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: Shabbat Shalom. We have been studying for quite a while the Book of Esther. Esther, this young Jewish girl who lived in Persia, and somehow by the providence of God, she was led to become the queen of King Ahasuerus, who was that Xerxes, the king of the then-known world, you might say, the king of Persia.

Esther, a Jewish young girl, became the queen. And somehow the God of Israel through His providence has used Esther to preserve the Jewish people from the destruction of the enemies of the Jews, a man by the name of Haman, who sought to destroy the people of Israel. I would like you to turn to Esther, and today I'm going to read all the 10 verses of Esther Chapter 7.

I would like us to take this time together to look at this chapter and to see how the Lord in His wisdom and providence preserved the people of Israel for the future day when Israel as a nation will have a place of blessing here in this world and will be a nation that will be a light to the Gentiles, as we say to the Prophet Isaiah, "Or la'goyim," a light to the nations of the world.

So we read from verse 1: So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at a banquet of wine, "What is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom."

Then Esther the queen answered and said, "If I have found favor in thy sight, oh king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage."

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, "Who is he, and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so?" And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

And the king rising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden. And Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was.

Then said the king, "Will he force the queen also before me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, "Behold also the gallows, 50 cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman."

Then the king said, "Hang him thereon." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. Those of you who were not with us during the study of the Book of Esther, we have mentioned more than once that the Jewish people who were at that day in which we read in the Book of Esther, those that remained in Persia were not in a proper, suitable spiritual condition.

They should have not been in Persia. They should have returned to the promised land. They should have not remained in the diaspora, in the dispersion. They should have responded to the call of Cyrus already many years before to return back to the promised land, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the wall, to rebuild the temple, and to worship the God of Israel in a proper place.

But instead of being in Jerusalem, instead of being in Israel, instead of being in Canaan, they still remain in the diaspora. The lesson for you and I to learn from this is a very similar thing in the present-day condition of the church age. There are many Christians, many believers in Yeshua, who are saved, but instead of returning back into fellowship with the Lord, they stay far away from the place where God would have His people gathered together around the person of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

Sometimes you and I can be like this, beloved brothers and sisters. We are saved, our salvation is secure because we have accepted the Lord Yeshua Jesus the Messiah, but spiritually, we are not where we should be. We are not near the Lord, we are walking far away from Him. We don't enjoy the fellowship with the Lord Jesus, with Yeshua the Messiah, and God is drawing us closer to Him.

He wants us to be drawn to Him and that's why you often times find in scripture the call of the Lord, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me and I'll give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish." Yeshua himself says, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest to your soul."

And so sometime, beloved brothers and sisters, we learn from Israel's history, we apply it to our own life, and we find ourselves often times in a need of help from the Lord to stay close to Him. So we are in the seventh chapter of the Book of Esther, and here you find out that there was a man by the name of Haman. This Haman, this man is a wicked man.

He was an Agagite, he was an Amalekite, and Amalek was the first nation that opposed the Jewish people when our nation came out of the land of Egypt. Haman is a descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and he sought to destroy the Jewish people. He sought to put away the Jewish people, the entire Jewish community in the then-known world under the empire of the Persians.

So what shall we do? You remember Mordecai, Chapter 4? He was weeping, he was crying. He sent to Esther the queen who was inside the palace and he says, "You've got to do something about it. You've got to help your people, the Jewish people." And so she said, "Don't you know, Mordecai, if I'm going to come to the king, I'm liable to lose my life?"

So he challenged her and she said to him, "Okay, you go tell all the Jewish people to fast for me and I'm going to go into the palace, and if I perish, I perish." And so we read in Chapter 5 how, if you remember, the story of the courage of Esther and how she invited the king to come to a banquet.

And so he was invited to come to the banquet. He came and he wanted to find out what's troubling her because she was saying, "I want to ask you a question, I want to tell you something." And so when the time came for her to speak before the king in the fifth chapter, she said to the king, "Let us wait for the next day and please come to the second banquet that I'm going to prepare."

And we are in Chapter 7, in the second banquet, where Esther, this Jewish queen of the King of Persia, was going now to speak to the king and tell him what Haman, that wicked one, had planned to do to all the Jewish people. In Chapter 6, if you remember, it was one of the most beautiful chapters where the king could not sleep at night.

And he asked for the Book of the Chronicles to be brought to himself and he was reading in the Book of the Chronicles and he found out that a man by the name of Mordecai the Jew saved his life. And so he asked his servant, "What have happened to this man? Did we reward him for the good that he have done to save my life?" And the servant says, "No."

