Other lessons learned:
In the book of Esther, we have the story of Xerxes I – in the record Ahasuerus, king of Persia - to repudiated his disobedient wife Vashti and for whom the Jewish Esther, Mordecai’s cousin, came afterwards instead.
Shortly afterwards, Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite plots the death of Mordecai and all the Jews anyway, because of the ancient enmity that existed between the people of Amalek and Elohim's people, Israel.
However, since the true Elohim, behind the scenes of invisibility, is leading the events, Haman’s plans are not only frustrated but he is also hanged on the gallows which he had intended for the execution of Mordecai. The Jews as a people are saved from a certain destruction, while Mordecai, once a humble servant of the king, is raised to a position of second in command under Xerxes.
This is, in short, the scope of the book of Esther; no legend as some think, but rather a meaningful account of events still looking ahead at a much greater fulfilment in counterpart at the End of times, especially during the last (70th) Annual Week for Israel (Dn 9:24-27).
That the report is authentic and based on facts, is confirmed in many ways.
The Jews, who called the book simply the Meghil·lat [roll or booklet], have always accepted the contents as original. Why else would they have continued to date with the annual celebration of the Purim feast!
Moreover, we find a description of Persian customs and habits that are true to life, in harmony with known facts of history and archaeological discoveries, such as the exact representation of how the Persians did honour to a man (Es 6:8). The description of the king’s palace also proves to be accurate in detail (Es 5:1-2 ).
The way in which Mordecai exhibited having knowledge of the history of his people is coming across as completely truthful. After all, YHWH Elohim had decreed that the Amalekites as a people were to be finally destroyed. Why?
Because the Amalekites displayed a great hostility to Israel at the time of her Exodus.
See: Ex 17:8, 14-16 ; Dt 25:17-19 and 1Sa 15:1-3, 32-33.
See: Ex 17:8, 14-16 ; Dt 25:17-19 and 1Sa 15:1-3, 32-33.
And apparently Haman was an Amalekite by descent.
When he appears in the story, in Es 3:1, his identity is revealed immediately: Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite.
See Es 9:24 also, but there another, not flattering qualification is added: Hater [or: enemy/adversary] of all Jews.
Through his ancestor, Agag, Haman apparently could take back his lineage to the Amalekites.
See Es 9:24 also, but there another, not flattering qualification is added: Hater [or: enemy/adversary] of all Jews.
Through his ancestor, Agag, Haman apparently could take back his lineage to the Amalekites.
For the Jew Mordecai that was the reason why he refused to give Haman the honour which he demanded from him: prostrating himself to a man who belonged to the people that God had intended for destruction (Es 3: 5-6).
Note: From the Esther story in many ways it is getting clear that Mordecai in antitype represents Yeshua Messiah. After all, Mordecai is the person who continuously directs Esther, his relative; in her relations with the king as well in those of his attendants: a striking picture how, in the End times, Elohim's spirit will direct the Jewish remnant through Yeshua Messiah.
However, Es 10:3 is likewise very clear. About the greatness to which the king raised Mordecai, we read:
For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus; he was regarded by the Jews and loved by the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the good of his people and speaking peace to all their seed.
As Joseph - also a prototype of Messiah Yeshua - came immediately after Pharaoh had something similar dealt with Mordecai. Compare Genesis 41 and Es 8:2 .
As we learn from this that Mordecai, after his courageous performance, was loved by his Jewish brothers, we also conclude that the faithful among Elohim's people will accept Yeshua as their Messiah wholeheartedly.
The Numerical Value of Mordecai is 274 and from that point of view too it can be concluded that he portrays Messiah Yeshua. In the prophetic record of the suffering Messiah, YHWH’s Ebed, in Isaiah 53:9 we read about him:
And they made his grave with the wicked; and with the rich man he was in his death, despite the fact that he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
The NV of that verse is 4-274.
Esther was originally named Hadassah, meaning myrtle, but when she entered the royal harem she received the name by which she henceforth became known. She had spent her life among the Jewish exiles in Persia, where she lived under the protection of her cousin Mordecai. Her name in the story, Esther, is derived from the Hebrew הסתר, which means hidden.
Note: Esther’s Numerical Value [אסתר] is 661. Not at all by accident that NV is found also in two other books of the Bible in which the marriage relationship between Israel and her Elohim's YHWH is central, namely שושנה [Sjosjanah], the Hebrew word for lily. In So 2:2 we hear her Bridegroom-Shepherd saying about her: Like a lily [Sjosjanah] among thorny weeds, so is my girl companion among the daughters.
In the end of the 70th Annual Week the faithful Jewish remnant will find itself among thorny weeds, viz the vast majority of Jews who continues to offer stubborn resistance to their (true) Messiah Yeshua.
In Ho 14:5 Elohim assures his Wife Nation: I will be to Israel like the dew. She will blossom like the lily [Sjosjanah] and send down her roots like Lebanon.
Incidentally, we see again that refreshing dew in the Sublime Song, because in So 5:2 Shepherd says to her, his companion:
Open to me, my sister, my companion, my dove, my flawless! For my head is filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.
