Esther 6:4 - Meaning and Application

It is now morning, and people begin to stir.

Haman is so eager to see Mordecai hanged that he comes early to the court. He wants to be ready at the king’s morning audience, before any other business is brought before him, so he can get the order for Mordecai’s death (Esther 6:4). He is sure he will get what he wants at the first word. The king would gladly give him something far greater than that. Haman could even tell the king he was so sure of the justice of his request, and so sure of the king’s favor, that he had already had the gallows made. One word from the king, he thinks, will finish the matter.

The king is just as eager to have Mordecai honored, so he asks who is in the court and ready to be used for the task. Word comes that Haman is there (Esther 6:5). “Let him come in,” says the king. Haman seems like the right man to give directions for the king’s favor and to carry them out, and the king knows nothing of Haman’s hatred for Mordecai. Haman is brought in at once, proud that he has been allowed into the king’s chamber, perhaps before the king was fully up. He thinks he has the perfect chance to speak against Mordecai, but the king’s heart is as full as his own, and it is right that the king should speak first.

The king asks Haman how he should show honor to someone he wants to favor: What should be done for the man the king delights to honor? (Esther 6:6). It is a good quality in kings, and in all people with authority, to enjoy rewarding what is good and not to take pleasure in punishing. Parents and masters should also take joy in praising and encouraging what is right in those under their care.

Haman assumes the king means him, and so he plans the highest honor that could be given to a subject. His proud heart quickly says, “Whom would the king want to honor more than me?” He thinks no one deserves it more than he does. Pride often deceives people this way. He thinks too highly of his own worth, as if no one were as deserving as he is. That is foolish. We should constantly watch and pray against this self-flattering spirit, because our hearts are so ready to praise our own work.

He also thinks too highly of his own importance to the king. He assumes the king values no one else as much as him, but he is wrong. We should be careful not to believe too quickly that other people admire us as much as they say, or as much as we want to think. That keeps us from thinking too well of ourselves and from trusting others too much.

So Haman lays out honors in great detail (Esther 6:8, Esther 6:9). He asks for royal clothing, the king’s crown, and the king’s own horse. In short, the man must look as if he were the king himself, except that he should not carry the scepter, which is the sign of ruling power. He must be led by one of the king’s noble princes, like a servant. Then he must be paraded through the city, with a public announcement before him, so everyone will notice and honor him. This is meant to show how the king honors one man and to encourage all people to seek the ruler’s favor. It is much like the proclamation before Joseph, “Bow the knee.” Good subjects honor those whom the king chooses to honor. And should not every good Christian honor those whom the King of kings chooses to honor, and call the saints on earth the excellent ones?

Then the king shocks Haman with a clear command. He must go at once and do all this for Mordecai the Jew, the very man Haman hates most and is planning to destroy (Esther 6:10). If the king had said, as Haman hoped, “You are the man,” Haman would have had a perfect chance to ask that Mordecai, his sworn enemy, be hanged as part of the celebration of his own triumph. But now he is struck speechless when the king tells him not just to order it, but to carry it out himself for Mordecai. Haman had come to ask for Mordecai’s ruin, but now he must honor him instead. When the king delights to honor someone, no one can do anything against him. Solomon says that the heart of the king is unsearchable (Proverbs 25:3), but it is not unchangeable.

Haman does not dare argue or even show that he dislikes the order. With the greatest reluctance, he brings the honor to Mordecai, who, I suppose, shows no more outward respect to Haman than before, since he valued Haman’s fake respect no more than he had valued his hidden hatred. The clothing is brought, Mordecai is dressed, and he rides in state through the city as the king’s favorite is publicly honored (Esther 6:11). It is hard to say which man had the greater struggle within himself, proud Haman as he honored Mordecai, or humble Mordecai as he accepted the honor. The king had ordered it, and both had to submit.

For Mordecai, this honor was fitting because it showed the king’s favor and gave hope that Esther would succeed in turning back the order against the Jews.