(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, in Esther chapter 7 verse 1, the Bible reads, So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen, and the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther, and it shall be granted thee? And what is thy request? And it shall be performed even to the half of the kingdom. Let me just go ahead and bring you up to speed quickly with the story here. Of course, in the book of Esther, we're dealing with the subject of this king Ahasuerus, who's a great king that rules over most of the civilized world at that time, all the way from India unto Ethiopia, 127 provinces. And he had a wife that was disobedient to his command, so she was rejected from being the queen, and his new queen is Esther. He does not know that Esther is a Jew, but of course Esther is one of the Jews, and Mordecai, who is the second in command to the king, he's been elevated to a position where everyone must bow down and reverence him and obey him. While Mordecai the Jew, who is Esther's cousin, he refuses to ever bow down to Haman because he worships the Lord only, and he will not bow down before a man. He will only bow down before God. And so therefore Haman thought it scorn to lay hold only upon Mordecai. He would rather destroy all the Jews because he just has such hatred and disgust, not for their race, but for their religion. It had nothing to do with the color of their skin, or, you know, he wasn't anti-Semitic or whatever. He basically just had a problem with the fact that they would not bow down to him and he hated their religion because he's a wicked and evil person who desired to have people bowing down before him. Now if you remember, Mordecai had notified the king about two men who wanted to kill the king, and they were planning a conspiracy to kill King Ahasuerus, Mordecai overheard it, and he spoke to the king about it to warn him, and then these two men were put to death. It was completely forgotten about, okay? Well when Haman, the second in command to King Ahasuerus, puts out this decree to destroy and to kill all the Jews, Mordecai asks Esther for help. And at first Esther is afraid to ask the king because the king had not spoken to her in 30 days, but finally Mordecai talks her into going in and asking the king to be merciful and not to destroy the Jews. So if you remember, Esther comes in unto him, she breaks the law by coming in unto the king when she was not invited. He holds out to her the golden scepter and pardons her, and he tells her that she can have whatever she wants. Whatever her petition is, it will be granted unto the half of his kingdom. Well she asks him to come to a banquet of wine that she has prepared, and that he would also bring Haman with him. So the king and Haman, they come to the banquet of wine that she has prepared, and the king, he realized that's not really what she wanted to ask. And so he says, what is it that you want? What are you trying to ask for? What is your petition? And he says, all granted. I mean he just gives her a carte blanche. I mean whatever it is, I haven't even heard it yet, I'm going to give it to you. And she says, well I'll tell you what, if you come to the banquet of wine that I prepare tomorrow, then I will tell you what my petition is. Then I will ask you what I want to ask you. So they leave, they depart until the next day, Haman goes home rejoicing and bragging about how great he is and how everybody has to bow down to him and how he has so much money and he has ten children and how he was the only one who was invited to this banquet of wine with the king and the queen. And he's bragging to his friends but he says, you know what, all of it is of no avail to me, none of it matters to me as long as I see that Mordecai the Jew not bowing down to me. He said that just ruins it all, just cancels it all out. And so his friends and his wife tell him, why don't you just build a gallows and basically a scaffolding and why don't you build a gallows that's 50 cubits high which is 75 feet. So picture like a six story building. Build a scaffold, build a gallows that's 75 feet high and speak to the king and he'll let you do it, just put Mordecai to death, just hang Mordecai thereon. But that very night the gallows are being built and that very night the king cannot sleep and obviously it was an answer to prayer of both Esther and Mordecai and all the Jews that were praying, God answers their prayer by allowing the king not to be able to sleep. And so he calls for the chronicles to be read before him and in the chronicles it's read about these two men who many years ago had made this attempt on his life and how Mordecai the Jew had warned him and the king asked, well what has been done to honor him? And they said there's nothing been done for him. So then Haman comes in to ask for Mordecai to be hanged on the gallows and before Haman can even ask that, the king asks him, what shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor? And Haman, thinking that the king desired to honor himself, says that it shall be done for the king whom the man delighted to honor that he'll be arrayed in the royal apparel that the king himself useth to wear, that the crown will be put upon his head that the king wears and that he'll be ridden all over the city on the king's horse and that a proclamation will be made before him saying, thus shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. Little did Haman know that his arch enemy Mordecai was the one whom the king wanted to honor and so he tells Haman himself to dress Mordecai in those clothes to put the crown on his