Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”
While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared.
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.
Comment: As far as we know Haman is still ignorant of Mordecai’s relationship to the Queen. Also he doesn’t realise that she is a Jew. I’m surprised but Mordecai was a wise man and he was very wise in keeping these facts from the authorities’ ears. Zeresh, the wife’s statement infers that she has a great respect for, or fear of, the Jews as she predicts her husband’s defeat. Kings had great power and they were used to being obeyed! So Haman, in spite of his feelings, is called for by the King’s eunuchs to attend the planned meal.
After the meal the King again, promising much, asks Esther to speak up about what she wants. Out of the blue and without trying to hide anything she stands with her people the Jews and asks for their and her life to be spared. Can you picture their looks and imagine the thinking of the King and Haman? And perhaps there were servants behind the chairs of those sitting at the table. Maybe some of them were Jews! This, for Esther, is a life or death moment as she awaits the King’s response.
Prayer: You don’t promise us an easy path to walk along, but thank You for Your promise to walk with us!
As I read it! 