IRONY ILLUSTRATED

“Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of Adar when the king’s command and his edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day that the enemies of the Jews had planned for a massacre of them, it was turned to the contrary and the Jews had rule over those who hated them.” (Esther 9:1 HCSB)

After typing in the word, “irony,” I went to the tool bar on my computer and clicked on the research option. Here is one of the definitions I pulled up, which suits my intent in describing the events recorded in Esther 6-10: “something that happens that is incongruous with what might be expected to happen, especially when this seems absurd or laughable.”

While that definition is accurate, it has been well-said that, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” So, the illustration of irony portrayed in the epic events of Esther is more profound than any dictionary definition. There are a number of ironic incidents documented for us in the text.

IRONY: THE RECOGNITION DEVISED BY HAMAN WAS THE REWARD THAT WAS GIVEN TO THE MAN HE DESPISED.

“So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman said to himself, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to me? And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, Let royal apparel be brought which the king has worn and the horse which the king has ridden, and a royal crown be set on his head. And let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes. Let him array the man whom the king delights to honor, and conduct him on horseback through the open square of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste and take the apparel and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have spoken.” (Esther 6:6-10)

Haman had been infuriated by Mordecai’s refusal to bow before him. This burning hate led him to plot the genocide of the Jews, not realizing that the queen, Esther, was Jewish. He is successful in his effort to obtain an edict from the king for his diabolical plot. We find him summoned to the throne room, and Haman swaggers in, full of self-importance and smug satisfaction—then the web of deceit that wicked spider of a man had woven begins to unravel.

King Ahasuerus has had a fitful night, tossing and turning, his troubled thoughts swirling inside a head restlessly residing on a plush pillow. Though I can’t prove it, I wouldn’t be surprised if God sent an angel to gouge him in the side and wake him up. Be that as it may, he knew a sure aid to get back to sleep—the monotonous droning of a voice reading the chronicles of the royal court.

It had the opposite effect. Ahasuerus must have sat straight up in bed when he heard what was read. It just happened (the providence of God, actually) that the annals were opened to the episode where Mordecai had been responsible for uncovering a conspiracy to assassinate the king. Yet, nothing had been done to reward this loyal subject. Ahasuerus would rectify that!

He needed an official to help him, and it just happened (really it was providential) that Haman was in the courtyard of the palace, and he was immediately beckoned to come to the king. When the king proposes to Haman that great honor be lavished on the man he delights in, old Haman thinks that surely he is that man. So, he shares with the king the way that he wants to be honored—and I can just imagine he turned white as a sheet when the monarch said that Haman would lead a parade in honor of Mordecai through the streets of the capital. I wonder if there was an angel sent to wake the king, who lingered there and burst into laughter when he heard that delicious irony!

IRONY: THE RETRIBUTION DESIGNED BY HAMAN WAS THE METHOD THAT BECAME THE MEANS OF HIS DEATH.

“When the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the drinking of wine, Haman was falling upon the couch where Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even forcibly assault the queen in my presence, in my own palace? As the king spoke the words, [the servants] covered Haman’s face. Then said Harbonah, one of the attendants serving the king, Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, whose warning saved the king, stands at the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him on it! So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.” (Esther 7:8-10)

Haman had pouted because Mordecai “dissed” him, but then plotted to kill all the Jews, which would take care of Mordecai. Successful in obtaining a royal decree to slaughter the Jews, he is later thrilled that he has been invited to a big party in the palace with only the king and queen. When he shares the good news with his witch of a wife, she proposes that Haman have a gallows built to hang Mordecai on. As the carpenters began to build it, every blow of the hammer was like sweet music to Haman’s ears. Little did he know that it was actually the drumbeat of his own doom!

His excitement to attend the party evaporated in the bright sunlight as he led Mordecai through the city, announcing the honor of that Jew. Crestfallen, he trudged to the palace party—and things would go from bad to worse. Esther unveils to her husband how Haman has planned her death, since she is a Jew. The enraged king leaves the room to compose himself and decide what ought to be done.

In the meantime, Haman is falling all over the queen, begging for mercy, and so when Ahasuerus walks back in and sees this, he thinks that Haman is assaulting his wife, adding insult to injury! There would be no mercy.

Haman is escorted out and executed on the very gallows designed for Mordecai. How wonderfully ironic!

IRONY: THE RUIN DETERMINED BY HAMAN FOR THE JEWS WAS THE DESTINY OF THOSE MEANT TO BE THEIR DESTROYERS.

“And Esther spoke yet again to the king and fell down at his feet and besought him with tears to avert the evil plot of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose and stood before the king. And she said, If it pleases the king and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right before the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.” (Esther 8:3-5)

A royal decree when issued was the final word. The laws of the Medes and Persians could not be rescinded. So, what could be done—since the destruction of the Jews by those who hated them had been ordered?

A second decree was dispatched—that the Jews would be armed and able to defend themselves against their persecutors. We read of the result in chapter nine of Esther:

“Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of Adar when the king’s command and his edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day that the enemies of the Jews had planned for a massacre of them, it was turned to the contrary and the Jews had rule over those who hated them. The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.” (v.1-2)

Not only are the Jews preserved, but those who sought to slay them are themselves slaughtered. That’s bloody ironic, as a Brit might say.

IRONY: THE REJOICING DESIRED BY THOSE HOSTILE TO THE JEWS WAS THE RESULT CELEBRATED AMONG THE JEWS FOR THEIR DELIVERANCE.

“This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. But the Jews who were in Shushan [Susa] assembled on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day for sending choice portions to one another. And Mordecai recorded these things, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far, To command them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth, yearly, As the days on which the Jews got rest from their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a holiday--that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor. So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written to them—Because Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, [to find a lucky day] to crush and consume and destroy them. But when Esther brought the matter before the king, he commanded in writing that Haman’s wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name Pur [lot]. Therefore, because of all that was in this letter and what they had faced in this matter and what had happened to them, The Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and their descendants and all who joined them that without fail every year they would keep these two days at the appointed time and as it was written, That these days should be remembered (imprinted on their minds) and kept throughout every generation in every family, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never cease from among the Jews, nor the commemoration of them cease among their descendants. Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, gave full power [written authority], confirming this second letter about Purim. And letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, To confirm that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had commanded [the Jews], and as they had ordained for themselves and for their descendants in the matter of their fasts and their lamenting. And the command of Esther confirmed these observances of Purim, and it was written in the book.” (Esther 9:18-32)

Hell was about to have a party. Satan surely rubbed his filthy hands with gleeful anticipation. The extermination of those Jews would mean the thwarting of God’s plan to bring from the family of Abraham, the Seed of the woman that would crush the Serpent’s head. When Haman secured the death warrant for the Jews, I can hear a fiendish laugh rising up from the Abyss.

But, he who laughs last, laughs best. The Devil had to cancel his party, hellish hilarity giving way hateful howling. But, there was a party among the Jews—a celebration of deliverance that became a perpetual observance.

To this day, you have never met an Agagite have you? But, there are plenty of Israelites, and always will be. A resurrected Son of Abraham who is also the Son of God will in fact reign forever and ever!

God has the last laugh.