Several Psalms speak of evil people setting traps for others and falling into those traps themselves: Psalm 7:14-16, 35:7-8, 57:6, and 141:9-10. Haman in the book of Esther was about to learn too, that “If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself” (Proverbs 26:27).
Imagine the embarrassment for Haman when asked by King Xerxes: “What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?” Esther 6:6, and Haman thinks, “Well, who is there that the king would rather honour than me?” – to then discover the king was actually thinking of Mordecai, Haman’s most hated enemy, whom that very morning Haman was hoping for the king’s approval to hang from the gallows he’d had built (5:14).
Haman, meanwhile, thinking the king means him, recommends only the best for himself: dressed in a royal robe with a royal crest on his head, and paraded on one of the king’s own horses through town, with one of the king’s most noble princes leading the way yelling, “This is what’s done for the man the king delights to honour” (6:7-9).
But to Haman’s horror it all went to Mordecai instead, with Haman himself being the one to lead Mordecai on the royal horse through town doing the yelling. And even Haman’s family knew this was the beginning of the end for him and his evil plan to ruin Mordedai (12-13). He’d fallen into his own trap.
But there was still the banquet with the King and Queen to go to, with him alone as their invited guest, so he was still in a position of power and he could wait for another opportunity to destroy Mordecai, and the Queen, and all the Persian Jews too.
Until, that is, he heard Esther’s request to the king. She’d waited for this moment, with Haman present (5:8), to beg the king to spare her and her people from being “sold for destruction, slaughter and annihilation” (7:3-4).
The king in shock yells out, “Who is the man who dares do such a thing?” (5), and Esther replies, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman” (6). The trap snaps shut. Haman knows he’s done for, and throws himself on the couch where Esther is, begging her for his life. The king thinks Haman is molesting his wife, so on hearing Haman had a gallows built for Mordecai, he has Haman hanged on it instead (7:8-10). The message being, “God does not forget”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 