Saul hath made women childless, so shall thy
mother be childless among women.
Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord
in Galileo, on Samuel, chapter 15, verse 33.
How quickly the boastful swagger of the flesh,
in the day of its ascendancy, can be
reduced to the sobbing cry of self-pity,
when the moment of truth has come.
Beware of this prophecy, and never be sorry
for yourself, just be sorry for your sin.
If your pride is hurt, and you feel
that you have been misjudged, and you become
all sensitive and begin to sulk, you can
be quite certain that it is only Haman
groveling in the distance, sobbing for the mercy
he doesn't deserve.
Haman is fit only for the gallows.
And Havona, one of the chamberlains, said before
the king, Behold also the gallows, fifty cubits
high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who
had spoken good for the king, standeth in
the house of Haman.
Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that
he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then was the king's wrath passed off.
Chapter 7, verses 9 and 10.
What an amazing picture this is.
Haman hanging on his own gallows, the gallows
that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Nineteen hundred years ago, it was a Roman
gallows, and of those who put him there,
the Lord Jesus said, You are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is
no truth in him.
John's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 44.
How Satan must have relished the idea of
God's son hanging on that cross!
How carefully the plot was laid, as Satan
entered into the heart of Judas's carrier, and
persuaded him on that awful night to go
out into the darkness, and betray his Lord
for 30 pieces of silver.
With what ecstatic delight, Satan must have incited
the crowd as they looked and stared upon
him, shouting, He saves others, himself he cannot
save!
This was to be his hour of triumph.
But one thing he did not know, there
was still more business to be accomplished upon
the cross than Satan ever guessed.
This was not just the sentence of death
upon a man by fellow men, a spectacular
public execution, or the untimely end of a
noble martyr who drifted to disaster because he
lived before day and generation.
Die indeed he did, as men must die
whose blood is spilled.
It was not the son, however, but Satan
himself who bore the mortal blow of God's
relentless wrath, as the Savior tasted death for
every man.
For as much then as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the
power of death, that is, the devil.
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14.
For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own son in the likeness of
simple flesh, and forcing condemned sin in the
flesh.
Romans chapter 8.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died for you,
he not only paid the price of your
redemption, but identified with him there, and nailed
to his cross was that old sinful nature
that for so long has dominated your soul
and frustrated all your hopes.
This is something which God wants you to
know, for we know that our old unremoved
self was nailed to the cross with him,
in order that our body which is the
instrument of sin might be made ineffective and
inactive for evil, that we might no longer
be the slaves of sin.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 6 in the
Amplified Bible.
This is the truth being expressed in the
language of the book of Esther, when Haman
was hanged upon the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai.
No longer might Haman exercise the executive powers
of government and abuse the king's authority.
No longer would he bring disrepute upon the
kingdom through his malicious evil influence over the
behavior of this people throughout the length and
breadth of the land.
The kingdom, representing this human body, was no
longer to be the instrument of his evil
acts, but by his death it would become
ineffective and inactive for evil.
As Haman hung by the neck, so the
stage was set for that radical change of
government which would produce so great a change
in behavior, that from one end of the
country to the other, everyone would know that
something very wonderful had happened in the palace
of the king.
The wrong man was out and the right
man was in.
Chapter 10.
On the very day that Haman hanged, Mordecai
came before the king, for Esther had told
what he was unto her.
Esther explained to King Ahasuerus that she belonged
by adoption to Mordecai, who had intervened to
save the king's life from the hands of
the assassin, and that for the king to
be identified with her must inevitably involve his
identification with Mordecai, if there was to be
harmony in his relationship to the queen.
In the light of all that had been
revealed to him, and with a profound sense
of gratitude not only for the preservation of
his own life, but for his deliverance from
the subtle destructive influence of the enemy within
the palace, on that day did the king
Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jew's
enemy, unto Esther the queen.
And the king took off his ring which
he had taken from Haman, and he gave
it to Mordecai.
Chapter 8, verses 1 and 2.
You will notice that the king did two
things.
He placed the ring upon Mordecai's finger, but
he entrusted the administration of Haman's estate to
Esther.