But conversely, in the Book of Esther we find again the Hebrew for lily, viz as שושנ, the name of the castle in which Ahasuerus, the king lived: Shushan, the winter residence of the Persian kings in the province of Elam (Da 8:2). Only the closing ה missing, but the basic meaning also indicates a lily-like flower.
Note: As we all know Esther in time replaced Vashti as queen. It happened that Vashti refused the request of the king: showing her loveliness to the peoples and the princes. As some suppose in a naked state, but the story does not tell us so (Es 1:10-11).
Thereupon the king inquired of the seven wise men of his kingdom. Their total numerical value is 3934, viz 571+900+446+1210+300+351+156 ( Es 1:12-15 ).
The NV 3934, however, is also the value of Is 22:22.
There we read that the unfaithful Shebna as manager was replaced by Eliakim. The key of David’s House was layed upon his shoulder. And he [Eliakim] will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.
Compare Es 8:1-2.
In his message to the Jewish End time’s community, represented by Philadelphia – Yeshua made himself known as the antitypical Eliakim who then, however, as theEbed YHWH will delegate that position to the Jewish Remnant.
Compare please Revelation 3:7-13 and Luke 12:42-44.
Another note about Vashti:
Her NV is 716, which not unexpectedly corresponds with the NV of the Shulammite, the girl from Shunem who professes to belong to her Shepherd-Lord, in the strict sense YHWH Elohim. In So 1:6 we hear her say that she is swarthy or dark, also NV 716.
When the king ordered Vashti to show her loveliness to the people and the princes, her refusal to comply with that request was entirely inconsistent with Israel's destiny to become a blessing to the nations in her royal role.
Compare Ezekiel, Chapter 16.
In that chapter, the word loveliness [or beauty] appears even three times; in the verses 14, 15 and 25.
The challenge in reading the scroll of Esther is to reveal the messages veiled within the exciting plot.
And indeed, initially Esther keeps hidden her true identity, but the meaning of her name also appears to be thematically for the whole story: hidden, which primarily applies to God Himself. His name YHWH does not appear in the story, for critics an argument against the inspiration of the Book.
And indeed, initially Esther keeps hidden her true identity, but the meaning of her name also appears to be thematically for the whole story: hidden, which primarily applies to God Himself. His name YHWH does not appear in the story, for critics an argument against the inspiration of the Book.
Now, while it is true that Elohim's name YHWH is not mentioned directly in the report, the name nonetheless appears in the Hebrew text, although in a hidden manner, namely in the form of an acrostic that is found in Es 5:4.
In the Hebrew phrase let the king and Haman come this day, the initial letters of the four Hebrew words (7, 8, 9 and 10) provide the combinationYHWH
In the story of Esther and Mordecai YHWH Elohim seems to be absent, apparently hidden. But just as his name YHWH indeed appears in the report, although hidden in an acrostic, one can simultaneously identify Elohim as the One who gives steering to all the events.
Therefore, the words of Dt 29:29 are applicable in the story of Esther:
The secret things (נִּסְתָּרֹת nistharôth) belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed (נִּגְלֹת niglôth) belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
At that time, in the fifth century BC, the Jews were already spread over 127 jurisdictions (provinces) in which Xerxes 1 reigned (Es 1:1; 3:8).
Note: The number 127 is found in the numerical value of the phrase the glorious king in Psalm 24:10 and there applied to Yahweh of Armies.
Of course, He is King of all the earth, and from that point of view Xerxes' 127 jurisdictions in which - according to Haman Es 3:8 - the Jewish people was scattered and lived apart, signify in counterpart probably all regions of the earth. In fulfilment of Dt 30:1-4 , the Israelites indeed were scattered in all these areas, but will be 'gathered’ from there in the last days.
See please also Mt 24:31.
And at that time, despite the promise of Dt 29, the Jews found themselves more in a nistharôth state than in that of the niglôth.
The things which their Elohim devised they did not know; all was hidden for them.
Similarly in the current exile that now already has lasted more than 19 centuries since the catastrophic events of 70 AD. In all those centuries the Jews (as a nation) go through this world in a state of nistharôth.
However, although the Esther story reveals the hidden things, the tenor of that revelation befalls only those who are searching for Elohim's deeper truths in the union of faith with the Messiah, Yeshua.
In the One Corinthian letter, chapter 2:6-9 - part of the thirteen Letters attributed to Saul of Benjamin, about which can be said that they specifically contain information in behalf of the universal Congregation of Yeshua, the heavenly part of the Israel of God - the apostle Paul explained that truth:
Nevertheless, we speak wisdom among the perfect (those who are spiritually mature), but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which was hidden, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory; which none of the rulers of this age came to know (including the Jewish Elite), because if [they] had known it, they would not have impaled the Lord of glory. But just as it is written: What eye did not see and ears did not hear; neither did come up into the heart of man, the things that God prepared for those who love him.
(See: The Divine Library and compare Isaiah 64:4 for the quotation, including the LXX)
By virtue of its origin the whole Christian doctrine represents Elohim's wisdom in a mystery, pointing to a hidden wisdom which for many era’s was known only to God, but in the First century was revealed to them who were called to become members of the Christian Congregation, Yeshua’s Congregational Body. In fact, Elohim had destined that wisdom to their glory and that counsel he had already purposed in himself, even before the world ages.
