he did
and been introduced into the presence at the precise
moment when the mind of the king was pondering the question what honour should
be conferred on Mordecai
then the first word might have been his
and so the
fiat might have gone out for the consigning of Mordecai to the gallows
even at
the moment when the monarch was thinking about doing him honour. Now
this
history is not exceptional in any respect. It certainly is not exceptional in
this particular. You see the same supervision of the most apparently trifling
things by God in the biography of Joseph
and there are many striking
illustrations of it in secular history. A change of wind from west to east is
not s great matter
and yet on such a change as that
at a particular hour of a
particular day
the history of Great Britain turned; for thereby the fleet of
William of Orange was wafted to Torbay
while that of James II. was by the same
means prevented from putting out to sea to intercept its progress.
II. But note that
we have here no interference with the operation of the laws of nature
and no
infringement of the liberty of moral agents. We have no record of any miracle
in this case. There is nothing supernatural in a man’s having a sleepless
night
or in his fixing on a certain part of his chronicles to read
or in the
coming in of another person upon him at a particular juncture; and no single
one of the actors in the case was working under compulsion--each one knew at
the moment that he was following his own bent. But it was not less the work of
God
or less glorifying to God. Now this non-miraculous providence
if I may so
call it
is a greater and grander and more glorious achievement of God’s than
it would have been if the same results had been accomplished through the direct
forth putting of His own omnipotence. Now
if what I have advanced on this
important matter be true
it may cast some light on the way in which God
answers His people’s prayers. There are those who affirm that to ask God to
confer on us a physical blessing is to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf.
Even if I believed that
I would still ask Him for what I need
because He has
commanded me to do so
and I would trustfully leave the method of His answer in
His own hands. But I do not believe that to ask a physical blessing from God is
to ask Him to work a miracle in our behalf
and such a history as this of
Esther confirms me in that non-belief. Then
finally
here
if what I have
advanced in this connection be correct
it may tend to reconcile us to the
minor inconveniences that come upon us in life. What an amount of fretting we
do over little things! We go off our sleep
or we miss a train
or we have to
wait for some tedious hours at a railroad station
or we approach the harbour
in a fog and have to lie outside for a long while
so near our homes and yet so
far from them
or a friend disappoints us and our plans are deranged. Yet why
should we be impatient if it be true that even these little things are taken
cognisance of by God
and woven by Him for His glory and our good into the
fabric of our lives? If we could but pause a moment and say within ourselves
“This is all in the plan of God concerning us
” we should at once have
self-control. Lessons--
1. Think how valuable God’s commonest gifts are. Keep your conscience
clean
that nothing of guilt may put thorns into your pillow. Take no ambitious
schemes with you to your couch
lest you should be constrained to lie awake in
the attempt to work them out. Finish each day’s business in its own day
that
there may be no nervous anxiety in your mind about the morrow. Watch over your
table
and take nothing there that will make you restless. Think more of this
common blessing of sleep
and see in that one of the richest tokens of the
Divine goodness which is not to be trifled with
but to be valued and enjoyed.
2. And this leads me
by a very natural transition
to ask whether
you have ever reviewed your obligations to God for all that He has done for
you? Xerxes utilised his sleepless hours in discovering wherein he had failed
to meet his obligations to his benefactors. But what a benefactor you have had
in God! He gave His only Son for your salvation. Xerxes’ indebtedness to
Mordecai was nothing in comparison to your obligation to Jehovah. Now let me
ask
What have you done to Him for that? (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
Sleeplessness providentially used
There is no reason assigned for this. The king was not afflicted
with illness
he was not suddenly seized with any disease to cause this
wakefulness
nor was it occasioned by any intelligence of a distressing
character
such as that formidable enemies had made their appearance before
Shushan
or that grievous misfortunes had happened to any one dear to him. No;
but the matter was entirely of the Lord. God has employed sleep for weighty
purposes
in various ages of the world. It was while Adam was in “deep sleep”
that “one of his ribs was taken
” and made a living being and an help meet for
him. It was while Jacob was asleep that he was favoured with that wonderful
vision
in which he beheld a ladder set upon the earth
whose top reached to
heaven--a striking representation of God’s providential care for His people
and likewise of that Redeemer who is the way to the Father--a way in which
whosoever walketh the angels of glory continually afford him their friendly
ministrations. It was when Joseph was asleep that he was directed from heaven
to take Mary for his wife
because that which had been conceived in her was of
the Holy Ghost. But here God carries His purposes into execution by means of
the absence of sleep. He is never at a loss to bring His designs to pass. (J.
