Let us go to Esther 8 and we will read the first six verses. We are going to have to start picking up the pace. We have three chapters left in Esther and three Sundays to go, and so we will have to pick up the pace a little bit. Lord willing, maybe we can squeeze five studies into three Sundays; but still, three chapters are a lot to cover.
It says in Esther 8:1-6:
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces: For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
I will stop reading there. Hopefully, we will go a little bit beyond this today; but let us just look at this section first.
Esther 8:1 begins:
On that day…
This is the same day that has been in view since Haman went in to see the king in chapter 6. All of chapter 6, chapter 7, and into chapter 8 are discussing the same day. God makes a point of letting us know this when He says:
On that day…
It is not a different day. It is the very same day. It is the 17th day of the 2nd month, as we saw earlier.
When we think about what God has done as far as the timeline of history, do you know what locked it in finally for me when I thought that May 21 absolutely must be Judgment Day? I am talking about going back a few years, but this was when it was discovered that the underlying date on the Hebrew calendar was the 17th day of the 2nd month. When I first heard that, it might have gone in one ear and out the other; but then I remembered just thinking about this and realizing some things.
First, God had to open up the whole calendar of history so that we were able to develop a calendar from the Bible from creation in 11,013 B.C., all the way down through the patriarchs, through their stay in Egypt, through the period of the Judges, through the period of the Kings, through the destruction of Israel in the north and then through the destruction of Judah in the south. Then even beyond this, through the post-captivity period when they came out of Babylon, and then all the way to the book of Esther, which was the last entry in the Old Testament. Then, of course, God gave other information in the New Testament confirming that Christ would be born in 7 B.C., that He would begin His ministry and be baptized in 29 A.D., and then He would go to the cross in 33 A.D.
God gave this whole great amount of information concerning the calendar, including the date of the flood which was 4990 B.C. Then the statement was discovered, as Mr. Camping taught this through Family Radio, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.” Then 2 Peter 3 tied this together with “a thousand years,” as we read there, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” and that the Bible had told us, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing.”
Then we saw that from 4990 B.C. until 2011 A.D. was 7,000 years from the flood. This was amazing because all of the other information was also pointing to the year 2011, which was especially true with the 23-year great tribulation period. The great tribulation period began in 1988 and then it concluded in 2011.
So all of this was tying together, and I thought that this was all strong evidence; and yet that did not make me certain until someone shared this with Mr. Camping and then he began to share this himself. I do not know who this person was, but they realized that the very date that the great tribulation period ended – which was a full 23-year period, an exact period of 8400 days, and also the very end of the 6100-day latter rain period, and that all of these events converged on this particular day – was May 21, 2011, because the great tribulation or the end of the church age began in May 21, 1988.
This was already in place and it had nothing to do with the flood. It was based on certain calculations. There were 2300 evening/mornings from the end of the church age, which began the latter rain in September of 1994. Everything harmonized and fit into place and they all pointed to this particular day. Then someone noticed that May 21, 2011 was the 17th day of the 2nd month in the Hebrew calendar. From there, the light went on and then this date was locked in.
No one could have arranged all of this. I do not care how brilliant anyone is or if they have a team of brilliant scientists. Try to arrange all of this information so that it fits and ties into one particular day.
May 21, 2011 had the underlying date of the 17th day of the 2nd Hebrew month. But then, of course, this date came and went. This was such a shock. After all, we followed God’s methodology. We looked to the Bible to be its own interpreter. We compared Scripture with Scripture. We were very careful. Everything harmonized and pointed to this date, and God’s people trusted it.
Do not let anyone tell you that you are wrong when you trust the Bible or when you trust God at His Word. God just had some other plans. He had some other things in mind in relation to that date. He also wanted to use it as a huge trial of faith for all of those professed Christians.
This is because He did bring the Day of Judgment, as the people of God understood. Those verses are true that “a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.” We discerned the time and we discerned the judgment, that May 21st was the day. But we were mistaken as to the nature of it. We thought that it would be physical when, instead, it was spiritual.
Actually, it is almost a mirror image of the judgment that was on the churches and congregations. Back on May 21, 1988, God judged the church and He removed Himself. The Holy Spirit came out of the midst. Satan entered in. Then at some point, He opened up our understanding to this and this is what we began to share with people. We told them that they needed to get out of the church and to leave their congregation. They would then ask, “Why should I do that?”
