Esther 5:11-13

And Haman told them of the glory of hie riches, and the multitude of his children.

The discontented man as a reckoner

The discontented man is--

I. A good reckoner, up to a certain point. Look at Haman’s statement: Riches--children--position--honour. These represent the ideal of happiness to a large majority of men. The whole is stated correctly, but the result is false.

II. A bad reckoner, because--

1. He places too high an estimate on the mere material.

2. He does not take into account the unknown quantity.

3. He over-estimates his own deserts.

4. He is bad at subtraction. He enumerates his blessings as four, and his drawback as one. He subtracts one from four, and makes nothing the strange result.

5. He is defective in multiplication.

Haman made more of Mordecai’s refusal to render him homage than it deserved. Discontent is always an unreliable multiplication. It makes evils where there are none, and more of existing evils than it ought to do.

III. The discontented man unknowingly makes a good computation.” All is vanity and vexation of spirit” is the statement of those who have taken their fill of this world’s good things, and have forgotten God their maker. (W. Burrows, B. A.)

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