Esther (Greek) 6:6-14: a reflection

6The king said to Haman, “What should I do for the man whom I wish to honor?” Haman said within himself, “Whom would the king honor but myself?” 7He said to the king, “As for the man whom the king wishes to honor, 8let the king’s servants bring the robe of fine linen which the king puts on, and the horse on which the king rides, 9and let him give it to one of the king’s noble friends, and let him dress the man whom the king loves. Let him mount him on the horse, and proclaim through the streets of the city, saying, “This is what will be done for every man whom the king honors!” 10Then the king said to Haman, “You have spoken well. Do so for Mordecai the Jew, who waits in the palace, and let not a word of what you have spoken be neglected!” 11So Haman took the robe and the horse, dressed Mordecai, mounted him on the horse, and went through the streets of the city, proclaiming, “This is what will be done for every man whom the king wishes to honor.” 12Then Mordecai returned to the palace; but Haman went home mourning, with his head covered. 13Haman related the events that had happened to him to Zeresh his wife and to his friends. His friends and his wife said to him, “If Mordecai is of the race of the Jews, and you have begun to be humbled before him, you will assuredly fall; and you will not be able to withstand him, for the living God is with him.” 14While they were still speaking, the chamberlains arrived to rush Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

The king asks Haman a question: what should be done for the man the king delights to honor? And Haman, blinded by pride, assumes it can only be about himself: whom would the king wish to honor more than me? So he describes a lavish honor, royal robes, the king's horse, a herald crying the man's greatness through the streets. And then the king says: excellent, now do all of that for Mordecai the Jew. Haman must personally bestow, on the very man he was planning to hang, the honor he had designed for himself.

Notice how pride set the trap. Haman was so certain of his own importance that he could not imagine the honor being for anyone else, and that very self-importance led him to script his own humiliation. He built the honor grand precisely because he thought he was getting it, and then had to hand it, grander for his pride, to his enemy. His pride blinded him to reality and became the instrument of his downfall.

There is a sober comedy in this, and a warning that runs all through Scripture: pride goes before a fall, and God has a way of humbling the self-important. Even Haman's own wife and friends see it coming: if Mordecai is a Jew, you will surely fall before him. When we are so sure of our own importance that we cannot imagine being passed over or humbled, we are in exactly Haman's danger. Guard against the pride that assumes every honor is for you. God lifts the humble and brings the proud low, and the honor the proud grasp for is not always theirs.

Lord, pride blinded Haman into scripting his own humiliation, so certain the honor must be his. Guard me from that self-importance that assumes every honor is for me and cannot imagine being humbled. You bring the proud low and lift the humble; keep my heart humble, and free me from the pride that goes before a fall.