That superior wisdom escapes entirely the notice of all people outside the Christian Congregation, a principal that applied to the Gentile rulers of the Roman Empire of that time, as well of the Jewish religious Elite, including the high priest and the members of the Sanhedrin. Like all others, these men were completely blind to the wisdom of God that on earth was reflected in the career of his son. Since they would not recognize him as the public herald of Elohim's arrangement for salvation, they killed him - the Lord of glory - on a torture stake, not at all distinctive that true salvation was/is embodied in him.
And even now, after all the centuries that have passed, among their contemporary counterparts, there is absolute blindness to the true wisdom of YHWH Elohim. For example in the situation of the Jewish rabbis, many of whom are highly skilled in the Tanakh, the books of the Old revelation. Yet, to date they have not understood the true wisdom that can be found in those books. Why not?
Because they rejected continuously the key to understanding, located in the person of their own Messiah.
Paul's quote - What eye did not see and ears did not hear - derived from Isaiah 64:4, is still applicable. Indeed >> For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.
Isaiah chronicled those words within a context (63:19) in which we hear the survivors of the upcoming great tribulation saying prophetically: For a long time we have become as those over whom you did not rule rule, as those upon whom your name had not been called.
Prophetically they are thus referring to the period between the 69th and 70th week of years - the "age" of nearly 2,000 years - in which the members of Yeshua’s Congregational Body were called and Israel stood on the sidelines. Yes, as if they, as a nation, did not differ much of the Gentile peoples. The appalling significance of this is that no action can successfully be taken to remove the veil of the Jews as a nation, so long as the last (70th) Year week has not arrived!
Apparently because of the age-old animosity that existed between the peoples Amalek and Israel, Haman wanted once and for all deal with Israel by murdering all Jews, under the pretext that they did not obey the laws of the Medo-Persian Empire (Es 3:5-9).
Es 3:7 and 13 reads:
In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot (Str 1486), before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar… Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey (Str 962).
פ (Book 17) Esther - (Book 39) Malachi - (Book 61) Two Peter
The 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet (פ, Pey) in the Book of Esther is prominent in the word Pur, plural Purim.
Now, with each 'spoke' in the Bible Wheel meaningful chapters are connected in other Bible books that have the same number; in this case 17.Therefore it is not surprising that we in Isaiah 17, particularly the verses 12 thru 14, receive additional information regarding the threatening situation for the Jewish people in the End times:
Ah, the uproar המון of many peoples, who roar יהמיון like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot (Str 1486) of those who rob (Str962) us.
Traditionally the Jews also have linked the Esther story and this Scripture part in Isaiah 17. In the first sentence of verse 12 the word המון [Str 1995) bears a close resemblance to the name Haman, and the word יהמיון [Str 1993) became a reason to make a lot of noise at the commemoration of Purim.
With his action, complete eradication of the Jewish people, Haman became to a prefiguration of the Pseudo-Masjiach in the End times, the Beast with its 10 horns of Revelation that will exert world domination for a very short time as an 8th King. Under his tyrannical terror, the Jews will regain much to endure, including the threat of beheading if they do not express their willingness to worship the image of the Beast.
Compare:
On the basis of the Judeo-Christian Bible book of Revelation 16:13-14 we [Christians] know that the Beast will be supernatural, demonic:
And I [John] saw [in visions] out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the Falseprophet three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the battle of the Great Day of God the Almighty.
The Beast and the False Prophet therefore prove to be as satanic as Satan himself, the Dragon. The frog-like unclean spirits coming out of the jaws of the trio are nothing other than spirits of demons. In this respect there is no difference between Satan and the duo Beast / False Prophet.
For the Jews in their exile situation this revelation is hidden knowledge. How could they ever derive such facts of truth from the Esther story! As long as they refuse to accept the revelation of Yeshua Messiah and to be informed by it, they remain in the dark field of nistharôth.
Nevertheless, the Esther story also proclaims the truth about the Beast in its prototype Haman, but hidden!
As we all know Haman was finally hung on the execution pole that he had intended for Mordecai. Haman also had 10 sons who, having been slain, were also hanged (Es 7:9-10; 9:7-10; 9:13-14).
However, what is the benefit that those ten sons in the story are all mentioned by their exact names? Ostensibly, the mention of their names seems to be superfluous; entirely irrelevant. However, to Elohim, the Inspirer of the story, such a thought is absolutely out of the question. How?
However, what is the benefit that those ten sons in the story are all mentioned by their exact names? Ostensibly, the mention of their names seems to be superfluous; entirely irrelevant. However, to Elohim, the Inspirer of the story, such a thought is absolutely out of the question. How?
On the basis of their numerical values. According to Revelation 13:18 the number of the Beast - the Pseudo-messiah of the End times - is 666 >>
Here is the wisdom! He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
In the figure of Haman we find the truth about the Beast, the Pseudomasjiach of the End Times, but hidden, as indeed is characteristic of the Esther story.
The story names him as:
Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite.
The NV: 95 + 52 + 450 + 22 = Total: 619.
