Haman Hanged
Est_7:10 : ’93So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.’94
Here is an Oriental courtier, about the most offensive man in Hebrew history, Haman by name. He plotted for the destruction of the Israelitish nation, and I wonder not that in some of the Hebrew synagogues to this day when Haman’92s name is mentioned, the congregation clench their fists and stamp their feet and cry, ’93Let his name be blotted out!’94 Haman was prime minister in the magnificent court of Persia. Thoroughly appreciative of the honor conferred, he expects everybody that he passes to be obsequious. Coming in one day at the gate of the palace, the servants drop their heads in honor of his office; but a Hebrew named Mordecai, gazes upon the passing dignitary without bending his head or taking off his hat. He was a good man, and would not have been negligent of the ordinary courtesies of life; but he felt no respect either for Haman or the nation from which he had come. But he could not be hypocritical; and while others made Oriental salaam, getting clear down before this prime minister when he passed, Mordecai, the Hebrew, relaxed not a muscle of his neck, and kept his chin clear up. Because of that affront, Haman gets a decree from Ahasuerus, the dastardly king, for the massacre of all the Israelites, and that, of course, will include Mordecai. Through Queen Esther, this whole plot was revealed to her husband, Ahasuerus. One night, Ahasuerus, who was afflicted with insomnia, in his sleepless hours calls for his secretary to read to him a few passages of Persian history, and so while away the night. In the book read that night to the king an account was given of a conspiracy, from which Mordecai, the Hebrew, had saved the king’92s life, and for which kindness Mordecai had never received any reward. Haman, who had been fixing up a nice gallows to hang Mordecai on, was walking outside the door of the king’92s sleeping-apartment and was called in. The king told him that he had just had read to him the account of some one who had saved his, the king’92s life, and he asked what reward ought to be given to such a one. Self-conceited Haman, supposing that he himself was to get the honor, and not imagining for a moment that the deliverer of the king’92s life was Mordecai, says: ’93Why, your Majesty ought to make a triumph for him, and put a crown on him, and set him on a splendid horse, high-stepping and full-blooded, and then have one of your princes lead the horse through the streets, crying, ’91Bow the knee, here comes a man who has saved the king’92s life!’92’93 Then said Ahasuerus in severe tones to Haman: ’93I know all about your scoundrelism. Now you go out and make a triumph for Mordecai, the Hebrew, whom you hate. Put the best saddle on the finest horse, and you, the prince, hold the stirrup while Mordecai gets on, and then lead his horse through the street. Make haste!’94
What a spectacle! A comedy and tragedy at one and the same time. There they go! Mordecai, who had been despised, now starred and robed, in the stirrups. Haman, the chancellor, afoot, holding the prancing, rearing, champing stallion. Mordecai bends his neck at last, but it is to look down at the degraded prime minister walking beneath him. Huzza for Mordecai! Alas for Haman! But what a pity to have the gallows, recently built, entirely wasted! It is fifty cubits high, and built with care. And Haman has erected it for Mordecai, by whose stirrups he now walks as groom. Stranger and more startling than any romance, there go up the scaffolding, side by side, the hangman and Haman, the ex-chancellor. ’93So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.’94
Although so many years have passed since cowardly Ahasuerus reigned and the beautiful Esther answered to his whims and Persia sank in the scale of nations, yet from the life and death of Haman we may draw living lessons of warning and instruction. And, first, we come to the practical suggestion that, when the heart is wrong, things very insignificant will destroy our comfort. Who would have thought that a great prime minister, admired and applauded by millions of Persians, would have been so nettled and harassed by anything trivial? What more could the great dignitary have wanted than his chariots and attendants and palaces and banquets? If affluence of circumstances can make a man contented and happy, surely Haman should have been contented and happy. No; Mordecai’92s refusal of a bow takes the glitter from the gold and the richness from the purple and the speed from the chariots. With a heart puffed up with every inflation of vanity and revenge, it was impossible for him to be happy. The silence of Mordecai at the gate was louder than the braying of trumpets in the palace. Thus shall it always be if the heart is not right. Circumstances the most trivial will disturb the spirit. It is not the great calamities of life that create the most worriment. I have seen men, felled by repeated blows of misfortune, arising from the dust, never desponding. But the most of the disquiet which men suffer is from insignificant causes; as a lion attacked by some beast of prey turns easily around and slays him, yet runs roaring through the forest at the alighting on his brawny neck of a few insects. There is nothing an elephant is so much afraid of as a mouse. You meet some great loss in business with comparative composure; but you can think of petty trickeries inflicted upon you, which rouse all your capacity for wrath, and remain in your heart an unbearable annoyance. If you look back upon your life, you will find that the most of the vexations and disturbances of spirit which you felt were produced by circumstances that were not worthy of notice. If you want to be happy, you must not care for trifles. Do not be too minute in your inspection of the treatment you receive from others. Who cares whether Mordecai bows when you pass, or stands erect and stiff as a cedar? That woodman would not make much clearing in the forest, who should stop to bind up every little bruise and scratch he received in the thicket; nor will that man accomplish much for the world or the church, who is too watchful and appreciative of petty annoyances. There are multitudes of people in the world, constantly harrowed because they pass their lives not in searching out those things which are attractive and deserving, but in spying out with all their powers of vision to see whether they cannot find a Mordecai.
