6When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”
A bad day at the office! This is Haman’s nightmare about to come true. He doesn’t realize that the Lord is about to honor Mordecai the object of his jealous hatred. He is so self-absorbed, so bigheaded, that he thinks he is about to get honored. So, he thinks of the grandest, most power-grabbing, ego flaunting act he can. He proposes being “king for a day” status. His own ego is so inflated that he thinks he deserves what the king has. But it all comes back to bite him. Everything he wanted for himself he ends up giving to Mordecai. Now that is justice! The funny thing is, Mordecai doesn’t really want any recognition. He just wants his life. He and all the Jews are under a death sentence because of Haman’s insecurities. But Haman ends up honoring the very man he despises. He is humiliated by his own ego. He wants promotion, and he ends up proclaiming the greatness, not of himself, which is his true desire, but the greatness of the one man who represents everything he is not and wants to be. Often kids pick on others who possess the very qualities they want in themselves. Adults are usually more subtle in this, except in the political arena. Both kids and adults attack others, not out of strength and confidence in their own abilities, but because they feel threatened by the other’s strengths. The weaknesses we see in others are the very weaknesses with which we struggle. We point at them to deflect the attention away from our own weaknesses. So next time you point the finger, pause and reflect on what weakness you are protecting in yourself.
The Arnold Journey 