Hughes.)
Watches of the night
Had Ahasuerus been a pious man
and acquainted with the Word of
God
he would have filled up She watches of the night with religious
meditations
or called for the book of the law of the Lord
in which he would
have found both instruction and entertainment. (T. McCrie
D. D.)
Historical records
Nor was the custom wholly confined to the East. The “Chronicles of
the Cid
” William of Malmesbury’s “Chronicles of the Kings of England
” the six
old English Chronicles
viz.
Asser’s Life of Alfred
and Chronicles of Eldred
Ethelred
Nennius
Geoffrey of Monmouth
and of Richard
and “The Chronicles of
the Crusaders
” of Robert of Gloucester
and Ossian
and the famous Spanish and
English ballads
are a part and parcel of the history and literature of our own
day. (W. A. Scott
D. D.)
A sleepless king
In one of the dungeons of the fortress of Glatz lay a Prussian
nobleman. King Frederick William III. had confined him there for treason. He
had been long a prisoner
and there was no hope that he would ever be released.
His only company was
a Bible--the book he hated
and never read. But suffering and solitude wore
upon his spirit
and he did read at last--till there rose in his soul some
sense of a just God
who punishes those that forsake Him. He had forsaken
Him--and now he repented of it. One night
by the dim light of his dungeon
lamp
he was turning the leaves of the Bible for consolation
when his eyes
fell on Psalms 50:15
“Call upon Me in the day of
trouble: I will
deliver thee
and thou shalt glorify Me.” Then
for the first time since
childhood
the proud man knelt and prayed
and the peace of God came into his
heart and dwelt there. That same night King Frederick in his palace
like King
Ahasuerus
could not sleep. Worn out
he begged the Lord to give him one hour
of rest from pain; and his prayer was granted. He awoke refreshed and grateful
and said to his wife
“Who in all my kingdom has wronged me most? I will
forgive him.” Said Queen Louise
“It is the Count M--in the prison of Glatz.”
“Send orders to release him at once
” commanded the king. And in a few days the
prisoner was a free man
glorifying God for both spiritual and temporal
deliverance.
All records before God’s eye continually
When Ahasuerus read in the book of the records of the chronicles
and there found how Mordecai had discovered a plot of treason against his
person
he did not lay the book aside
and slightly pass by such a piece of
service
but inquires what honour and what dignity had been done to Mordecai.
It seems if the king had thought on
or read of him sooner
he had rewarded him
sooner: but God
hath ever in His eye all the records and chronicles of His people’s actions; He
reads their journals every day. (J.Spencer.)
Verse 3
There is nothing done for him.
Merit overlooked
Modest merit is overlooked
while the aspiring
the ambitious
and
the time-serving rise to honour and riches. Nor is ingratitude confined to
courts. (T. McCrie
D. D.)
Ingratitude to God
But if gratitude to man for his comparatively little kindness (for
man cannot do much for his fellow) animate the believer’s bosom
it glows with
still more fervent gratitude to God
for the invaluable and merited blessing of
salvation. (T. Hughes.)