Again, I learn from the life of the man under our notice that worldly vanity and sin are very anxious to have piety bow before them. Haman was a fair emblem of entire worldliness, and Mordecai the representative of unflinching godliness. Such were the usages of society in ancient times that, had this Israelite bowed to the prime minister, it would have been an acknowledgment of respect for his character and nation. Mordecai would, therefore, have sinned against his religion had he made any obeisance or dropped his chin half an inch before Haman. When, therefore, proud Haman attempted to compel an homage which was not felt, he only did what the world ever since has tried to do, when it would force our holy religion in any way to yield to its dictates. Daniel, if he had been a man of religious compromises, would never have been thrown into the den of lions. He might have made some arrangement with King Darius whereby he could have retained part of his form of religion without making himself so completely obnoxious to the idolators. Paul might have retained the favor of his rulers and escaped martyrdom if he had only been willing to mix up his Christian faith with a few errors. His unbending Christian character was taken as an insult. Fagot and rack and halter in all ages have been only the different ways in which the world has demanded obeisance. It was once, away up on the top of the temple, that Satan desired the Holy One of Nazareth to kneel before him. But it is not now so much on the top of churches as down in the aisle and the pew and the pulpit that Satan tempts the espousers of the Christian faith to kneel before him. Why was it that the Platonic philosophers of early times, as well as Toland, Spinoza and Bolingbroke, of later days, were so madly opposed to Christianity? Certainly not because it favored immoralities or arrested civilization or dwarfed the intellect. The genuine reason, whether admitted or not, was because the religion of Christ paid no respect to their intellectual vanities. Blount and Boyle and the host of infidels hatched out by the vile reign of Charles the Second, as reptiles crawl out of a marsh of slime, could not keep their patience because, as they passed along, there were sitting in the gate of the church such men as Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, who would not bend an inch in respect to their philosophies.
Satan told our first parents that they would become as gods if they would only reach up and take a taste of the fruit. They tried it and failed, but their descendants are not yet satisfied with the experiment. We have now many desiring to be as gods, reaching up after yet another apple. Human reason, scornful of God’92s word, may foam and strut with the proud wrath of a Haman, and attempt to compel the homage of the good, but in the presence of men and angels it shall be confounded. ’93God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. When science began to make its brilliant discoveries there were great facts brought to light that seemed to overthrow the truth of the Bible. The archaeologist with his crowbar and the geologist with his hammer and the chemist with his batteries charged upon the Bible. Moses’92 account of the creation seemed disproved by the very structure of the earth. The astronomer wheeled round his telescope until the heavenly bodies seemed to marshal themselves against the Bible, as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Observatories and universities rejoiced at what they considered the extinction of Christianity. They gathered new courage at what they considered past victory, and pressed on their conquest into the kingdom of nature until, alas for them! they discovered too much. God’92s word had only been lying in ambush that, in some unguarded moment, with a sudden bound, it might tear infidelity to pieces. It was as when Joshua attacked the city of Ai. He selected thirty thousand men, and concealed most of them; then with a few men he assailed the city, which poured out its numbers and strength upon Joshua’92s little band. According to previous plan, they fell back in seeming defeat, but, after all the proud inhabitants of the city had been brought out of their homes, and had joined in the pursuit of Joshua, suddenly that brave man halted in his flight, and with his spear pointing toward the city, thirty thousand men bounded from the thickets as panthers spring to their prey, and the pursuers were dashed to pieces; while the hosts of Joshua pressed up to the city, and with their lighted torches tossed it into flame. Thus it was that the discoveries of science seemed to give temporary victory against God and the Bible, and for a while the church acted as if she were on a retreat; but, when all the opposers of God and truth had joined in the pursuit, and were sure of the field, Christ gave the signal to his church, and, turning, they drove back their foes in shame. There was found to be no antagonism between nature and Revelation. The universe and the Bible were found to be the work of the same hand, two strokes of the same pen, their authorship the same God.
