Well, good evening and welcome back to our series of studies through the book of Esther. Tonight we're back in chapter 5 and we will, Lord willing, be looking at verses 9 through 11. But first, let's just spend a moment and do a quick review of what we studied last time. In that study, verses five through eight, we saw the king respond in a very favorable way to Queen Esther's invitation to what worked out to be, knowing the whole story, what works out to be her first of two banquets for the king. Now at that banquet, the king and Haman, they had a wonderful time. They had a great feast. And afterwards, while drinking some delicious after-dinner wine, the king again asked Queen Esther to disclose to him her request. What is it that you want? And he again attached to this request a promise to give her whatever it is that she desires. Whatever she asked of him, he would give to her. And then the passage closes with her response that is, again, at first glance, a little bit confusing. We know from our study of verse 4 that things are not always what they seem to be at first glance. this response, just like her first one, it demonstrated something. It demonstrated wisdom from the Lord. And we don't know exactly how much Queen Esther knew of what the Lord was doing and how he was doing it, but what we know for sure is that what she was doing is expressing wisdom from the Lord. And it also reminds us It reminds us of what we are learning just over and over and over again through the studies in this book. It reminded us that the Lord continues to work behind the scenes, unfolding his plan of salvation for his people. He's not mentioned, but he is at work in everything that we're studying here. Now, in tonight's passage, We're going to take a look at Haman immediately after the banquet, after the first feast. He's headed home, and we're going to see. He is just, he is on top of the world. I mean, his perspective must be, how could life possibly be any better? Nothing. could possibly bring this guy down. He is just on top of the world. But what we're gonna see is that this sense of euphoria that Haman has is quickly extinguished when he comes across Mordecai. Haman is instantly reminded of his intense disdain, his intense hatred for Mordecai and his people. And we're going to see the beginning of, or really the foundation of, an evil subplot of Haman's emerge, which is actually, again, an integral part of the Lord's plan of salvation for his people. So let's read the passage together. It's Esther chapter 5, verses 9 through 11. It says, And Haman went out that day, joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. And he sent and brought his friends and his wife, Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. Amen. Okay, so beginning here in verse nine, and continuing all the way through the end of the chapter, which is verse 14, the focus of the story shifts from Esther to Haman. In this account, it picks up immediately after Queen Esther's banquet ends. So Haman, he went out or he went forth from the palace. He left the palace and he had spent the better part of the afternoon and evening in the presence of the king and queen. And remember, this was not in an official capacity, doing kingdom-oriented work alongside the king as he does on a daily basis. No, this was personal. This was private. And it even got, at a certain point, it got intimate. Haman had been personally invited by the queen to attend a banquet that she had prepared especially for her husband, the king. Now Haman had undoubtedly at this banquet eaten of the finest food in all of Persia and the finest food within the royal palace. We're talking here, without exaggeration, the best of the best. And he had eaten to his fill. Remember, this is the way of royal feasts. No one goes away hungry. No one goes away wanting for more. Then, after the meal, he had sat comfortably and casually with the king. kicking back, reclining with the king, drinking royal wine from the king's own private reserve. Also, remember, to his fill. There was no short supply of wine. And he had been privy, Haman had been privy, to a private and personal conversation between the king and the queen. And that conversation culminated in another personal invitation to another banquet that the queen would prepare for her king the following day. So now Haman has left, now he's on his way home. The text tells us that he was joyful and glad of heart. Now this phrase, joyful and glad of heart, carries deep meaning and significance. It can definitely refer to a state of inebriation, drunkenness, okay? Satiation, that is, it's connected to overindulgence of eating, gluttony. Clearly, both of these were true in this particular case. Haman had eaten to his fill, he had drunk to his fill, he was undoubtedly inebriated. But this phrase also has to do with one's state of mind, one's perspective and overall outlook on either a particular situation or life in general. In this context, it indicates that Haman was experiencing a perspective of euphoria, which is a feeling of extreme well-being and confidence in oneself, really and truly beyond anything that he had ever experienced up to this point in time. So Haman had not just everything that he desired, not just everything that he could possibly imagine having, he had more, more than he could have ever imagined having. There's a phrase that we use to describe this