Esther 5
Queen Esther dressed in her royal robes and went to the do-or of the palace room where the great king was sitting on his throne. She does not seem to have feared, but appeared calm.
The king was pleased to see the queen, and held out his golden scepter, which meant she could safely come near. She touched the scepter, and the king knew she wished to make a request, and said,
“What wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request?”
He thought she wanted gifts or land, and he said he would give her all she wished, even if it were half of the kingdom.
Esther did not then ask the king to save the Jewish people from the wicked order that they were to be killed. She seems to have been wise to know it would be better to wait to ask him; she simply invited the king and the prince, Haman, to come that day for a supper in her banquet room.
The king and Haman went to the queen’s supper, and she invited them to come again the next day and said she would then tell her request.
Harmen felt very proud that he was the only person who was invited with the king for the queen’s supper, and he started away from the palace very happy, but as he passed the gate he saw the man Mordecai who gave him no bow of reverence. This changed Hamon’s joy to great anger; he went on to his own home and told his wife and friends of the queen’s supper; he boasted of his riches, of his children, and of the king’s favors to him, that he had been honored above all the other princes; yet, he said, all that was nothing to him as long as Mordecai, the Jew, would not honor him.
Haman’s wife seems to have been a hard, cruel woman, for she advised him to ask the king the next day that Mordecai should be hung, saying, Haman could then go merrily to the queen’s supper. Haman was pleased with her advice, and ordered men to make a high frame, called a gallows, for the wicked deed.
The great anger of this proud prince warns us of the awful effect of pride and hate. He could not enjoy even his great favors, because of his own pride and his hate.
How high were the gallows Haman ordered made? (Verse 14).
ML 03/10/1940