One For Israel

Dr. Erez Soref: I want to welcome you to a special episode of Pod for Israel. This one is special as we are in the holiday of Purim. We are talking about the story of Esther. This is a fun time. Families love it. It's kind of like you get to dress up like Halloween but without all the bad stuff. It is the one time these last couple years that people are excited to wear a mask.

Guest (Male): That is awesome. In this festive and fun holiday, it's interesting because we are in this time of war, rumors of war, conflict in Ukraine and Russia. It's kind of a nail-biting time, but it's also really appropriate as we look at Purim, which was also a very nail-biting, dangerous time for the Jewish people and really for the world at that time. What has God shown you through the story of Purim?

Dr. Erez Soref: The Book of Esther is one of these underrated books. Over the years, it's becoming one of my favorite books of the Bible on so many levels. I actually wanted to just share a little bit about Mordecai's Cross. I'll explain that as we move on. As I've been reflecting, every year I read through the Scroll of Esther.

It's a masterpiece of literature. We believe it's a true story, but the author of the Book of Esther clearly knows the story of Genesis. He often makes comparisons between both Esther and Mordecai to Joseph and the Joseph story. There are other allusions to other important narratives in the story of Genesis. On that level, it's a book that fits within the canon of scripture and echoes a lot of the thoughts.

One of the things that I think is most prominent in the Book of Esther is the notion of reversals—divine reversals. Obviously, the name of God is not mentioned in the scroll, but the way that the book unfolds, it's so unbelievably clear that the reversals that take place in this book are far beyond coincidence.

Not to mention the fact that the way that the Book of Esther alludes to Joseph and the story of Genesis, one of the things that we constantly hear in the background is, "You meant it for evil, God meant it for good." The emphasis of the sovereignty of God in the story of Joseph, by virtue of the fact that Esther is alluding to Joseph's story constantly, you can't but help see the sovereignty of God even though they don't mention His name.

In fact, you could almost say that the Book of Esther is mocking secularism. It's a mock of the secular worldview because it's like trying to explain life apart from God. The whole notion of reversals is really important and the unexpected that takes place.

I don't know if this is a true story. I'm sure some of this is legend. Maybe you've heard about the boy that wanted to be a judo star and he lost his left arm. I don't know if this is a true story, but I like the story. I heard this years ago. A boy lost his left arm and he was devastated because he so much wanted to be a judo star. It got out in the papers and the local television.

Before long, one of the world's renowned, greatest judo trainers showed up at this boy's door and said, "Listen, I'd love to make you a judo star if you'll trust me." He said, "You can train me? I'm missing my left arm." He said, "No problem." For the next three years, they worked on one maneuver. After he mastered that one maneuver, the young man was expecting to learn more. He said, "You're ready for championships." He said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "No, you have to trust me."

They went to the competition and, sure enough, the boy won all of his matches. He became a judo champion. After the match was over and the trophies were distributed, tears were streaming down his cheeks. He said, "How did you know, coach? How did you know that I was going to win and how did you know that all I needed was this maneuver?"

The judo coach looked at him and said, "Listen, I taught you the most difficult maneuver in all of judo, and there's only one known defense. Your opponent has to grab your left arm." This story of all things work together for good—that's the story of Esther.

Guest (Male): You were mentioning how this is a story of faith, but then kind of the tension is some scholars are saying God isn't mentioned once. But faith is very centric to the story, and prayer. Even though God is not mentioned by name, the God of Israel is very much a part of this whole narrative.

Dr. Erez Soref: Even here, the word prayer is strategically absent. She actually says, "Fast for me. Fast for me." I think it's part of the literary design that the name of God is completely withheld. Again, it's almost like this is the Bible's joke on atheists because it's clear that you cannot explain Jewish history apart from God. You cannot.

The Book of Esther really illustrates the miraculous survival of the Jewish people. The themes of reversal—I'd love to share with you some of the themes of reversal and why I actually want to talk about Mordecai's Cross. Let me go to Chapter 9, verse 1 because it's a key verse. A renowned Israeli Bible scholar, Jonathan Grossman, wrote an outstanding book on the Book of Esther and he noticed this verse. He calls out this verse as part of the key verses in the book.

