Esther's story, chapter 5

Alright, back to Esther's story.

So, Mordecai has asked Esther to petition the King to save the lives of the Jews. And even though she is afraid, she said she would do it.

So Esther puts on her royal robes and goes into the inner court of the palace, which is where the King is.

And she waits on the opposite wall of where the king is sitting, probably scared silly.

But the King lowers his scepter to her and she comes forward to talk to him.

He asks what is it that she needs, whatever it is, he will give her, up to half of his kingdom.

I imagine that the King must have loved Esther very much. He lowered his scepter to her, even though her coming uninvited could have been seen as disrespect, like when Vashti didn't come.

And then, after he had done that, he kindly and lovingly asked her what she needed and said that she could have pretty much anything she wanted.

This was the chance she had been waiting for.

So she invited the King and Haman, the King's second in command, to a feast that she has prepared.

The King tells Haman to hurry up and get there, because he is eager to go.

Once they both are at the feast, the King asks Esther what is her particular request.

So she asks if the King and Haman would come back the next day to another feast that she is going to prepare.

It seems strange that she would keep asking them to feasts instead of just asking the King her actual request, to save the Jews, but I think she was probably pretty frightened that he would be angry at her and refuse, maybe because before this she hadn't seen him in a month and she wants to get his favor back.

Why she invites Haman, I'm not too sure. Maybe because she knew that Haman had written the law. Maybe because she knew that the King liked Haman a lot.

Or maybe because she was just letting God lead her to do what was necessary to save His people.

Anyway, after this feast, Haman is starting to get pretty prideful.

He is the second most powerful man in the Kingdom.

And when he gets to the gate, on his way home, there is Mordecai, who still won't bow down to Haman or show him any respect.

Haman is furious, but he knows he can't touch Mordecai right now, so he goes home and calls all his friends and his wife, Zeresh, to come talk to him.

He tells them how he is the biggest, best guy I the kingdom, only lesser than the King. He tells them that when the beautiful queen Esther came to invite her husband to a feast, she didn't ask anyone else to come except him, and now she has invited him to come back the next day.

And Mordecai won't bow to him.

So Zeresh suggests that he makes a gallows to hang Mordecai on, since he hates him so much.

Haman likes this idea, so he goes to get a gallows made in his back yard.

Can you imagine living in a day when you can just get a gallows made in your back yard and no one questions you?

Or having a loved one who suggests you just hang the guy you don't like?

I'll bet that Haman was probably getting a pretty big head. Maybe he thought that Esther favored him or something.

Either way, he is getting too big for his britches. And Pride comes before the Fall.

Alrighty, that's it for chapter 5.

Cheers!