head and to lead him around on horseback proclaiming before him, thus shall it be done for the man whom the king delighted to honor. Of course Haman goes home and he's distraught, he's rending his clothes, he's putting dirt on his head and he doesn't know what is going on because this is such a strange turn of events and when he tells his friends and his family, they say, you know what, if Mordecai is of the seat of the Jews, before whom thou has begun to fall, he says, look, you're going down buddy, this doesn't look good for you. And just as they're telling him that, the chamberlains come, the king's servants come to bring him to the second banquet of wine. And that's where we pick up the story right here in chapter seven. Haman is being brought to the second banquet of wine with the king and the queen and again the king tells Queen Esther that she can have whatever she wants. Now, would you guys be comfortable saying this to your wife? Good night. Just, you know, under the half of my bank account, you know, the half of the money, you know, whatever you want honey, whatever it is, you can have it. Now, you know, one of the things that you should look at here is that number one, throughout the story, throughout the chapters leading up to this point, this guy was not necessarily the most generous guy in the world, was he? And he was not the most selfless person who cared about others. He's kind of a selfish guy, he's a very pompous guy and yet here he is making this amazing offer unto his wife and you say, well how in the world did his wife get him to this point where he's ready to do anything that she wants, give her anything she wants? And of course we saw that it was because number one, she prayed and number two, she was humble, she was meek and she made supplication to him. She asked him nicely. She put on her best outfit and looked so beautiful and basically found favor in his eyes and therefore his heart was moved to give her whatever she wanted. And it says in verse 3, Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. This is obviously a shocking answer to him. He's expecting her to ask for some trifle and she's saying, well I just want to live. I just want to survive. And I mean she's the queen. And so he's perplexed by this answer. But remember, he doesn't know that she's a Jew. She has not shown him that she's a Jew. And let's face it, you know, most of the time Jews pretty much look like everybody else. I mean it's not like there's just this major physical, you know, it's not like black versus white or something where you just look at him and you just know for sure, hey, this is, you know, she's a Jew. So she just looks like anybody else and so, you know, the king doesn't even know that she's a Jew. So when she says to him, let my life be given me at my petition, he doesn't even know what she's talking about. And she says, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. So she says, look, this is such a bad situation, we are all going to be killed, we're all going to be destroyed, and if we were just going to be put into bondage, I wouldn't even be approaching you like this. But then the last statement that she makes is, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Because you remember she said, we're sold, I and my people are sold. Because remember, Haman had said, I'm going to destroy all the Jews, but then we're going to bring money into the king's treasury. Because the Jews had a lot of money and they were going to take all the spoil from the Jews and bring it into the king's treasury. And so what she's saying there is that the enemy, speaking of Haman, the one who has devised this wicked device, the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. And what she's saying there is that, look, although the king is going to bring money into the accounts through this wicked action of killing the Jews, yes, he's going to bring in all their wealth and confiscate all their property, that is not going to make up for the damage that's going to be done. Because you see, God is able to cause us to reap what we've sown, and if we gain money or wealth by dishonest gain, God can take it away from us again. You know, if we go out and we work hard and we labor by the sweat of our brow, you know, God can bless us and God can allow us to accumulate some wealth. Of course, our desire in life should not be wealth because the Bible says, they that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition because the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So God warns us about covetousness. He warns us about the love of money. He warns us about desiring to be rich. He says, labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. But when we work hard, God does allow us to enjoy the fruits of our labors and to eat and to drink and to have a place to live and to enjoy our family and so forth. But if we go out as believers, as Christians, and we go out and gain money by unjust means, by ungodly means, then God is not going to bless that and God can do more damage to us than the amount of money that we bring in. So basically, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. You say, well, what are some unjust ways to make money? What are some wrong ways to make money? Well, for example, dealing drugs is a way that people often make money and I've seen very young people have really fancy cars and fancy clothes and, you know, walk in and buy the SUV in cash because they're dealing drugs. Now you say, okay, Pastor Anderson, tell me something I don't know. That's unjust gain. That's not right. You know why that's not