"Now in the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king's command and edict were about to be executed, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary," *v’nahafoch hu*, "so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them." This whole notion of *v’nahafoch hu* and it turned to the contrary—this whole notion of reversals.

Divine reversal is the hope of every believer. In fact, it many times is kind of part of the literary structure of whole books of the Bible. One renowned Bible scholar looked at the shape of the Book of Psalms. He said that the direction of the Book of Psalms is from lament to praise. Most of the lament is in the first part of the book, most of the praise, in fact, almost the conclusion of the Book of Psalms is a crescendo of praise until everything that has breath praises the Lord.

The verse that comes to mind here is, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose," Romans 8:28. Let me give you a couple of examples. I wish we could actually look at this in Hebrew because the Hebrew—obviously, the English Bible is the word of God. It doesn't lose any of its potency. We believe that the Bible translated into any language is still the Bible. It still has the power of God. But there's nuances in the Hebrew that are beautiful.

I think that there are things here that may be more obvious in the Hebrew in terms of the parallelism. In Esther Chapter 4, verses 1 and then verse 3: "When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly." Verse 3: "In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes."

That's in Chapter 4. We go to the other side of the book, Chapter 8, and every single one of these responses in tragedy is completely reversed. Chapter 8, verses 15 and 17, which is the mirror image—it's literally the mirror image of what we just read. It's reversed. "Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king, this time not in sackcloth and ashes, but in royal robes of blue and white, with a large crown of gold and a garment of linen and purple." This time not to weeping, but "the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor. In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday."

It's completely the opposite, a complete reversal. The whole issue of the ring of power—I like The Lord of the Rings. My daughter recently pointed out to me it's interesting how the story begins with the chopping off of a finger to get the ring from Sauron, and that's exactly how it ends is that Frodo has to lose his finger. It kind of ties the storyline together. You actually have the ring of power in the story of Esther.

Listen to this. This is Chapter 3, verses 1 and then verse 10. "And after these events, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and established his authority over all the princes who were with him." This is not supposed to happen. Then verse 10, the author of the story kind of digs a knife in and turns it. "Then the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews."

The language, the way that he writes this Hebrew phrase out, is almost word-for-word identical to when the Pharaoh gives a signet ring to Joseph. In this particular instance, the wrong guy gets the ring. What makes this more painful is he's being compared to Joseph. It's almost like the world is clearly not only as it not as it should be, it's even going against everything we believe to be true about the Bible. He should not be compared to Joseph. He's the anti-Joseph.

Then notice how it ends in Chapter 8, verse 2. "The king took off his signet ring which he had taken away from Haman and gave it to Mordecai." He's the Joseph. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. Incidentally, when it describes the fact that Mordecai refuses to bow down to Haman and they try and convince him day after day and he would not listen, the Hebrew there is almost identical to the wife of Potiphar trying to convince Joseph to lay down day after day and he would not listen. Again, clearly being compared to Joseph.

Then we go down to Chapter 9, verses 4 and 5. "Indeed Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai became greater and greater." So again, we just see all of these divine reversals that cannot be explained apart from the hand of God.

Where in the Book of Esther is the lowest point? In other words, the way that the structure of the book works, it's really—and this is something I learned actually from Jonathan Grossman, which really helped me to kind of see the structure of the book—is that you basically have from the outsides of each half of the book in, you have parallel narratives where you've got this string of tragedies until you hit the center. Then every one of those tragedies is undone, but in such a way that it comes from the outside in. In other words, there's a beautiful structure.

Where's the lowest point of the book? When do we hit rock bottom so that suddenly the reversals start to take place? This is really neat. Rock bottom is Mordecai's Cross. Esther 5:14. I know the English translations translate that as the gallows. Haman prepared, at the advice of his wife Zeresh, prepared gallows for Mordecai. But in Hebrew it's *ha'etz*. The tree. Which, incidentally, is how Luke several times refers in the book of Acts to the cross of Jesus and it comes from Deuteronomy 21:23. "Cursed is the man who hangs on a tree." Galatians 3:13 quotes that passage as well.