In this way, although the king invested Mordecai
with all the authority that once had belonged
to Haman, this authority was to be exercised
according to what Ahasuerus now considered to be
the better judgment of Esther the queen.
Esther, for her part, indicated at once where
she knew the better judgment place.
Not in herself, but in Mordecai, whom she
sent over the house of Haman.
Chapter 8, verse 2.
Thus the king identified his will with that
of Esther, and Esther submitted her will to
that of Mordecai.
And I'm sure that the spiritual significance of
this new situation in the palace will be
very obvious to you.
When the soul consisting of the mind, the
emotions, and the will, King Ahasuerus, is in
total harmony with the desires created by the
Holy Spirit, Mordecai, within a yielded human spirit,
Esther, this is what the Bible describes as
the fullness of the Holy Ghost.
Allow me then to retrace our steps for
a moment, so that we may get the
overall picture in its full significance, recapitulating stage
by stage.
The Holy Spirit resists.
This was the first picture portrayed by the
situation recorded in chapter 3.
Outside the palace, Mordecai was sitting in the
king's guests, while inside the palace, Haman was
plotting Mordecai's destruction.
Fearful left Mordecai, who refused to bow in
his presence, should gain access to the king
and bring about that change of government which
would introduce to the land those wars which
Haman hated.
The Holy Spirit received.
Though bitterly opposed by Haman, as the Holy
Spirit will always be bitterly opposed, resented, and
resisted by the flesh, chapter 2 spoke to
us of the Holy Spirit coming into the
human spirit, as Mordecai came into the life
of Esther.
The basis was that of adoption, just as
you and I must receive the spirit of
adoption if we are to be born again
of a family of forgiven sinners.
The Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
Romans chapter 8 verses 15 and 16.
The Holy Spirit grieved.
At the beginning of chapter 4, Mordecai sat
clothed in sackcloth and ashes, crying with a
loud and bitter cry.
This picture brought to us a vivid illustration
of what happened when the Spirit of God
is grieved.
Mordecai had come into the life of Esther,
and she did the commandments of Mordecai like
as when she was brought up with him,
chapter 2 and verse 20.
But Mordecai had not yet come into the
life of the king.
Haman, still dominated the scene, projected his evil
influence throughout the kingdom.
Here portrayed as the defeated Christian, described by
Paul in his epistle to the Romans.
So you see how it is.
My new life tells me to do right,
but the old nature that is still inside
me loves to sin.
Oh, what a terrible thing this is!
Who will free me from my slavery to
this deadly lower nature?
Romans chapter 7, 24 and 25 in the
Living Lessons.
The Holy Spirit quenched.
This was the picture painted next.
As chapter 4 continues, Esther was reluctant to
obey Mordecai's instructions, and hesitated to go unsummoned
into the presence of the king, thus to
hazard her life in the interests of her
people, that the seed of Abraham might not
perish.
Though his wickedness had been fully exposed to
her, until Esther was prepared to die to
her own ability to hang Haman, it was
impossible for Mordecai to assume responsibility for putting
this enemy into the place of death.
The Holy Spirit obeyed.
As it came to its climactic conclusion, the
latter part of chapter 4 introduced us to
the implications of true discipleship.
On the third morning, Esther, as good as
dead, entered into the royal presence, and the
king held out the golden scepter.
Losing her life, she found it again, to
be identified forever with God's purpose, God's power,
and God's people.
Thus the decks were cleared for those events
recorded in chapters 5, 6 and 7, which
would enlighten the understanding of the king, and
bring Haman to the gallows.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit.
With the enemy deposed, and Mordecai, with the
king's wing upon his finger, occupying his estate,
and with the king and queen swanned with
each other in honoring Mordecai with all the
executive powers of government, the stage had now
been set for a new and glorious regime.
That regime which, when established spiritually within your
soul, means that not only does the Lord
Jesus Christ live by his Holy Spirit within
your human spirit, but that he now controls
your mind, your emotions, and your will.
By all that you do and say in
are his life, and his likeness are expressed
through you.
People around you become aware of the fact,
though they may not understand it, that by
the exceeding great and precious promises you have
become partaker of the divine nature.