right? Because the drugs that they're selling are hurting people and they're damaging to their bodies. They're enslaving to those people. Those people are not sober. Those people are not going to make right decisions. They're going to mess up their lives. But you know, there are other people who do other things that are harmful to people in order to make a living and, you know, part of this is legalized drug dealing. There are a lot of doctors out there that prescribe a lot of harmful drugs and or a lot of drugs that they don't even know what they do just for the sake of gaining money. It's true. For example, I read a book. It was called Blood Feud and it was this book that was about this man. He worked for a pharmaceutical company that was putting out this drug and it was called EPO and it was this stuff that basically would make you have more of the red blood cells in your blood and your blood was able to deliver oxygen better and it was a drug that they used with dialysis patients, okay? Now the company just wanted to make more money and so they wanted to start marketing this drug to cancer patients. But they lied about the, they didn't do the research, they lied about it, they deceived and they started giving this stuff to cancer patients and they hadn't really been tested for that. It wasn't even intended for that. In fact, it was illegal for them to even be doing that because that's not what the drug was even designed for and it turned out this stuff was later described when it was actually studied and checked out as Miracle-Gro for cancer. Their cancer was getting way worse and people were dying and this is the same stuff that those bicyclists use in the Tour de France. You probably heard about that maybe in the news about the blood doping where they're taking this stuff that makes their blood be more efficient to deliver oxygen. Of course, then after the race, they're throwing up blood clots and all these horrible side effects that they don't intend, but this guy explains in this book how all these doctors are committing all this fraud where basically they would get all these free samples from the manufacturer and then they would sell them on Medicare so the government's paying for drugs that were given to them for free and then they're given speaking engagements where they give a one hour speech for $6,000. One hour speech, $6,000, but in that speech they're going to talk about how this drug is so great for cancer patients and it's the best thing for them and they're going to tell all their colleagues how they need to write these prescriptions and it's going to be great and everybody's going to be great and people are dying. All the people in the trial, they did a trial. They started to do the trials and everybody in the trial is dying so then they quit doing the trials and I mean these guys just literally, they don't care who they hurt. They don't care who dies. They're breaking all kinds of laws. They're ripping off Medicare and you want to know why these government programs are getting bankrupt? Because it's all a bunch of fraud. I mean there's so much fraud. I mean this book just opened my eyes to the fraud. I mean I knew it was fraud but it's worse than you think and you see these doctors that basically are not in it for the love of the patient. They're not trying to do what's right for people's health or what's right for people that are coming to them for help but rather it just becomes about how much money they can possibly make and that's ungodly because you know part of being a doctor is that you're supposed to be there to help the patient and do no harm. They take the Hippocratic Oath where they swear not to hurt anybody or do any harm and yet these same doctors murder babies sometimes that have said that oath and done abortion and then there are other doctors who give out drugs that are unhealthy because they're getting a financial kickback from the drug company. Not because they think oh this drug is the right drug for this person but rather they know man if I prescribe more of this drug than anybody else I'm going to get that speaking engagement where I give a speech for 20 minutes and it's 6 grand. That's how they legally take a bribe by getting a speaker's fee. It's just like the presidents and politicians you know they do all the legislation the way these big businesses want and then as soon as they're out of office they go make a speech there for a quarter million dollars. That's how they get their money back. That's how they get bribed. So there's a lot of ways to dishonestly make money. Whether it's dealing drugs, whether it's being a politician who doesn't do what's right, whether it's being a doctor who harms people instead of healing people instead of doing what's right and helping people. You know there are a lot of dishonest ways to make money. There are people who make money being a loan shark when the Bible teaches that usury is a sin and they make money off the backs of other people dishonestly or by lying and false advertising and selling junk and saying that it works when it doesn't really work. You know there are a lot of ways to make money dishonestly. We as God's people need to make our money honestly and we need to go out and work hard by the sweat of our face and do things the right way and go put in eight hours of work for eight hours of pay and not be dishonest, not lie about it, not deceive. We ought to make our money honestly because if we make our money dishonestly we might lose that money because God is able to take it out on our hide and God is able to make us fail in our works. And so here she says that