Remarkably, the very last word before the reversal begins is *ha'etz*. The tree. The cross. Now, I'm not saying that the author of Esther meant to talk about the cross of Jesus. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'd like to do is at least see that there's something here that's incredibly like God that really illustrates for us the power of the cross in God's program.

Guest (Male): What's the lowest point of the gospel story? The lowest point is Yeshua hanging on the tree. When He was on the cross, that was the most depressing moment of history. The lowest point for humankind.

Dr. Erez Soref: Absolutely. Structure: Esther 1:1 through 5:14, you have this chain of tragedies that unfold. Esther 6:14 through 10:3, every single link is undone and reversed. The middle of the book, the hinge from where everything turns around, is the king having this sleepless night. He can't sleep at night. What a coincidence. He finds out about Mordecai and how he had saved his life. Haman comes in and Haman dresses Mordecai like a king. He's not a king yet, but he's treating him like a king. Put on the mule, paraded through town. What he was hoping for himself came upon his enemy.

Really, what's really interesting is right before that moment of the sleepless night, rock bottom, the last word in 5:14: "Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, 'Have a cross, have a tree fifty cubits high made, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go joyfully with the king to the banquet.' And the advice pleased Haman, so he had the tree made."

Really what's remarkable during the night, it says in Chapter 6, verse 1 and then I'll skip to verse 11, during the night the king couldn't sleep. What a coincidence. So Haman took the robe and the horse—just like Joseph too, who's on the chariot with royal robes—arrayed Mordecai and led him on a horseback through the city square and proclaimed before him, "Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor."

Here's what's really amazing is that Haman had planned to crucify Mordecai, and that was the low point of the book. But so quickly afterward, he is publicly humiliated. It says he went home covered in shame. He's publicly humiliated as he does a sign act of Mordecai's future exaltation. Interestingly enough, I thought about this morning how they dressed up the Roman soldiers had dressed Jesus up like a king and they're saying "Hail King to the Jews" and they're trying to mock Him. Little did they know that—I'm sure Haman thought, "Well, okay, I have to kind of put up with the fact that I'm treating him like a king right now, but pretty soon we're going to put him on that cross and it'll be over with." Little did he expect that this was actually a sign of what was really going to take place.

Guest (Male): As we read through scripture, we see God cares very little in comparison the physical to the spiritual world. He was submitting Himself to the cross. He was submitting Himself through the shame. But then, as you mention this parade, how about the scripture "He led captivity captive"? That's where we're going. You didn't even know what I was going to talk about. Another what I find to be really remarkable is that obviously this cross was meant for Mordecai. He didn't have to hang on it. But it didn't get any lower in the story for the Jewish people than this one innocent man was going to be hung on a cross. God worked it out that that was the lowest point of the story, and from all that, God worked it all out to ultimately triumph over Israel's enemies.

Dr. Erez Soref: Interestingly enough, at the beginning of the book, Esther has to hide her identity. "Don't tell the king you're Jewish." By the end of the book, it says that out of the fear of the Jews, many people were becoming Jewish. All these incredible reversals.

I remember growing up in a Jewish home. I literally, I knew nothing about Jesus. I knew He had long blonde hair. I knew that He was Catholic. That's but I didn't know He was Jewish. I had no idea. And of course, there's no mocking here. I honestly thought that Jesus was a Catholic because that was the only exposure I had to Jesus.

I remember there was this BBC production, a cartoon version of *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*. I instantly fell in love with Aslan the Lion. Then he makes this deal with the Witch that you don't even know about. He kind of talks to her quietly and then the two girls follow Aslan out as he goes to the stone table in order to save the traitor, Edmund. I don't know what's going on. I don't understand. All of a sudden, with his head down he goes and all of a sudden all these ghouls start to shave his mane and beat him. I'm thinking, "Why can't they, why doesn't he stop them? Why is he being so passive? He could defeat them. What's he doing?"

