Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: The study of Esther chapter 9 and chapter 10. So, it is so important to display before all that which is of the flesh that has no good whatsoever. And those ten sons of Haman, spiritually speaking, represent also that which is going to happen in a future day. If you remember, the book of the Revelation talks about the tribulation period where the Antichrist will rise and he will rule over ten kings. And those ten kings are being represented here, that ultimately God will destroy the enemies of the people of God. We read about it in Revelation chapter 17. In fact, turn to Revelation chapter 17 with me for a moment and let me just make the reference to these verses.

And verse 12, we read, "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast." They will follow the beast, the counterfeit Messiah. These, notice verse 13 and 14, "These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful."

You see, in the future day, beloved brothers and sisters, during the tribulation age before the kingdom, there will be risen those ten kings which will follow the beast, the Antichrist. They will hand to him their power, and they will seek to destroy and to harm the Jewish people specifically during the tribulation period. And those are the ones that the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, they make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb, this is Yeshua HaMashiach, he shall overcome them and ultimately destroy them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, Adon HaAdonim and Melech HaMelachim.

And so what we really see here, again, it is something that we must see it as we study the whole scope of the Word of God, that these ten sons of Haman representing here his continual ways of evil against God and God's people. So Esther, with the little bit of understanding that she has, she says, "No, no, no, they're not only dead, but I would like them to be displayed publicly." And you remember what we read in the book of Deuteronomy, cursed is the man that is hanging on the tree. And what she's really saying, she requested that Haman and his sons will be hanging on the tree.

And really, it points to us spiritually speaking by typology, by a picture lesson, by an application, it points us to the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah of the tribulation period and those ten kings that will hand over to him their power against God and God's people. And so we find out now in the next verses in Esther chapter 9, after the two requests of Esther, verses 14 and 15, Esther's request is granted. Then verses 16 to 19, there is the two days of rest that the Jewish people finally have had. Notice I'm reading now those verses.

You notice it says in verse 14, "And the king commanded it so to be done, and the decree was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons." Verse 15, "And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the," notice "on the fourteenth day of the same month of Adar, and now they slew additional three hundred men at Shushan, the capital city of Persia." So on the thirteenth day they killed five hundred. On the fourteenth day they killed three hundred. And now you notice that the thirteenth and the fourteenth are kind of linked together because Esther requested another day from King Ahasuerus.

And so verse 16 on, we find out the days that the Jewish people rested, both the Jewish people in Shushan, the capital city, and the Jewish people who were in the 127 provinces. Let me read those verses. "But the Jews that were in the king's provinces, those," it says, "they gathered themselves together and stood for their lives and had rest from their enemies and slew," listen, "slew of their foes seventy and five thousand." Can you imagine? Seventy-five thousand. I guess 127 countries.

In every country, some enemies of Israel sought to destroy the Jewish people. Then they rose up and they stood against those who wanted their life, and they in return destroyed, as it says here, 75,000 people of their own enemies. There was a conflict existed. They came against them. The enemies rose against the Jewish people to destroy them, but the Jewish people was emboldened by the help of the Lord, and they in return have attacked their enemies, and many have died of the enemies of the people of Israel. Again, brothers and sisters, no one is enjoy to even talk about the fact that God's people is attacking their enemies and killing them.

But this is really the story that will happen eventually in this world. The enemies of God's people will ultimately be destroyed. They will physically die but also spiritually going to be separated eternally from God because they have opposed Yeshua the Messiah and the people of God. So in verses 16, 17, 18, and 19, we have those two days that became a time of rest. The Jewish people in Shushan, the palace, rested on the fifteenth day of the month. The Jewish people in the rest of the nations of the world rested on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar.

The reason is because Esther asked for another day to get the permission of the king to stand against the enemies on the fourteenth day, therefore they rested on the fifteenth day. So this is verses 11 to 19. Now let's move along, because in verse 20 all the way to verse 32 of Esther chapter 9, we have the establishment of what we call today Chag Purim, the Feast of Purim, the Feast of Esther. So you notice a few things that we find out very interesting here. First of all, verse 20, 21, and 22, Mordecai sent letters requesting from all the Jewish community to establish and keep that two days that is called the Feast of Purim.

I'm reading verse 20 now. It says, "And Mordecai wrote these things and he sent letters unto all Jews that were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to establish," notice that word "to establish," it comes from the Hebrew word "lekayem." "Lekayem" means to keep it. "Lekayem" means to hold on to it. So he said, "To establish," he says in verse 21, "among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of the same every year as the day wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day, the day they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor."

