Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Esther chapter 6. We read notice that, and I'm reading now in Isaiah chapter 14. I read from verse 12. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, notice, just like the heart of Haman in his heart, Lucifer, Hillel ben Shachar said in his heart, 'I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most High.'"

You see, Haman is really, you might say, a messenger of Satan. He does the very same thing what Satan did long before. Haman is just really following, like many in this world, following Satan and his ways, rejecting God, rejecting the place that God had given to him, rejecting all what God is offering to him. In fact, not only want to oppose God, but also dethrone God and take the place of God. This is so deceitful.

Brothers and sisters, why do you think that the conflict that exists today in the world in which we live in? We live in this world with all the problems that exist in this world. The conflict between the living God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, and Satan, Lucifer, Hillel ben Shachar, who is leading astray humanity. He became, according to scripture, the prince of the power of the air. He's called in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, the god of this world, small G, that blinded the mind of them that believe not, lest the glorious gospel of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah should shine unto them.

That's what we find out here. There is a conflict that's existing. God has a plan to send the Messiah through the Jewish people, in order that the Messiah will become the sacrifice, the one that will forgive sin for mankind. And yet, Lucifer, Hillel ben Shachar, his plan is not to allow the Messiah to come to this world, not to take the place as a sacrifice for humanity. That is exactly what Satan is seeking to do. There is a battle. There is a battle of the gods, the living God and the false gods of this world, headed up by Satan himself.

And so, in pride, Haman is saying to the king, "You know what I suggest to you, King? Take the garments that you wear as a king. Take your horses you ride upon, and take your crown. Give it to the man whom the king delighteth to honor, namely me, Haman. And then let him be paraded around the city of Shushan, the capital city of Persia, and let it be declared to all the people of Persia, 'Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor.'"

You see, brothers and sisters, in a future day when our blessed Lord Yeshua is going to come and take his rightful place here in this world, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He will receive that which the king, namely God, the true and living king, desire to give him. He desired to give him a place as a ruler, as a king of kings, as Lord of lords.

He will be the one that ultimately will receive that which belong to him. Not Satan and Satan's followers, nor any, not the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah, but the true Messiah, Israel's Messiah and the savior of the world. He's the one whom the king desire to honor. And so, in the next verses, beloved brothers and sisters, verses 10 and 11, notice, that honor is now going to be given to the right man here, not to Haman the evil one, the hater of the Jews, but to Mordecai HaYehudi, Mordecai the Jew, who was really the one who helped the king, saved his life.

And so you notice that now it must have been a great shock to Haman. Can you imagine when you think of yourself so much and you say, "Boy, I'm the one that the king must want to honor me"? And now the king is going to tell him, "Wait a minute, Haman." See, notice that verse 10, it says, "And the king said to Haman, 'Make haste. Take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, Haman, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew.'" Now can you imagine, beloved brothers and sisters, it must have been like a knife came into his heart.

He was preparing the trees, done. He's on a way to tell to the king, "Let's hang Mordecai. He's no good for you. Let's hang him." And how the tables turn over. You see, again, brothers and sisters, it is so important, if there is any lesson we learn from that, it's so important for us to ask the Lord to help us not to be proud, because pride cometh before a fall. It is so important for us not to exalt ourselves and to think much of ourselves, because the Lord will teach us a great lesson, that there is no need to pride yourself if the Lord knows our hearts, know our weakness, know our sinfulness, and he is able to deal with his own people and to deal with mankind.

And so the king now told Haman, notice it's the first time in this chapter when even the king now call him Mordecai the Jew, Mordecai HaYehudi. Notice that the king said to Haman, "Make haste. Don't delay. Make haste. Take the apparel, take the horse and go quickly and do it. No, no, no, not to you, Haman, but to Mordecai HaYehudi, to Mordecai the Jew." Now notice by the way, I made a note out of it, that by now, many time we see that he got very bad advice.

But here you can see that he's starting to discern who Haman really is, because Haman told him, "Take the royal apparel, take the royal horse and take the royal crown." But the king does not give the royal crown. He only tell him take the royal apparel and take the horse, but you don't read of him giving the crown. See why? Because he know very well, "Wait a minute, this Haman that gave me all this advice all along, I mean, the guy want to take my throne. He want to become king. He want to dethrone me." So the king started to see.

He says, "Listen, I might be foolish, but I'm not that foolish." You see what I mean? He starting to discern, wait a minute, there's something not kosher with this man by the name of Haman. So he says, "Okay, Haman, you take the apparel, you take the horse, and you go do this very thing to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate. Let nothing fail from all that you have spoken." Here you can see how the tables turn over. The lesson from this, beloved brothers, for us all is that we need to learn that, listen, we are not always can carry on and do wrong things.