A resurrection of good works
Things are done and forgotten
and men never suppose that they
will come up again; yet after many days they are vivified
and history begins
to take up the thread where it was dropped. (J. Parker
D. D.)
God’s time best
But God is never surprised
and the end of all is to make us think
of Him. Nothing entered in His “book of remembrance” is ever forgotten. His
time for bringing the good deeds of His people to light may seldom be the time
we would judge best
but it is always the most fit. Look to this ease. Had it
been a day
an hour
half an hour sooner
would the effect have been as good
for Mordecai or for his people? Would humility
prayer
patience
have been
called into strengthening exercise? (A. M. Symington
B. A.)
Unearthed
The loyalty and faithfulness of Mordecai had not been rewarded at
the time. On the human side that might have been regarded as a piece of
ingratitude
it not a reprehensible oversight; but on the Divine side it was a
prepared cause
secreted and hidden for a long period
and yet waiting
and
ready for the accomplishment
at the right time of a beneficent result. It was
destined to come to the light. It was a seed-corn buried in the earth
which
should bear fruit in due season. In an opposite direction there is the same
particular providence often manifested in the unveiling of crime
and the
bringing home of guilt to the hearts of those who have contracted it
as in the
envy and malice of Joseph’s brethren and the avaricious covetousness of Achan.
As shells
deep in the sea
grope their way to the shore
or as hidden springs
burst their way through to the surface
and form little rivulets
so is there
in providence a great law
constantly in operation
for the disclosure of all
that is either good or bad in human character or conduct. If bad
it is as though the
avenger was tracking the steps of the transgressor
and at some turning in his
path
and by some trivial accident
the evil is unearthed
and the doer of it
brought to judgment. Or if good
it is as though the rewarder was following in
the way of the righteous
and at the best time
and apparently by the most fortuitous
combination of circumstances
the well-doing is made known
and meets with its
recompense. Even now it is so. But the lines are drawn out far beyond the
present
and converge in the transactions of a distant day. (T. McEwan.)
Reward and retribution
I. It teaches us
how well a good man can afford to wait for the due acknowledgment of his
uprightness
and for any reward he may need for the good he has done. The
conjecture is that six long years had gone by since Mordecai revealed the plot
of the chamberlains and saved the king’s life
and not even a word of
acknowledgment had come to him during all that time. But what we most admire is
his behaviour meantime. If he had been a self-seeking man
he could easily have
found means to refresh the king’s memory as to his services; but he kept
silence. If he had been a malignant man
he might have sought what he would
in
that case
have called a just revenge for the ungrateful neglect with which he
had been treated
by hatching or falling in with some other plot. And then
how
well all turns out in the end! How much better than if the reward had been
given at the time! “He that believeth shall not make haste”; God’s time is
always the best. Righteousness is its own reward
and we are never righteous as
God would have us be until we feel this deeply and act accordingly. He who
in God’s strength
looks every day on the face of duty
and walks with her along whatever paths
her sacred feet may tread
has in his own spirit
in his own character
what
soon or late will blossom out into all beauty and grandeur; what will in the
end become “glory
honour
and immortality.”
II. The next lesson is just
the opposite of this
viz.
“How certainly a bad man must be overtaken and
punished!” We say “how certainly” because there is in his badness the root and
element of the retribution
and often
without knowing it
he carefully
develops and ripens by his own action the retribution that falls on his head.
III. For there is an
increscent power in evil (as indeed there is also in good)
in view of which we
cannot be too watchful and anxious
lest by any means we should fall under the
power of it. The power of it
remember
is very silent and gentle
generally
in its operations. (A. Raleigh
D. D.)
Pacification of conscience
The king was determined to rectify this matter
for he thought that by the
pacification of conscience sleep might return. Many men are willing to purchase
sleep on high terms. Could the murder but be undone; could the evil deed be but
blotted out; could the stolen money be but safely returned; could the cruel
word but be recalled; in short
could anything be done that sleep might once
more come to the house
and fold all memories and anxieties within its healing
robes! (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verses 6-11
What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to
honour?