Now that Feast of Purim had been established now. Every month of Adar, usually it's the month of March, for us who are in North America, it's the month of March. In Israel, it's called the month of Adar. Every month of Adar, the twelfth month of the Hebrew calendar, on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth of this month, the Jewish people celebrate the Feast of Purim. And Mordecai requested that all the Jewish community worldwide will keep that feast. In fact, he used the word "establish." It comes from the Hebrew word "lekayem." To do it, to act upon it.

And why? To look back at history. What happened to us many, many years ago when Haman sought to destroy all the Jewish people. And there are many, many customs during the time of Purim. Old and young, we have clothes, we dress like Mordecai, or we dress like Queen Esther. Some of us dress like wicked Haman, and some even dress like King Ahasuerus. I told you before that my mother for some reason always wanted me to dress like Queen Esther. I do not know why. She actually offered me money. She said, "If you're going to dress like Queen Esther, I'm going to give you so much money."

And I was not emboldened enough to dress like, I am a boy, I want to look like a man. I don't want to look like Queen Esther. But it was so real, beloved brothers and sisters. We dress, we have every time the name of Haman is mentioned, there is booing because he was an enemy of the Jewish people. Noisemaking, noise because he wanted to destroy our nation, the Jewish people. So it became a celebration, "lekayem," to establish in Jewish history. Now, of course, it is not part of the seven feasts that God gave to Israel already when the law was given some 3,500 years ago in Mount Sinai there.

No, it was a separate feast, but it was an important feast in Jewish history. Just like Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, that Antiochus wanted to destroy the Jewish people as well. And just like the Independence Day today that came out of Hitler who wanted to destroy all the Jewish people. He was successful to kill six million of our own Jewish people that he placed them in gas chambers, and he was successful. You can go today to Yad Vashem in the city of Jerusalem and see the monuments there, a memorial to what happened to our own Jewish people in the time when Hitler sought.

And it was not too long ago, beloved brothers and sisters. Some 70 years or so from our point, can you imagine, from today 70 years ago, those of us that are older than 70 here today, you were alive when they sought to destroy the Jewish people when they successfully Hitler killed six million of our own Jewish people. Can you just imagine? And so no wonder there is a need to establish, to remember how in the providence of God our people have been preserved by the God of Israel in a supernatural way from their enemies. Notice what we read now in verse 23 to verse 28, the commitment of the Jewish people and the naming of the feast.

They committed themselves to keep those two days, the fourteenth and the fifteenth of the month of Adar, and they gave it a name. And notice that I'm going to read verse 23, verse 24, the Jews understand it. It says here, "And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written unto them." They really took it seriously. They knew it very well. Let me tell you, when somebody's going to come to your home and going to desire to destroy you and your family, and somehow in a providence of God you will be preserved and be happy and you will be able to defeat your enemy, you will remember that very well in your own personal life.

And therefore they undertook to do it, to keep it, to be thankful for what was happened at that day. Again, not mention of God, but you know very well that God was in their hearts during those days because he did preserve them. He did protect them in his providence. Notice what it says in verse 24, "Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast Pur, that is the lot, to consume them and to destroy them." By the way, you notice that it says about Haman, he is the enemy of all the Jews.

Not only of some selected Jewish people, but he was an enemy of all the Jewish people altogether. He was an enemy of all the Jewish people, those that were in Shushan the palace and those that were in the 127 provinces. He sought to destroy all the Jewish people. We continue and we read in verse 24 again, why is it named Purim? Here is the reason, because Haman had cast Pur. The word Pur means "lot." In Hebrew we call it "goral." He cast a goral, a lot, to find out which day he's going to destroy all the Jewish people.

That's where you get Pur, Purim. P-U-R, and then Purim, P-U-R-I-M, plural for Pur, lot, lots. And here we find out that the name the Feast of Esther, the Feast of Purim, it says in verse 25, "But when Esther came before the king, and he commanded by letters that the wicked device which he devised against the Jews would return upon his own head." And then verse 26, "Wherefore they called these days," not only one day but these days, "Purim after the name of Pur." And the word Purim, it explained it here, the word Pur is lot, lot in Hebrew is goral.

And the goral, the lot is actually the Lord is the one that ultimately bring about an answer to every lot that had been cast by ancient times by man. In fact, I want you to turn to Proverbs chapter 16 with me, please. And there notice what it says. It says in verse 33, the last verse, "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." They are casting lot and casting lot, but eventually the Lord as a sovereign God, he's the one that is making the outcome of it. And the outcome was that he preserved the Jewish people even though the lot fell on a certain day to destroy them all.

The Lord had overturned the enemy's plan to preserve his own people, the people of Israel. Now back to Esther chapter 9 to draw near towards the end of chapter 9, beloved brothers and sisters. Verse 27 and verse 28, the ordering of Purim to be kept by the people of Israel, by the Jewish community. "The Jews ordained and they took upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they should keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time every year."