the enemy could not counter veil the king's damage if he goes out and hurts people in order to make money. That's not going to help him. God's not going to bless him. God's going to cause him to fall. And so when he hears this he doesn't even understand what she's talking about. So he has to ask more specifically in verse five, then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, who is he and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so, durst is an old word for who dares to do so. Who would dare, he's saying I'm the most powerful man in the world, who would dare to want my wife and all of her people dead? And Esther said the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. So now all of a sudden the king understands, wait a minute, she's a Jew. Wait a minute, she's talking about the Jews. Now he understands what she means. Now look it says in verse seven and the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath. Now what is wrath? Wrath is extreme anger. So he's just enraged by this and it says the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden. And as we keep reading here we see that he's in the palace garden for some time and then he returns a little while later. Now I think here we see that the king actually shows some wisdom here by being in very much wrath and just stopping and just stepping outside into the garden. Go if you would to James chapter one. Keep your finger in Esther chapter seven. Look at James one toward the end of the New Testament there. In James chapter one the Bible reads in verse 19, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and look at the end of verse 19, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So the Bible's telling us to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So we should be quicker to listen than to talk and we should be slow to get angry. Now the Bible does not teach that it is a sin to get angry because there are many times when anger is justified and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ himself became angry while he was on this earth multiple times. We know that God is angry with the wicked every day and we know that often the Bible commands anger. The Bible says, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. So although anger is not always a sin, usually anger is a sin. Because if we look at all the verses on anger in the Bible, there are some positive mentions when it's right to be angry and then there are a lot of negative mentions where it's not right, but there are more times when God's talking about anger not being right. So yes, it's right sometimes, you know, if we're mad at sin, if we're angry about wickedness and sin and iniquity that's going on, you know, that's a good thing to get angry about. But a lot of times when we get angry, it's not justified at all. And we definitely don't want to be swift to anger. We don't want to be quick to anger, we want to be slow to wrath. For example, let's think about the time that Jesus got really mad. Remember when Jesus in John chapter 2 went into the temple and started flipping over the tables of the money changers? He was clearly mad. And he's chasing them out of the temple with a whip, he's dumping the money on the ground, he's flipping tables, I mean, he was angry. You say, well he lost his temper. No, because the Bible's clear to tell us that he walked in and he saw what they were doing. He saw that they had turned God's house into a house of merchandise, which by the way, still goes on to this day in churches all over America. People use God's house to sell merchandise. And there will never be anything for sale in this church ever. We will never sell anything. Yeah, you don't mean that because you sell the sermon tapes. No we never have and we never will. The Bible's in the back on the shelf are free. The videos, the CDs, Bibles, books, anything that's back there is free. We don't sell anything. Buy the truth and sell it not. God's house is not a house of merchandise. Go to the store if you want to buy merchandise, but God's house is not a place. And by the way, don't sell your stuff here. Don't show up here and try to pitch your business and hand out all your business cards and try to use this place for advertising. We want to keep God's house sacred and not use it as a house of merchandise. But when Jesus saw what they had done, he didn't just blow his top right then and there. The Bible's clear to tell us that he went out of the temple and he sat down and he made a whip of cords. Now making a whip, I've never made, has anybody ever made a whip before? Anybody? A couple people? All right. Well, I'm sure it takes time. I'm sure it's not something that you just whip up in a few minutes, no pun intended. But I'm sure it takes time to manufacture a whip. To make a whip out of, you know, braiding the leather, cutting it, I don't know. Like I said, I've never done it. But I'm sure that making a whip takes time and that shows the calculation that Jesus was not just blowing his top, flying off the handle, but rather he sat down and decided to go in there and flip some tables. He decided to go in there and change. He didn't just see a whip laying around and just, you know, go nuts with it. He made that whip. He sat and made a whip of cords, the Bible tells. And everything in the Bible's there for a reason. That shows the fact that he was making a decision, not just acting on just a quick wage. And remember, when he chased them out with the whip and flipped over the tables, then the disciples remembered the scripture that said, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. So