GOD HONORS MORDECCAI In faithfulness and true love, Mordeccai humiliated himself before God; and instigated Esther to act in a spiritual way. Going back to his work in the king’s palace, he did not retreat from his spiritual pious behavior, and kept on not bowing before Haman….While spending the whole night preparing the gallows to hang Mordeccai, God took away sleep from the king’s eyes, to end up glorifying Mordeccai, and putting Haman’s work to no avail. 1. The king remembers what Mordeccai has done 1 -3 2. The king seeks Haman’s counsel 4 - 9 3. Haman falls down before Mordeccai 10 - 11 4. The collapse of Haman 12 – 14 1- THE KING REMEMBERS WHAT MORDECCAI HAS DONE: “That night the king could not sleep; So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordeccai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hand on king Ahasuerus. Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordeccai for this?’. And the king’s servants who attended him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him’” (1 – 3). How amazing was the timing: While Esther was preoccupied in preparing her banquet; and thinking about a way to complain against Haman, beloved by the king; … And while Haman was spending the whole night preoccupied in preparing the huge gallows; … God was using all the events together to realize His salvation plan in its most magnificent way. What Mordeccai and Esther were not able to achieve, the Lord Himself did, through taking sleep away from the king’s eyes, to instigate him to reward Mordeccai for the sake of his faithfulness in saving his life. Here, it is befitting of us to meditate a little in how Mordeccai’s prayers were heard in the proper time. And when I say ‘his prayers’, I do not mean just the words coming out of his mouth, but his whole life. Every spiritual work, faithfulness, and sanctification, would turn our life into a prayer received by God. What Mordeccai did few years ago, when he served the king with faithfulness, and saved his life from an evil plot, has been a prayer to God Himself, He who receives every spiritual and faithful work as a sweet fragrant incense. By that we may understand the oracle of the psalmist, saying: “I give myself to prayer” (Psalm 109: 4); and perceive that every member in our body, every emotion and feeling, through its sanctification and strife in the Lord, would be more like a key that opens up the gates of heaven, to let us enter into the presence of God. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5: 16), because the supplications he utters with his tongue come out in harmony with what his whole life proclaims. On the contrary, the prayer of the wicked is an abomination before God, because he utters what is different from what his life proclaims; coming out of tune that brings no pleasure to the Lord. The Lord responded to the prayers of Mordeccai, which he raised by his practical life, as well as by his tongue. While Haman was fine-tuning his evil plot to bring Mordeccai down to the dust, “God raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the beggar 46 from the ash heap, to set them among princes, and make them inherit the throne of glory” (1 Samuel 2: 8). “That night the king could not sleep”; he remembered what Mordeccai did saving his life, and asking what he has got as a reward, he was told “nothing has been done to him”. His heart could not be at peace until he pays his love back with love, and reward him with what befits his great deed…. If indeed, that was the feeling of a king, known for being vicious, what would be befitting of us to pay God back for having saved us from our destructive sins. As according to St. John Chrysostom: [If when the king remembered the good work of Mordeccai, he bestowed on him such great glory, how would it rather be befitting of us to give thanks to God in great abundance, when we remember His forgiveness of our sins, which we committed against Him, and the goodness He presented to us1]. 2- THE KING SEEKS HAMAN’S COUNSEL: Haman came early in the morning, probably after a night he spent with the carpenters working on the cross, on which he intended for Mordeccai. He had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest to the king to hang Mordeccai, so that he would have inner peace before he goes to enjoy the banquet of queen Esther; when he heard the king asking him: “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, ‘Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?’” (6). In the pride of his heart, thinking that there is no man worthy to be honored more than him, he exaggerated in his suggestion, and did not perceive that: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverb 16: 18); and, “When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom” (Proverb 11: 2); And according to father (Mar) Ephraim the Syrian: [The temporal glory is like a rock hidden in the sea, not known to the sailor before his ship crashes into it, its bottom torn off. And water gushes in to sink it2]. He exaggerated in his suggestion to the king, and said: “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head;… then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor’” (7 – 9). Haman bore the spirit of Satan whom God honored, and included among the highest heavenly cherubs. Then in the pride of his heart, he intended to take what is God’s, to his own account. That was how Haman intended to take for himself3 the king’s robe, horse, and honor! 