And so the king says, "Who is outside the gate?" and you find out right outside in the palace, there was Haman. He was coming to the king to ask him to kill this man by the name of Mordecai and as he comes in and seeking to tell the king about Mordecai the Jew that he prepared a gallows for him, a tree to kill him, then the king said to him, "Haman, what shall be done unto the man whom the king desire to honor?"

The king meant Mordecai, but Haman thought about himself. Says, "Wow, I must have been the one that the king want to honor." And you remember the story, beloved brothers and sisters? Haman said, "Oh, let the royal apparel be brought which the king is wearing and the horse which the king ride upon and the crown which the king set upon his head.

And let the king allow this man whom the king desire to honor sit on the horse, wear the clothes of the king, have the crown of the king, and let him be paraded and said throughout Susa the palace, 'Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king desire to honor.'" Well, lo and behold, beloved brothers and sisters, the king said to Haman, "You take this man by name Mordecai the Jew and you put him on my horse, you give him my clothes, and you parade him throughout the whole capital city of Persia."

And can you imagine what a shock it must have been for this wicked man who wanted to kill Mordecai and prepared for him a high tree, 75 feet high, to hang him on the tree? Now instead of hanging him on the tree, he was walking around and saying, "Thus it shall be done unto the man whom the king desire to honor."

And in type, beloved brothers and sisters, it speaks of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He's the man whom God desire to honor. God will lift up the name of Yeshua the Messiah and He desire everyone to bow their knees before the person of Yeshua Jesus our Messiah. He's the man whom God desire to honor. So Mordecai become a type of the Messiah Himself.

So now as we conclude Chapter 6 and we entering into Chapter 7, you notice that in the last verse of Chapter 6 it says, "While they were yet talking with him came the king's chamberlains in haste to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared." Quickly now, the banquet's going to start, Esther's invitation for the king and Haman.

Esther is intending to do what she had to do, and now the king's servants coming to the house of Haman and telling Haman, "Come on, the king is calling you. Let's go to the banquet that Queen Esther had prepared." What do you think they were talking there in the house of Haman? In Haman's house, his wife and his servants told Haman, "If you have begun to deal with Mordecai the Jew, who is of the seed of the Jewish people," they told Haman, it says, "thou shall not prevail against him but thou shall surely fall before him."

Esther 6 and verse 13. They understood that if Mordecai was a Jew, and he was, and for Haman the Agagite to seek to destroy him, he ultimately will fall and will stumble. And Chapter 7 describes actually the doom of Haman the Jew's enemy. Now I mentioned not only for you but even for myself to get the context of what we have here in this Chapter 7.

So notice now in Chapter 7, verses 1 to 6, we have Haman and his plot is being revealed to the King Ahasuerus. All the plan of Haman to destroy the Jewish people is now revealed to King Ahasuerus. In verse 1, King Ahasuerus and Haman arrive to the banquet. We read, "So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen." Well, they're rushing to come to Queen Esther.

She specially prepared this banquet and that banquet in Hebrew is the word 'mishteh'. And 'mishteh' means a time where they drink. Mishteh, they drink and eat. Mishteh has to do with feasting and celebrating and especially it comes from the word 'lishtot' in Hebrew, mean to drink. Alcohol was galore in those days. There was drinking, and every time you find this king celebrating and having special gathering, it always has to do with drinking.

He began it in the first chapter and we find it again. So Esther know what he likes, so she prepare for him the banquet, the time where he can enjoy himself. Now notice, brothers and sisters, in verse 2 we find that King Ahasuerus once again asking Esther, "Esther, what is troubling you? What you have on your heart?" You notice that it says in verse 2, and the king said again unto Esther on the second day at a banquet of the wine, notice, the banquet of the wine, the mishteh.

"What is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee, and what is thy request? And it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom." The king was ready to answer Esther. He knew that there was something troubling her. And so he wanted her to already ask him this question and he made a promise. Look at this, brothers and sisters. He says, "What is thy petition? And I promise you, Esther, it shall be granted unto you.

You will receive what you ask. What is your request? It shall be performed." He give her an assurance that he will do for her anything she ask. And you notice he says that even to the half of the kingdom. If you remember the passage in the Gospel of Mark in Chapter 6, it was Herod. He himself promised to Herodias's daughter, who danced before him because he liked her, "Whatever you will ask me I will give it to you," he said, "even to the half of the kingdom."

And you remember what she asked from him? Because her mother tell her, "You better ask from the king the head of Yochanan Hamatbil, John the Baptist." And indeed, if you remember, the king promised and he fulfilled and he end up killing this servant of God by the name of Yochanan, John, and he cut off his head because of the wickedness of the request of Herodias who hated so much John the Baptist because he testified that it was not right for her and for him to live together because she belonged to another.