In the second of Peter's epistles, chapter 1
and verse 4, it is important to remember
at this stage of the story that, though
Mordecai is welcomed and at home within the
palace, he continues to communicate with the king
through Esther, the queen.
And Esther spake yet again before the king,
and fell down at his feet, and besought
him with tears to put away the mischief,
and to reverse the letters devised by Haman
the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, which he
wrote to destroy the Jews which are in
all the king's provinces.
Chapter 8, verses 3 and 5.
This raises quite an interesting point.
We have already discussed in chapter 5 the
duality of human conscience, the moral conscience seated
in the human spirit, and the animal conscience
seated in the human soul.
In the same way, there appears to be
a duality in the exercise of the human
will.
When you exercise your animal will, you make
an animal choice governed by your animal conscience.
On the other hand, when you exercise your
moral will, you make a moral choice governed
by your moral conscience.
There is, of course, much that you do
by the exercise of your animal will which
has no moral significance, and your behavior then
is governed only by your animal conscience, for
your animal conscience simply decides what is consequentially
right, and what is consequentially wrong.
When a blazing log falls out of a
fire, for instance, you decide not to pick
it up with your hands, because that would
be consequentially wrong.
Your hands would get burned.
No moral issue, however, is involved in this
decision.
It is an animal choice which any sensible
animal would make, faced with a comparable situation.
You walk by the exercise of your animal
will, the way a dog would walk, except
that you only have two legs to do
it with.
You sit down physically the way a dog
sits down, and you step into a car
physically the way a dog steps into a
car.
That will which you exercise to bring the
body into action to do these things is
not morally involved.
The moral factor may well be introduced, however,
if you are sitting down when the work
which you are paid to do demands that
you be standing up.
Furthermore, though there may be no moral choice
involved in the physical act of walking, there
may well be a moral choice involved in
the direction you have chosen to walk, and
the company into which this will bring you.
Stepping into the car, starting the engine, and
driving down the road may demand no more
than a series of physical acts with which
your moral conscience and your moral will remain
totally unconcerned until you reach the main highway.
There you have to decide whether to turn
to the right or to the left.
To turn to the right would take you
to the club where, as an alcoholic, you
used to get drunk.
To turn to the left would take you
home to your wife and family.
Even though you are born again, the same
principle which still operates within you will seek
to dominate your animal will, so that you
make the decisions which will enable the flesh
to use your body in order to realize
and satisfy its carnal appetite.
At the same time, it will seek to
silence your moral conscience, and to persuade your
animal conscience that you can do it and
get away with it without any unpleasant consequence.
Simultaneously, your moral conscience, quickened and undergirded by
the Holy Spirit within your human spirit, will
exercise its moral will to plead with your
animal will to put away the mischief, saying
in so many words, do not let any
part of your body become tools of wickedness
to be used for sinning, but give yourselves
completely to God, every part of you, for
you are backed from death and you want
to be tools in the hands of God
to be used for His good purpose.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 13 in the
Living Letter.
If the flesh is successful in silencing your
moral conscience, and in exerting its influence over
your animal will, you will turn right at
the main highway and end up at the
cross, morally defeated.
On the other hand, if the Holy Spirit
enables your moral will to exercise control over
your animals, you will turn left and arrive
home to the delight of your wife and
children, and to the inexpressible joy of their
own soul, morally victorious.
But that's just it, you see, right there
when I hit the highway and have to
make the choice.
That's where I run into trouble.
That's where I'm beaten again and again.
How can I get my animal will into
harmony with my moral will?
How in my experience can I get the
ring on the right thing?
The answer lies in your attitude toward the
Lord Jesus Christ, whose life you share.
When Esther went in once more before the
king, and that sought him with tears to
put away the mischief and to reverse the
letter, it was in an attitude of utter
confidence in Mordecai.
She felt certain that as her obedience to
him had enabled Mordecai to put Haman into
the place of death, so now her continued
obedience to him would allow Mordecai to bring
his gracious influence to bear upon the king's
mind and upon the decisions made in the
palace.
As she once had died to her own
ability to hang Haman, so she continued to
die to her own ability to change the
character of the king, for on this occasion
too she entered unsung into his presence, and
once more the king held out the golden
scepter toward Esther.