Again, learn the lesson that pride goes before a fall. Was any man ever so far up as Haman, who tumbled so far down? Yes, on a smaller scale every day the world sees the same thing. Against their very advantages men trip into destruction. When God humbles proud men, it is usually at the moment of their greatest arrogancy. If there be a man in your community greatly puffed up with worldly success, you have but to stand a little while and you will see him come down. You say, I wonder that God allows that man to go on riding over others’92 heads and making great assumptions of power. There is no wonder about it. Haman has not yet got to the top. Pride is a commander, well plumed and caparisoned, but it leads forth a dark and frowning host. We have the best of authority for saying that ’93Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.’94 The arrows from the Almighty’92s quiver are apt to strike a man when on the wing. Goliath shakes his great spear in defiance, but the small stones from the brook Elah make him stagger and fall like an ox under the butcher’92s bludgeon. He who is down cannot fall. Vessels scudding under bare poles do not feel the force of the storm, but those with all sails set capsize at the sudden descent of the tempest.
Again, this Oriental tale reminds us of the fact that wrongs we prepare for others return upon ourselves. The gallows that Haman built for Mordecai became the prime minister’92s strangulation. Robespierre, who sent so many to the guillotine, had his own head chopped off by that horrid instrument. The evil you practise on others will recoil upon your own pate. Slanders come home. Oppressions come home. Cruelties come home. You will yet be a lackey walking beside the very charger on which you expected to ride others down. When Charles I, who had destroyed Strafford, was about to be beheaded, he said, ’93I basely ratified an unjust sentence, and the similar injustice I am now to undergo is a sensible retribution for the punishment I inflicted on an innocent man.’94 Lord Jeffries, after incarcerating many innocent and good people in London Tower, was himself imprisoned in the same place, where the shades of those whom he had maltreated seemed to haunt him so that he kept crying to his attendants: ’93Keep them off, gentlemen! for God’92s sake, keep them off!’94 The chickens had come home to roost. The body of Bradshaw, the English judge who had been ruthless and cruel in his decisions, was taken from his splendid tomb in Westminster Abbey, and at Tyburn hanged on a gallows from morning until night in the presence of jeering multitudes. Haman’92s gallows came a little late, but it came. Opportunities fly in a straight line, and just touch us as they pass from eternity to eternity, but the wrongs we do to others fly in a circle, and however the circle may widen out, they are sure to come back to the point from which they started. There are guns that kick!
Furthermore, let the story of Haman teach us how quickly turns the wheel of fortune. One day, excepting the king, Haman was the mightiest man in Persia; but the next day, a lackey. So we go up, and so we come down. You seldom find any man twenty years in the same circumstances. Of those, who, in political life twenty years ago, were the most prominent, how few remain in conspicuity. Political parties make certain men do their hard work, and then, after using them as hacks, turn them out on the commons to die. Every four years there is a complete revolution, and about five thousand men who ought certainly to be the next President are shamefully disappointed; while some, who this day are obscure and poverty-stricken, will ride upon the shoulders of the people, and take their turn at admiration and the spoils of office. Oh, how quickly the wheel turns! Ballot-boxes are the steps on which men come down as often as they go up. Of those who were long ago successful in the accumulation of property, how few have not met with reverses! while many of those who then were straitened in circumstances now hold the bonds and the bank-keys of the nation. Of all fickle things in the world fortune is the most fickle. Every day she changes her mind, and woe to the man who puts any confidence in what she promises or proposes! She cheers when you go up, and she laughs when you come down. Trust not a moment of your heart’92s affections to this changeful world! Anchor your soul in God. From Christ’92s companionship gather your satisfaction. Then comes sorrow or gladness, success or defeat, riches or poverty, honor or disgrace, health or sickness, life or death, time or eternity, all are yours, and ye are Christ’92s, and Christ is God’92s.