But subsequently also his ten sons. In Est 9:7-9 they are enumerated:
Parsandatha 1035; Dalfon 170; Aspatha 542; Poratha 687; Adalja 46; Aridatha 616; Parmastha 1021; Arisai 281; Aridi 225 (According to Brown-Driver-Briggs ארידי 225; also version JPS) and Waizatha 424. Total 5047.
But subsequently also his ten sons. In Est 9:7-9 they are enumerated:
Parsandatha 1035; Dalfon 170; Aspatha 542; Poratha 687; Adalja 46; Aridatha 616; Parmastha 1021; Arisai 281; Aridi 225 (According to Brown-Driver-Briggs ארידי 225; also version JPS) and Waizatha 424. Total 5047.
Added to the NV of Haman: 5-666 (619 + 5047).
Exactly the numerical value of the Beast (666), the supernatural value 5000 inclusive.
Exactly the numerical value of the Beast (666), the supernatural value 5000 inclusive.
Note:
Something special is going on with the original spelling of three of Haman's sons: one letter of their names is represented small, namely:
- the ת at Parsandatha (value 400);
- the ש at Parmastha (value 300);
- and the ז at Waizatha (value 7).
Added up: 707.
What did Elohim's spirit want to let us know about that?
In the Esther story, the roll of Haman's ten sons is only indirectly.
Exactly thus it is with the ten horns of the Beast. In Revelation 17:12-14 [one of the sub cycles of Spoke 17 of the Bible Wheel], we read about them:
Exactly thus it is with the ten horns of the Beast. In Revelation 17:12-14 [one of the sub cycles of Spoke 17 of the Bible Wheel], we read about them:
And the ten horns that you saw are (represent) ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they do receive power as kings for one hour with the Beast. These have one mind, and so their power and authority they give to the Beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and with him those called, and chosen, and faithful.
It is easy to distinguish that those 10 horns of the Beast correspond to the 10 toes of the feet of the huge image which Nebuchadnezzar in a dream got to see; the feet of which were partly of iron and partly of clay, symbolically for the demons who will mingle themselves with the seed of men in that they combine their spiritual nature with human nature (by materialization).
See Da 2:42-44, where the feet with the 10 toes are also referred to as "kings": And in the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom.
The 10 horns therefore represent all violent demon power that in the End times will be at the disposal of the Beast. With one accord those ‘horns’ make their influence subordinate to the ambitions of the Beast. Therefore, they are granted to exercise kingly power for one hour with the Beast. Aggressively they will compete with the Lordship of Yeshua’s Messianic Empire, trying to eradicate fully its meaning out of the common people’s mind, just as was foreseen in the Messianic Psalm 2 :
Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against YHWH, and against his anointed, saying, “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast away their cords from us.”
However, in his indignation against them YHWH Elohim informs them of his unchanging decision: I myself have anointed my king [value 707] in Zion, my holy mountain (verse 6).
Incidentally, the value 707 is also found in the Song of Songs 8:14 >> Rush, my beloved, and make yourself like a gazelle or like a young stag upon the mountains of spices.
During the 1,000-year Sabbath of the Messianic kingdom there will be no more separation between YHWH Elohim and his Wife-nation Israel.
Compare So 2:17 where now, during the long period of Israel's hardening, there are the mountains of separation; literally: the mountains of Bether.
Incidentally, it is still of interest to recall that So 8:14, the concluding verse of Book 22, as numerical value has 1-661. So again a common ground with Esther (661).
But NV 1-661 is also the value of
Malachi 4:5 >> Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
The only other member of Haman's family that still needs to be mentioned is of course his wife Zeresh (NV 507).
From Es 5:14, we know that she acted against Mordecai no less malevolent than her husband:
Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak you to the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go you in merrily with the king to the banquet. The thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.
Zeresh clearly has her place within the Anti-Messianic power that is keen to nullify all the blessed influence of the true Messiah. And no wonder because her NV 507 is also the value of Assyria (Ashur; אשור), in the Book of Isaiah the Messiah hostile power par excellence: there called the Assyrian (Is 10:5).
The last, vicious attack on Elohim's people Israel in the 70th Annual Week, under the leadership of supernatural spirit forces was, besides in the book of Esther - the attempt of Haman - also prophetically depicted in other parts of the Tanakh.
Through the service of his prophets, YHWH Elohim had already announced earlier to Israel that something similar was impending. For instance, on behalf of Him Ezekiel, the prophet, had to say the following to the mysterious figure Gog: Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?
(Ez 38:17).
So, YHWH Elohim Himself announced that he would bring Gog against Israel’s prophets which, of course, meant that He would bring that Great Enemy against the nation of Israel itself!
In this regard also, other prophets can be considered, like Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah. In their Sacred Writings, a lot of passages can be found that go in the same direction as Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Although the figure Gog is not mentioned by them, they nevertheless speak about a power that resembles him.
Further investigation shows that it always concerns the 8th King, the Beast of the Revelation, but presented in different ways, for example: the Assyrian, especially in Isaiah, but also the king of the north (Daniel). Hence, there is a threat, constantly coming from the North, but all the time Israel is target.
Incidentally, in such prophecies it often is a matter of a second (larger) fulfilment. For example, the Assyrian (Sennacherib) who threatened the city of Jerusalem with a large army during the reign of Hezekiah.
