In the Old Testament book of Esther, there is a man named Haman, who had been advanced above all his fellow princes in the kingdom of King Ahasuerus. All the king’s servants bowed before him and paid him homage because the king had commanded it. Materially and professionally, Haman had everything going for him, but spiritually he was utterly bankrupt.
When we are neglectful about counting our blessings or too focused upon the wins and losses in this life, we can get to be about like Haman.
Haman becomes prominent just after Esther ascends to the Persian throne through the scheming of her cousin, Mordecai the Jew, who had once saved the king’s life by uncovering a coup plot against him. Haman had power and prestige and the obedience of everyone in the kingdom – except Mordecai – and that really bothered him. He was like a child with 99 out of 100 marbles who cannot think about what he has for concern over the one he does not. Haman’s resentful rage was so severe that he concocted a plan to exterminate the Jews from Persia, not knowing that Queen Esther was Mordecai’s cousin and a Jew herself.
To try to foil his plan, Esther invited the king and Haman to a banquet where she would reveal her heredity and beg for mercy for her people. The invitation just filled Haman with even more pride, because he did not know about Esther or her purpose; for a few fleeting moments, Haman was on top of the world:
So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king. Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” (Esther 5:9-13 NKJV)
Riches, family, promotions, power and pride profited Haman nothing when he thought about the fact that there was one man in Persia that did not either fear or respect him. Haman’s wife suggested that he gain his last marble by hanging Mordecai on a fifty-cubit-high gallows and a smile finally broke across his wicked face.
In the meantime, the king remembered Mordecai’s good deed and decided to honor him, forcing Haman to clothe his rival in royal garments and to parade him around the city square. Dejected and humiliated, Haman hung his head until it was time for Esther’s banquet, where he was shocked to learn that he had unwittingly arranged for the queen’s murder. King Ahasuerus had him taken out to the gallows of his own building where he was executed. Haman had so much, but the one thing he did not have meant more to him and that was his ultimate downfall. Haman was not alone and this inexplicable discontentment appears to be a mighty weapon in the tempter’s arsenal.
Satan’s Weapons: Wealth
Saul of Tarsus was apparently quite well off, but he abandoned those things that were gain to him to serve Christ so that his only boast would be in his savior (see Galatians 6:14, Philippians 3:3-6).
That is where our only boast needs to be, so that we understand that in Christ, we have all the wealth, power and glory that really matter (Luke 18:18-30). We are heirs of an eternal promise and everything that really matters (1 Peter 1:3-5). In our Father’s house are many rooms and our Savior has gone there to make our reservation (see 2 Peter 1:2-4, John 14:1-6). Our pockets might not be full, our cottages on earth might need repair, and our clothing might be torn, but we have all the glory, wealth and power that really matter.
The tempter’s objective, however, is to make all that seem distant and less appealing than seizing an inferior substitute right away (see 1 Peter 5:10). When the devil offered to give Jesus power over the kingdoms of the world in exchange for his loyalty, he was offering him an inflated version of what he offers all of us–glory, honor and power of an inferior quality, but immediately so that we will abandon our claim to that eternal weight of honor (see Matthew 4:1-11, 2 Corinthians 4:17).
It is the promise of instant gratification that makes people trade twenty years worth of annuities in for an immediate, but smaller, percentage of their blessing. If you can minimize your daily blessings and lose perspective on your inheritance, how easy will it become for the adversary to convince your heart that spiritual honor avails you nothing as long as your neighbor’s car is newer, his house is bigger, his wife is prettier, and his children have more fun? Will we lose the way to those mansions in heaven, where the gates are made of pearl and the streets are paved with gold because the devil has something shiny to place in our hands right away?
Satan’s Weapons: Envy
Satan provokes our sense of envy to convince us that all our current and spiritual blessings avail us too little. Despite being blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, envy reminds us that we do not usually have every physical blessing that our neighbors have (see Ephesians 1:3). “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot” (Proverbs 14:30).
Envy rots the mind because it eats away at contentment and happiness with an overwhelming sense that something is missing and your neighbor has it. Envy won’t let us rest because we spend half of our time accusing our neighbor of luck or crime in obtaining what should be our blessing and the other half in plotting to gain it for ourselves.
To appease our envy, we will sacrifice time with God and family in the struggle to obtain the object of our salivation, finding no solace in the multitude of blessings we already have in the hand or in heaven (see Proverbs 23:4). Envy leads to strife, internal and social, but love does not envy (see First Corinthians 13:4). Envy is part of an unholy lifestyle, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice” (James 3:16).
Envy can be nothing but self-seeking, even if you try to couch it in seemingly positive terms like providing luxuries for your family or security in the future. If you are God’s child, you already have the most valuable inheritance to give them, so focus on the ninety-nine percent that matters and not the one percent that perishes with the using. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27). When tempted to envy, count your many blessings.
Satan’s Weapons: Covetousness
There is not much to add when it comes to covetousness, except that greed does not always need an object to envy to get its power (see Ecclesiastes 5:10-17). The devil preys upon our urge to covet and incites in us a discontentment with our blessings so that we will decide they avail us insufficiently. We become distracted in our march toward heaven by goals that really don’t last.
Jesus taught, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Paul equated it with buying a little tin idol in some store and bringing it home so that you can bow before it and pretend it is your god (see Ephesians 5:5, Colossians 3:5). The Hebrew writer shows how powerful the distraction can become:
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV)
Still, when some count their blessings and contemplate heaven off in the distance, they are moved to think that it all avails them nothing so long as their pockets are empty and their house is falling down and their car has too many miles on it. War breaks out in the covetous man’s heart (James 4:1-5). Learn to be content and not covetous (see Philippians 4:11). Your blessings in this life must be counted and your hope for eternity is beyond value.
Satan’s Weapons: Lust
Rich, powerful, successful and handsome King David already had a harem, but his desire for Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, made all that avail him nothing while she bathed on the adjacent rooftop. More often than not, that illicit sexual desire does not translate into actual adultery, but the tempter is content to manipulate your mind even if your body won’t follow.
Lust can go no further than that burning imagination and the result is the same–all that we have avails us nothing while the object of our lust is not ours. Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).
Lust is empowered by the steady march of sexual suggestion in our society, in entertainment and reality, and it can be a terrible challenge to be content with moral purity or the marriage bed, but unless we are, the devil has achieved his distraction (Hebrews 13:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8).
Conclusion
What Haman wanted from Mordecai was satisfaction–the knowledge that Mordecai had humbled himself and submitted his will to Haman’s. We run the same risk when we are not happy until someone who has offended us has prostrated himself in our presence and begged for mercy, which we never intend to give fully anyway. There is room in the kingdom for the person who refuses to be oversensitive to unintended slights and who can overlook a brother’s faults (1 Corinthians 6:1-8). We produce strife and rivalries when we can’t get over things that really don’t matter, distracting ourselves and sometimes whole churches with little nuisances.
Haman was hanged on the very gallows he built to kill the object of his rage, but the danger is no different today when we act as if blessing and salvation avail us nothing because we can’t obtain satisfaction or the objects of our lust, envy and covetousness. Learn to be content.