Chapter 8 and verse 4.
She was still living in the power of
the third morning, resurrection life.
This too must be your attitude toward the
Lord Jesus Christ.
In every controversy between your moral will and
the flesh, as to how your animal will
is to be exercised in determining the things
you think and say and do, you will
say to him, Dear Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for your Holy Spirit, to whom I
yield my human spirit, and by whose gracious
presence I share your life and share your
victory.
I know that I cannot deal with the
principle of sin within me, nor put the
flesh into the place of death, but I
thank you that you can, and that you
did when you died upon the cross, and
I died with you.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit, who alone
can make this real in my experience, mortifying
those deeds of my body which have their
origin in Satan.
I'm willing for you to invade my soul,
to control my mind, to control my emotions,
and to control my will, so that every
decision within my soul will be in perfect
harmony with my spirit, and my spirit in
perfect harmony with you, so that my whole
being may declare your praise.
Lord Jesus, I can't, but you can.
Thank you so much.
If you are prepared to practice the presence
of Christ in this way, and reckon with
him through his Holy Spirit, not only to
keep the flesh in the place of death,
but to establish his divine sovereignty within every
area of your soul, then you will experience
that delightful transformation of character which will conform
you increasingly to the image of God's dear
Son.
It will be a transformation characterized by all
that happens throughout the land once Mordecai was
given the place of honor in the past.
Then the King Ahasuerus said unto Esther the
Queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I
have given Esther the house of Haman, and
him they have hanged upon the gallows, because
he laid his hand upon the Jews.
Write ye also for the Jews, as it
like it be, in the King's name, and
seal it with the King's ring.
For the writing which is written in the
King's name, sealed with the King's ring, made
no man reverse.
And it was written according to all that
Mordecai commanded unto the Jews.
And to the lieutenant, and the deputy, and
buddhas of the India unto Ethiopia, a hundred
twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according
to the writing thereof, and unto every people
after their language, and to the Jews according
to their writing, and according to their language.
And he wrote in the King Ahasuerus' name,
and sealed it with the King's ring.
Chapter eight, verses seven to ten.
So the new edict was published.
It was still in the name of the
King, but no longer according to all that
Haman commanded.
It was now according to all that Mordecai
commanded.
For Mordecai was great in the King's house,
and his fame went out throughout all the
provinces.
For this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.
Chapter nine, verse four.
In the royal city of Shushan, throughout the
King's provinces, in the villages, and in the
unwalled town, all that had happened in the
past made a profound and lasting impact.
There was no part of the community unaffected
by the change, and everyone knew that something
wonderful must have happened to the King.
As Mordecai established God's laws in the palace,
so God's people to whom these laws had
been entrusted had rest from the end.
Chapter nine, verse sixteen.
Sorrow was turned to joy, mourning to a
good day, while fear was replaced by fellowship,
as they sent portions one to another and
gave gifts to the poor.
Chapter nine, verse twenty-two.
Every new instruction, as Mordecai sent letters to
all the Jews in the hundred twenty and
seven provinces of the kingdom of King Ahasuerus,
brought words of peace and truth.
Chapter nine, verse thirty.
Little wonder then that these days were to
become days never to be forgotten in the
history of this people.
When the plot to destroy the Jews had
been hatched in the wicked heart of Haman,
a plot prompted by Satan's inherent hatred of
the promised seed of faithful Abraham, Jesus Christ,
Haman had cast lots according to an ancient
custom called Purr, that he might select a
lucky day on which to bring his evil
designs to fruition.
The day chosen in this way was the
thirteenth day of Adah, and on this one
day all Jews, both young and old, little
children and women, were to perish.
Chapter three, verse thirteen.
Instead, far from perishing on the thirteenth day
of the month, on the fourteenth day of
Adah, the Jews rejoiced with unspeakable joy as
a people wonderfully delivered.
Sentenced to death, they had been raised from
the dead, and the wicked device of Haman,
which he had devised against the Jews, had
returned upon his own head that he and
his son should be hanged on the gallows.
Chapter nine, verse twenty-five.
Years later, Satan's wicked device was to return
upon his own head when the Lord Jesus,
through death upon the cross, destroyed him who
had the power of death, even the devil,
and nailed him to his own gallows.