Within Jewish circles the mysterious figure Gog is linked to the Agag of the people of Amalek. And the Esther story too induces us to look in that direction. After all,
Haman, the son of Hammedatha, was an Agagite. At the time of Saul, Agag was the king of the Amalekites. So, Haman was an Agagite, or Agag par excellence.
By YHWH Elohim Saul was instructed to bring retribution upon Amalek. However, as we all know Saul failed to fulfil that divine assignment (1Sa 15).
Haman, the son of Hammedatha, was an Agagite. At the time of Saul, Agag was the king of the Amalekites. So, Haman was an Agagite, or Agag par excellence.
By YHWH Elohim Saul was instructed to bring retribution upon Amalek. However, as we all know Saul failed to fulfil that divine assignment (1Sa 15).
With Agag, alias Gog something remarkable is going on!
The first Agag in the Bible was mentioned by Balaam, when he told Balak, king of Moab, that Israel could not be cursed but was to be blessed according to YHWH:
How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel! As valleys are they spread out; as gardens by a river-side; as lign-aloes, which planted YHWH; as cedars besides the waters. Water shall flow out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; Yes, his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. (Nu 24:5-7)
Considered from an End-time perspective we see here clearly again the two opposite seeds of Genesis 3:15. The true Messiah, Yeshua, will be exalted highly above the Agag (Gog) of the Last days. The same applies to his kingdom, the long-awaited kingdom of Israel.
In verse 17 of Numbers 24 we see the Messianic king prophetic as the 'star' that will rise from Jacob (the royal sceptre from Israel): I see him, but not now; I watch him, but not near; a Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and Moab shatters sleep, and crushes all the sons of tumult.
But now a curious thing: The Agag of Numbers 24:7 was by the translators of the LXX rendered as Gog! As also is the case in the Samaritan Pentateuch.
In 1Sa 15, however, the LXX also renders Agag simply as Agag.
In verse 17 of Numbers 24 we see the Messianic king prophetic as the 'star' that will rise from Jacob (the royal sceptre from Israel): I see him, but not now; I watch him, but not near; a Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and Moab shatters sleep, and crushes all the sons of tumult.
But now a curious thing: The Agag of Numbers 24:7 was by the translators of the LXX rendered as Gog! As also is the case in the Samaritan Pentateuch.
In 1Sa 15, however, the LXX also renders Agag simply as Agag.
Note:
In his Commentary Adam Clarke said the following about Gog in Nu 24 of the LXX:
This name is supposed to have been as common to all the Amalekitish kings as Pharaoh was to those of Egypt. But several critics, with the Septuagint, suppose that a small change has taken place here in the original word, and that instead of מאגג meagag, than Agag, we should read מגוג miggog, than Gog. As Gog in Scripture seems to mean the enemies of God's people, then the promise here may imply that the true worshippers of the Most High shall ultimately have dominion over all their enemies.
Of Amalek it is known that it was a very wicked people; deceptive and cruel. Their religious practices were morally degenerated.
Consequently, Amalek became a prototype of man who is governed by the flesh. However, in Scripture YHWH Elohim has only one verdict for the [corrupt] flesh: Kill it.
In his letters, the Apostle Paul emphasized this principle many times. To the Galatians, he wrote that those who belong to Messiah Yeshua, crucified the flesh together with its passions and desires (Ga 5:24). And the apostle Simon Peter counselled his Jewish brothers in the Diaspora in these warning words:
Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and temporary residents to keep abstaining from fleshly desires, which wage war against you. Maintain your conduct fine among the Gentiles, so that when they accuse you of being wrongdoers, they may be eyewitnesses of your fine works and, as a result, glorify Elohim in the day of his inspection.
(1Pe 2:11-12)
In his farewell address to Israel, Moses reminded the people of Amalek’s hostile attitude. In time, when they would have settled in the Land of Promise, they had to erase all memory of Amalek:
Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt; how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. Therefore it shall be, when YHWH your Elohim has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.
(De 25:17-19)
Only about 380 years later, when there was a king in Israel, that divine command had to be executed. However, as we saw, Saul performed 'half measures'.
Evidently he did not realize how evil that case was in God's eyes. In figure, he should have swept away something completely! What precisely?
Answer: The development in material terms that a God-hostile-world since the speech Confusion, under demonic dominion, has established here on earth and constantly has expanded until it reaches its peak in the End times.
Nevertheless, Saul hesitated. It touched him in the heart to intervene in the power of a development which man continually leads further away from the Most High.
Similarly, the average person; he clings to that development. As soon as his own material existence is threatened, he suddenly has several reasons to save "Amalek”.
Certainly, Saul consigned many of the Amalekites to destruction. Similarly, the man who distinguishes the need to return to God is willing to give up something for it. However, the "useful" from 'Amalek' he mostly is only too happy to 'save'. In reality, people think they cannot do without it!
Of this longing for material "progress" the Bible provides several examples:
- Achan could not just let pass the spoils of Jericho.
- Lot's wife could not really give up the material comforts of Sodom. She was so attached to it that she hesitated to say goodbye, even when Sodom’s ruin was imminent. Compare Luke 17:28-30.
