And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”
The king has just made Haman honour the man he hated most in public. Haman comes home in disgrace, and the first people he tells are the ones who cheered him the night before. Their answer is not comfort but a verdict: once you have started falling before this man, the fall will not stop.
No comfort at home
His wife and friends see where this is going before he does. One writer looks at what they offer him now.
H. L. RossierHaman's friends, his wise men, and even his wife begin to open their eyes. Where is their sympathy for the man who presents himself before them "mourning and having his head covered"? Only the previous evening they had said to him, "Go in merrily"; now they do not have a single comforting word for this downcast, wicked man. What else can you expect from the selfishness of natural hearts? As long as trouble does not strike them personally, what does it matter? The man who handed out favours to them can do nothing more for them. Not a single one of them even tries to suggest a way for him to escape his misfortune. Every resource fails him. He has no outside support, and he no longer has even the inner support of his own pride.
The one word that decides it
Their answer turns on one word: Mordecai is a Jew. One writer explains what the Gentile — anyone who is not a Jew — quietly feels about the Jew.
William KellySuch is the secret feeling of the Gentile about the Jew. It may be all very well for the Gentile as long as the Jew is driven out of God's presence. But when the day comes to exalt the Jew, Gentile greatness must disappear from the face of the earth.
An old war reaching its end
Behind the personal quarrel lies an ancient one. Haman is an Amalekite — a descendant of the nation that attacked Israel after the exodus — and that is why Mordecai would never bow to him.
C. H. MackintoshHaman was the highest officer of Ahasuerus, but he was the greatest "enemy of the LORD," because he was the greatest "enemy of the Jews." He was an Amalekite. The LORD had sworn that He would "have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 17:16). How then could a true son of Abraham bow to one with whom the LORD was at war? Mordecai could save the life of an Ahasuerus, but he could never bow to an Amalekite.
Warned from the last place he expected
The words are hard, but they are a mercy of a kind. His own household tells him the truth while there is still time.
William KellyMeanwhile, at the last moment, the wicked man is not left without solemn warning. Such a warning often comes before the blow of doom falls on his guilty head. And it comes from the last place anyone would expect. His own humiliation and misery prepared him to hear the worst. What a contrast with the righteous man, who returned in peace and lowliness to his post of duty!
Never named, never absent
Not one person in the room names God. One writer looks back over the chain of events and points out who is missing.
J. G. BellettWhat a weaving together of threads in all this! What an intertwining of circumstances, producing a strange fabric of many colours! And yet, as we have already seen and said, God all the while is unseen and unnamed.
Another writer names the limit on Satan's power.
William KellyBut no power in present things allowed to Satan cancels the will of the invisible God.
A pattern for a later enemy
One writer reads Haman as a picture of a later enemy of Israel.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHaman illustrates the work and the shameful end of the final Antichrist who troubles Israel. Haman had almost succeeded. But when the right moment came, God acted on behalf of His people, and Haman falls forever. Haman's end came by the decree of the king. The Antichrist will be destroyed by the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Summary
- Begun to fall — Haman's own household names the turning point. The fall has started, and nothing he still holds can stop it.
- Falling before a name — his advisers fear Mordecai's people, not his power. When God lifts up His people, the greatness of the nations must go.
- Falling under an oath — Haman came from Amalek. God had sworn war on Amalek in every generation, so Mordecai would never bow.
- Falling after a warning — the verdict comes from the last people who would give it. It still reaches him in time to hear.
- Falling before an unnamed God — no one in the room names God, and the book never does. Yet no power given to Satan cancels His will.