You know, pay day come one day. In other words, we cannot just carry on and be proud and carry on in our own way and reject God's ways and God's will. God is really saying, "Listen, I'm going to correct it one day. You will see that how I will allow in your life some things to happen in order to fix things up for you." And you know, sometime the Lord allow us in our own life to experience disappointments. Sometime the Lord allow to humble us because he knows very well that we were priding ourselves. We thought, "I'm the captain of my ship. I'm the pilot of my plane. I can do my own thing."

You remember the song "I Did It My Way"? And the Lord's going to say, "No, no, no, no. You will have to learn that my way, God's way, is the better way." And so Haman with all the exaltation, he was promoted and he had all this, and now there is a final time when he would think that the king delight to honor him, all of a sudden he find out it's not you, Haman, it is Mordecai the Jew. And you can see the hand of God, the sovereign hand of God, the providence of God. "You go, make haste, do this unto Mordecai the Jew, don't let nothing fall out of all that you have said." This is in verse 10.

And so now in verse 11, you see the humility of Haman. Notice three things Haman does. "Then took Haman the apparel and the horse," and number one, he arrayed Mordecai, he clothed him. Number two, he brought him and set him on the king's horse. And number three, notice that, he pulled him throughout the city of Shushan, Shushan Habirah, and he proclaimed loudly for everyone to hear, "Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor."

If you and I would have been there more than few thousand years ago, it's about 500 BC, 2,500 years ago, we will see this wicked man of Haman who wanted to destroy the Jewish people. Now he end up pulling the horse upon which sit Mordecai HaYehudi, with dressing with the royal garment, malchut levush hamalchut. And he says, "Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor." In Hebrew, "Kacha ye'aseh la'ish asher hamelech chafetz bikaro."

Again, I would love you to see, beloved brothers and sisters, the typology. There's a wonderful picture. Mordecai is a picture of our Messiah Yeshua, who was rejected and despised, and yet God want to honor him. And though the world reject him today, and though our own people don't see that he's the Messiah today, but one day will come and everyone will have to acknowledge that Yeshua is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God will display him in this universe. The whole world will have to recognize that he's Lord of lord.

He's king of kings, he's melech hamelachim. He's the promised redeemer, the promised Messiah that God had promised our forefathers for many, many generations. "Thus it shall be done unto the man," and the word "the man", HaIsh, it's interesting. This is the man that is often time being rejected by the world today. That will be the man that God will set here as the king of kings and Lord of lord. Beautiful to see this, beloved brothers and sisters. You know, I have to just read, if you don't mind, the verses in Acts chapter 17.

And notice what we read there about Yeshua the Messiah, verse 30 and 31. It says there, the Apostle Paul, Sha'ul Paul says, "And the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now he commandeth all men everywhere to repent." And then verse 31, why Sha'ul Paul? Why does God command all men everywhere to repent? And here is the answer, verse 31, "Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, listen to this, by that man whom he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

You see, God had promised that one day he's going to judge this world by the man of his counsel. The man is Yeshua HaMashiach. And he's commanding everyone everywhere to repent because there's a day coming where God is going to judge this world by that very man, namely Yeshua HaMashiach, whom he had ordained. And so in Mordecai HaYehudi we see unexpectedly, unplanned, but by divine design, Haman is saying, "Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king delight to honor."

And can you imagine, Mordecai sit on a horse and Haman, who just look a little bit further you'll see the high gallows, the high tree that he prepared for Mordecai. It seems to be a dilemma here. And here he's pulling down, he's walking around and he's saying, "Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor." Everyone observing. "Wait a minute, this is Mordecai HaYehudi, the man that did not want to bow to Haman HaRasha, to this evil man, and now look what Haman is doing. He's pulling him here. He's dressed in the king's clothes. He's sitting on the king's horse, and the declaration by the very man who want to kill him."

Oh, brothers and sisters, if that does not speak to our hearts about the future day when Yeshua the Messiah will be the one who going to rule and reign and every knee will bow to him, if there's any glimpse of appreciation, you can see it in typology here in these verses. Now let's conclude in verses 12, 13, and 14. Notice that in verse 12, Mordecai now, notice the complete elevation of Mordecai was now deferred, because after that, Mordecai went back to, notice that verse 12, Mordecai came again to the king's gate.

But Haman hasted to his house. He was mourning and he had his head covered. Can you imagine? He was so ashamed. He covered his head that nobody will perhaps see him. The word here for mourning come from the Hebrew word evel. It's like death has happened. That's what we find out here in this word. And what's happened, notice verse 13. He goes home quickly, and then it says, and Haman told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends everything that had befallen him.

Then said the wise men and Zeresh, his wife, unto him, "Now listen to this, brothers and sisters." This time they gave him a truth that it seems to be that this is a revelation from the Lord. You remember earlier in a previous chapter they said to him, "Let's make a gallows, let's make a high tree so you can hang Mordecai the Jew." But this time, look what they said to him in verse 13B. "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him."

