Hang Him on it!

Esther 7:1-10 

    1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 

2 And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!"

    3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss."

    5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?"  6 And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!"  So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

    7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?"

    As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. 9 Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, "Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of Haman."

    Then the king said, "Hang him on it!"

    10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath subsided.

Haman had plotted and falsely accused the entire Jewish population in Persia, just to enact the vengeance of an old feud.  He had elevated himself in pride to gain power and suppress God’s people, yet in the end justice met him head on.  His judgment transpired at the banquet with the king and queen which he was invited to yet again.  There Queen Esther petitioned king Ahasuerus for her people as she unwound the plot of Haman in all its slanderous details.  She told the king that she would have remained silent if her people were just enslaved, but that the planned annihilation of all the Jews was just too much.  She pointed out the wicked enemy who had presumed to do such an evil thing, and the king left the room in great anger.  He returned to find the traitor draped across the Queen as If assaulting her.  The rage turned on Haman and he quickly took the advice of a eunuch there to leverage the gallows which stood at Haman’s house.  The fate meant by the adversary Haman was used to hang him on it instead for his great wickedness and arrogance.  This satiated the wrath of the king for all the deceitful plotting and prideful evil of Haman.  This is similar to the Lord’s wrath in the final judgment, where heads will roll as evil is punished forever and God’s people in Christ will be free of their adversary the devil, for that cunning one who means us woe will be trampled underfoot by the seed of Adam, the second Adam who is Christ our Lord (1 Peter 5:8, Genesis 3:15).  That one who has continually plotted against us and slandered us like Job (Job 1:9-11, 2:4-5) will meet his end in the lake of fire, while God’s people are brought to Himself by Christ’s suffering and death in our place.  We will not hang in the adversary’s noose, but find our substitute has ensured the adversary will take our place in judgment as Christ did for us.  As for satan, hang him on it!  God’s providence and sovereign grace has done all these things.