Haman on His Own Gallows
He had built the gallows for Mordecai. He died on them himself.
Haman was a man who needed his ego constantly fed.
He had been elevated above all the other officials.
The king commanded that people bow to him.
Everyone did.
Except Mordecai.
Mordecai would not bow.
When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay homage to him, he was filled with fury.
He scorned laying hands on Mordecai alone.
He sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the kingdom.
Not Mordecai.
All of them.
Because of one man who would not bow.
He cast lots to find the right day.
He went to the king and obtained the decree.
Then he built gallows.
Fifty cubits high.
Seventy-five feet.
Built to be seen.
He planned to ask the king in the morning to hang Mordecai on them.
That night the king couldn't sleep.
He had his servants read to him from the book of records.
They read of how Mordecai had uncovered an assassination plot and saved the king.
The king asked what honor had been given to Mordecai.
Nothing, they said.
Haman arrived in the outer court to ask for Mordecai's execution.
The king asked him first: What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?
Haman assumed the king meant him.
He described an elaborate public honor.
The king said: Go quickly, do all this to Mordecai the Jew. Leave out nothing.
Haman went home humiliated.
He told his wife and friends.
They said: If Mordecai is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him. You will surely fall.
The king's men came to take Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared.
There she revealed Haman's plot to destroy her people.
The king stepped outside in fury.
Haman fell on Esther's couch begging for mercy.
The king returned and said: Will he also assault the queen in my own house?
Harbonah said: Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai stands at Haman's house.
Fifty cubits high.
The king said: Hang him on that.
They hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then the king's fury abated.
The gallows stood seventy-five feet high.
So everyone could see.
And everyone did.
Scripture — Esther 7:10
"So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified."
Reflection
He built the gallows to be seen. They were. Just not the way he intended.
His wife said you will not overcome him — while Haman still thought he would. The verdict came before the sentence.
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