Pride associated with folly
1. In Haman honouring Mordecai we have a remarkable verification of
the fable of the dog and the shadow. He gaped after the shadow and lost the
substance. Folly generally rides after pride. Haman grew more and more insolent
and arrogant as he advanced in wealth and power
until he reached the highest
point allowed to him by providence. He did not consider that he who does not
climb gets no fall
and that he that climbs too high is sure
at last
to come
down with s terrible crash. His temerity is remarkable. Thinking
however
that
he was ordered to cut out his own honour
it is natural he should have made the
measure large.
2. How completely wretched are the envious and the proud. Pride is
the canker-worm of the soul. It always renders us unhappy. It is ever so with
those who have not a new heart. The most wealthy and highly honoured are not
content. There is something still wanting. There is something they still
complain about. They make themselves miserable when they ought to be happy. Oh
how little a thing is earthly grandeur! How little a thing may embitter all
human honour and affluence! There can be no happiness on earth till there is
self-denial and trust. There is no happiness till we begin to crucify
selfishness
and to trust in God as the portion of our souls.
3. We see here how great a misfortune it is to have friends and
counsellors who are ignorant
wicked
or evil-disposed. There is a great deal
of truth in the proverb
“Save me from my friends
and I will take care of my
enemies.” It is sad when a man’s bosom counsellor is not true and faithful. And
there is always danger to be apprehended when the advice of a professed friend
is pleasing to our own angry or revengeful feelings. If Haman’s wife had been a
meek
quiet
prudent
intelligent
God-fearing woman
her advice
at first
had
been altogether of a different sort
and her bearing toward her husband
when
he hastened home from court
almost heartbroken with disappointment and rage
would have been altogether different from what it was. Instead of adding fuel
to his malignant passions
she should have endeavoured to moderate and restrain
them. And instead of bruising a heart already broken
by adding taunt and
reproach to grief
she should have sought to calm him and make him feel that
with her
in his own home
he was still with friends
respected and beloved
however much he had suffered at court. The husband’s fortune is more fully in
the hands of his wife than anywhere else. It is hers to make his home happy
and to gird him with strength by sympathy and counsel. When his spirits are almost
overwhelmed
she alone
of all human beings
is the one to minister to him. Her nursing is
as sovereign to his sick soul as it is for his ailing body. It is her gentle
tones only that can steal over his morbid senses with more power than David’s
harp. And when his courage is almost gone
her patience and fortitude will
rekindle his heart again to dare and do
and meet anew the toils and troubles
of life. What a misfortune it was that Haman had not a sweet Christian home to
retire to after the terrible disappointments and bitter experiences of that
day! Yes
a sweet
quiet home. But you tell me I forget that he was a man of
large estates
great honours
and the owner of a princely palace. True
but a
palace is not always a home. What is a home? It is something for which many of
earth’s babbling tongues have no term. A home is not a mere residence for the
body
but a place where the heart rests and the affections nestle and dwell and
multiply. Just in the proportion that a good woman is a blessing
in the same
proportion is a bad woman a curse. Woman’s mission is a high and grand one. She
is connected with everything that belongs to our race that is noble
refining
and hopeful. Great is the calamity
then
for a community to be under the
influence of such opinions or sentiments as are degrading to its women. One bad
woman can do more harm in society than a dozen bad men. (W. A. Scott
D. D.)
The Nemesis of providence
Had he been planning for Mordecai all the time he had been
thinking of himself? Yea
verily
that was the Nemesis of providence; and yet
bad as it was
that was only one-half of the matter
for before long he would
find that he had also been planning for himself when he had been thinking of
Mordecai. The honour which he had designed for himself went to Mordecai
and
the destruction which he had devised for Mordecai fell upon him self. The royal
apparel was worn by the Jew
and the Agagite was hanged upon the gallows. His
head had not been turned by the brief honour
nor his heart up lifted by the
short-lived glory
for he was well ballasted
and his people were not yet
delivered. (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
Great changes
What a marvellous change! what an unlooked-for revolution! The
side of the wheel that was lately the lowest is now the highest. That which was
a short time ago shrouded in dark ness is now radiant with light! “This is the
Lord’s doing
and it is marvellous in our eyes.” (J. Hughes.)
