Friday, November 22, 2019

Est 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.



I consider this the biggest joke in the Bible: Haman built a gallows and was himself hung on it. I said before that Esther must let Haman dig his own grave; well, Haman built his own gallows.

Haman didn’t intend to build the gallows for himself. He built it to hang Mordecai. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way he intended; he was hung on it instead.

Someone said it well: Bitterness is a poison that kills only the person who has it. It’s taking a poison yourself but expecting the other person to die. In this case, Haman died instead of Mordecai. Bitterness killed him. We recall in Esther 5:9 that when “Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.” Bitterness took away his happiness and his life.

The incident of Haman reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Galatians : “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7, 8).
                                                            
He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption – We cannot plant bananas and expect to reap durians. We will reap what we have sown. Haman reaped that he had sown. He yielded to his fleshly lusts. He was proud, hateful, and vengeful. He was killed by his own vengeful spirit.

In like manner, a Christian who sows to the flesh, who indulges in sensual and animal appetites, cannot expect to go to heaven: “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful (Matthew 13:22).

He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting - If we desire to be spiritual, we must sow spiritual thoughts and actions: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22, 23).

Note the word, “fruit”. “Fruit” is the result; it is the result of what we have sown. When we sow love, we will get love. If we sow hate, we will get hate. Do you know how you can have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance? By desiring and doing them!
                                                  
To reap the Spirit, we must sow to the Spirit. We cannot attain spiritual maturity if we do not seek the things that are spiritual. We have to set our affection on things above and not on this earth (Colossians 3:1, 2). We can’t grow in the knowledge of the word of God if we do not love it, study it, and seize every opportunity to learn it: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

What kind of seeds are we sowing? Sowing to the flesh reaps corruption. Corruption has the sense of decaying, like food becoming rotten and is bound for destruction. When we sow to the flesh, we will die (Romans 6:23). Haman sowed to the flesh and died.

Let us sow the seeds that produce the fruit of the Spirit. The old saying is true: “Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” Your destiny is determined by what you are sowing today. Are you sowing to the Spirit?
 

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