How often is this same scenario played out in the lives of our race. Countless are the betrayals that mark our history. And how often is it those closest to us that are caused to suffer most. These real life experiences picture to us an inward reality designed to teach us about the character of the flesh.
"My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." [Psa 55:4-5]
"For it is not an enemy who reviled me; then I could have borne it; it is not one who hates me who magnified himself against me; or I would hide myself from him; but it is you, a man my rank, my guide and my friend. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company." [Psa 55:12-14]
When Father brings the Spirit into close proximity with self He is applying a poultice. A wound cannot heal until the infection has been withdrawn and the drawing out of poison is a painful process. Yet it is this very agony that signals the prospect of the cure. Not until one sees the true nature of self in the light of the Spirit can the balm begin its work.
Ahasueras does not yet know Haman. To the king, Haman is a benefactor, enriching and protecting the kingdom. Haman has the king's best interest at heart - or so the king believes. How could that be bad? Haman is the king's closest confidante, his best friend. But scripture paints a different picture of the type Haman portrays and the blindness we all suffer when it comes to our own Adamic nature.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is incurable; who can know it?" [Jer 17:9]To reveal to one of His children the true nature of their flesh requires great care and preparation. Father has lovingly orchestrated all the preceding events to bring the king and Haman to this point. Now we have the second revelation from Father. To draw the flesh out into the light of the Spirit. To give the king eyes to perceive the treachery of this familiar. To see self for what it really is and to have done with it.
"A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?" [Pro 20:24]
"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." [Jer 10:23]
"They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand." [Isa 44:18]
And so Esther springs the trap and Haman is caught in his own snare. Ahasueras now sees Haman's true nature and the fiend's fate is fixed.
The king's antipathy is the purpose of the process. Father must allow us to experience the ravages of the rule of self to ratify in each of our minds the same animus. This marks a permanent turning point in the kingdom.
Swiftly now the king bequeaths Haman's house to Esther and the seal of the kingdom to Mordecai. The kingdom is infused with a new hope and new life.
So prospers the new life of the believer. Father enables in His child the recognition of His Son by the Spirit, and then sets about to draw out to us the true character of the Adamic nature. The first is a joyous encounter, the second is a painful necessity, which in the end, is no less joyful. The order is always the same. One cannot recognize Haman who has not first been smitten with Esther and Mordecai. The gift of the Spirit precedes belief in our Savior and the recognition of our true enemy.
Now, though the course has been set and great changes affected, the work is not quite finished. We have yet one more introduction and then on to the conclusion.
To be continued ...
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