The Thrills and Frills of Ambition

Attained

Esther 3:

1. After these things did the king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammadaatha the Agagite and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him

2. And all the king’s servants that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence

3. Then the king’s servants which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why trangressest thou the king’s commandment?

4. Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matter would stand: for he told them that he was a Jew

5. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not nor did reverence, then he was full of wrath

6. And he thought it scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had showed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

The story of Esther, an evergreen classic, reads like a masterpiece of fresh relevance. The story has a lot of sudden and strange twists of plots with a running thread that speaks of the saving and preserving hands of God behind the scenes. Yet, it’s an irony that the whole book doesn’t mention God for a moment.

A new character has just been introduced into the existing plot of Esther and king Ahasuerus hitting it right as lovers; his name is Haman, an Agagite the son of Hammadaatha of Amalek.

Jews and Amalekite were sworn enemies from many centuries before meeting and thrown together in the Persia and Media kingdom of Ahasuerus. The Law put ten generations of Amalekite under the terrible ban of a curse away from the presence of God; they were not to be allowed into the congregation of the commonwealth of Israel till their tenth generation. Saul, Israel’s king, had been instructed to destroy Amalekite. He halfheartedly carried out the injunction.

Now, many centuries later, in another setting, it’s a payback time: an Agagite is in elevated position, a Prime Minister of a kingdom; he’s next to the emperor and above all the hundred plus princes or governors. And a Jew is among the servants that sit in the gate, a common servant. His, this Jew, superiors are ordered to bow for him, the Agagite. But, Mordecai, this Jew of strange culture that sees bowing for human being like him as idolatry, makes it known that he’s not bowing down to a fellow human being. Here’s a clash of cultures! Perhaps, Mordecai is right in his conjectures; perhaps Haman is not less right to be wrathful. He’s certainly wrong to think it an infra dig to stoop to lay hands on Mordecai, a vermin. It’s wrong of him to want to destroy a whole race – a genocidal thought.

Haman is of the world. The world is for the display of glory, of grace and intoxication of power. Power is worldly glory realised. This is the diet upon which nations of mankind are fed with and this is the sweetness of life. A child is born, a hope of attaining to glory is set before him to pursue. This is called positive motivation. And he’s rewarded with awards and the frills that follow and he’s thrilled to the marrow by the world at his feet. This can be in the form of gaining power, or display of razor-blade intelligence, attainment to an office… Life is about becoming a success – whatever the scope of that may be. The rest of us who fail never lose hope, for we know our turns will come. It’s in this hope will live and die.

As a young man, I had tall ambitions to be a participant in creating of a new world through scientific knowledge and through being relevant in the scheme of things in the world. And, oh, menh, did I go in full acceleration towards that goal! In the course of life and at the twilight of life, I discover that “the race is not for the swiftest, nor food for the wise…. but time and chance happen to them all.” I’m not saying that a believer cannot be a super achiever nor am I of the opinion that he cannot have ambitions. Even then, while God can allow this and that of his own to attain this and that, He, most often, cuts them to divine size and order through the Cross of Christ: this is the principle of the Cross of Christ. “Everything that was a GAIN to me these I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus…. for whom I suffered the loss of all things,…. that I may win (GAIN) Christ” (Philipians 3:8). And this because I’m defiant to the call of the life of the world of achievements, thrilling successes; I’m on the way to the life of God by the way of knowing Him. Knowing God is the reason for my being; I am because He is and He is my goal, my ambition and my success. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection (through cycles of dying to all other goals and pursuits and resurrecting to encompassing glory of God), and the fellowship of his sufferings (which is cutting me off from the world through the Cross), being made conformable to his death” (Philippians 3:10). This is the path to the glory of all glories, to attain to out-resurrection (verse 11).

Haman is in the path of this world, its lost and pride (1John2:15). The way of success of this world cuts through a miasma of evil scheming and demands, on attainment, the reverence and acknowledgement of the rest of us. Haman is angry that somebody is despising his position which is the envy of the world. And this is the point of departure between the world and the other world. The former is contrary to the latter. More often than not, the former always rise to subjugate and persecute the latter. To the former it’s abnormal to despise worldly success! Mordecai despises a height which he believes is not of His God. In the twilight of life, I begin to hold all my pursuits and goals as but dung because of Christ. I think I’m now coming into convergence of thought with Paul.

A place of fleshy thrills and the pursuits of satisfying the pleasant stimuli, this world is ordered and sustained by a spirit other than that of the the Eternal Spirit of God. Here, He’s person non grata. This is the world designed by a deathly being and, I shall give him his due, he’s so successful in his purpose through his enrapturing civilisation – the ancient and modern – that’s riveting man’s focus and gaze!

Haman the man of the now is thinking of complete annihilation of the future man. He thought it scorn to lay hands on just a part of the future man but his entire race, this race of Christ!

Thank you Lord for being there in eternity, beating the great enemy to it