type of euphoric feeling that Heyman must have been experiencing. Are you familiar with the phrase, I'm on cloud nine? Yeah. I'm on cloud nine. Well, at this point in time, one could say that, without exaggeration, that Heyman would Heyman would have to look down to even see Cloud Nine, meaning that at this point he sees himself now in a position far and above anything that he had ever dreamed of or imagined. It's interesting to me how different joy in the lives of believers is from joy in the lives of unbelievers. Joy in the life of believers is rooted not in our circumstances, but in our eternal relationship with the Lord, our eternal relationship to God. For believers, for true believers, the joy of the Lord is eternal and there is no one, there is no thing, that is, there is no circumstance. that exists that can rob us of that joy, that can detract from that joy, or that can diminish that joy. Now, I know it's true that difficult or uncomfortable circumstances can cause a certain level of grief or sorrow in the life of a believer. That's absolutely true. But it will never remove the joy of being in eternal relationship with God. One passage comes to mind that, or one passage that I want to share with you to draw your attention to this principle, and it's from the life of the Apostle Paul. This is Acts chapter 16, verses 20 through 25. It says, and when they had brought them, them is Paul and Silas, when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they're disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. The rods were wooden, hard wooden rods. Think of like a baseball bat. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. Now the inner prison was the worst of the worst as far as prisons go. So they had been attacked by an angry mob of people. They had been beaten with wooden rods and then thrown into prison, into the worst part of the prison, and shackled. Now, verse 25 tells us their response to these circumstances. So it's about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never been in a set of circumstances as bad, as difficult, as unpleasant as what we've just read Paul and Silas were in. But apparently the magistrates and the angry mob were not able to beat the joy out of them. This is not so in the life of unbelievers. The joy that unbelievers experience is rooted in their circumstances. And it can be ripped from them and gone in an instant. just as quickly as their circumstances can change. And this is exactly what we see in Haman. This whole principle, it's all exposed in the word, but. This little conjunction tells us that all of the joy, all of the gladness of heart was immediately instantaneously evacuated from Haman as soon as he saw Mordecai. It says, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Now, as Haman was walking through the king's gate, individuals whom he would pass by, they would bow down and pay him homage. This was the king's command that people did this. And Haman had undoubtedly grown accustomed to this. And when individuals were seated As Haman was approaching, what they would do is they would first, they would stand up. Then as he passed by, they would bow down in respect and pay homage. So he must have, he was accustomed to this. He was also accustomed to at least certain individuals, maybe not everybody, but certain individuals trembling in nervousness in his presence. The word that's used here in this passage, it describes a subject's response to the awesome presence of a king. Much like people today People today would display some type of body language nervousness if they were to, let's say, meet the President of the United States, or maybe a favorite celebrity, or anyone that they held in particular high regard. When Heyman approached Mordecai, Those seated around Mordecai, they stood up. And then when Haman passed by, they bowed down to him. and paid him homage. But it seems here that Mordecai was becoming even more brazen in his habit of withholding the respectful acts of courtesy toward Haman that were required by the king. Whereas in previous accounts, what's recorded is that Mordecai refused to bow down and pay homage. But now what we're told is that he wasn't even giving Haman the courtesy of standing up. Mordecai had so much disregard for Haman that he refused to show any form of respect, not even to stand in his presence. And he showed absolutely no sign of any type of nervousness or anxiety about it. This didn't escape Heyman's notice. In fact, this escalated level of disregard is exactly what Heyman did notice. He had, at this point in time, he had probably grown accustomed to Mordecai not bowing down to him when he would pass by. Because Mordecai never did. Haman had probably just gotten used to that. But now, now, as Haman is approaching, Mordecai doesn't even stand up. I mean, at this point, he is just completely ignoring him and showing absolutely no concern for any possible repercussions. Well, this just sent Haman over the edge. The text says that he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. The word translated here to wrath, it literally means heat. This is the same type of burning, uncontrollable anger and rage that the king felt toward Vashti when she refused to obey his command. It's the same word that's used to describe Haman's emotional state when he first saw Mordecai refusing to bow down and pay him homage back in chapter three. So