Then all of a sudden, he lays down on the stone table and she ties him up and then with this thought that "I'm going to destroy Narnia," perish. And she drives the knife into his heart. I remember the last gasp of air coming from Aslan and I was mortified. I really remember, again, I didn't understand the storyline. I was just mortified that that happened. Then I remember the girl sitting with their backs to the broken stone table weeping when Aslan disappears. The mice kind of free him and they're upset about that and they turn their back and they're crying. All of a sudden, he disappears. Little did I expect that Aslan would show up again, this time far more royal, far more triumphant. He said, "If had the White Witch known the deeper magic, she would have known that if an innocent victim died on this stone tablet, the Ten Commandments that were against Edmund, had she known that that all would have become reversed and undone."

Really, I think that this is exactly the message of *ha'etz*, the wood. The cross is that that's the lowest point when an innocent Jewish person hangs on a cross. That's the lowest point in the story of humanity. But that's actually how God ultimately destined to humiliate Satan and to set people free from every tribe, tongue, and nation and ultimately, we believe, obviously to redeem the people of Israel one day in the future as a nation.

The verse that you started to quote, I have it here, so I'm going to quote it for you. Here we have the recording of the humiliation of humanity's greatest foe, our greatest enemy. "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him."

The greatest moment of defeat was also the greatest moment of triumph. This was the greatest divine reversal that humanity has ever known. The Book of Esther gives us a sense, a picture, a taste of the beauties of the reversals of redemption that ultimately God will enthrone a Jewish King. Ultimately, the ring of power will go to the correct hand.

There's an interesting point that—have you heard of the monomyth cycle? The monomyth cycle is the story arc. But it works in terms of seasons. You have summer—everything is fine. Fall—something starts to go wrong. Winter is where you're in the dead of the conflict. Spring and then back to summer. Typically when you're analyzing a book and you're wanting to look at a book or a passage and you really want to focus on the heart of the message of the book, you actually have to find the dead of winter. That's where you focus to get the heart of the book. It's interesting that the dead of winter here is Mordecai's Cross that actually becomes Haman's Cross.

Guest (Male): Amazing. Just to think through, again, our the enemy of our souls was super excited at the opportunity to bruise Him, to kill Him, thinking that it would accomplish his goals, but it ended up being the death blow, the wounding of his head. It's so encouraging to hear that story of hope. Even in the darkest of times, we have hope. Even in the darkest of days as things seem scary, as world events are unfolding very quickly, different places, don't know what's going to happen, but we know the King is on His throne.

Dr. Erez Soref: History is quite clear that Haman's never won. God will ultimately vanquish any and every and even the ultimate Haman in history. We're on the winning team. I'd say in the midst of that trial to be like Mordecai, to be like Esther, to be the brave heroine or the brave hero that stands in faith, in prayer and fasting, to seek the Lord during that time. God will provide salvation.

Weep when necessary. There's a lot of weeping in the book, and there should be. I think it's appropriate that even now, tears are appropriate for what's going on in the world. We can weep with the world, knowing that one day that God's going to take our sorrow and our tears and turn it into joy and gladness.

Father, we just pray that You would encourage us with this word to set our eyes on You in the midst of whatever threats, whatever trials are facing us. God, that we would be brave like Esther, brave like Mordecai, uncompromising, that we wouldn't bend our knee to compromise. That we would be strong like Joseph, strong like Mordecai to not bend our knee to sin and compromise, but that we would have our eyes set upon You, the deliverer of our souls.

Thank You for the story arc in our life. How many times for I can say for myself and many others, our lowest day was the beginning of our best days as we bowed our knee to You and as You defeated sin for us. I just ask that we would set our eyes upon You. I just pray at this Purim season that You would bring many to a living relationship with Yeshua here in Israel and around the world, our brothers and sisters of the Jewish people, but also of the nations, that You would bring many to living faith in Yeshua's name. Amen.