Esther 6:12

THE REACTION OF THE PEOPLE TO MORDECAI'S HONOR AT THE HANDS OF HAMAN

"And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house, mourning and having his head covered. And Haman recounted unto Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai before whom that hast begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. While they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared."

Haman's mourning and covering his head indicated that he fully understood the horrible demotion he had already received at the hands of the king. We attribute that demotion to the fact of the king's recognition of Haman's secret desire to take the crown.

Everyone in Susa knew the providential blessing of the Jews, beginning with Cyrus' edict for their return to Jerusalem; and the people, including Haman's `wise men,' were aware of the hand of God in Jewish history.

Joyce Baldwin's remark that, "Most commentators, other than Jews, see all of the coincidences in this narrative as more characteristic of fiction than of real life,"[3] should be rejected as incorrect. All Christians see the hand of God in every line of this remarkable history.

The historical proof of everything written here is seen in the influence of Esther which prevailed in the Persian Empire throughout the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, whose work, in both instances was doubtless made possible by the influence of this great queen. In a very real sense, the Book of Esther appears here, following Ezra and Nehemiah as an explanation of how their ministries came to be possible.

The historicity of Esther receives presumptive proof in the very fact of God's name being omitted. That means that no Jew could possibly have written it. Then who did write it? Someone who had access to Persian court records; and it is impossible to imagine any kind of motivation that could have led to writing a fictitious yarn with the cosmic dimensions of the Book of Esther. It therefore is most certainly history, not fiction.

Esther 6:14 here relates that the chamberlains came to take Haman away to the banquet. "Haman went to Esther's second banquet like a sheep to the slaughter."[4]