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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Esther 7:10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the King’s fury subsided.
Fasting helps.
But not to twist God’s arm so He does what we want, or so that He necessarily does anything. I remember once being in a situation, which was either life or death for our fledgling ministry. We were down to the last hours and needing a miracle. As I was praying and waiting on God - I just felt He said, “John, I don’t have to do anything. … But because I love you, I will.” How would you feel? He still made us wait another 5 hours. But God came through and not in the way we expected.
Esther fasted in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, she held a banquet for Haman while he was constructing some gallows with the intent of hanging Mordecai on them. Then God intervened in a completely unexpected way.
The king had a bad night, started to read the chronicles of his reign and found the bit about Mordecai saving his life from conspirators. In the morning he asked, “What was done to thank him?” “Nothing.” Just then Haman arrived intending to seek the death of Mordecai but before he could make his request, the king asked, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?” (6:6)
Haman thought he knew the answer to that, because it just had to be him. So he went into great detail with pride and expectation. But pride comes before a fall and how great the fall would be. “Great, do it at once in every detail - Oh, and by the way, you need to do it to Mordecai.”
A bad day had begun for Haman and it would get worse. He went home in a rage, after having to honour Mordecai, and before he could calm down, the king’s escort arrived to take him to Esther’s second banquet. The previous day the king had offered Esther up to half his kingdom, but she had put off her request until now. The king repeated his offer. “Grant me my life and the lives of my people. Had we been made slaves I would not have worried but we are to be annihilated.” “Who? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” demanded the king. Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman” (7:3-6: my paraphrase).
The king was livid. Haman, in his ignorance, had made the king sign his own queen’s death sentence. And the king’s decrees could not be countermanded. Xerxes was filled with rage and went out into the Palace Garden. Haman, meanwhile, threw himself on the mercy of the queen. The king re-entered, saw Haman and exploded: “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?” (8:8)
Then one of the eunuchs mentioned the gallows Haman had made for Mordecai. The king commanded them to hang Haman on it and they did.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1 & 2).
We need to be very careful that what we selfishly strive for doesn’t bring us our own downfall.
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