Jesus was eaten up. Jesus did feel great zeal, okay? He was angry, but he stopped and would calmly decided how he's going to handle it. And he handled it in a perfect way because he's the perfect, sinless Son of God. So we can't find fault in what he did. We can't criticize what he did. He is perfect in every way. And so we need to be careful that we're not quick to wrath, that we don't just hit the drop of a hat, somebody says something and we just blow up and fly off the handle. Now one of the best ways that we can do this sometimes is that when somebody does something or says something that enrages us, to basically take a step back and just cool off. And that's what we see the king doing here. He steps out into the garden and he basically cools off and he wants to calmly think about how to handle this. I mean this is a pretty, this is a pretty sticky situation. You know, he's already made this decree to destroy the Jews. Now he finds out that his own wife is one of the Jews. It turns out his right hand man, who he's given all the power to, Haman, turns out is a traitor, turns out is a wicked person, turns out there's a conflict between his number two in command in the kingdom and his own wife. So you know, he's got to make a decision here. I mean he's got his wife on one side, he's got his right hand man on the other side. So he's in a situation where he's angry, he's mad, he's upset, but the stakes are pretty high for him making the wrong decision. So he does what a wise person would do. He steps out into the garden and thinks things through. He calmly processes what's going on before he comes back in. So while he's outside thinking things over, you know, not being too hasty, and the Bible warns about being hasty with your words. Just saying whatever comes to mind. You know, it's better to stop and think and stay calm. And you know what, a lot of times it's easier said than done, right? You know, it's easy to just blow up because, you know, sometimes things just get you so mad. Somebody says something that just gets your goat and it's hard sometimes, but it's something that we need to work on. You know, it's something that I need to work on. It's something that everybody should work on, not having a short fuse or blowing your top. Again, not saying that there isn't a time to blow your top. But if you blow your top, you should decide to blow your top. You know, and not just blow your top because of the spontaneous urge to lash out. And so it says here that, you know, while he's gone, while he's in the palace garden halfway through verse 7, it says, And Haman stood up to make requests for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. So when the king rushes out of the room, he could tell it wasn't looking good. So he's asking Esther to please have mercy on him. And then it says in verse number 8, Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Now here's what's interesting. So much in the book of Esther is showing us over and over again that everybody reaps what they've sown. Here's a guy, what was Haman's big beef with the Jews anyway? What did he hate about the Jews? It all started because Mordecai would not bow down to him. And he felt offended and insulted because he's Mr. Important. And he's so prideful and arrogant that he just derived so much pleasure from everybody falling on their face before him. And when this one man refused to do it, it ate him up so bad that he said everything else is perfect about my life, but that one thing makes it all nothing. And now think about how the tables have turned so fast. Now he's on his knees before a Jew, and on top of that before a woman. He's on his knees begging a Jew, I mean who did he want to bow down to him? The Jews. Who's he bowing down to? He's bowing down to her and begging her for mercy. He's doing reverence to her. He's making obeisance and supplication to her. And this shows you that what Jesus said is true when he said that whosoever exalted himself, lifts himself up, shall be abased. But he says, whoso humbleth himself shall be exalted. James says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. You know if you go through life trying to be a big shot and trying to be exalted and trying to lift yourself up in pride above the people around you, God has a way of humbling you and bringing you down to earth and humiliating you. Does anybody like being humiliated? But you know what, people are constantly being humiliated. You know a lot of these politicians who lift themselves up really highly, have you noticed how they often get humiliated? I mean look at Bill Clinton. Right, I mean he was a guy that you know, oh man he's such a powerful man. But he was the laughing stock and the joke of children. All over the millions of children and fools made fun of him because he made himself the biggest idiot in the world with Monica Lewinsky and lying about it and being a pervert. Of course now 20 years later, everybody thinks it's cool what he did. You know because our country has gotten so sin-sick and depraved and now what he did seems mild. You know compared to all the filthy sodomy and weird stuff that is now promoted in our country. But back then people were shocked by it. You know at least the people in the circles that I traveled in, you know, were shocked by that kind of just wicked fornication, adultery and just abuse of power. But you know what, there were plenty of jokes and mockery made of that man. He lifted himself up but God humiliated him. God made a fool out of him. You know and God's made a fool out of so many of these other congressmen and senators who are