ESTHER-MORDECAI-HAMAN
Pastor J. C. O’Hair
Christians have wondered why the word “God” is not found once in the ten chapters of “Esther.” But God was working very definitely in favor of Mordecai, Esther and the other Jews, and against Haman who, in Esther 3:10, is called “the Jews’ enemy (oppressor).”
In Daniel 2:36 to 39 the Lord, through Daniel, revealed to the king of Babylon that he was the first of four great Gentile world powers, the beginning of “the times of the Gentiles,” politically. The second was to be the Medes and the Persians. (Daniel 5:28 - Esther 1:19). We read in Daniel 5:31, “Darius the Median took the kingdom.” In Daniel 6:28 we read “Daniel prospered in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” In Esther 1:1 to 12 we read that Ahasuerus reigned from India to Ethiopia. “Ahasuerus” was a title rather than the name of the king. This Persian king, in the presence of all the princes of the provinces of Persia and Media, “shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent glory.” (Esther 1:4).
Vashti, the queen, refused to attend the king’s feast. She was deposed.
Then Satan and Haman, versus God, With Mordecai and Esther, began to work. It was Ham versus Shem. It was the Agagtite (Esther 3:1) against the faithful Jew, for Mordecai was true to God under most adverse circumstances.
Note the decree Haman persuaded the Persian king to issue: “To destroy, to kill and to cause to perish ALL Jews, both young and old.” (Esther 3:13).
Remember that Christ, the promised Seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham and David, humanly speaking, would not have been born, if Haman and the Persian king had carried out that wholesale execution of the Jews. Mary, the virgin, was to descend from some Jew who was at the time in Persia. “The city of Shushan was perplexed.” (Esther 3:15). Haman was happy and especially when the gallows was erected for the death of Mordecai.
Then there was the mourning, the fasting, the weeping, wailing, sackcloth and ashes of the faithful of God (Esther 4:3), the God-given courage of Esther, who had been made queen in the place of Vashti. We remember the famous words of Esther, “if I perish, I perish,” in case the king did not hold out his sceptre. (Esther 4:16). The reasoning of the Gentiles then was sound - “If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, Haman, thou shalt not prevail.” (Esther 6:13).
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” (Esther 7:10).
Mordecai was dressed in royal apparel, with a crown of gold. There was rejoicing in Shushan. “The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews.” How could a Persian. Gentile become a Jew? We read in Acts 2:10, of “proselytes.” They were Gentiles who accepted the Jew’s religion.
God prophesied in the Scriptures that Israel could not be assimilated; could not be annihilated. (Read Numbers 23:9 - Jeremiah 30:11).
“So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Exodus 33:I6).
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” (Romans 9:27).
“Except the Lord of Saboath had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.” (Romans 9:29). God is yet to do great and glorious things on earth through Israel; so we learn that God was very much in Esther.
Open To Read:
Seven Times a Failure - C. R. Stam
What is THE GOSPEL
Believing Christ died, that's HISTORY.
Believing Christ died for YOU
and ROSE AGAIN, that's SALVATION.
Read 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
"God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us." Romans 5:8.
Posted By Cecil Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com
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