Again, this Hainan’92s history shows us that outward possessions and circumstances cannot make a man happy. While yet fully vested in authority and the chief adviser of the Persian monarch, and everything that equipage and pomp and splendor of residence could do were his, he is an object-lesson of wretchedness. There are today more aching sorrows under crowns of royalty than under the ragged caps of the houseless. Much of the world’92s affluence and gaiety is only misery in colors. Many a woman seated in the street at her apple-stand is happier than the great bankers. The mountains of worldly honor are covered with perpetual snow. Tamerlane conquered half the world, but could not subdue his own fears. Ahab goes to bed, sick, because Naboth will not sell him his vineyard. Herod is in agony because a little child is born down in Bethlehem. Great Felix trembles because a poor minister will preach righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. From the time of Louis XII to Louis XVIII, was there a straw-bottomed chair in France that did not sit more solidly than the great throne on which the French kings reigned?
Were I called to sketch misery in its worst form, I would not go up the dark alley of the poor, but up the highway over which prancing Bucephali strike the sparks with their hoofs, and between statuary and parks of stalking deer. Wretchedness is more bitter when swallowed from the gemmed goblets than from earthen pitcher or pewter mug. If there are young people who are looking for this position and that circumstance, thinking that worldly success will bring them peace of the soul, let them abandon the delusion. It is not what we get, it is what we are. Daniel among the lions is happier than Darius on his throne. And when life is closing, brilliancy of worldly surroundings will be no solace. Death is blind, and sees no difference between a king and his clown, between the Nazarene and the Athenian, between a bookless hut and a national library. The frivolities of life cannot, with their giddy laugh, echoing from heart to heart, entirely drown the voice of conscience which says: ’93I am immortal. The stars shall die, but I am immortal. One wave of eternity shall down time in its depths, but I am immortal. The earth shall have a shroud of flame and the heavens flee at the glance of the Lord, but I am immortal. From all the heights and depths of my nature rings down and rings up and rings out the word ’91immortal.’92’93 A good conscience, and assurance of life eternal through the Lord Jesus Christ are the only securities.
The soul’92s happiness is too large a craft to sail up the stream of worldly pleasure. As ship-carpenters say, it draws too much water. This earth is a bubble, and it will burst. This life is a vision, and it will soon pass away. Time! It is only a ripple, and it breaketh against the throne of Judgment. Our days! They fly more swiftly than a shuttle, weaving for us a robe of triumph or a garment of shame. Begin your life with religion and for its greatest trial you will be ready. Every day will be a triumph, and death will be only a king’92s servant calling you to a royal banquet. Mordecai will only have to wait for his day of triumph. It took all the preceding trials to make a proper background for his after-successes. The scaffold built for him makes all the more imposing and picturesque the horse into whose long white mane he twisted his fingers at the mounting. You want at least two misfortunes, hard as flint, to strike fire. Heavy and long-continued snows in the winter are signs of good crops next summer. So, many have yielded wonderful harvests of benevolence and energy because they were for a long while snowed under. We must have a good many hard falls before we learn to walk straight. It is on the black anvil of trouble that men hammer out their fortunes. Sorrows take up men on their shoulders and enthrone them. Tonics are nearly always bitter. Men, like fruit-trees, are barren, unless trimmed with sharp knives. They are like wheat’97all the better for the flailing. It required the prison darkness and chill to make John Bunyan dream. It took Delaware ice and cold feet at Valley Forge, and the whizz of bullets, to make a Washington. Paul, when he climbed up on the beach of Melita, shivering in his wet clothes, was more of a Christian than when the ship struck the breakers. Prescott, the historian, saw better without his eyes than he could ever have seen with them. Mordecai, despised at the gate, is only predecessor of Mordecai, grandly mounted.
Autor: T. De Witt Talmage