so puffed up and then they are caught doing all this sinful wicked perverted stuff and they look like an idiot. I mean there's no glory in what these guys get caught doing. These bunch of perverts, these bunch of filthy animals. But the bottom line is, you know, if we exalt ourselves, God has a way of humiliating. And you know what, even if you see somebody exalt themselves, these lying devils of politicians, you know eventually they're going to bow on their knees before Jesus Christ and confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father and he's not going to listen to him. He's going to cast him into hell for all eternity because it's too late because you've got to get saved before it's too late, before you die. And so we see here that the tables have really been turned with Haman. I mean he's on his face bowing before a Jew, begging her to save his life. Well the king walks in and remember the king's already mad. He's already in a rage. And he walks in and here's the way he sees it because Esther is on a bed because they're basically, you know it's more of an eastern custom, you know, so they're basically lounging on beds. We would sit at a table with like a wooden chair, right, but these people, they're like lounging. You ever see people that like lay down when they eat? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? My dad used to do this. He would eat dinner like every night like laying down, almost laying down on the couch. That was just how he did, you know, he's like sideways on the couch, half laying down. That was just how he ate. You know, I always sat in a wooden chair at the table, but he was practically laying down. You know, but you see people in other customs where they're sitting on the floor Indian style or sitting on a pillow or lounging on a bean bag or whatever. So these people, you know, they're doing this banquet of wine, but they're like lounging on these beds, okay. They're not really sitting at a bar stool, you know what I mean? So they're lounging on these beds and so he falls down and he's basically groveling up to her on the bed begging for her to keep him alive. So when the king comes in, he sees him on the bed with his wife, okay. And here's what the king said, I mean he's already mad. He says, halfway through verse 8, will he force the queen also before me in the house? Like basically, is he now assaulting my wife? I mean is he now trying to physically, you know, gratify himself with my wife and force her in my house when I'm here? Now I don't think that the king necessarily really thought that that's what was going on. I don't know if he did or not. I don't think he really thought that Haman would be that stupid just, oh here's my chance, you know. I mean he just, his life is in peril. I mean he's on the verge of being put to death. He's begging for his life to be spared here. I don't think the king really thought that he's seizing this opportunity to force his wife right there in the house. Maybe he did, but I don't know, but whatever it is, that's what he said because you know what, when he walked in from that garden, he wasn't feeling too positive about Haman and whatever he saw, he was going to see it in a negative light. And he saw Haman on that bed with his wife and he said, will he force the queen also before me in the house? And as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Okay, because the chamberlains, although it talks about the fact that it was just the king and the queen and Esther, it doesn't only guess that they were there, but there were chamberlains. You know, chamberlains, look at the first part of that word, chamber. You know, these are the servants of that room. And so the king is obviously surrounded by servants and guards all the time. And so I don't know if the chamberlains were in the room the whole time, or perhaps when the king went out to the garden, this is another possibility, maybe when the king went out to the garden and thought about things, maybe he came back, he brought some chamberlains with him. That's another possibility. If they were alone at the banquet of wine, then perhaps he came back with the chamberlains. But whatever the case may be, when he said that word, they covered his face, meaning that they put a bag over his head. So just instantly when the king said that, they put a bag over Haman's head. And Harbonah, verse 9, one of the chamberlains said before the king, behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, exist in the house of Haman. Then the king said, hang him thereon. So here we see that this guy brings up to the king what the king didn't even know. The king did not even know that Haman wanted Mordecai dead, or that he was going to hang him on the gallows. All he knew is what Esther had just told him. Now he finds out that Mordecai, who spoke good unto the king, that Haman wants him dead. This just pushes the king over the edge. So if there was any hope of maybe Haman being spared, maybe Haman just receiving a punishment or being demoted or being beaten or scourged or exiled from the kingdom, if there's any hope of his life being saved, it's gone. Because when the king finds out that he wanted to put Mordecai to death, who he just found out had done good to the king, he just says right then and there, hang him thereon. And so again, we see the reaping of what you've sown. Haman wants to put an innocent man to death on the gallows, he's going to hang on those gallows. He wants to build them fifty cubits high, he didn't have to build it that high. He's trying to make as big of a spectacle of it as he can and now he's going