Bibledoorajar Has a Look at Hypocrisy

...heard Jesus' teachings they scoffed at him. But he

responded: "You try to look good in the eyes of

men. But God sees your hearts. And what men think highly

of is a stench before God."

Luke 16: 14-15

Haman's desires about killing Mordecai were now visible in the gallows he had had built. No one around him spoke to him about the evil intent of his heart. However, those gallows made clear what he wanted and expected. Perhaps those close to Haman knew that whatever he did, he did with the intent of being praised by others. As long as they were not going to be hurt by his actions they gave him what he relished: attention and preeminence. But Mordecai did not give him what he relished and refused to be in cultural bondage to this man and his deceit. 

Haman has been asked by the king what reward the man who had helped the king should receive. Haman, thinking that there could not possibly be another that the king would want to honor more than him,  said this to the king:

For a man the king wants to honor, have royal robes brought

which the king himself wears and the horse the king

himself rides, with a royal crown on its head. The

robes and the horse should be handed over to one of the king's

most respected officials, and they should put the robes

on the man the king wants to honor and lead him on horseback

through the streets of the city, PROCLAIMING ahead of him. "This 

is done for a man whom the king wants to honor."

       

Jesus spent a lot of time trying to help people learn the importance of matching their public face with their inner heart. In Matt. 6:1 he says that we should "be sure that we do not do our acts of rightness before human beings with the INTENT of being seen by them. Otherwise your Father, the one in the heavens, will have nothing to do with it." In 6:2 he says that all of those who insist on having TRUMPETS  BLOWN before them will have received their reward. That recognition is what they wanted and that recognition is what they got--- along with an inflated ego. What my mother said must be true, "Nobody likes a show-off."