The vain man
We see here the working and the punishment of vanity and pride.
“Whom can the king think worthy of special honour but myself?” thought Haman.
The vain man is always occupied about himself. He thinks about himself; he
speaks about himself; he is all in all to himself. The idea never crossed
Haman’s mind that there could possibly be any one besides himself whom the king
could desire to distinguish by any particular mark of favour. But then how
crushing was the order:
“Go and do as thou hast said to Mordecai the Jew.” (A. B. Davidson
D. D.)
The Church honoured by her enemies
In this manner does God sometimes make the enemies of His Church
and servants to honour them. He not only makes the sinners’ hands to forge the
snares in which they themselves are caught
but He compels them to weave the
crown and impose it on the head of the righteous. (T. McCrie
D. D.)
Insatiable vanity
Haman’s answer reveals the insatiableness of vanity. No sooner was
honour mentioned than his heart cried
“Let me have it I Make me a king
though
it be only for an
hour; if without the power
yet with all the pomp and trappings.” Will this man
never have enough? Never; the food is so light and the appetite so strong that
there must be a constant supply. Give him this
and to-morrow he will seek something
more. The craving is a disease
an atrophy
a cancer. To enjoy honour and to be
satisfied with it
a man must be healthy--that is
humble. Mark the strong
delusion: “Now
Haman thought in his heart.” A man cannot have a worse guide than the thought
of his heart
unless God has broken and newmade it. Twice within this single
minute Haman was cheated by the thought of his heart. He thought others must
esteem him as highly as he esteemed himself; but it is never the case that when
a man has a lofty opinion of himself other men have an opinion equally
flattering. And he thought that all was going well with him
that this sudden
honour would only postpone his revenge for an hour
that by the time he
returned from the queen’s banquet he would be the happiest man in Persia; but
he was just on the brink of perdition. The water is always smooth above a
cataract. (A. M. Symington
B. A.)
Self-flattery leading to self-humiliation
I. An artless
question addressed to conceit.
II. The reasoning
of concert.
III. The answer of
conceit.
IV. The fearful
blow to conceit.
V. The humiliating
condition of conceit. (W. Burrows
B. A.)
Verse 10-11
Verse 12
And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate
Humility
A proud
ambitious man would have said to himself
“No more of the
king’s gate for me! I shall direct my steps now to the king’s palace
and hold
myself ready for honour
office
emolument
which surely must now be at hand.
” Mordecai seems to have said within himself
“If these things are designed for
me in God’s good providence
they will find me. But they must seek me
for I
shall not seek them. Those who confer them know my address. ‘Mordecai
at the
king’s gate
’ will still find me.” (A. Raleigh
D. D.)
Honours modestly borne
Few can bear honours and dignities with equanimity
even when they
come upon them gradually; but such sudden and high advancement was enough to
make any ordinary person giddy
to cause him to forget himself
and behave
unseemly. What fatal effects upon the head and heart do we often witness in
persons who have all at once been raised from poverty to riches and rank. Even
good men are not always proof against the intoxicating influence of such
transitions. But Mordecai kept his place; like a gallant ship
firmly moored in
a bay
which during a flood-tide heaves and seems for a time borne along with
the lighter craft
but
obeying its anchor
comes round and resumes its former
position. The pageantry of an hour could not unsettle his mind; he regarded it
in its true light--a vain show. (T. McCrie
D. D.)
Verse 13
Before whom thou hast begun to fall.
Descent easy
The ascent to honour and greatness is steep
and those who aspire
after them must climb it slowly
and with difficulty; but the descent is easy
and so precipitous
that when they lose their footing they fall in minutes what
they rose in years. (T. McCrie
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》