a. Esther shows courage in her willingness to appear before the king without being summoned by him (especially when this king does not have a good reputation for treating his queens well)

b. Esther also shows tact by not blurting out her ultimate request right away; she first wants to win the king's confidence in her - and she wants Haman there to ultimately expose his wickedness

a. This is what success in the world is all about; one can have everything, yet the smallest slight can make it all seem worthless

b. Haman's deep seated insecurities and need to be honored by everybody means that he can never be happy; God meant this hunger for acceptance in each of us to be ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ - because we are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6), accepted before God because of who we are in Jesus

c. "The soul was made for God, and nothing but God can fill it and make it happy." (Clarke) Haman's problem wasn't Mordecai, it was the emptiness in his own heart. Even if he got the "Mordecai problem" fixed, he would still have to face that same emptiness in his heart.

a. For these, it isn't enough to just punish Mordecai's people (remember the genocide against the Jews is already set in motion), or merely to kill Mordecai - they ask for a public, humiliating execution of Mordecai on gallows 75 feet high

b. We can never underestimate the destructive and distorting power of hatred; the same irrational, violent hatred that made Haman want to see Mordecai hang to his death is the same irrational, violent hatred that made man want to hang Jesus on a cross