Chapter 6 - How to Trap the Flesh

The king is allowing Haman to have his way. We can deal with the king but we haven't dealt with Haman yet. We have to do this because they have become united together.

They have become bonded together and become buddies. We have to now bring a division between them before we can deal with the flesh.

So in order to do this she invites them together. The idea is,

"Let's make them both happy at the same time."

Esther said, "Hey guys I am having a special party. I'm having a banquet of wine and I'm inviting both of you to come to my party."

Why do you suppose a banquet of wine? You have a couple of glasses of wine on an empty stomach and what happens to you? You are ticking nicely.

Haman was telling jokes and the king was telling jokes. Everybody was feeling good. It was great and there was a wonderful atmosphere because they were having a party and getting drunk.

Let's play to the flesh a little bit. Let's make it happy. Don't try and stop it. Let it have its way. You don't have the power to stop it. Give it enough rope to hang itself.

So they are having a beautiful party there. In the middle of the party the king says the same thing,

"Esther, what do you want? I'll give you up to half of my kingdom."

You see it has kind of got a bit stronger now. The first time he said it he could have changed his mind. But he said it to her twice now. He's starting to put himself on the spot isn't he?

The alcohol probably helped a little bit, but that is okay. Twice now he said to her,

"What do you want, Esther? I'll give you anything you desire."

You see she is building the king up to make him ready. And at the same time she is working on Haman. But we will reserve him for the next party.

So while the king is ticking and happy and ready to do anything for the queen, she says,

"Okay this is what I want you to do. I want you to come to another banquet tomorrow. Come to another party tomorrow. Let's do this again."

The king says, "Sure, no problem."

She adds, "Make sure you bring Haman with as well."

There is the trap being set. She tells Haman to come with.

The Flesh Brags

Haman goes home to gloat. He says to everyone,

"Just look at me. Look at how awesome I am. You know I'm the most wonderful person around here. I'm the best looking, the wealthiest and most successful one; second only to the king.

You know what? I even have the queen eating out of my hand right now. The queen loves me. She thinks I'm the greatest. You know she never invited anyone to the party except me.

Why did she pick me to come to the party with the king? Because I am so special."

He invites his wife and his friends and has a boast party. He says,

"Hey guys, do you see all the wealth that I have? Do you see all the possessions - my latest piano, my sound system and latest computer system? I tell you, I have it made.

Aren't I clever? Aren't I great? Don't you think I'm wonderful?"

He brags about all of his accomplishments. Then finally he says,

"And you know what? Even the queen loves me. She has invited me personally twice now to a banquet with the king."

Do you want to identify the flesh? It is that part of you that wants to brag. It is that part of you that is so conceited and full of itself. It has all the need for recognition and acceptance and wants to be exalted and lifted up.

You won't have to look far to identify it. It keeps popping up and showing its head when you least expect it.

They are all making a fuss of him and saying,

"You are so great, Haman. You are so wonderful."

Licensing Satan

Then he takes the opportunity to manifest what I consider to be the root of the flesh. What is it? It is bitterness. He begins to spew in bitterness against that Jew Mordecai and yells,

"He has the audacity to stand up when I walk past. He will not bow to me or serve me. I hate him!"

We now see a new character in the movie that hasn't appeared before. There is a new antagonist who is very closely related to Haman. It is Haman's wife and her name is Zeresh. I will tell you what she is a picture of shortly.

What are Haman's friends a picture of? Let's look at this a little more. The first thing they do is give him some good advice. They say to him,

"Haman, you are the greatest. Now this is what we recommend you do. Why don't you set up a gallows to hang this guy and get rid of him once and for all?"

Haman says, "That is a brilliant idea! I never thought of that."

Where did that idea come from? It just popped into his mind while the flesh was in control.

Who do you think Zeresh is a picture of? She is a picture of Satan, and his friends are a picture of demonic powers. They are there to give you all the right advice at the wrong time, or the wrong advice at the right time.

They said, "Come on Haman, go and build a gallows and get rid of this man."

They were saying,

"Let's get rid of the Spirit of God that is within you that is stopping us from having our fun. It is stopping us from being in control and showing how wonderful we are. Let's get rid of Him once and for all."

They said, "Here is what you do, Haman. We recommend you set up the gallows. Then you go and speak to the king and get his permission to hang this guy today.

Do it right now, so that when you go to the party tomorrow you don't have to worry about him anymore. He is out of the way and you can go and have a ball. Why don't you do that Haman?"

Haman is now fully motivated to destroy Mordecai. You see Zeresh and his friends don't have the power to do anything. Haman holds the power, but they have influenced him to use his power.

How Satan Works

Satan has no power in our lives and neither do demons. The power of Satan and his evil forces lies in the existence of the flesh.

