Today’s Devotion
Topic: The Man The King Wants To Honor! (Self Assessment 99)
Part 1
Background: King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, by elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to him, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes (Es 3: 1- 6).
He speaks with the king and gets the mandate to the destroy all Jews on the twelfth month. Mordecai hears of this conspiracy and persuades Esther to intervene. After praying and fasting with all the Jews of the land, Esther courageously invited the king to a banquet and insisted Haman came along too. After the banquet was over, Esther still pleaded that her two guest came back the next day for another banquet.
Let us delve deep into today’s study to ascertain the depth of Haman’s hatred for Mordecai. Next week we will study how God turned all that hate against Haman Himself.
Text: Esther 5: 9- 14
9 Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,
11 Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. 12 “And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. 13 But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”
14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits,[a] and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up. Amen
Questions:
i. That Haman was promoted means he was probably more hardworking and trustworthy to the king. Why do you think Mordecai’s behavior bothered Haman so much? Of what benefit was Mordecai’s compliant or otherwise going to affect his political office?
ii. Read Esther 5: 9 again. Do you think Haman should have concerned himself with one simple gate man (Mordecai) whose religious beliefs restrained him from serving or bowing to any other except Jehovah? Also read Ecclesiastic 7: 21.
iii. From your own assessment of verse 11 and 12, how powerful, influential and blessed do you think Haman was?
iv. In verse 13 however, we read that Haman had no satisfaction as long as he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate. Can you describe the depth of his hate therefore? Is it possible in our dispensation that anyone so blessed can find no joy and satisfaction because of an individual or group of people?
v. Read verse 14 again, what can you say about the kind of people Haman’s wife and friends were and the kind of advice they gave?
vi. Bible says Haman was delighted with the kind of advice that they gave. What then becomes the correlation between the good or evil in our hearts and the kind of advice we are prone to incline to?
vii. What have you learnt from today’s devotion?
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