Chapter 3 - What the Flesh Looks Like

Section 02 - Dealing With Haman

We saw how Queen Esther came into the palace. She replaced the old Queen Vashti and the king found the woman of his dreams.

They got married and he put the crown on her head. She became the queen and they lived happily ever after.

That's how the story should have ended, right? It is the way it is supposed to end. But you see the book of Esther relates to real life. It is not just a movie, even though it is very much like one.

A Bad, Unexpected Turn

We should have seen them being happy and carrying on without a problem. But instead of that happening, the very next chapter of the book of Esther presents a sudden turn of events. It is very unexpected and comes totally without warning.

Since the book of Esther is a picture of the spiritual life, it is a very valid part of our spiritual lives.

We have found the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We are born again and enter into this new, wonderful spiritual life and we expect to live happily ever after. But without warning, suddenly there comes a sideswipe; something we don't expect.

That is what the next chapter of the book of Esther portrays. It is also why I have called this section Dealing with Haman.

To start this section off we have Mordecai, the nice guy who provided this beautiful wife to the king. You would think that he would now immediately come into the picture.

You would think he would have immediately become one of the king's confidantes; that the king would promote him and lift him up, especially when he finds out that Mordecai discovered a plot to kill him and saved his life.

Not only did he provide the king with this beautiful wife, but he also saved his life. You would expect Mordecai on the next episode to now rise up and be top guy in the kingdom.

Instead of this happening though another guy steps in - a guy by the name of Haman. If you read through Chapter 3 of the book of Esther, you see that suddenly Ahasuerus promoted Haman to the highest place; to his right hand.

Enter Haman

Who is this Haman? He is referred to as the Agagite. Have you ever heard of Agag? If you know your Bible you will know who he is.

Agag was the king that Saul saved when God told him to go out and destroy all the enemies of God. God said to him,

"Wipe them out, destroy them and kill every one."

Saul however decided to keep a few things. He probably thought,

"Why go and get rid of all that money? Why go and burn it all. We could just save it or use it for the Lord's work you know."

He saved this King Agag, and Samuel came and had to speak the word of the Lord to Saul. He had to say,

"You disobeyed God, now God will have to pull the kingdom from you."

The Scripture says that Samuel actually went and killed Agag himself. So Haman was a descendant of this king of the enemies of Israel. He represents everything that is bad; everything that God said we should get rid of.

What then is Haman a picture of? He is a picture of one of the biggest enemies of the spiritual life.

The Jews are a picture of everything related to the spiritual life, and Haman is set to kill them and get rid of them. He hates everything to do with them.

The Spirit vs. the Flesh

Let's read a passage in the New Testament from the book of Galatians. Galatians 5:16 to 18 says,

Let me say this then, Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the flesh exercises its desires contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to the flesh: and these are continually in opposition to each other: so that you cannot do whatever you want. But if you are being influenced by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What is the spiritual life? As we look at this passage, let's understand exactly what we mean by the spiritual life and understand one of the main enemies of the spiritual life.

The spiritual life is simply a life that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. In the case of this book of Esther, the Holy Spirit is typified by Mordecai who is the adopted father of Esther.

A life of walking in the Spirit is a life where the soul submits to the spirit within and brings the body into subjection. In this way God's order of spirit, soul and body is maintained.

That is what it means to live a life in the Spirit. It is living a life where you bring your body under control and you submit to the spirit within which is where the Holy Spirit dwells.

When you start to do this you face several enemies that are set to stop this, to destroy it and to make sure it doesn't happen.

The Bible speaks about three main enemies in the spiritual life. You should know these by now, but if you don't I am going to give them to you. They are the flesh, the devil and the World System.

These are the three main enemies of the spiritual life. We are going to be looking at one of them in this section, because Haman is a picture of the flesh.

The Flesh is Sinful

What is the flesh? It is the seed of sin which was placed into us when man fell in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit which God had told them not to do. He said to them,

"In the day that you do that you will die."

Death is going to begin within you from the moment you eat that fruit.

When Adam and Eve ate that fruit and took it into their bodies, something became resident within them. It was like a seed that would bear fruit, and that fruit would be death.

It is a sinful tendency that lies inside of each one of us. We are born with it and grow up with it. And we struggle with it all of our lives.

It is a tendency within us to cause us to oppose everything that is of God. Sin opposes everything that is of God, because God is a righteous God.

The flesh is something we all struggle with in this spiritual life. And in the character of Haman we have a portrayal of how the flesh operates, the dangers of it and ultimately how to deal with it.

The Flesh Dominates

How does the flesh operate? Firstly it tries to control or dominate.

You see Haman is totally preoccupied with himself. He is the new hotshot. He is in charge; the big guy. When he walks down the street he expects everybody to bow to him and reverence him.

Everybody does reverence him except for one person. He is a fly in the ointment and a thorn in his side; a man by the name of Mordecai.

Doesn't it irritate you when there is that one person who stands against you?

Maybe you are the hotshot at work. Maybe you are the supervisor, and when you walk in everybody bows to you and tries to make you happy. But there is one person who refuses to do that. They refuse to acknowledge you or to respect you.

Have you ever experienced that? If so you did a Haman. That is the flesh. You see the flesh wants to exalt itself. It wants to be lifted up and revered. It is totally egocentric and selfish.

The Holy Spirit will never bow to the flesh. In the passage I shared from Galatians it says that the flesh opposes the spirit, and the spirit also opposes the flesh.

You see up until now in the story of the spiritual life Haman wasn't even visible. There was King Ahasuerus, all of his staff and his beautiful ex-wife.

They were partying and having a great time, until he realized there was something missing. He needed a new wife.

When you realized there was something missing in your life you needed a new spirit. Up until then there was no conflict. You could do what you wanted to without feeling guilty. There was no restlessness within that said,

"You're not allowed to do that; that's wrong."

You had freedom and liberty to live whatever life you wanted to live. But now suddenly you came to the place where you accepted Jesus as your Savior and gave your life totally to Him.

The Flesh Wants to Destroy

You were born again of the Spirit of God and a new spirit was placed within you. But suddenly out of the blue a new conflict arises within you.

Suddenly there comes a restlessness and a striving within. You find that your new desire to serve the Lord is kind of being opposed by another desire within you, and a conflict begins to take place.

The flesh rears up immediately when the Holy Spirit comes into your life. The flesh wants to destroy that which is of God.

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Esther As a Model Of The Spiritual Life - Chapter 3 of 10