Each March has a Jewish holiday called Purim. People dress up in costumes and have a festival and/or feast. During this time of festivities, the story of Esther is read and every time the name Esther is said there is cheering, while every time the name Haman is read, there is booing. I’m want to paraphrase the story and show some interesting parallels to prophesy. I hope you enjoy.
The events of Esther took place around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The book of Esther does not contain the name Lord or God anywhere within its pages, nor does it talk about prayer, only fasting. Because of this, it is believed that the book was written by a Persian that may have been friends with Mordecai, and written more as a historical account than as a divine book. A Persian, who served other gods, would not have wanted to draw attention away from his gods to the God of the Jews. This is possibly why the writings of the book of Esther was not found with the dead sea scrolls, though portions of all the other books were.
Though God is not mentioned, nor prayer, you can see Gods hand all in the events and it is a book of inspiration; first for the Jews as you will see shortly, but also because I believe there are prophetic parallels within the story. This is not unusual as God often set up events of life to parallel events to come.
The story is an account of actual events which took place in the kingdom of Persia under the reign of King Ahasuerus; also knowns as King Xerxes, and took place somewhere between 485 and 465 BC.
The book of Esther is a rather short book; yet still longer than this writing. It begins with a feast and ends with a feast.
King Xerxes was in the third years of his reign and he had a feast lasting 180 days. During this time, all kingdoms (not just the Jews) followed a lunar calendar which had 360 days. Three years of reign and 180 days of feast comes out to 42 months, 1260 days, or 3 1/2 years; then the story begins. I think this is very interesting as we see this number all through the prophecies of the end days.
They were drinking wine and the kings put the drink in all different types of vessels. We are vessels aren’t we; all unique, none alike; and the wine of the new covenant is within us. None of those attending this feast was forced to drink the wine, it was completely up to those in the presence of the king. Are we forced to drink the wine of the covenant, or do we have a choice?
Now notice these numbers. Upon the completion of the feast, the king had another feast. This feast lasts for seven days. The story has seven eunuchs, and he consults seven princes’.
King Xerxes wanted to show off the beauty of is queen and calls her to his presence, but she refused.
The book of Esther begins a lot like the Bible to which the queen of this world (Eve) disobeys a direct order and she lost her estate because she did so. In prophecy, a woman represents the church and the beauty would be righteousness. The king wanted everyone to behold the glory of his bride. Our King wants the world to behold the Glory of His bride (Let your light so shine before men for His Glory).
Her refusal infuriated the king and she lost her crown as queen. Now, as in relationships, we men can not live with women; but we can’t live without them either. King Xerxes started to miss the queen so his servants decided to have a royal beauty pageant.
They gathered the women from the kingdom, beautiful young virgins. Doesn’t Jesus refer to His church as virgins? They spent one year in the palace for purification. They probably had bubble baths, the finest lotions, and perfumes. I’m sure no expense was spared as from these women a queen was to come. Ester received seven choice maidservants.
Mordecai is a representation of Jesus, and Esther that of the church. Esther was an orphan and when her parents died, Mordecai (her cousin) adopted her into his family. Are we adopted into God’s family? (Romans 8.15)
Esther means star; one of the seven stars, seven stars above the head of the woman of Revelations 12. Mordecai means humble man; Jesus humbled Himself to become man and die for us.
The majority of the story takes place in the palace which was the most beautiful palace on Earth. Even when Alexander the Great conquered Persia, they moved into the palace of Darius because he said they could not build anything grander.
After the year was complete, one by one the woman spent the night with the king. Once they did so, they were part of the harem; whether they became queen or not. When Esther came into his presence, the king was blown away by her beauty; not just outward, but the inward beauty.
Now look again at these numbers in chapter 2 verse 16; It was in the seventh year of the reign of King Xerxes. So, Ester had six normal years under his reign then one special year of pampering. Doesn’t God give us six normal things with one special thing? We are nearing the end of six thousand years, then we get a thousand years of peace.
The king didn’t just admire Esther’s beauty, he truly loved her and she obtained grace; and he set a crown upon her head. Isn’t that what God gives us, love and grace; and one day he will set a crown upon our head.
Mordecai and Ester were from the tribe of Benjamin, but she did not reveal the identity of her people to the king; by the request of her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai obtained a job for the king at the gate of the king.
While Mordecai was in this position, he hears of an assassination attempt on the king; by the kings younger brother who wanted to be king. Mordecai got word to Esther and the two eunuchs who were to carry out the assassination were captured and killed.
In chapter 3 enters Haman; who is a baaaad guy. Haman in Hebrew means “slimy pile of snot”. no, not really, but he does represent Satan.
Haman, who was an Amalekite, was promoted to number two in the kingdom. Though all were to bow to Haman, there was great dissension between the Benjamites and the Amalekites and Mordecai refused to bow.
Haman got word of this and tested Mordecai and when he did not bow Haman was filled with wrath and set to destroy ALL of Mordecai’s people.
Doesn’t Satan want Jesus to bow to him (Matthew 4.9) and Satan has great wrath against the woman in Revelations 12 and sets out to destroy all of her offspring?
Now Haman went to the king and lead him to believe that there was this small group of people who did not respect him, and he would personally put in some of his money to help eliminate these people.
The king, upon hearing this news, told Haman to keep his money and then gave him his ring and told Haman to have it done.
