Mischief is sure to return upon the person himself who contrives it.
The wicked shall be snared in the work of their own hands (Psalm 7:15-16).
Esther 7
1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
2 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.
3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour 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:
4 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.
5 ¶ 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?
6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
7 ¶ And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
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. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
9 And Harbonah, 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, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
Esther 7:1-4 – J. Vernon McGee
Esther 7:5 – J. Vernon McGee
Esther 7:6-10 – J. Vernon McGee
Esther 7 – Craft Overreaches Itself
Esther had prayed, as we have seen, Esther 4:16, but she acted also. She took such measures as were possible, to gain the king’s favor, to awaken his curiosity, and to appeal for his help. All the money that Haman could pour into the royal treasury could not compensate for the loss of an entire people. In his anguish of soul, Haman adopted an attitude of entreaty which seemed to the king a gross impertinence, and this sealed his fate. His face was covered as though he were no longer worthy to behold the king. The chamberlain sent to summon Haman had probably seen the gallows on that errand; and thus it befell that the wicked was taken in his own trap, Psalm 9:15. It may be that we are to see in our modern world, on a national scale, the counterpart of this extraordinary reversal. Watch events transpiring in Palestine! —Through the Bible Day by Day
Esther 7:2—What is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request?
Amid the sensual conceptions of marriage that obtained in this heathen empire there was doubtless a consciousness in the king’s breast of the essential unity between himself and his beautiful queen. She was his better self, and in her pleading he heard the voice of his own higher nature. To nothing less than this could he have made so far-reaching a promise. It was not so much Ahasuerus pledging himself to Esther, as Ahasuerus, the king, awakening to the appeal of a nobler Ahasuerus, for the most part buried. Such is the power of a pure and noble character, awakening a nobler life. Will you try by your unselfishness and purity to awaken those around you to see and follow an ideal, which shall presently assume the form of the living Christ?
In these words of the king we are reminded that God is willing to do beyond what we ask or think. Not to the half of His kingdom, but to the whole extent of it, has God pledged Himself, “according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20). But our prayer must be in the name, or nature, of Christ; that is, the nature of Christ must pray in us, and God must recognize Himself come back through the circle of our inter cession to Himself. The Spirit must make intercession in us, according to the will of God. When the unselfish, lovely, and holy nature of Jesus pleads in us by the Holy Ghost, there is nothing that God will not do for us, even to the whole of His kingdom.
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).
“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (John 16:23). —Our Daily Homily
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8 Then the king ________________ out of the palace ____________ into the place of the ______________ of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the __________ also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s __________, they ______________ Haman’s ________.
9 And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the ______________ fifty cubits high, which Haman had ________ for Mordecai, who had ____________ good for the king, standeth in the __________ of Haman. Then the king said, ________ him thereon.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had ________________ for Mordecai. Then was the king’s __________ pacified.