And notice it says in verse 28, "And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed." And so on, beloved brothers and sisters, the Jewish people preserve the Feast of Esther, the Feast of Purim from generation to generation every year on the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month of Adar everywhere in Jewry, beginning from Yerushalayim all the way around the world, that feast is being kept by our people.

To remember the preservation of the Jewish people, and we know very well it is from none else but the Lord himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well, to conclude chapter 9 and to go into chapter 10, we find out in verse 29, 30, 31, and 32 that a letter of confirmation by Esther and Mordecai was sent. And so we will read, "And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim." And you can read the remaining verses of chapter 9. At verse 32 it says, "And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in a book."

Now that is interesting, it was written in a book. And that's why many believe that this is the book of Esther that was written by Mordecai himself, who was there, the one who was writing those letters to the Jewish community worldwide about the necessity to keep the Feast of Purim. Well, now let's quickly go into chapter 10 and conclude the book of Esther. Because chapter 10 shows us the distinction between King Ahasuerus, who was the King of Persia, and his self-will, and on the other hand we see Mordecai the Jew and his selfless-will.

You can see, if you will, a picture between the sin nature, the old nature, and the new nature. Or we can put it this way, you can see the different between the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah, and the Messiah himself in typology. Look at this, chapter 10, verse 1 and 2a. "And King Ahasuerus laid tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea, and all the acts of his power and of his might." Just pause here for a moment. You remember what I said earlier. The book of Esther began away from Israel and ends away from Israel.

The book of Esther began with a pagan king and ends with the story of the thinking of the pagan king. The book of Esther began far away from the temple in Jerusalem, and it is speaking about the capital city and the one who rule over that city in Persia. What do we see about him? What does he do, King Ahasuerus? He began with a party in the beginning of the book of Esther, and he ends with putting tax upon all his people. You can see that he is taxing them, he put tributes upon them, whether it is in the land or in the islands, in the isles of the sea, he taxed his people.

And secondly, he's writing about his greatness and all his power and his might. This is a picture of Satan, picture of the Antichrist, a picture of the old sinful nature that is priding itself, "Look what I have done, look what I've accomplished. And I'm going to tax the people, my subject, and I'm going to gain more from them for myself." It begins with self and it ends with self when it comes to the king. But on the other hand, beloved brothers and sisters, look what happened with Mordecai. Completely different.

In verse 2b and verse 3, to conclude the book of Esther, look what we read about Mordecai. It says in verse 2b, "And the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?" Then the final verse in the book of Esther, verse 3 of chapter 10. "For Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people and speaking Shalom to all his seed."

See the different, beloved brothers and sisters. One of them is a representation of the sin nature. The other one is a representation of the new nature. One of them is a representation of Satan, the Antichrist, the enemies of God, the people who are godless. The other one is a representation of the person of our Lord Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, who loved the nation of Israel just like he loves you and I, who cared for the welfare of mankind, who was willing to give himself a ransom for many.

This is a beautiful picture and typology that we see in Mordecai the Jew. Notice, he became next to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among all the Jewish people. The Jewish people honored him and respected him because he had been used to deliver them out of to be extinguished. And then it says those few beautiful remarks at the end. He was accepted of the multitude of his brethren. He was seeking the wealth of his people, and he was speaking peace, Shalom, to his seed.

Notice the three words: his brethren, his people, his seed. Achav, ammo, and zar'o in Hebrew. His brethren, his people, and his seed. The people, the Jewish people have respected Mordecai the Jew who sought the welfare of the people of Israel. That takes us, beloved brothers and sisters, to the beautiful picture of the future day when our own Jewish people, who are blinded to the Messiahship of Yeshua the Messiah, they will finally realize who he is and what he had done for them.

They will realize that he's the one who cared for his brethren. He's the one who wished well for his people, and he's the one who bring Shalom, peace, unto his own seed, the people of Israel. This is beautiful to see that. And you and I as believers in Jesus the Messiah, Jew and Gentile, doesn't matter who we are, we also have to appreciate what Yeshua have done for us today. We belong to him. We are the one that have become part of a redeemed company, and we are the one who should appreciate what the Lord Yeshua has done for us.

Well, brothers and sisters, this is the conclusion of the book of Esther. The theme is not really the Jews. It's not really Mordecai. It's not really Esther. It's not really Ahasuerus. It's not even Haman. The theme here is the sovereignty of God. God is in control over the affairs of all men, and he does take care of his own people and no matter what, his plan and purpose will surely come to pass in the life of the Jews and in the life of the body of Messiah. He will surely bring it to pass.

Narrator: You have been listening to Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0 or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.