A fascinating detail: Saul was finally killed by an Amalekite, nota bene by a person who was not put to death by his disobedience (2Sa 1: 1-10).
The moral? When the ‘flesh’ is not ‘killed’ in all respects, that part that you ‘saved’ will finally kill you!
So, the will of the force of development proves to be very tough, stubborn.
In the Times of the End of the (Jewish) exile, Agag, in the person of Haman, will again come face to face with Benjamin: with Mordecai and his cousin Hadassah (Esther), which he considered and educated as his own daughter. Like Saul they descended from the family of Kish (Es 2:5-7).
'Amalek' can only exist when man gives him that opportunity, but Mordecai does not intend granting ‘Amalek’ any chance. From a purely human and worldly point of view he takes a hopeless course, but not in the sight of Elohim. He is a Yehudi, a true Jew who possesses the true circumcision, that of the heart:
For he is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision something on the outside, on the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit and not by a written code. That person’s praise comes from God, not from people.
(Ro 2:28-29).
(Ro 2:28-29).
In the End Times, according to Za 8:23, such a Jehudi will be (symbolically) adhered to by ten people from all languages of the Gentiles.
Everywhere on earth in the Diaspora, Gentile people will cling to the faithful ones among the Jewish people, joining them to stand in their care.
Satanic ‘Haman’, on the other hand, by all his authorized power, will then oppose strongly the termination of that power of development. After all, the demons derive from it their "right to exist".
Therefore, during the 70th Annual Week, when Elohim himself again will deal exclusively with his chosen people, ‘Haman’ will amicably reaching out to the ‘Saul part’ of earthly Israel. Cunning as he is, he will treacherously respond to their aversion against their true Messiah Yeshua, but at the same time also to their desire for further development.
But ‘Haman's’ life hangs by a thread, because in the ‘persons’ of Mordecai (Messiah Yeshua) and Hadassah (Esther), the true Benjamin-remnant of restored Israel, the power of origin, or rather: the return to origin, is present. In Yeshua, after all, the way to that return was inaugurated, as Simon Peter distinguished by the spirit of inspiration:
Through his stripes you were healed. For you have gone astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
(1Pe 2:24-25)
‘Mordecai’ distinguishes that in Divine Providence the power of development is only temporary. Going from Elohim's vision of unparalleled wisdom, itwas necessary for man to gain the experience that he cannot properly direct his own way. Without Elohim's guidance, he gets jammed completely. Sooner or later therefore, he must learn, often through 'trial and error', the way that leads back to YHWH Elohim's. And also that the return to the origin had already its start with the appearance of the Messiah in the First century.
How did ‘Mordecai’ achieve that understanding? The Esther story informs us about the details: All has to do with Mordecai's stay at the gate of the castle Shushan. He watches closely what is going in and out. He is completely familiar with the ways and modes of operation of this world. He himself does not participate in that world and therefore he is disturbing Haman's self-image. He is an annoyance to the forces of development (Es 3:1-5).
Because of that the demonic 'Haman' recognizes in the 'Mordecai' figure of the End-time the great disturber of the (further) development. Therefore, that dangerous opponent should be fought, even eradicated. How? By unleashing an unprecedented Great Tribulation (Da 12:1; Je 30:5-7; Mt 24:21).
Nevertheless, Jacob will be saved from that time of trouble, even though it for the Jewish saints will mean overcoming the convulsive world of development, as did also their Messiah in the first place (John 16:33).
Other lessons learned
So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained favor and kindness in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast to all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the bounty of the king.
How special that a humble, young Jewish woman was raised to not less than the position of a royal consort, a place right on the side of the king; as his wife sharing in his glory, his wealth, his honour. Compare 1Sa 2:8.
She herself, a simple Jewish woman, was not out for that place; she was called to that position.
In his depiction of Elohim's Son, her cousin Mordecai provided constantly guidance to his niece and even after she became queen, that situation did not change. Similarly it will be in the last days. Yeshua’s attention will constantly go out to the Jewish Remnant, because again a confrontation with the Amalekitic opponent can be expected, just as Joshua experienced, a prefigure of Yeshua.
That in Es 2:17 about Esther emphatically is stated that the king made her queen instead of Vashti, powerfully reflects that in the End Times a faithful Jewish Remnant will replace Israel. As a nation and people, Israel was originally called to be Elohim's consort, but as we all know, she regularly disobeyed her heavenly Lord, culminating in her stubborn refusal to accept his beloved Son as her Messiah.
When Esther was elevated to the position of the new queen, this had an immediate relieving effect for the kingdom:
Then the king made a great feast to all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the bounty of the king.
At the half of the 70th Year week Israel will experience a corresponding relief. How? Because the announced New Covenant will then come into force with respect to Elohim's nation. The great promises that go together with that glorious Covenant, as was long ago revealed in Je 31:31-34, then become to realities:
Look! There are days coming, assurance of YHWH, and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; not one like the covenant that I have concluded with their forefathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and I had them as a husband. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know YHWH; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YHWH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Every true Jew can ascertain why that New Covenant will have such extraordinary power to forgive sins permanently. How?
For instance, by studying such prophetic statements as can be found in Isaiah, namely 27:1-9; 53:1-12 and 59:20-21 .
