Esther 5:9 Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.
Monday morning I was thinking about all the ice cream I ate on Saturday night, and I felt a little guilty. I ate more of it than I should have. I knew it at the time and felt badly about it on Monday morning. It was what we sometimes call a “guilty pleasure,” something that we find joy in that we know we probably should not. That is human nature.
In Esther 5-6 we read about Queen Esther inviting the king and Haman, the Jew’s enemy, to a personal banquet. Unbeknownst to Haman, Esther had invited him to the banquet in order to ask the king to spare her life and the lives of all the Jews. Prior to this, Haman had been offended when Mordecai, Esther’s father figure and courtier in the king’s courtyard, would not bow to him. Haman was so angry that he had exaggerated the situation and gotten permission from the king to destroy Mordecai and all his people.
Haman was flattered and very joyful when he was invited to this personal banquet with the king and queen. Esther 5:9 says, “Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart.” Why is this? It is because he had been invited. His ego had been pandered to. The verse continues, “But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.” So, he went straight from great joy to great anger. Later on, the Bible says that he went back to his house mourning because Mordecai was given a good turn when the king wished to honor him. This, of course, made Haman unhappy.
You learn from this that you should never let your happiness depend on the misery of another. Haman was a transparently wicked man and Mordecai was shown to be a noble man. Even if that were not true, finding great pleasure in the misery of someone else is a danger that all of us face. Someone has said that pride gets no joy out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. That is certainly true. I’m not proud because I have money, intelligence, or favor. I am proud because I have more than someone else. That is pride. That is what Haman was governed by. When his pride was stroked, he was joyful. When someone did not give him the respect he thought he should have, he went to his house mourning. That is pride. Pride leads to destruction. It blinds a person.
God was preparing Haman the entire time for destruction, and God was preparing to deliver the Jewish nation and Mordecai from the clutches of Haman. God will give a proud person just enough rope with which to hang himself. That is exactly what happened to Haman. He was a man who was so stuck on himself that he was hung on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. We can thank God that there is more justice than what the world can give and that God is the One Who knows you to your core.
Today, don’t find joy in the misery of others. Find joy in the fact that God knows you and that God cares.