Introduction

This chapter begins with a common problem that many people suffer with “insomnia”. About 25 percent of Americans experience acute insomnia each year, 75 percent of these individuals recovers without developing chronic insomnia, according to a study at the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Emotional issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression cause half of all insomnia cases. I would dare say that with all the civil unrest and the fears about covid-19 that many people are suffering acute insomnia. Our nation has suffered a traumatic experience? Are you under a lot of stress? Are you depressed? Do you feel emotionally flat or hopeless? Do you struggle with chronic feelings of anxiety or worry about the state of our union and the health of our nation? Folks, these issues are rooted in a very fundamental dilemma. Our nation is spiritually sick and has been for some time. Chapter six invites us into the total depravity of man and what causes evil among us.
Racism is a pandemic too.
I. Summary:

1. It has been a while since we studied the book of Esther. In fact we last visited this book on the second Sunday in March. It behooves us to have a brief summary to refresh your memory and then I will highlight chapter 5 before we get to the Kings sleepless night. Chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Esther set the stage for us and introduce the action of the story. It is one Queen Vashti dethrone for not submitting to the evil request of King Ahasuerus and a second one who is crown through a contest King Xerxes and his cohorts set up to appease the Kings depression and lust for women and power having lost a great military battle.

2. In Esther Chapter 3 and 4 King Xerxes appoints Haman the Agagite as Prime Minister and issues a decree that all should bow to him. Mordechai refuses to bow down before Haman. Haman then goes to King (with 10,000 silver pieces) and asks for permission to destroy the Jews. Racism is evil. He presents the issue to the king as a matter of loyalty, saying “There is a certain people, scattered and spread out among the peoples in all the states of your kingdom, their laws are different from other peoples and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not worth it for the king to leave them alive” (Esther 3:8). The king agrees and issues an edict to all 127 provinces saying that on the 13th of Adar, the Jews in all the provinces are to be killed and their property kept as plunder. Mordechai still refuses to bow down before Haman.
For there is no respect of persons with God. Romans 2:11

3. Haman’s plots against Mordecai. (5)
1. Esther devises a plan to have a banquet for the King and Haman. He thinks it’s all about him. He leaves to tell his family but again Mordechai refuses to bow down before Him. Haman tells his wife and friends about what he’s worth, how many sons he has, and most importantly, his special relationship with the king and queen, and how she has honored him by making him the only other guest along with the king at two parties. You would think that Haman would be satisfied with all his success, wealth, and power? No the Bible says that Haman told his wife: “But all this gives me no satisfaction (no sha’va / profit) as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.” (vv.13)

Application;
Pride is never satisfied without more. *C.S. Lewis wrote, there is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. . .

2. So after listening to all this, Haman’s wife and friends said: “Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.” This suggestion elated Haman, and he had the gallows built.
Basically Haman’s wife and friends said, “We’re tired of hearing you complain about Mordecai, why you don’t do something about it.” They told him, “Why wait for the edict to be put into effect at the end of the year, build a huge gallows right now and hang Mordecai on it tomorrow.”

3. So Haman took their advice and he had gallows built that were 75 feet high. The thing is seven-and-a-half stories tall. The gallows he had built were not the type from an old Western movie with a noose and a trap door, rather we are talking about a huge pole or stake for someone to be impaled upon. He was willing to kill this man just because his ego was bruise.
For there is no respect of persons with God. Romans 2:11 God is no respecter of persons:

4. Notice that the plot was based on advice from ungodly people. (It is almost always a big mistake to get advice from ungodly people. (Psalms 1) And if you know the end of the story, you know that ungodly plotters plant the seeds of their own destruction. But the main thing to notice here is that ungodly plots are ultimately doomed to fail.

II. The Kings Sleepless Night (6:1-3)

1. King Xerxes did what many do when they cannot sleep. He brought out a book and used it to fill his sleepless night, hoping that the reading would make him sleepy again. Charles Haddon Spurgeon stated, “Ahasuerus is master of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, but not master of ten minutes’ sleep! This was a remarkable example of Divine Providence in action.

2. This king had many options to fill his sleepless night – but he commands that a book be brought to him and read. The one commanded to bring the book could have brought any one book of the records of the chronicles, but he brought one particular book. The book could be opened to any page, but it was opened to the exact page telling the story of Mordecai and how he saved the King from assassination. God guided every step of the way. Let it be a lesson to us in resolving issues that God desires we do all we can do and leave the rest to Him. King Ahasuerus heard read to him how Mordecai had saved his life by reporting the evil assassination plot against him. In those ancient days, Kingdom revolt was the menace and fear of kings. So this king is aware that this is a serious matter.

Illustration and Application
The world has not change much; many of us lived to see President Kennedy assassinated and Reagan shot too. But it was President Truman who could relate to King Xerxes whom life was spared. Truman and his wife were upstairs in the Blair House and he was taking a nap when they heard a commotion—and gunshots—coming from the front steps of the house. A pair of would-be assassins had strolled up to the front door and opened fire. They never made it past the front steps, the Secret Service met them at the entrance and a gun battle ensued. One of the Secret Service agents was slain. The next day President Truman said, “You know, it is a strange thing to know that you are alive because another man has died. I will never forget him. This book is the story of the One who gave his life for us. — Gospel / Romans 5:8

4. Xerxes asked what reward was given in a very rare showing of concern for a common subject of the kingdom. God holds the heart of every man as Proverbs 21:1 states: The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD… The answer was simply nothing.

III. Haman in the court of the king. (Est. 6:4-5)

1. It is early in the morning but the king hastens to demonstrate his appreciation. He asks, “Who is on duty in the court?” Haman? This is one of those coincidences which are never really a coincidence Haman had just arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole that he had prepared. The book of Esther shows us that God manages the affairs of men, even without their knowledge. God knows what He is doing

The king greets Haman in verse 6 with these words, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” He has no doubt who that man is. There is only one man He thinks can fit the requirements for honor; Haman was so vain he probably thinks this reward is about him.”…

2. Haman is required to express to the King what honor should be done for such a man. Of course since he believes it all about him, Haman pours it on strong. Haman says, “Look, if you want to really honor this man, give him your kingly clothes to wear, your horse to ride, give him a crown to wear — give him yourself, publicly!” This is true honor.

3. What a scene in verse 10 & 11! Can you imagine this? What a picture of bitter humiliation as Haman, in a bedazzling rage, walks through the streets of this city leading the horse of Mordecai who is the man he planned to murder that very day. Mordecai is wearing the royal garments of the king and wearing a crown upon his head. Haman’s plan of glory has collapsed through. All his proud ambitions exposed by this maddening thing that he must do! Outwardly, he is praising Mordecai, “This is the man whom the king delights to honor.” Inwardly, he is grinding his teeth and awaiting a time for revenge.
Conclusion: Have you ever known someone like Haman? — Inwardly seething, a racist? We must not take a frivolous attitude toward sin. We are to confront it with humility (Gal. 6:1).