- Haman recounts all his wealth and power, but he admits that it is all worth nothing to him as long as Mordecai was not honoring him.
- This reminded me of a couple of other people in the Bible.
- Firstly, it reminded me of Solomon. He has women, money, power. He admits that he didn’t deny himself anything, but took anything he wanted.
- What did he think of having it all?
- His reaction to all his acquisitions, which included all knowledge and wisdom, was: “Everything is meaningless!”
- He found it all worth nothing. His final conclusion from his lifetime pursuit of everything and winding up with nothing was this: Fear God and keep his commandments.
- In the end, he decided that obeying God was the only thing that had value.
- Haman doesn’t learn the lesson. He’s about to die for it.
- Secondly, it reminded me of Paul.
- Paul recounts all his accomplishments in the Jewish faith, even calling himself blameless when it came to the law.
- But, then he calls it all rubbish. It’s a bunch of worthless trash.
- Isaiah calls all of our righteous acts “filthy rags.” They are trash.
- We have no good thing in us and have no good thing to offer God or the world. The world, however, desperately needs One who is good. They need Jesus. They want Jesus, seeking after peace, joy, love but not finding it truly anywhere else.
- The way we give them Jesus is by considering ourselves to have nothing to offer. Throw it all away, and empty ourselves, to receive the fullness of Christ. We need to consider ourselves crucified with Christ and that Christ lives in us.
- Then we have something of ultimate value to offer the world.