to be dangling from that rope seventy-five feet above the ground for everybody to see, to be a shame and a reproach to every single person, the ultimate humiliation and of course death. And so the king said, hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. Well yeah, I guess so, you know, you just killed the guy. But look at the next couple of verses, we're going to go a little bit into chapter 8 here, it says, On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told her what he was unto her, and the king took off his ring which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai, and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. So the kings in those days, their rings were very important to them because they would use their ring to seal official documents. Their ring had a special, unique insignia on it, and then they would take that ring and dip it into molten wax, and then when they would write out some kind of a decree, obviously it's pretty easy to forge a signature, but these seals were a little bit more intricate, a little more difficult to counterfeit, so then they would come down on it with that seal, and then everybody would know, okay, this is a legitimate proclamation, this is the law. So whoever had that ring had the power to make laws and pronouncements in the king's name. Well the king had given that ring unto Haman, because Haman was his second in command and had the power to execute judgment in the place of the king. And so he took the ring off Haman after he put the bag over his head and sent him away to be hung, and now he puts that exact ring on Mordecai. I mean, talk about the tables being turned. Now the guy who's going to be put to death, the guy who won't bow down, now he has all the power. Now he's the second in command. He went from being nobody to being the second in command. So that shows you that God is able to lift up one and put down another. And really, in our lives, the only person that we should fear is God. Because God is the one who holds our fate in his hands, God is the one who controls our destiny, and we can sit there and think, oh, I've got to take things into my own hands, but you know what, God is the one who can make us fall, or he can lift us up. God is the one who controls our destiny, therefore we ought to focus more on keeping him happy than anyone else. If he's pleased with us, whatsoever we do is going to prosper. But if he's angry with us, if he does not approve of what we're doing in our lives, he can make everything we do in our lives fail. He can cause everything to go wrong. And so it says that he took off the ring and he gave it to Mordecai, and Esther said Mordecai over the house of Haman. I mean think about that, Mordecai ends up living in Haman's house, wearing his clothes, wearing his ring, I mean sleeping in his bed, and Haman's dead. And Mordecai gets everything. I mean this is an amazing story, but you know what, this is how God repays those who rise up against his people. And you know people today, of course they mistakenly, and I already covered this in an earlier sermon, they mistakenly believe that the unbelieving Jews of today are God's chosen people. It's a false doctrine. The Bible says anybody who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ, the wrath of God is abiding on them. And you know the Jews of Jesus' day were told, think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that of these stones, he said God's able to raise up children unto Abraham, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Look, we're not talking about the physical Jews today that are God's people, but it's believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the saved. We are the holy nation, we are the royal priesthood, we are the peculiar people, according to 1 Peter. And so this shows that God will protect his people, and he will bless those who bless us, and he will curse those who curse us, because the Bible says if we be Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to that promise. And so we need to understand that when we are persecuted and injured by the people of this world, we don't have to take things into our own hands and fight back and take vengeance into our own hands, because Jesus Christ taught, vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord, I will repay. And again, I'm not against self-defense, but we don't have to take revenge when someone does us wrong. We don't have to go out, okay now I'm going to take revenge. It's payback time. You know what, God will punish those who harm his people, and this is a perfect example. Again, defending yourself, yes. Taking revenge, no. And so this is a great story to give us that assurance that God will always take care of his people, even if we go through trials and tribulations, some people will be thrown into prison and killed for the cause of Christ, but of course they're going to be rewarded greatly for that. And so, in the end, God's on our side, we're on the winning side, we're more than conquerors, if God be for us, who can be against us, but woe unto those who try to fight against God, or fight against God's people, or live their lives in an ungodly, dishonest way. They will fall. And when they fall, the higher they are, the harder they'll fall. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, and we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the book of Esther and all the things that we can learn from it. Please just help us to apply these lessons to our lives and to do what's right and to live our lives in a way that's honoring to you, and in Jesus' name we pray.