Especially the heading A new Marriage Covenant
When the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate. Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those who kept the threshold, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. The thing became known to Mordecai, who shown it to Esther the queen; and Esther told the king of it in Mordecai’s name. When inquisition was made of the matter, and itwas found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.
At the half of the 70th Week, when the New Covenant is coming into force and for Israel occurs a glimmer of relief, also immediately the influence of evil forces will be noticeable.
The two events seem to have had a mutual association. Apparently, Bigthan and Teras were involved in a plot to kill Xerxes, and the obscure when the virgins were gathered together the second time - which is not found in the LXX - seems to be read in that context. In the case of a successful ‘coup’ it was questionable how Esther would fare in her new royal position.
Arno C. Gaebelein (1861 -1942) has thus commented this difficult Scripture part:
The opening words of verse 19 have been pronounced obscure by critics. "Andwhen the virgins were gathered together the second time."
Jewish expositors have explained this as meaning a conspiracy, that the enemies of the new queen had collected more virgins so that in some way Esther might be eclipsed and placed into the background.
It is claimed by others that the words "the second time" should be omitted from the text as there is some doubt about them. If this is done the statement would then refer to the gathering of the virgins mentioned in the eighth verse of the chapter. But the suggestion that the second gathering was an act of conspiracymight be the true meaning; it would show the purpose of the unseen enemy and it also explains the watchfulness of Mordecai. He sat at the king's gate. It was according to oriental custom a place of public resort, where news was heard and conversation with friends and others were carried on.
That almost immediately, at its birth, major hazards will loom for Messiah’s kingdom - with a straight impact on the survival of the Esther-remnant - would later also be painted for the benefit of the future remnant in the Revelation of Masjiach Yeshua:
The dragon [the old Serpent of Gan Eden] stood before the woman [the Israel of YHWH Elohim] who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And he gave birth to a son, a male child [the Messianic Kingdom], who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
(Re 12:4-6)
It is not inconceivable that in the fulfilment of these signs the Jewish enemies of Yeshua - those who will deny to the end that he is Elohim's Messiah - will take measures to nullify completely the influence of the true Remnant.
That the dangerous incident was recorded in the royal chronicles, soon proved to be of great importance, namely when Esther, at her first banquet, which she had prepareded for the king and Haman, asked for a day of delay before she would submit her request to the king:
My petition and my request is: if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.
(Es 5:7-8).
Behind Esther's request for a day of delay, certainly a divinely inspired psychology was hidden. The king had to learn the facts thoroughly and not take any decisions that were motivated by the emotions of the moment. He needed, so to speak, "a night of sleep," racking his brains about the strange request of his consort. For what reason had she asked for the delay? Why did she not come to light immediately? What had she in mind with the whole thing? Well, apparently precisely such considerations kept the king from his sleep:
On that night the sleep of the king was gone king; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, of those who kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. The king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king’s servants who ministered to him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
(6:1-3).
For the first time, the king came to the deep realization that he owed much to Mordecai; yes, very much, in fact, he had to thank this humble man that he was still alive and able to exercise royal power over his subjects in the 127 provinces of his empire!
The King of the ages, YHWH, however, is well aware of the great merits of his Son, here Modecai’s counterpart (1Ti 1:17). Only through that one’s sacrifice of his own soul the survival of human life on earth is secured. Without him the Adamic humanity would absolutely not have any future (Mt 20:28; Is 53:12).
However, Ahasuerus now knows what he has to do:
The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king’s servants said to him, Behold, Haman stands in the court. The king said, Let him come in. So Haman came in. The king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: and let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delights to honor, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that you have spoken. Then took Haman the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights tohonor. Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.
(Es 6: 4-12)
The numerical value of the phrase What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor is 2256, what also is the value of 2Sa 7:18, where we hear David – also being a type of the Messianic king, just like Mordecai was – with wonder asking YHWH : Who am I, Lord YHWH, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
This was David's response to God's promise to him that his house and his kingdom would be lasting and that his throne would be established forever
Haman however, in his boundless delusion, was sure that the king had him in mind. Apparently for that reason, in front of the king, he repeated the phrase the man whom the king delights to honor even three times. However, to his great sorrow and shame he was forced to exclaim publicly that phrase even more often, leading around on the town square the royal horse with Mordecai in the saddle. He who himself aspired to the royal position found himself in a freefall. Nevertheless, to every act he was prepared, how humiliating and despicable even to himself, to preserve his life anyway! That setting reminiscent of what James wrote to his Jewish brothers: You believe there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and they shudder (James 2:19).
Note: The plot that Bigthan and Teras had hatched to kill Xerxes was thwarted by Mordecai’s intervention. In antitypical sense it is of course impossible that anyone could kill YHWH Elohim, the King of eternity.
What people could do is trying to take away YHWH’s glory kind by means of a form of idolatry. The inspired Paul wrote what humanity has done through the ages:Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. (Ro 1:22-23).
