And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
The king cannot sleep. He has just learned that Mordecai was never rewarded for saving his life. At that same hour Haman reaches the palace to ask for Mordecai's death. The gallows already stands ready, and the king's next question decides everything.
The Timing of the Arrival
The king's question, "Who is in the court?", was not a search for Haman. It was a search for anyone who could carry out the king's order. Haman's own haste put him at the door at that hour.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe king must have been indignant that such a matter had been overlooked, and he wants it put right at once. He asks, "Who is in the court?" Whoever was there would have to carry out the king's commission. He did not expect that Haman was waiting outside. Perhaps he also had a sleepless night. He was excited, thinking that Mordecai would soon hang from the gallows and that he would enjoy Esther's banquet the same day. He was in a great hurry and wanted the execution of the despised Jew to take place early in the morning. All is working together, and God's majestic hand is seen every step of the way.
The Enemy Becomes the Instrument
Haman entered the court holding, as he thought, the power to end Mordecai. Instead he was about to honour the man he had come to destroy — and God would use him to rescue a whole people.
William KellyEven so, though a neglected duty was now to be repaired, far more was in the mind of the One who worked secretly. Most surprising of all, He worked through the bitterest enemy. That enemy himself had to honour, in the highest degree, the man whose ruin he had come at that moment to seek. And through him God delivered a whole people, His own people, whose existence was at stake. The banquet seemed to do nothing for them. The delay probably tested Mordecai. Yet both were the very occasion that prepared the way for the overthrow of the enemy.
Once inside, Haman had no room left to raise his request at all.
Leslie M. GrantWhat could Haman do? His hands were tied. He could only obey the word of the king, despite his bitter hatred against Mordecai.
Pride That Cannot See Its Own Ruin
Why does God let a man like Haman go this far?
William KellyThe pride of the wicked blinds them to their own destruction, and it makes them hate the righteous they despise. He whose eyes are over all is slow to act, so that men may show what they are. In the end He accomplishes His purpose openly, to His own glory.
Haman was never closer to the top than at that moment.
C. H. MackintoshBut "pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Haman proved this. He seemed about to set his foot on the highest summit of his ambition. At that very moment a just and repaying providence forced him to wait on Mordecai. And the very gallows he had ordered for his intended victim served for his own execution.
The Hidden Hand
The sleepless night, the reading of the records, the man standing in the court at that hour — commentators refuse to call any of it luck.
F. B. HoleBut were all these remarkable happenings just a series of coincidences? By no means. They were the movings of the hand of God, though He Himself remained hidden. God was behind the scenes of man's busy little world — but then, as has been well observed, He moves all the scenes that He is behind. What is more, He moves them in favour of His people. He does not always keep and advance them in this life. But He always works for their spiritual good and for His own purposes.
One Man Saved, a Nation Saved
Why should the rescue of a whole people hang on the deliverance of one man at a palace gate?
H. L. RossierIt is because, in order to save the people, Mordecai must first be saved. What further use could the gallows be, once Mordecai had been publicly recognised as the man whom the king delighted to honour? One man must become the liberator of the people — and here again we find in Mordecai such an interesting picture of Christ. For this, he first had to humble himself to the lowest degree in sackcloth and ashes. Then he had to be raised to supreme dignity.
Summary
- Court — Haman's haste to hang Mordecai early put him in the outer court. It was the one moment when the king needed a man to honour Mordecai.
- Commission — whoever stood in the court would carry out the king's order. Haman walked in to ask for a death and left as a servant.
- Coincidence — commentators refuse the word. These were the movings of a hidden hand, and God moves all the scenes He stands behind.
- Collapse — pride blinded Haman to his own ruin, and the gallows he built became his own execution.
- Consequence — Mordecai had to be saved first, so that the nation could be saved. He humbled himself in sackcloth, then rose to honour — a picture of Christ.