And so we find out that the King Ahasuerus said the same. "What is thy request? What is thy petition? It will be granted unto you even to the half of the kingdom." And so we find out, beloved brothers and sisters, in the next verses, verse 3 and verse 4, that Esther answered the king. Now finally, she came to the point when she was going to give him the request that she had.

And so notice there, first of all, I want you to know, verse 3 and verse 4, we have five things that Esther is mentioning to King Ahasuerus. First of all, in verse 3, she's speaking about herself. Secondly, in verse 4, she's speaking about the king. Notice three things in verse 3. The first one, "If I have found favor in thy sight."

Notice that we read that. Then she answered and she said, "If I have found favor in thy sight." You see, she knew very well that the king loved her. And the king somehow God placed His favor, the king's favor, upon Esther. And she asked the king, "King, if I, your queen, found favor in your sight?" She was appealing to the king on a basis of the fact that she was a blessing to him.

"If I found favor in your sight." That's the first thing that she was telling to King Ahasuerus. Secondly, notice then, again in verse 3B, again the word "if." "And if it pleased the king." Notice that secondly she is mentioning here if it is please the king. And now it is so interesting because she was showing to him that she's really intending to have his pleasure, whatever please the king.

It's not only me but whatever is benefiting you the king. And apparently, beloved brothers and sisters, she meant the welfare of the king. And so we read the third point. She's pointing back to herself and she says in this last portion of verse 3, "Let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request." Now all of a sudden she shared with him and she says, "Listen, if I found favor in your sight and if it is pleasing to you, give me my life back."

But you see, he didn't know anything about the plan that Haman had. He didn't know that his wife was a Jewish young lady because already in the earlier chapter, Mordecai her uncle told her, "Do not let anyone know that you are Jewish." And so she kept it as a secret. And now at the time such as this, because the Jewish people were going to be executed in the month of Adar and therefore she now had the opportunity to seek her life and the life of all the people that she belonged to, the Jewish people, to seek to have it back from the king.

And that's why she said, "Let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request." You see, she now was going to ask for the life of all the Jewish people because Haman determined to destroy the Jewish people and to completely do away with the Jewish people. Go please back to Chapter 3 for a moment with me, so you can see the connection.

Already there in the earlier verses, we find out in verse 6, "And he sought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai, wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai." You see, Haman planned it. He actually set up a date in verse 7 we read.

"In the first month, that is the month of Nisan, and in the 12th year of King Ahasuerus, they cast up Pur, that is the lot before Haman from day to day and from month to month to the 12th month, that is the month of Adar." And determined eventually that the month of Adar all Jews are going to be destroyed by Haman and all the people of Persia. In fact, in Chapter 3 and verse 12 we read, "Then were the king's scribes called on the 13th day of the first month and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king lieutenants and to the governance thereof over every province and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof and to every people after their language in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written and it was sealed with the king's ring."

And letters were sent, and you notice at the end of verse 13 that upon the 13th day of the 12th month which is the month of Adar, to take the spoil of them for a prey and ultimately they decided that on the 13th day of the month of Adar all Jews will be killed by the people of Persia. And can you imagine what that meant? What this meant.

So right now we are back to Chapter 7, please. And so we find out the three points that she made in verse 3. "If I have found favor in thy sight," she's saying to the king. "If it is pleasing to the king," she said the second point. And thirdly, "Let my life and let my people's life will be given back unto us." And so can you imagine the king was puzzled right now?

What does that mean, your life? Who want to take your life away? Your people's life? Who want to take your people's life away? And so he was puzzled, beloved brothers and sisters. Notice what it says here in the next verse. It says she's clearly now explaining to him in verse 4 that she and her people were sentenced to death.

"For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed and to be slain and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen, for servants, or bondwoman, I wouldn't have speak. I would have held my tongue. But the enemy could not countervail the king's damage." Nevertheless, the king will lose out and he will not receive that which belong unto him.

So you notice verse 4, this is an amazing verse where she says that we are sold, destroyed, slain, and perish. In Hebrew, "Le-hashmid, la-harog ve-la-abbed." Those three Hebrew words mean the total destruction of those Jewish people whom Haman have intended to put away completely out of this world. And so she was seeking to maintain the Jewish people and not to allow them to be killed. So she share this with the King Ahasuerus when she appealed to him at that moment. So verse 3 and verse 4 is Esther's response to King Ahasuerus. Tell me, what is your request?

Guest (Male): 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.