The king's rage

10/13/2011 8:10:19 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  The king’s rage

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Ester 7:5-8

                Message of the verses:  “5  King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?" 6  Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman." Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

    “7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. 8  Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, "Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?" As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.”

                In the verses above we have perhaps the most important thing that will happen in the entire book of Ester.  It is like listening to a musical masterpiece where the composer of the music brings the music to a climax that has been hinted to all through the piece and finally arrives and then the music begins to become lower in volume after this great crescendo takes place.  Yes there will still be some highs and lows in the music, but none like what has just been heard.

                It is good to look at this from the prospective of the king and what may have been going through his mind at this time.  The king was the man who promoted Haman to the position that he was in and also the king was part of this conspiracy to kill all of the Jews.  Now the king had just spent a very restless night and to help him sleep had read about the brave thing that Mordecai had done in saving the life of the king.  He just finds out that his queen is Jewish, and that the man he trusted wanted to kill her because she was a Jew.  Now we have learned that the king was hot tempered and did not always think before he acted and so he decides to take a walk in the palace garden to think about what had just transpired.  He surely had a lot to think about and it was good that he decided to take a walk.  While he was gone this “vile Haman” began to beg for his life for he knew that his fate had already been sealed in the mind of the king, but while this was happening the king comes back from his walk to see all of this and does not realize what Haman was doing thinking that he was trying to molest the queen.  This alone was worthy of death and so the king orders Haman to be taken away.

                The last part of verse eight “they covered Haman’s face” seemed kind of difficult to understand to me and so I looked at it in different translations and most of them said the same thing.  I suppose that this statement means that some of the king’s guards covered Haman’s face before taking him away.  This is what John Gill has to say about this portion of the eighth verse:  “the servants present, as a man unworthy to see the light; and they took what the king said to amount to a sentence of condemnation, and that it was his will he should die; and they covered his face, as condemned malefactors used to be; which was a custom among the Greeks and Romans, of which many instances may be given {l}; though Aben Ezra says it was the custom of the kings of Persia, that their servants covered the face of him the king was angry with, that he might not see his face any more, which was well known in the Persian writings.”  I think this makes this statement clearer and more easily understood.

                I liked the courage that is seen here by Ester and not mincing her words but calling Haman “vile Haman.”  The hatred that was in the heart of Haman is now revealed to the king, and it was this hatred that the king did not realize that caused him to be a part of the law that would have all of the Jews killed.  This same hatred has been part of many people throughout the history of the world and it comes from the devil who has hated the Jews ever since they begin back in Genesis twelve, for it was the Jews who would eventually seal the fate of Satan.  God will keep His promise that He made to Abraham and a part of that promise was that God would curse those who cursed the Jews.  Satan is the one who has been behind this cursing in every case.  Hitler is one of the recent men who was filled with this hatred that came from Satan and today the Jews are surrounded by many people with this same hatred, but there is coming a day when all of these wrongs will be made right and all of the people with hatred towards the Jews because they are Jews will face the punishment of Almighty God and will end up where Satan will end up.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Think before you act is one thing that I can take away from this section along with not losing my temper.  There are times that in the course of human events that all people get angry and we can see this even when Jesus walked this earth, however His anger was all justified, and I must admit that mine is not always and therefore I need to confess it when it happens and then begin again trusting that God has forgiven me and that I need to again move forward trusting the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       “Be angry and sin not.  Don’t let the sun set on your anger.”

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

10/13/2011 9:00:39 AM