Esther 6:12 - Meaning and Application

We may notice here how little Mordecai was lifted up by his honor. He came back to the king’s gate (Esther 6:12), returned at once to his work, and kept on with his duties just as before. Honor is well placed on those who do not become proud and lazy because of it, and who do not think their work is beneath them.

We may also notice how deeply Haman was crushed by his disappointment. He could not bear it. To serve any man, especially Mordecai, and at that very time, when he had hoped to see Mordecai hanged, was enough to break such a proud heart. So he hurried home, mourning, with his head covered, like a man who thought himself ruined and already condemned. What harm had it done him to bow to Mordecai? Was he any worse for it? Had he not once suggested that one of the king’s most noble princes should do the same? Why should he resent doing it himself? A proud man is broken by what a humble man would not even lose sleep over.

His wife and friends then read his fate from this event. “If Mordecai is, as they say, of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, though only in matters of honor, you will never stand against him, but will surely fall before him” (Esther 6:13). They were miserable comforters. They did not tell him to repent and ask Mordecai’s pardon for his wicked plan against him. Instead, they only spoke of his doom as certain and unavoidable. They foresaw two things: first, that Haman would fail in his plan against the Jews, because heaven was clearly against him; and second, that he himself would be destroyed, because he would surely fall before Mordecai. The conflict between Michael and the dragon will not end in a draw, and neither would this one. Haman must fall before Mordecai.

They based their judgment on two things. First, Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews. Haman’s enemies sometimes called them weak Jews, but they sometimes found them powerful. The Jews are a holy people, a praying people, a people in covenant with God, a people the Lord has always blessed. So their enemies should not expect to defeat them. Second, Haman had already begun to fall, and that meant he was surely a doomed man. People have often noticed that great court favorites, once they lose the king’s favor, fall as fast as they rose. It is also true of the church’s enemies, when God begins with them, he will bring his work to completion. “As for God, his work is perfect.”

We may also see how well timed it was that he was now called to Esther’s banquet (Esther 6:14). He may have thought the timing was good, hoping the meal would lift his spirits and rescue his fading honor. But in truth it was well timed because his heart was already broken by this bitter disappointment, and so Esther’s accusation against him would bring him down all the more easily. God’s wisdom is seen in arranging the timing of his church’s rescue so that his own glory is made clear.