Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, ‘Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.’ And the king said, ‘Hang him on that.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, July 7, 2026
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Hoisted on his own petard. (Which, if you look it up, comes from Hamlet, and more or less means “blown up by his own bomb.”) Yep. Haman’s ruthless attempt to silence his enemy through murder and genocide blows up in his face. Kaboom!
I have to say, I love this Harbona dude. His loyalty is only to the king, rather than to Haman or any other underling or influencer. In the interest of the king’s wife, Esther, he merely points out the obvious—Hey, you were gonna hang that Mordecai dude, but things have obviously gone a completely different direction, so since we already built the gallows, might as well put them to better use. I feel like he would shrug when he said this. It would be a good theatrical moment.
By the way, fifty cubits is a ridiculous height for a gallows. It’s 75 feet tall. Like everything else in this play, it’s melodramatic. I mean, how would you even get the guy up there?
And, of course, what are we to take from this in terms of a daily devotion? Other than the obvious moral of the story, which is not to be a ruthless jerk who wants to kill your enemies. What comes to mind for me is the concept of forgiveness. I remember my childhood pastor once telling our confirmation class that God will always forgive us no matter what we do, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences here in earth for our choices. So can we forgive the Hamans in our lives, as God does, while still advocating for justice? That might be the hardest thing we ever have to do.
Can I forgive even those whose actions cause harm to thousands of people? How can I balance that forgiveness with the need for consequences?