I'm thinking that this most likely, this must have brought back to Haman's mind all of the fury, all of the rage and anger that he first felt toward Mordecai. the rage and the anger that led him to devise this plot to annihilate Mordecai's people, the Jews, all throughout Persia. It really is an alarming observation to see a person go from such a euphoric joy to such consuming anger. I mean, literally, from one end of the spectrum to the other, instantly. This is, unfortunately, it's characteristic of those who serve themselves. Those who serve themselves. When they get what they want, they're on top of the world. They are on cloud nine. Life is great and nothing could bring me down. But when they don't get what they want, when they don't get all of what they want, they're filled with anger. They go from one end to the other. And it takes place in an instant. I'm sure through the course of your lives that you have seen people like that, seen people respond and react that way. As believers, we need to, we must be, Always on the lookout for these types of extreme shifts in ourselves. Whether they be in our actions, well I should say especially if they're in our actions, but whether they be in our actions, our words, or even in our thoughts. It's a red flag, should be a red flag for us. A clear sign that at that moment, we've taken our eyes off of the Lord and we're focusing our heart's attention on ourselves instead. So if and when we see this in ourselves, it's time to immediately stop, to cry out for the Lord's grace and His mercy. to reorient our hearts onto Him, off of ourselves, onto Him, and onto Him alone. All right, verse 10. Verse 10 says, nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and brought his friends and his wife, Zeresh. Now, Haman's response here is what I would term as being very uncharacteristic of him. The word nevertheless seems to draw our attention to this fact that his restraint is uncharacteristic. I mean, the anticipated or the expected response based on Haman's character, on his known character, the expected response would be some type of an outburst of anger toward Mordecai. Now, why he chose to restrain from unleashing his wrath at that moment, it's unknown and it's undisclosed. I mean, could have been out of fear of drawing Mordecai's act of insolence to the attention of those who might not have noticed it. Or maybe it was, maybe Haman was just so taken back, so blown away by this that he just didn't know immediately what to do. We just don't know. But what is certain is that his restraint is not a planned, measured, purposeful, internal response of his. We don't know, at this moment in the story, we don't know what he's going to do about this, because at that moment, I don't think he knew what he was going to do. So he just decides to go home. And that's what he does. He goes home. Once he arrives, once he arrives at home, we get our first glimpse of some of those individuals who have influence in Haman's life. It says that he sends for his friends and his wife. Now, his friends, are elsewhere in the story, they are referred to as his wise men. Those are advisors or counselors. Realistically, Haman probably didn't have a lot of friends. Just a lot of friends as we know friends. These are probably men assigned to Haman by the king to guide him in decision making in order to keep him on at least on a minimal course that is beneficial to the empire. much like the king's wise men, the seven princes of Persia, who advised him, the king, to dethrone Vashti and cast her out of the king's presence. Haman has gathered together his own personal entourage of supporters here. Those who he knows will comfort him, will bolster his confidence in himself, and who will tell him everything that he wants to hear. See, at this point, he I think that Haman is desperate. He desperately needs to unburden himself of this pent-up anger and fury that's burning inside of him. What he really needed, what Haman needed at this point, was for his confidants to give him a reality check and then some good, solid, biblical counsel. But clearly this was not at all what Haman was looking for and is definitely not what he's going to receive from this group that he's put together. I think there's a very important life lesson in this for all of us. Don't look for counselors whose interests lie in their own advancement through making you feel better about what you're doing, and who will tell you only what you want to hear. It's not that hard to find counselors like that. You don't have to look very far, and you'll find them. But counselors are meant by the Lord to steer you in one direction and in one direction only, and that is toward the Lord. Only to the Lord. In my own experience in counseling, most of the time, not not 100% of the time, but I would say the majority of the time, what the person seeking counsel needs is very, very different from what he or she wants. It's just my experience. Counseling is a difficult and many times a thankless job, but a good counselor will always direct you to the Lord and to his ways, regardless of the personal cost to himself. That's a good counselor. All right, verse 11 says, and Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches. the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. So now that Haman has arrived home and assembled his family and friends, those who were clearly directing