Esther - Oh The Irony

Esther 6:4-9 The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had erected for him. His attendants answered, "Haman is standing in the court.""Bring him in," the king ordered. When Haman entered, the king asked him, "What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?"
Now Haman thought to himself, "Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?" So he answered the king, "For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!' "

Now morning had come - and the king had not slept well at all and had gotten up early because he wanted to take care of rewarding Mordecai. The flip side to this is that Haman could not sleep well either - he wanted to get rid of Mordecai. All this lost sleep over one man. Haman had gone in as early as possible to see the king before the king got distracted with the business of the day - he was going to make his request to have Mordecai hung. OH THE IRONY.

The king gets up and wants to know if there is anyone here yet. The picture in my mind is an office with empty cubicles all over the place, the boss comes out of his office and looks around because he got there at 7:00 a.m. and he needs something done - so he looks at the receptionist, who's always there, right? and says - has anyone come in to work yet? The reply is, 'yes, Haman just walked in'.

Now the king didn't bother to take the time to ask why Haman got there so early that morning, he had things to do. He asks Haman for his advice: What do I do to honor someone? Haman goes into this long list of things to do to praise someone - of course thinking it was he who would get the honor. Now the question is - what should Haman have done?

Actually, Haman did the right thing this time, unbeknownst to him. If someone is asking for our advice, we need to look at it through God's eyes, not our own. Someone who saved the life of the king should've been rewarded in this manner - regardless of who it was. Haman's answer was to reward himself, but it was the right answer in how you reward someone who honors his king. His jealousy will get the better of him - and we all know the pitfalls of jealousy - see my daughters blog.

Is not the same true of our King? If we accept Christ as our King then we honor Him - and He will reward us in heaven? Mordecai didn't get his reward right away - and didn't ask for it. God does not promise us that life will be easy as Christians - but because we live our life for Him, we will be rewarded! And it's going to be so much better than a horseride - which is pretty good though. . .