Context No. 4183 of 4322 · Esther (Greek)

Esther (Greek) 5:7-14: in context

7She said, “My request and my petition is: 8if I have found favor in the king’s sight, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the feast which I shall prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as I have done today.” 9So Haman went out from the king very glad and merry; but when Haman saw Mordecai the Jew in the court, he was greatly enraged. 10Having gone into his own house, he called his friends, and his wife Zeresh. 11He showed them his wealth and the glory with which the king had invested him, and how he had promoted him to be chief ruler in the kingdom. 12Haman said, “The queen has called no one to the feast with the king but me, and I am invited tomorrow. 13But these things don’t please me while I see Mordecai the Jew in the court. 14Then Zeresh his wife and his friends said to him, “Let a fifty cubit tall gallows be made for you. In the morning you speak to the king, and let Mordecai be hanged on the gallows; but you go in to the feast with the king, and be merry.” The saying pleased Haman, and the gallows was prepared.

Haman has reached the height of success, wealth, honor, the king's favor, and now an exclusive invitation to the queen's private banquet. He goes home glad and boasts to his family of all his riches and glory. But then he says something revealing: yet all this does me no good, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

One man's refusal to bow to him has so consumed Haman with resentment that all his abundant blessings bring him no joy. And on his family's advice, he builds a great gallows to hang Mordecai, the very gallows on which he himself will die. There is a striking and sobering picture here of what an unforgiving grudge can do. Haman had everything a man could want, and yet one grievance, one person who would not honor him, poisoned it all. When we nurse resentment, letting one grievance or one person consume us, it can poison all the good in our lives, so that our real blessings bring us no joy. To hold onto bitterness is to let it spoil everything; the way of peace is to release the grudge before it consumes us.

Am I letting a grudge or resentment consume me, so that it poisons all the good in my life and steals my joy, as Haman's obsession with Mordecai poisoned all his blessings, and will I release the bitterness before it destroys me?

Sources

Esther 5:13: "But these things don't please me while I see Mordecai the Jew in the court."
Esther 5:11: "He showed them his wealth and the glory with which the king had invested him, and how he had promoted him to be chief ruler in the kingdom."
Esther 5:14: "Let a fifty cubit tall gallows be made... The saying pleased Haman, and the gallows was prepared."