Sudden and Certain Justice
Esther 7:3–10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Esther 7:10

Mordecai was a Jew who worked in the court of Xerxes, the king of Persia. Haman was a high official. Most people deferred to Haman, bowing to him almost as if he were the king. Mordecai would not do this. Therefore, Haman hated him for the perceived affront and plotted to get him killed. Haman did this by a particularly nasty bit of anti-Semitism, telling the king that there was a race of people in the kingdom who did not obey the king’s laws and were subversive. He got the king to approve a secret, sudden uprising against the Jews, while he himself prepared a gallows on which he planned to hang his great enemy, Mordecai.

Since Esther was present in the palace at this strategic moment, God used her to alert Xerxes to what was really going on and to expose Haman. Xerxes, Esther, and Haman were at dinner when she did this. She told the king of a person who was plotting to destroy both her and her family. The king couldn’t believe someone would try to kill his queen. “Who is he?” he demanded. “Where is he, who has dared to do this?” (v. 5).

Esther pointed to the man sitting next to her, saying, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” (v. 6).

Haman must have been struck with terror like a man turned to stone. He was exposed—suddenly, and there was no escape. The king was furious, and that very day Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Poetic justice? Yes. But even more important than that: sudden and certain justice, just like that which will come on all who despise God and reject his Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle writes of the wicked, saying, “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3).

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.