Hebrews, chapter two, verses fourteen and fifteen.
So, year by year, throughout their generations, the
Jewish people have celebrated a feast of Purr,
named after Purr, by which custom Haman cast
lots, in celebration of their great and gracious
deliverance.
Another remarkable thing happened, too, for many of
the people of the land became Jews, for
the fear of the Jews fell upon them.
Chapter eight, in verse seventeen.
They knew full well what had been destined
for these people.
Humanly speaking, their situation had been hopeless, yet
they had been snatched from the grave and
their enemies slain.
The people began to say to themselves, if
this is what it means to be numbered
amongst the people of God, then I want
to become a Jew.
I want to know for myself the kind
of God who can save his people from
death, destroy their foes, and give them joy,
peace, and rest.
There is nothing quite so infectious as a
man genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit.
True holiness is also always evangelistic.
It makes the sinner heartily sick of his
sins, and causes him to hunger and thirst
after righteousness until he cries out from the
depths of his soul, Sir, what must I
do to be saved?
Acts chapter 16, verse 30.
Is this the effect that your life has
upon your neighbors, upon your workmates, upon your
fellow students, and upon your own children?
And Mordecai went out from the presence of
the king in royal apparel of blue and
white, and with a great crown of gold,
and with a garment of fine linen and
purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced, and
was glad.
Chapter 8, verse 15.
How different everything has become!
It seemed almost as if the sun shone
brighter, and as though every cloud in the
sky was laughing.
The birds sang more sweetly in every flower,
and a new fragrance.
The time had been when the king and
Haman sat down to drink.
Haman then was in the ascendancy, and the
city of Shushan was perplexed.
Now, with Haman on the gallows, and Mordecai
in the palace, the city perplexed had become
the city rejoicing.
The psalmist knew something of this, I am
sure, when inspired by the Holy Spirit, he
penned the 46th Psalm.
God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall
make glad the city of God, the holy
place of the Tamanakos of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved.
God shall help her, and that right early.
Be still, and know that I am God.
Psalm 46 verses 1, 2, 4, 5, and
10.
This river has its source in the throne
of God and of the Lamb.
Revelation chapter 22 and verse 1.
It is the life of God in the
soul of man, and the promise is to
you and to your children.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture
has said, out of his belly, out of
his innermost being shall flow rivers of living
water.
But this spake he of the Spirit, which
they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given,
because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
John's Gospel chapter 7 verses 38 and 39.
Allow God so to strengthen you by his
Spirit in the inner man that the Lord
Jesus may be glorified in your heart as
he is glorified in heaven.
Then the river will flow, and make glad
the city of God.
Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the
Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto
God and the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians chapter 5 verses 19 and 20.
Then you will have every right to rejoice
and be glad.
End of chapter 10 and commencing now chapter
11.
Never break your heart trying to be someone
else.
In the first place you never will be.
You will always be you and no one
else.
The person who gets up in the morning
will be the person who went to bed
the night before.
So you might as well get reconciled to
the fact that you are the person you're
going to live with for the rest of
your day.
In the second place, it is the way
God wants it.
He never intended that you should be anyone
else but you.
But what he would like is that you
should learn how to be the person he
intended you to be.
King Ahasuerus was a different person at the
beginning of the story of the book of
Esther from the king Ahasuerus at the end
of the story.
It is important to bear in mind, however,
that it was the same king, the same
mind, the same emotions, and the same will.
Had Ahasuerus continued to behave under the influence
of Haman, and had he continued to identify
himself with Haman's wicked ways, he would have
been responsible for one of the cruelest massacres
in human history.
His name would have gone down in ignominy
and shame.
As it was, under the influence of Mordecai
and identified with his gracious way, the king
earned the honor and respect of a happy
and prosperous people.
If others were astonished at the change, maybe
there were none more astonished than the king
himself.
Ahasuerus had learned the difference between the man
that Haman could make of him, the old
man, and the man that Mordecai could make
of him, the new man.
He had come under entirely new management.
This may help you to understand what the
Lord Jesus Christ meant in what might otherwise
appear to have been a contradiction, when on
one occasion he said to his disciples, if
any man will come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me.