Now you and I might ask immediately, where did Zeresh got this information? Where all these wise men of the Persian who were counseling Haman, from where did they receive such an information as this? The seed of the Jews, in Hebrew it's called zera HaYehudim. If he is Jewish, if he's coming from the seed of the Jewish people before whom you began to fall, be sure, Haman, that you will surely fall before him. Well, beloved brothers and sisters, this is again, I would like to just present this before you.

The issue here, the descendants of those who follow Satan and the descendants of those whom God had called to be his people. You see, the seed of the Jews began of course already in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 when Adam and Eve, Adam and Chava, fell into sin. And God made a promise when Satan was there to cause that fall to be brought into fruition. Notice in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, the promise of the seed of the woman. It says, "I will put an enmity between thee, namely Satan, and the woman, and between thy seed, Satan's seed, and the woman's seed. It shall bruise your head and thou shalt bruise his heel."

God made a promise already when sin came into this world. Here is what's going to happen. The seed of the woman is none else but the Messiah himself. And if the Messiah is going to come to this world, God have chosen that he will come to this world through the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so throughout the whole history of humanity for 6,000 years about right now, God in his plan is brought about the birth of the Messiah, the seed of the woman.

The Bible always teaches us that it is the seed of man that bring a child into this world. But that child that come into this world of the seed of the man, he's a sinner. But here's a seed of the woman, zera ha'ishah, has no man involved. Miriam was impregnated by Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God. And when Yeshua was born into this world, he was born sinless, undefiled, separate from sinners, which made him qualified to be the Messiah, the savior, the redeemer of humanity.

And so he was to be born through the Jewish people, and he going to be reigning ultimately over the Jewish people and through the Jewish people blessing going to come to the nations of the world in a coming day. Even Yeshua said in John chapter 4, "Salvation is of the Jews." Not because the Jewish people are the one who are better than the non-Jewish people, but no, God have chosen that through the chosen people, the Messiah will come and blessing will flow into all the nations of the world.

And so beloved brothers and sisters, look what Zeresh his wife saying to Haman, "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, mi-zera HaYehudim, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail, Haman, against him but thou shalt surely fall before him." And beloved brothers and sisters, from Genesis 3, all the way to the end of the book of the Revelation, even at the end, you see the battle that always happen between Satan and Satan's people and God and God's people.

Constant friction and the climax will come in a coming day when God going to send the Messiah Yeshua to take his rightful place over this world and to restore his people Israel. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 12. Just to close this thought from the beginning of human history to the end you might say of the time in which we live in God has a plan to bring about the restoration of the Jews and the Messiah who is the king of the Jews will rule and reign over this world.

Notice what it says in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 7, "And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. And he prevailed not, neither was there place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, 'Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Messiah: for the accuser of the brethren was cast down, which accuses them before our God day and night.'"

The brethren here in context are the Jewish people. Verse 11, "And they overcome him," future generation of the nation of Israel, "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, ye heaven, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath because he knows that he has but a short time." During the middle of the tribulation when Satan going to be cast down, he will persecute the people of Israel.

That's what we call Tsorat Ya'akov, Jacob's trouble. The book of Jeremiah teaches us this. There will be such a great persecution of the Jewish people by Satan himself who was cast down to earth. He knows that he have but a short time. Soon is going to end. He knows that if the Jewish people say to Yeshua, "Baruch haba b'shem Adonai," "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," this is the end of Satan.

And so we read, listen to this, it says here in the next verse, "And when the dragon saw," this is verse 13, "that he was cast to earth, he persecuted the woman." The woman is here representing the nation of Israel which brought forth the man-child. The Messiah came through the woman, namely the people of Israel. "And to the woman was given two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness unto a place where she will be nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent."

God will preserve the remnant of our nation Israel in a middle of the tribulation and he will send them to be protected by an area that some believe Bozrah or Petra area for three and a half years. And I just want to conclude this beloved brothers and sisters, chapter 19 and verse 11, we read, listen to this, "And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as the flame of fire; and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself."

"And he was clothed with vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nation: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS, Melech HaMelachim ve-Adon HaAdonim."

And we close with chapter 20 and verse 1. "And I saw the angel that came down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold, listen to this, he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." That's the end of Satan of course after he will be loosed for a short time, it says the next verses, and finally in the end of the book of Revelation chapter 20, Satan ultimately will be destroy and will be cast into the lake of fire where he is going to stay there forever and ever.

Now you and I might say, "What is it connected with Esther chapter 6?" Well, it's the same old story. The enmity of the descendant of Satan against the descendant of Yeshua the Messiah. Those who want to oppose God and those who want to follow God. And ultimately beloved brothers and sisters, as we find here, what shall be done unto the man whom the king delightest to honor, at the end God will honor his son Yeshua HaMashiach, just the same as he honored Mordecai HaYehudi using this evil man by the name of Haman to array and to walk through the streets of the capital city of Persia. Well may the Lord help us to understand those things and be focus on the person of Yeshua our Messiah.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to the 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.