The value of the three words Bigthan and Teresh is 1361, and that appears to be the NV of the first verse of Judges, chapter 17 (inner cycle of spoke 17) where the apostasy of the tribe of Dan is related. Micah started a form of idolatry that later became prominent within that tribe. In De 33:22 Moses, speaking prophetic words in his farewell address with respect to the twelve tribes, made a connection between the appearance of the Antimasjiach and the tribe of Dan: Dan is a lion's whelp; he rushes forth from Bashan. Bashan being the region of the demons as also Jacob indicated in his deathbed prophecy:
Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. I have waited for your salvation, YHWH.
Bashan was the area of the Rephaim, a giant race and therefore competes with the claims of the true Messiah of the tribe of Judah. From that area the demons watch closely and enviously Mount Zion, the mountain that YHWH Elohim chose for Himself as the seat to stay there forever (Ps 68:15-16)
The true lion's whelp of course, sprouts from the tribe Judah, as Jacob also indicated in his deathbed prophecy:
Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you will certainly go up. He bowed down; he stretched himself out like a lion, and like a lion, who dares rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him the obedience of the peoples will belong.
Since the completion - in antitype - of the Esther story for Elohim's people, Israel, will come in the 70th Week of years, when also Yeshua’s presence (Greek: parousia) will occur and the members of his Congregational Body will be raptured (1Th 4:13-18), one would expect that those celestial members of the Israel of God will be involved in the course of events that will lead to the salvation of the Esther-remnant.
And the results of further examination of the facts confirm that indeed will be the case.
Especially the two courtiers who enabled Mordecai to keep in touch with Esther, viz Hegai and Hathach, then come on the screen. Through them Mordecai succeeded to continue his oversight concerning his niece so she would not become estranged from her own people but should remain aware of the mission which her people had to accomplish in the Gentile world on behalf of YHWH Elohim.
As Esther immediately found favour with Hegai, this one strained himself particularly for her to make a successful entry to the king:
So it happened, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together toShushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her things for her purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king’s house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women (Es 2:8-9).
And in a second stage - when Haman's plot to exterminate the Jews became known to Mordecai – it was Hathach who could be of service to Mordecai:
Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend on her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was. So Hathach went forth to Mordecai to the broad place of the city, which was before the king’s gate. Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out inShushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to charge her that she should go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people. Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.ThenEsther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai (Es 4:5-10).
The NV of Hegai is 9 and that of Hathach 425; together 434.
In Spoke 4 of the Bible Wheel, viz the Books (4) Numbers (26) Ezekiel, and (48) Galatians, the fourth letter Dalet (ד) is prominent in the word door(דלת) which also has 434 as NV.
Above, we mentioned that with each "Spoke" in the Bible Wheel meaningful chapters are connected in other books of the Bible that have the same number. In this case four, and that fact brings us immediately to the opening scene of Revelation 4 >> A door opened in heaven.
The seer, John, tells us about it:
And after these things [the Son of man having sent seven messages to the Jewish End-time community] I looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard speaking with me like a trumpet [the voice of Yeshua], said: Ascend hither, and I will show you the things that must take place after this (Re 4:1)
When John responds to that call he enters a palatial sanctuary obtaing a visionary scene of YHWH Elohim Himself, seated on his throne and surrounded by the rapture Christian Congregation under the symbol of the 24 Elders. As John also further relates:
Immediately I became to be in spirit; and look! A throne was in heaven, and on the throne one sitting ... And round about the throne twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones twenty-four elders dressed in white outer garments, and golden crowns upon their heads.
In the second book of Spoke 4, Ezekiel then, in 28:2 we find the term seat of Elohim, corresponding to throne of God; Hebrew: מושב אלהים NV 348 + 86 = 434, and comparable to Ps 29:10 >> YHWH seated as king, also NV 434.
The exercise of the priesthood by the 24 Elders is in Ezekiel 46:20 also linked with the NV 434, in the expression to sanctify (the people) qua idea corresponding to Ez 44:19, catching a glimpse of the future, heavenly priesthood, the verse having the meaningful NV 2595. Compare Daniel 12:11-13and count up the two numbers 1260 + 1335.
However, from Revelation 5:8 we also know directly that the group of 24 Elders in the 70th Week will serve the remnant of Jewish "saints", partly because they will bring their prayers in the form of incense before God's throne: And the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls being full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Also compare Luke 1:5-10.
In Esther 9:15 the result is recorded of the battle in which the Jews were allowed to defend themselves against their many enemies: The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn’t lay their hand on the spoil.
The NV of this verse is 6030, without doubt a divine indication for the future year in which the ‘Haman’ of the End Times, the sinister, anti-messianic character who will command Satan’s gangs in the attack of the then restored Israel.
It is therefore no coincidence that the numerical value of Esther 9:15, in which the victory over the then enemies of the Jews in Shushan is described, amounts to 6030, the AM-year in which, as we expect, the transition will take place to the Millennium kingdom of the Messiah. And at the same time the year that closes the seven years of the last (70th) Annual Week.
That view is, as we believe, supported by the fact that Es 10:2 has the same numerical value as Da 9:27, in which, in a unique way, the course of that last ‘Week’ is painted.
Besides, Es 10:2 and in particular verse 3, seem to be typical for the Millennium-situation and the balance of the exercise of kingly power during that glorious era: Yeshua next to YHWH, the almighty Elohim:
All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
-.-.-.-.-
