# Day 202

# “Hang Mordecai”

Esther 5:9–6:11

Haman went home boasting to his wife, Zeresh, of all his honors. “Even Queen Esther let only me dine with the king.”

Then Haman became sour. “But all this does me no good. Mordecai refuses to bow down to me.”

“Hang Mordecai,” Zeresh suggested. “Then you can eat with the king and be happy.” Haman liked this idea and ordered a tall gallows to be built. Mordecai would hang tomorrow.

That night, King Ahasuerus couldn’t sleep, so he read the history of his empire. There he learned that Mordecai had saved his life. I wonder how I can honor this man, he thought. “What’s the best way for me to honor a man, Haman?”

Haman thought the king wanted to honor him. “Give him your royal robes and your horse. Send a nobleman with him as he rides through the city. That man should shout, “This is the man the king honors.”

“Quickly, do this for Mordecai, the Jew,” ordered the king. So Haman was the nobleman who shouted in Shushan: “Mordecai is the man the king honors.”

Questions: Why did the king want to honor Mordecai? Haman didn’t hang Mordecai. What did he do for him?