Because of the flesh Satan has power, because he will rule and reign through the flesh. He will do it by giving the flesh ideas and suggestions.

You say, "Well let's get rid of the demons. Let's get rid of the enemy."

We have this deliverance ministry concept that says,

"All my problems and all my sin are caused by demons. The demons made me do it so let's get rid of all the demons."

No, the demons didn't make you do anything. They just gave you a few creative ideas on how to do what you wanted to do already.

You see sin will find a way, and Satan is there to help you to sin better. He is there to help your flesh to be more creative in the way it sins.

The key is not getting rid of Zeresh and his friends. That would have accomplished nothing, because Haman would have still walked into the presence of the king, taken the king's ring and issued his decree.

It is Haman we have to get rid of. And once we get rid of him, Zeresh and his friends will disappear as we will see later on in the story. They no longer have any control or power at all.

For now though Haman looks to them and they give him all these brilliant ideas. He is now motivated and says,

"I am ready to do it. Let's attack and destroy the Spirit within."

He is not even going to wait. He says,

"I'm going to go and see the king right now today; first thing in the morning!"

God Intervenes

What he didn't realize though is that there was another power at work. We can call it providence. People call it all sorts of things, but His name is God. He is the ultimate being who is in control of all things.

He is not the Universe. He created the Universe. He is Almighty God, and He is not going to allow you to be destroyed. As you have made yourself available to Him and have taken your move in the Spirit to initiate this process, God is at work.

We saw that Satan is immediately at work to stir up the flesh and to bring destruction. But at the same time God begins to work.

God is not mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther. But we see that for some strange reason the king cannot sleep that night.

Well it is not surprising. There is a conflict going on inside of him and he doesn't even realize it. The flesh and the spirit are at war within and are against each other. He senses this restlessness and he can't sleep.

God's timing is always perfect. The king asks them to read him the Chronicles. This is the history of what has been happening in the kingdom. You know you get so busy that you lose touch of what is going on.

We do that. We forget what the Lord brought us through. We forget what He has done in our lives.

We just take it for granted and carry on living our lives and whatever we do. We continue until sometimes we come to that place of inner restlessness where we hit the wall and just don't know how to get out of it.

When you reach that point you begin to sit down and review your past. You look at your history and what has been happening in your life.

As Ahasuerus lies there awake, he calls for them to come and read him the Chronicles. Well when Esther reported those two men who were going to kill King Ahasuerus, she made sure that it was reported in the Chronicles.

So as they read the Chronicles to Ahasuerus, he finds out about the plot and says,

"Wow, Mordecai actually saved my life! How did I miss that? There it is, written in black and white."

Now he starts to feel bad. He says,

"You know this guy saved my life and I have just ignored him totally. So what reward did we give him for doing this?"

They said, "Nothing."

"What! We gave him nothing? How can we not reward a man who saved my life?"

You see God is beginning to work now. Revelation is now beginning to come to the mind to finally realize,

"Hang on, I have done something really wrong. I have missed it so badly. I need to fix it and I need to do it now."

The Tables Begin to Turn

It was perfect timing. The king says,

"Who is in the court?"

Guess who was there? It was Haman, walking in first thing in the morning at the right time to come and say,

"Hey king, I want to hang this guy Mordecai. Can I go ahead?"

Haman walks in right at that point. When the king hears who it is he says,

"Bring him in."

Then he says to him,

"Haman, tell me something. I want your advice here. What should I do if I really want to honor somebody? How would I display that and really show how important he is to me?"

You know the flesh is so conceited and so full of itself, that it never even occurred to him that the king could be speaking about somebody else. He thought,

"I am his right hand man. I got invited to the banquet with Esther. I'm the most important person in the kingdom. Who else would the king want to honor but me? This is all for me. Let me give the king some good advice."

So he says to King Ahasuerus,

"Okay king, this is what you should do. I want you to take this man and dress him in your royal garb. Then when everyone sees him they will think he is the king.

Put your crown on his head and let him ride on your horse (drive in your limousine), so when everyone sees it they think, 'There comes the king.' But it is not the king."

Haman could just see himself there. He could revel in it and think of how wonderful it was going to be for him to ride through the streets on the king's horse, dressed in all the king's garb.

Then he said to the king,

"Take one of your top guys and have him publicly announce, 'This is the man that the king honors. This is the greatest man in the kingdom.' "

Haman thinks that he will finally reap the full reward for being such a wonderful person. But he took the bait, walked right into the trap and didn't realize it. He took the final rope that is going to hang him.

The king says to him,

"That's a wonderful idea, Haman. Take Mordecai and do exactly that to him."

"What! Do that to Mordecai? He is the guy I was coming to ask if I could kill."

The Flesh Has to Bow

Oh dear, there is a sudden turn about in all the circumstances. Now the flesh is exposed for what it really is.