Matthew 16 24.
It becomes quite evident from this statement that
there is a self to be denied.
That is to say, a self to be
repudiated.
On another occasion, however, when a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life?
The Lord Jesus Christ replied by quoting from
the law, from the sixth chapter of the
book of Deuteronomy.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Luke chapter 10 verses 25 to 27.
If you were to love your neighbor as
yourself, then you must first love yourself.
Otherwise, on this basis, love for your neighbor
would become meaningless.
It would appear, therefore, from the answer given
by the Lord Jesus to those who questioned
him, that there is a legitimate place for
self-love, and that in addition to a
self to be repudiated, that there must be
a self to be respected.
How then is self-respect to be reconciled
with self-repudiation?
Can they be coexistent?
The answer to this problem is clearly illustrated
in the person of King Ahasuerus.
He had to repudiate the kind of man
that Haman made of him, but he had
the right to respect the kind of man
that Mordecai made of him.
In the same way, the self that you
have to repudiate is the self that the
flesh makes of you when the flesh is
dominant within the soul, abusing and misusing your
personality.
The self, however, that you have the right
to respect is the self that Christ makes
of you, filling you with His Holy Spirit,
enhancing and using your personality.
I, the self that sin makes of me,
am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
The self that Christ makes of me, yet
not I, but Christ lives in me.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
This is the you which God wants you
to become, for this is the you which
God intended you to be.
There is most certainly a legitimate place for
healthy self-respect in your life as a
Christian, but it is the self-respect that
derives from your personal relationship to Jesus Christ.
On this basis, you can learn to love
the most unlovely of your neighbors, because you
know that if there is anything that you
can love or respect about yourself, it is
only what Christ has made of you.
So though your neighbor lies drunken in the
gutter, you can love him.
Not for the man that sin has made
of him, but for the man you know
that Christ can make of him, once he
has taken over.
For what he has made of you, he
can make of him.
You do not lose your own personality when
you take your place by faith with Christ
in death.
On the contrary, a transformation takes place within
your personality.
You simply come under new management, so that
when someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a
brand new person inside.
He is not the same anymore.
A new life has begun.
All these new things are from God, who
brought us back to himself through what Christ
Jesus did.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 17-18 in
the Living Lesson.
The new life which has begun, of course,
is the life of the Lord Jesus, and
your personality becomes his means of expression.
It is he who, as God, works through
both to will and to do of his
good flesh.
Philippians chapter 2 and verse 13.
When you are prepared for the Lord Jesus
Christ really to get into business like that,
you will not want to be anyone else.
You will be far too excited discovering what
he intends you to be.
It was no good for Jacob to try
to inherit the promise, because that was the
man the flesh made of him.
God had prepared the inheritance for Israel, the
man that only God could make of Jacob.
It was no good for Simon to try
to be an apostle, for that was the
man the flesh made of him.
God had called Peter the man that only
God could make of Simon.
It was no good for Saul of Tarsus
to try to defend the faith, for that
was the man the flesh made of him.
God wanted Paul the apostle, and that was
the man that only God could make of
Saul of Tarsus.
Has God changed your name yet?
Did you ever get in the chance?
God changes the name when God changes the
man.
The Ten Sons of Haman.
I wonder if, as you have been reading
these pages, some such thoughts have been passing
through your mind.
I understand the picture quite clearly.
Just as Haman was hanged upon the gallows,
so, in the purpose of God, my old
sinful nature was nailed to the cross with
the Lord Jesus Christ, executing this.
Now that Haman is hanged, however, is that
the last that will ever be heard of
him?
Does this mean that my old sinful nature
is wholly eradicated the moment I claim my
faith, my identity with Christ in death?
Is the new Israel that Christ creates in
me never to be troubled again by the
old Jacob?
And is Peter never again to be confronted
by Simon?
If this is what you have been thinking,
then these are good questions, and I believe
the answer is to be found quite easily.
Illustrated for us in a fascinating way in
the ninth chapter of the book of Esther.
Then said Esther, if it please the king,
let it be granted to the Jews which
are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according
unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten
sons be hanged upon the gallows.