Haman then had a decree signed that on a specific date, just before Passover, all of the Jews would be killed. The Jews were to be annihilated on a specific day, and now that day is a day of celebration called Purim.
All through history, you can see Satan trying to destroy the Jewish people and trying to prevent the Messiah from coming.
This decree to destroy those because of the lack of worship to this man kinda reminds me of Revelations 13 and those who don’t bow to the image of the first beast.
As the decrees were being nailed to the trees, all of the Jewish people went into wailing and morning. Could you imagine that a public declaration goes out that you and all your people were going to be killed on a certain day?
Esther was somewhat insulated in the palace so, through one of her eunuchs, Mordecai communicated with Esther, telling her what was happening. He explained to her that she was not safe either, even though she was in the palace. The king's word is law and they will eventually find out that she is Jewish. He tells her if she stays silent God will find another way to save His people but not only will the house of the king suffer but so will she.
It was illegal for anyone to enter into the inner courts of the king uninvited; even the queen. Because there were always those making attempts on the king's life, there was great protection given to the king.
Esther, knowing this, said she would go. Even if it cost’s her life, she will intercede for her people.
With Esther representing the church, are we suppose to be interceding for the world? If we don’t, not only will they suffer, but we will suffer also. If you do not have a desire for the lost, you're in danger, and just because you're in the palace (church) you are not safe. And while in other countries there are those who risk their life for the interceding of the word, there is going to be a time that it will be just as dangerous in this country.
Now, to prepare yourself for the king in those days was no small task, and I believe it took about a half a day. I believe that because of the representation of numbers throughout the story and I believe this is no different. She had not seen the king for 30 days, plus three days of fasting and a half of day preparations; this comes out to 33 1/2 days and Jesus was 33 1/2 years old when He interceded for us on the cross.
After the time was complete, she went through the door into the inner courts of the king. All the guards snapped in preparation for protecting the king. When the king saw her, he smiled; and holds out his scepter which represents mercy and grace. She reached out and placed her hand on top of the scepter as a sign of accepting his grace.
We come into the presence of Jesus and he offers His grace to us, but we have to reach out and accept it.
She asked the king if he and Haman could come to a feast with her.
Now, here’s Haman and the king and queen; along with their eunuchs. Haman doesn’t know what the meetings about but he thought it was great as he was in the inner circle for this great plan. He was blinded by his pride.
At this feast, Esther then says she wanted to have another feast the next day with only Haman and the king. So two dinners, but the enlightening of the reason of these meetings would not be clear until the second dinner.
Obviously, Haman in his pride goes out on cloud nine that he is going to have dinner with the king and queen; and only he was invited. Then he gets to Mordecai, who even in burlap he does not bow to Haman. This really angered Haman.
Early the next morning, Haman wakes up to go ask the king if he could have a favor to kill this one Jew early. But Haman did not know the problems the king had that evening before.
The king was unable to sleep so he had the chronicles read to him. They got to the part where Mordecai saved his life and he realized that he had not done anything to thank Mordecai.
On this morning, Haman shows to ask this favor but before he could ask the question, the king asks Haman, what should be done for the man who the king delights to honor.
Oh, Haman thought, who would the king want to honor more than me? So he told the king to have the man dressed the king's clothes and road on the king's horse down the main street with the proclamation, that this is what is done to the man whom the king wishes to honor. You see, Haman wanted to be king; isn’t that what Satan wants?
So the king thought this was a good idea and he said to do it, but do it to Mordecai. So, the very man that Haman wanted to kill, now he himself is having to lead Mordecai down the main street proclaiming that this is the man the king wishes to honor.
Haman goes home really mad, and even his family warns him that he will fall if he tries to mess with the Jews, as they always land on their feet.
In chapter 7, we see the three at the feast, but Esther is reluctant to ask the question. Yet, the king is very eager to hear. Much like us, God is eager to hear from us. The king says up to half my kingdom I’ll do for you. God says ask so that your joy might be full, but we are reluctant to ask, or we ask too small.
Esther asks that her life is given to her; and also her people as they were sold to be slaughtered. We are to first pray for our salvation, then the salvation of our people.
When the king found out what was transpiring, he wanted to know who the person was that ordered it and where he was. And Haman, in all his pride, was probably wondering, “yeah, who is he?”. Pride comes before a fall.
She pointed at Haman and said here he is right here, your right-hand man. Haman trembled and fell to his knees, so will Satan in the end.
The king went to the garden to evaluate what was going on, and when he returned, Haman was across Esther, begging for mercy; which made the king very mad.
The servants told the king to look out the windows at the gallows that were fifty cubits high to hang Mordecai and the others. The king said, hang him on it.
Haman was hung and Mordecai went out from the king wearing blue and white, with a crown of gold and a garment of purple. He becomes number two in the kingdom, and many people converted and became Jews.
It’s because of Esther's intercession that many were converted. As the church, we are to be letting our light so shine so that many will be converted to God.
The last words in the book of Esther tell about Mordecai who was next to the king; as Jesus is next to the Father. Our Jesus is the Prince of Peace seeking the wealth of His people; as He intercedes as our advocate.
In the end, all of God’s people are to be destroyed but the tables are going to be turned. The same way God took care of his people in the time of Esther and the other times, He will take care of His people in these end times.
God Bless, I hope you enjoyed the story.
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