«Like water channels is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord; He directs it where he pleases ».
Proverbs 21: 1
Everything was ready. The decree had already been sent throughout the kingdom of the great King Ahasuerus: the Jews were going to be exterminated. The king had agreed to the request of his favorite. Giving him the royal ring, as proof that he approved of what he was willing to write, he placed the destiny of the Jewish people in his hands "so that you may do with him what seems good to you" (Esther 3:11 b). The Scriptures say that they were called the scribes of the king and according to all that Haman had commanded, he was sent to the king's satraps and to the governors of the provinces, written in the name of the king and sealed with his seal.
That is to say, that Haman dictated the dispositions and providences, that according to him believed, they would affect the life of the Jews, of course, according to their hatred and their best interests.
But who was Haman? The book of Esther presents it to us suddenly, just as it suddenly presents its elevation. It says chapter 3, verse 1 of the book of Esther that "After this king Ahasuerus magnified Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and exalted him and established his authority over all the princes that were with him."
He was a prince like all those who were with him, but the king decided to elevate him. King Ahasuerus has been considered a capricious and voluble king. Since the Scriptures do not tell us about Haman's special conditions or talents, we can speculate a bit and imagine that they influenced his elevation, the vagaries and whims of a sovereign who is said to have once whipped the sea because he destroyed a bridge that he had sent to build.
On the other hand, there has been talk of Haman, saying that possibly his hatred of the Jews had to do with ancestral conflicts of his ancestors with the people of God. Flavius Josephus places him as a descendant of the Amalekites, specifically King Agag (hence, they say, "agagueo"). This can be inferred, because although he was offended by Mordecai, the Jew, because he did not bow down before him (Esther 3: 5), plotted to destroy all the Jews. Whether this is true or not, the truth is that the dialogue between the king and Haman suggests that in addition to hatred, he had a great ambition over the goods of the Jews, since he offered ten thousand talents to the king for the destruction of his enemies (Esther 3: 9). Obviously, those talents were not going to come out of their particular treasure, what Haman intended to do, was to exterminate the Jews, confiscate their property, give a part to the king and keep most of the loot.
Great plan, Haman would think. Besides this, Queen Esther, the new and beautiful queen, had invited him to a banquet. I was happy. There was only one little problem that bothered him: the presence of Mordecai, who did not bow before him, at the door of the palace, precisely where he had to pass every day!
When he commented on the situation in front of his wife and friends, he was advised to lift a gallows and ask the king to hang Mordecai in it.
The advice seemed wonderful to Haman, who had the gallows raised and went to the palace to make the request. Haman's arrogance did not allow him to think that the king could deny himself. Now his happiness would be complete. What he did not know was that God, the true Sovereign, was directing everything towards the liberation of His people and the destruction of King Ahasuerus' favorite.
The Scriptures say that the king could not sleep that night. The king had insomnia! (Esther 6: 1) Ahasuerus ordered that the chronicles of the kingdom be read and it was found that the Jew Mordecai had done a great service to the empire and had received no reward. Haman had gone in to ask for the hanging of Mordecai, but without letting him speak, the king asked him what should be done to whom the king wanted to honor. Haman, thinking that the matter was with him, replied with a formula that would make him more firm and honest than ever in his position and raised what we already know: that he should be raised to a real horse, with a royal mantle and that proclaim throughout the city the one that enjoyed royal favor. Immediately, Ahasuerus ordered that he should do so with Mordecai, and he charged Haman with it precisely, provoking in him a great depression caused by his wounded ego.
The story does not end there, when Haman went to the second banquet with the queen and the king, his plan was discovered. Esther confessed that she was Jewish and that she and her people were going to be destroyed. The king was filled with anger and when he learned that the culprit was Haman. The latter saw how he went from the heights to the abyss, from the principality to the scaffold. Ahasuerus arranged for him to be hanged on the same gallows he had erected for Mordecai. (Esther 7: 3-10)
Examining the events, we have to come to the conclusion that the Lord directs things so that, even though men think they are building their future, only what God has determined beforehand happens. We only have to analyze how in one night, or rather in a moment, all the plot that had been assembled to destroy the Jews, fell to pieces.
Let's highlight only three points:
The dream went to the king. Apparently Ahasuerus had no problem in those times, he was quiet in his palace, but that night, he had insomnia, he could not sleep. God is the one who gives the dream. Quite simply, that night, the Lord did not grant King Ahasuerus to sleep.
Ahasuerus asked for the chronicles of the kingdom. It is possible that he was thinking that reading the boring chronicles, the dream came, but precisely, a sovereign of 127 provinces, with all the power and availability, did not have anything else to entertain? Of course he had it! He could have called musicians, dancers, buffoons and ordered dances, games and whatever he wanted to be entertained while his insomnia lasted; but no, he asked for the chronicles, simply because that was the will of the Lord
Precisely, within so many scrolls, was found the one that referred to the action of Mordecai. To get an idea of the number of rolls that exist at that time, we must know that Ahasuerus was a king of the Achaemenid dynasty and that he was not the first. Several kings had passed before him and some of them had lasted more than twenty years (only his father, Darius I, lasted 36 years reigning). That is to say, that the accumulation of scrolls of writings must have been impressive. All events, from those of certain relevance, to the most important of the kingdom were written and kept. Within all these rolls, to take precisely the one that spoke of Mordecai was not a coincidence.
Then, we only have to recognize that God Almighty, Eternal and Sage, disposes all things according to His will and that nothing, nothing, however small and insignificant it may seem, is subject to chance, but subject to its designs.
This should give us peace of mind. Nothing that happens to us comes by chance. Everything is within the plans of a God who wants our good and who has shown it with his dealings with his creatures and especially with his children.