all of their attention to one place, to one person, and that is Haman, it must have been obvious to them that Haman was deeply troubled and that the purpose of this little gathering was for them to make him feel better. He was basically holding what we refer to as a pity party. Let me tell you all of my woes so that you can feel sorry for me and make me feel better. Okay, so this particular group, they all undoubtedly already knew everything that he was about to tell them. So this whole monologue of his, it's not for them, it's for him. Okay, he didn't tell them all of this stuff because he thought, hey, I've got some information about myself that you don't know that I'd like to share with you. No, what he's telling them, they already know all of this. So he's saying it out loud for his own benefit. The text says that he recounted to them. Recount literally means to count, to list, to document, or to measure. Some translations have translated the original word to the English word boast. I think that's a good translation. He was boasting. He was clearly trying to make himself feel better by declaring to his wife and his friends all of his greatness. So he recounts to them. What does he recount to them? Well, first, the splendor of his riches. Now, Haman was clearly a wealthy man. Scripture doesn't detail the extent of his riches, but Let's do a quick review here. Remember back in Chapter 3. when Haman offered to pay the king into his treasury 10,000 talents of silver to fund this evil scheme of his to annihilate the Jews. Okay, that's just a staggering amount of money. It was an enormous bribe to the king. And I calculated in that study, that 10,000 talents of silver represents approximately, today, it represents approximately $374 million. My calculations were this. One talent of silver is approximately 100 pounds. That is 1,600 ounces. Right now, if what I read is accurate, silver is selling for $23.36 per ounce. Multiply that by 1,600, you come up with $37,376 per talent of silver. Multiply that by 10,000, You get $373,760,000. Roughly $374,000,000. Okay. It's a lot of money. It's just a tremendous amount of money. We don't know exactly what a payment like this would have meant to Heyman's personal bank account. And just think what it would do to your personal bank account or my personal bank account, right? But even for super rich people, you know, to write a check for that amount of money, that's just a tremendous amount of money. So we don't know, we're not told how that would have affected him, but it clearly indicates that he is a man of great means. The fact that he was able to do that, guy had a lot of money. So I'm sure that this, what I just reviewed, and many other indicators of his wealth were included in his recounting the splendor of his riches. Let me describe to you just how rich I really am. Then he goes on to recount the number of his sons. Now, the Hebrew word translated here to number, it literally means a large number. And the word that we've translated to sons, you probably understand this already, but just to make sure, it actually refers to all of his children, not just the boys. So the phrase, he recounted to them the number of his sons, more literally means that he recounted to them the multitude, the great number of his children. Now, you know, again, scripture doesn't detail, doesn't give us specific numbers here as far as the exact number of his children, but we do, we're given one clue in chapter nine, verses seven through 10. We're told that he had, Haman had 10 sons. And in that passage, were referring to the boys, the sons. So he had 10 sons, however many daughters he had, he had many children. And that's the point. The point is, and what Haman is boasting about here, is that he had many children. And this is something to boast of because in Persian culture, just as in Hebrew culture, a multitude of children equates to great blessing, tremendous blessing. And in Persian culture at the time, it gave a man greater status to have many children. In fact, there are indications that the king actually issued an annual monetary reward to the man in the empire who had the greatest number of children. It was something to boast about in those days. And he was boasting about it. Next it says that he recounted all the promotions with which the king had honored him. Now we're told in chapter three that the king had promoted Haman. And we learn that that particular promotion placed Haman second in command over all of Persia. Second only to the king himself. It's a position that modern monarchies refer to as the prime minister, second only to the king. In this verse, by the use of the plural form of the word promotion, The text indicates that this promotion was the culmination of multiple, most likely many, promotions throughout Haman's career. But the point is that wherever he started, the king had promoted him all the way up to prime minister. Aren't I great? And then, he recounts how the king had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the king. This is a reiteration from chapter 3 verse 1 describing his promotion. The wording in chapter 3 and also here in chapter 5 indicates that Heyman was given promotions even in situations where there were other officials who were in line for that same promotion. Possibly, and I'm going to say most likely, even better suited for the promotion. and that he was promoted