The Night the King Couldn't Sleep

At the throne, Esther did not ask for her people. She invited the king and Haman to dinner, and at dinner she invited them back the next night. "Then I will tell you," she said.

Haman went home proud, until he passed Mordecai at the king's gate. Mordecai still would not bow, or even stand up for him. "Build a gallows," said his wife, Zeresh, "a tall wooden post for hanging a man. In the morning, ask the king to hang Mordecai on it." Haman made it fifty cubits high. (That is about seven houses stacked up. Haman never did anything halfway.)

That same night, the king could not sleep. At last he called, "Bring me the book of the kingdom's records, and read it to me." (Royal records are not exciting reading. Maybe that was the idea.)

The servant read about the day two guards had plotted to kill the king. A Jew named Mordecai had warned him and saved his life.

"What reward did Mordecai get?" asked the king.

"Nothing," said the servants.

Just then Haman arrived, early, to ask about hanging Mordecai.

"Tell me," said the king, "what should I do for the man the king delights to honor?"

Haman thought, Who would the king want to honor more than me? "Dress him in the king's robe," he said. "Seat him on the king's horse. Lead him through the city, shouting, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!'"

"Perfect," said the king. "Hurry. Do all of it for Mordecai the Jew."

So Haman led the horse round the city square, with his enemy riding on top, praising the man he had meant to hang. Then he ran home with his head covered in shame, and was hurried off to dinner.

At the second dinner the king asked, "Queen Esther, what do you want? You shall have it, up to half my kingdom."

"Let me live," said Esther, "and spare my people. We have been sold to be destroyed and killed, every one of us."

"Who would dare do such a thing?" the king cried.

Esther pointed. "This wicked Haman!"

The king stormed out into the garden. Haman threw himself onto the queen's couch to beg for his life. The king walked back in and roared, "Will he attack the queen in my own house?" A servant spoke up: "There is a gallows at Haman's house. He built it for Mordecai."

"Hang him on it," said the king. So Haman was hanged on his own gallows, and he died.

Nobody at that dinner said a word about God. Yet someone had kept the king awake, and someone had turned the servant to the right page.

Mordecai rode the king's horse for one afternoon. Haman's cruel law was still written down, and God's people still had to fight for their lives. It was one rescue, from one enemy. So they waited, through more kings and more enemies, for the one God had promised long ago, who would crush the enemy for good.

When he came, his enemies made a plan too. They nailed him to a wooden cross, and he died. It looked as if the wicked plan had won. But God had been awake the whole time. He turned the enemy's weapon around into the rescue of everyone who trusts him, and on the third day he raised his Son from the dead. Mordecai would not bow to Haman. One day every knee will bow to the man the King of heaven delights to honor: Jesus.