3- HAMAN FALLS DOWN BEFORE MORDECCAI: The king’s words fell down on Haman like the strike of a lightening, when he said to him: “Hasten, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordeccai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate. Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken” (10). If Haman could not endure Mordeccai on account of his race, and his referance to God; Here the king glorifies and honors him, calling him “the Jew”, a fact the king probably knew through his investigation concerning his reward. 1 In Acts hom 38. 2 A. J. Wensinck: Mystical Treatises. St. Isaac Syrian, P 219. . 3 راجع تفسير حزقيال أصحاح 28 47 How amazing! … Abasing himself, Mordeccai was lifted up by the king to an exalted honor; while, having his heart haughty with pride, Haman fell underneath Mordeccai’s feet… For the sake of his brethren, to save their life, and to turn the dark day of their perdition into the joyful feast of ‘Purim’, Mordeccai abased himself, to be exalted. While Hamman, on the other hand, through the evil counsel of his wife and friends, got proud, to fall down and perish, together with all his household. What we see in the glorious Mordeccai, but the glorious work of the Lord Christ, He, who raised us, together with Him, up to His glory, after He humbled Himself for our sake, and cried out because of us, a loud and a bitter cry on the cross; … While Mordeccai put on the royal robe the Lord Christ gave us Himself to put on (Galatians 3: 27), and be hidden in Him;. … While Mordeccai rode on a royal horse; the Lord Christ granted us His divine grace to carry us from glory to glory, to bring us forth into His Father’s bosom; … While Mordeccai got the royal crown, the Lord Christ granted us in Him, a fellowship in the divine nature, and made us heirs of God, together with Christ, in whom we came to be the subject of the Father’s pleasure; and before us, it was proclaimed: “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delights to honor”. As much as Mordeccai was glorified, Haman fell down underneath his feet; As according to father Aphrahat: [Mordeccai treaded upon the neck of Haman, his persecutor; And the Lord Christ treaded with His feet upon his enemies1]. 4- THE COLLAPSE OF HAMAN: “Afterward, Mordeccai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hastened to his house, mourning, and with his head covered” (12). While Mordeccai was honored through the city square, and has got the glory which no one expected, he went back to the king’s house with his head raised up; Haman, on the other hand, to whom everyone paid homage, hastened to his house, mourning, and with his head covered. Covering the head for men has been a sign of great sorrow and shame. When David escaped from Jerusalem before his son Absalom, “he wept, and had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads” (2 Samuel 15: 30). And “when the nobles of Judah went to the cisterns, found no water, and returned with their vessels empty, they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads” (Jeremiah 14: 3). Mordeccai went back to the king’s house, as though to his own house, for he was proclaimed as the one favored by the king; whereas Haman hastened to his house, mourning, and with his head covered. … Mordeccai refers to the soul, glorified in the Lord, victorious by the Holy Spirit, setting forth to heaven (the King’s house), as though her own house; whereas the wicked soul, fallen down like Haman, would not go back to the paradisiacal life, but would hasten to her own house, namely, to the ‘ego’, to live her life self-centered, filled with sorrow and shame, with her head covered, and with a veil on her mind, that keep it from beholding the divinities, seeing the heavenlies, and soaring in the eternities.. “When Haman told his wife ‘Zeresh’ and all his friends and his wise men, everything that had happened to him, they said to him, ‘If Mordeccai before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him’” (13); by which they prophesied what will dwell on him, or probably 1 Dem. 21, On Persecution 20. 48 perceived that what happened was not a matter of coincidence, but was realized by a hidden hand; hence they could not offer him any word of encouragement or hope. It so seems that their words destroyed his will, and made him reluctant to go to the banquet of Esther; for it is written: “While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther has prepared” (14). Haman went to the banquet with a spirit far different from that when he received the invitation the day before; he went to it like a lamb taken to the slaughter. Yes indeed, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God” (Hebrew 10: 31); And as the psalmist says: “The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; in the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. The Lord is known for the judgment He executes. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Psalm 9: 15, 16).
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