Now Haman is forced to go and take Mordecai and put him on display. And for the first time we are going to see the flesh and the spirit together publicly.

Up until now it has all been inside. It has all been happening there in the palace, unknown and unseen to anybody. The conflict has been taking place within. And now here it is exposed to the public.

What is being exposed is that the spirit is more important. And the flesh is forced to acknowledge the spirit.

You know the flesh will do amazing things to have its way. The flesh will study hard, go to Bible School and be trained for the ministry.

It will give up things and make great sacrifices, so that it may be exalted to stand up maybe even behind a pulpit and look good.

But the time will come when God exposes the flesh and shows that His Spirit is greater. When He does that, the flesh is going to be humiliated, and it will happen publicly.

You are going to make a fool of yourself. You are going to open your big mouth and put your foot in it, and all your self-boasting is going to be displayed to the world.

Why will this happen? Because you are a child of God. You have a new recreated spirit, and you have the Spirit of God and the living Jesus dwelling inside of you. He is not going to leave you in that condition of the flesh.

No Help from the Enemy

Poor Haman runs home in humiliation and says,

"I made such a fool of myself today. I am so humiliated I could just hide my head in shame."

He runs to his wife and his friends for help, so that they can say,

"Shame, shame. Poor Haman, how can they pick on you my darling? Isn't that terrible?"

The enemy was so willing to help you and to give you such wonderful advice up until now. But when you fail, is he now going to be there to comfort you and encourage you?

No, he didn't care about you in the first place. He just wanted to get rid of God and the Spirit of God in you.

So Haman comes to cry to them and they say,

"Oh boy you are in trouble! It is the beginning of the end for you, Haman. You don't stand a chance. You have messed it up so badly now.

Haman, how could you come up with such a stupid idea? You should have known better than that. That was really foolish of you. Don't you feel a heel right now."

Don't think that those encouraging voices that came to you from the enemy are going to be there to help you. Their whole plan was to bring you to this place, so that they can destroy you and the Lord at the same time.

You see Satan doesn't just want you to succeed and to take Christ out of your life. He wants to destroy you as well, along with everything that is good in you. If he had the power he would snuff out your life instantly.

He doesn't have the power though. He only has the power of suggestion. When you allow the flesh to reign he gives you all those suggestions, but they will lead you onto a path of destruction. That is the whole purpose for it.

Haven't you noticed that? Satan tempts you to sin, then when you fail he condemns you for sinning. He says to you,

"What kind of Christian are you? Yes Mr Big Mouth, you were going to accomplish so many things for the Lord. But just look at you. You fall into the least little temptation and you think you are such a hotshot."

The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren. He fills you with fear and then tells you all the wrong things that are going to take place. He tells you how God is going to judge you and destroy you because you are such a miserable sinner.

You are left feeling all alone. Now you are discouraged and down and Mordecai is riding the horse. A switch is about to take place.

A New Hope

The last thing Haman feels like right now is a party with Queen Esther. He wants to stay at home and lick his wounds.

He wants to wallow a little bit, but there is a knock at the door. The king's servants have arrived and they say,

"Hey Haman, are you ready? The king says it's time for the party. You have been invited, so you had better get there."

Poor Haman, I think he kind of went with his head bowed. The king's men have come to pick him up, and he is about to become history.

You see when the flesh takes control our situation seems hopeless, and somehow we just don't have the power to resist it. But there is something deep inside of us in our inner man that will not sit silent.

When the Holy Spirit begins to move on your recreated spirit, a new hope begins from within. The flesh cannot be resisted, but we can catch it in its own power.

The Death Process Begins

The Lord is not going to leave us in death. He is going to expose the flesh for what it is.

He is going to bring it to the end of itself, and to do that He may have to bring you to the end of yourself. You may come to the place, where as someone said, you feel so low you could crawl out of the door without opening it.

Death is imminent. Everyone is telling him this. He knows that he has messed it up so badly, but he thinks,

"Let's have one last party. Let's have a big fling and final bang. Maybe some good will come of it, who knows."

The flesh is going to its death. Haman is going to his death, and he doesn't know how quickly it is going to happen. But just over the horizon, something is about to take place that is going to transform the whole kingdom.

Haman is about to be removed and Mordecai is about to be put back in his place. How does that all happen? We will look at that in the next section or the next episode of Esther.

We will see the final move of Queen Esther, how Mordecai steps in and how everything is changed and transformed. Then we will see exactly what happens to Haman. And in seeing that we will see how God deals with the flesh in our lives.

It is not all going to end there though. Don't think that because Haman has been removed that the story is over. It is far from over. We will see some more of this as we continue in this series on the spiritual life from the book of Esther.

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Esther As a Model Of The Spiritual Life - Chapter 6 of 10