And the king commanded it so to be
done, and the decree was given at Shushan,
and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
Chapter 9 verses 13 and 14.
That's the answer.
Haman had ten sons.
You may die today to your own ability
to put Haman to the place of death,
thus allowing the Holy Spirit to celebrate in
you the victory of the Lord Jesus, putting
Haman on the cross, but this will not
do for tomorrow.
You will discover that Haman has ten sons.
That is not all for the Haman of
your own heart not only has ten sons,
but every one of these ten sons has
ten sons more.
There is no climactic experience by which the
evil influence of the flesh may be eradicated
once and for all, though the flesh itself
in its subtlety would like you to believe
it, in the interests of its own self
-preservation.
Only be persuaded that the flesh no longer
exists, and you are not likely to cause
it any further inconvenience as it perpetuates its
wicked activities in your soul.
Nothing could please the devil more than that.
Appropriation of the victory of Christ demands more
than just one act of faith.
It requires an attitude of faith.
It is a moment-by-moment reckoning, and
your reckoning for this moment is never adequate
for the next.
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfill the lusts of the flesh, for the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh.
Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17.
Walking in the Spirit is a continuous process,
one step at a time.
It means that for every new situation to
which every new step brings you, you must
reckon positively with the Holy Spirit to keep
the flesh in the place of death.
I want to emphasize the need to reckon
positively, for we are not only to reckon
ourselves to be dead indeed in the sin,
but we are to reckon ourselves alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 11.
It is our enjoyment of the resurrection life
of the Lord Jesus Christ through reckoning positively
with his presence which sets us free from
the law of sin and death.
The surest way of reckoning yourself to be
dead to sin, that old Adamic nature, is
to reckon yourself alive in Jesus Christ and
be utterly dependent upon him.
He then will take care of the consequences.
Quite obviously, by the statement Paul made in
the epistles of the Galatians, he recognized that
the flesh is still active in the believer.
If to walk in the Spirit is not
to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, then
the converse would be equally true.
Not to walk in the Spirit, that is
to say to walk other than in moment
-by-moment dependence upon him, means that you
will fall prey to the lusts of the
flesh and encounter to your discomfort some of
Haman's many sons and grandsons, the evil progeny
of Amalek.
Israel will encounter Jacob, Peter will behave like
Simon, and Paul will have a brush with
Paul of Tarsus.
The Bible presents an overwhelming case for Christian
victory.
As long as we are prepared to fulfill
the conditions, and appropriate by faith the victorious
life of Christ himself.
On the other hand, nowhere in the Bible
is there any support for the promise of
sinless perfection, save on that wonderful day when
we shall see the Lord Jesus Christ face
to face.
Then indeed we shall be like him, for
we shall see him as he is.
The first epistle of John chapter 3 in
verse 2.
Do not allow anyone therefore to deceive, for
this will only lead you into dishonesty, no
matter how sincere you may be as you
seek to reconcile a bad conscience with your
claim to sinless perfection.
You will simply have to invent some other
name for sin, and pretend that it does
not exist.
The Holy Spirit is your comforter and friend.
He is within you to keep you from
falling, but be very sensitive to what he
has to say.
For the Lord corrects and disciplines every one
whom he loves, and he punishes, even scourges,
every son whom he accepts, and welcomes to
his heart and cherishes.
You must submit to and endure correction for
discipline.
God is dealing with you as with sons,
for what son is there whom his father
does not thus train and correct and discipline?
Now, if you are exempt from correction, and
left without discipline, in which all of God's
children share, then you are illegitimate offspring, and
not true sons at all.
Hebrews chapter 12, verses 6 to 8, in
the Amplified Bible.
In other words, when the Holy Spirit names
it, call it by its name, admit and
confess it for the sin that it is.
Claim instantly the cleansing that God has promised
through the blood of Christ, and be thankful
that the greater Mordecai, the Holy Spirit, is
in residence, constantly alert, and ready instantly to
expose the wickedness of Haman's breed, and to
save you from the evil.
The power of veto, and the moral choice.
For Mordecai, the Jew, was next unto King
Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted
of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the
wealth of his people, and seeking peace to
all who seek.
Chapter 10, verse 3.