to his position much more rapidly than normal or average in the empire. So all of that to say, in modern vernacular, we would say that Haman was fast-tracked to the position of prime minister, okay? So this is what he recounts to his friends and his wife. So where that leaves us is Haman had left the palace, having spent the better part of the afternoon and evening in the personal, private, even intimate presence of the king and queen, but feeling sorry for himself because one person, one person within the entire empire refused to bow down to him. Because of that, he has spent the remainder of the evening boasting to his wife and friends of how great he is, how much he possesses, how much he is revered even by the king and queen, all of that good stuff. Heyman is the quintessential type of person who gauges success exclusively on the basis of externals. He wants everybody to know how extraordinarily important, rich, famous, and influential he is. He had every form of honor a Persian man could possibly want. He had wealth, he had children, he had public recognition. He had everything, had everything that a man could possibly imagine, yet he couldn't enjoy any of his success or his riches, all because one person, one person, a subordinate to him, someone beneath him, withheld his formal respect and yet remained in the king's service. This one man, Mordecai, refused to bow down and pay homage to Haman. Now, he even refused to stand in his presence. This one man and his actions cast a dark shadow in Haman's mind. a dark shadow over all that he had and over all that he was. How could anyone who has such a wide and deep pool of blessings in his life be anything but deliriously happy? I mean, how? How could someone in Haman's position have anything about which to complain? How could he possibly want more? Well, in our next study, we're going to see the depth of depravity in which Haman lives and how even with all that he has, he's a desperately lonely and unhappy man. Now, before we close, I'd like to draw out one, what I feel is an important point of application from which hopefully we can all benefit. We see in Haman a man who has everything, right? Good friends, he's got a wife, children, riches, promotions above all other court officials, and the attention of the queen. But in his mind, it's all worthless. He has no joy, he has no contentment, he has no gratitude, no thankfulness. The only thing that matters in his mind, at least at this moment in time, is this one man, Mordecai, who won't bow down and pay him homage. So was Mordecai and his respect really that important? Was it really that important to Haman? I wonder if Haman would have been happy if the whole situation was reversed, if he had nothing but Mordecai's honor and respect. Would he then be happy? Would he have been happy? Well, no, he wouldn't have. The point is that unless he has everything that he wants, and that can change from day to day, from moment to moment, but unless he has every single thing that he wants, he's discontent. So the point of application here is that discontentment is a dangerous and sometimes very subtle tactic of the enemy. Satan feeds us subtly excuses and justification for discontentment. Don't think of me as an extremist. There's nothing wrong with having desires, right? There's nothing wrong with wanting to do more, see more, be more than we are, right? And there really is. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem is is that we live at a time in history and in a geographic location where we are all saturated with wealth and blessing. So much so that we are conditioned by it to the point of not even fully recognizing it. Not recognizing the saturation of blessing and wealth that we have. I have heard personally, this is real, this isn't an illustration, but I have heard people who own a home own a car, who have food to eat, clothes to wear, who have a job, who even have certain luxuries in their life. I've heard people in these circumstances, situations, say that they live in poverty. That they live in poverty. All because they have their eyes focused on that which they do not have. They ignore all that they have and all that they can see is what they don't have. Well, we need to pay close attention to our own perspectives on our lives. We need to fill our lives, our hearts, and our minds with thanksgiving, gratitude to God for all that we have, for the innumerable blessings that he has lavished upon us. And that's not an exaggeration. He really has. Doing so, filling our hearts, filling our minds with gratitude, it helps to keep discontentment at bay. Think about all that he's given you, not what you don't have. And when we do feel the pangs of discontentment, and we all do, right? I mean, really, we do. When you feel that, If you experience even just moments of discontentment, cry out to the Lord. Stop. Cry out to the Lord for forgiveness. Cry out to him for grace to turn away from it. Don't give into it. Don't give in to discontentment. Don't accept being discontent. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for all that you have given to us. We really are rich people. We are saturated with your blessing. Like Haman, you have given us so very much. Father, I pray that you will please help us to be grateful for all that you've given to us and never, ever, ever to be discontent because of what you have not given to us. Amen.