We told them that this was because God was judging the churches and congregations. We told them that the Bible told us that it was a desolate wilderness, that there was a famine in that land, that there was no spiritual water, that there was no spiritual bread. We shared with them that the Bible said, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
They would hear this and then they would look at their church building where all of the stones were in place. They were all still there. They still had the Lord’s Table. They still had bread and wine. They still had all of these things. Then we would explain to them that they did not understand. We told them not to look at this judgment physically and that it was a spiritual judgment on the churches and congregations.
What was the reaction of those in the churches? Since they did not leave their churches, obviously, they did not believe this. They did not believe what they could not see. Nothing seemed to have changed from one Sunday to the next all throughout that period, and so why should they have believed this?
The reason is because God said this. He said this in His Word, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” He provided much information through the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. This information was all over the place as God was teaching this, but this had to be spiritually discerned and the natural man cannot discern spiritual things.
Many, many people were sharing this with individuals within the churches. Then when they did not listen, we felt so sorry for them. Those poor people who did not have their eyes opened and who could not see this spiritual judgment – those poor people in the congregations.
Of course, God had to try them and test them because He was going to end the world. They professed to be the people of God. Therefore, He tried them for 23 years, “Do you trust God’s Word or do you trust your eyes? Do you have faith in what the Bible says or do you have faith in what your pastor and in what your church says? Do you have faith just because the actual, literal stones are still in place in the physical realm? Is this what you believe or do you believe the Bible”?
We understood this and we realized that most people were not going to leave their churches, that they were not going to come out – and they did not. They did stay. But here and there, some did leave their church because God did open up their understanding. They then realized, “Yes; look at what is going on in the churches. There is definitely a spiritual judgment going on there.”
Now God has done the same thing for us. He has done this same thing for a great multitude who are outside of the churches and congregations. He has brought Judgment Day, spiritually. This means that this is seen only in the Bible. This is seen only in the Word of God.
This was what we saw when we were looking at this during the five months. We saw that, yes, there was a great earthquake, spiritually, and that that earthquake opened up the bars of the prison and let all of the captives go free. We saw that Satan was put down and that Christ was exalted.
This is basically the message of Purim and we were preaching this during the five months leading up to October. We were saying the very same thing. The only thing that we are adding now is the date for Purim. But, basically, the same information was there.
So God is trying us in a very similar way to those who were tried in the churches. Do you believe it? Do you trust God? Do you trust His Word? You do see how the Biblical calendar is from the Bible. You do see how it locks in these dates. You can review this and review this and review this, and those dates do not change. They remain locked in. You do trust the Word of God and these things.
So God’s people did not know what was going on. They could have been very confused, but they trust the Bible. They trust the Word of God, but there was cause for them to hesitate.
Those who do not trust the Bible and who do not trust the Word of God, just like those in the churches who were confronted with a spiritual judgment, they will ridicule what has happened, “Oh, yes; sure; right. You just have another excuse, because things did not happen the way you wanted them to.”
Why do they say this? The reason is because they did not see anything. They do not see God judging the world. They do not see the world in torment. This is when some of these people started adopting the very same things that the people in the churches were saying leading up to May 21, “No man knows the day and hour.”
Are we not hearing this more and more from people who previously, perhaps, would have been side-by-side with us? This is because they are failing the test. The reason for them saying this kind of a thing is because they are believing their eyes and they are not believing the Bible.
I would not say that there is no hope for them, because they could still drop this and turn back to God, just like someone in the church could have just said at the very last day (even though they had been stubborn all the way up to that point), “I had better get out of here.” I think that someone today, too, could turn things around.
So we have this information in Esther. After the expected five-month period did not happen again as we thought in October, we went back to the Bible.
This is what a true believer does, because where else are we going to go? When we are in doubt or when we are confused, where do we turn? We always go to the Bible. We ask, “Lord, are we wrong? Is it all wrong?” Then we review again. Then we see that, no, the timeline is correct and that the dates are correct. We see again how they lock in. How could they have been a coincidence or some kind of an accident? It could not have been. It was the hand of God.
So as we do this, what do we find? We find in the book of Esther an emphasis on a particular day that spans three chapters. I will not go back there, but who is the one who gave the particular dates when the decree was given on the 13th day of the 1st month, then a statement was made that Esther had not gone into the king “these thirty days” since that decree?
God spells out that there were three days of fasting and then she went into the king, which would have been the 16th day of the 2nd month. Then there was a second day when she went into the king on the second banquet of wine, which was the 17th day of the 2nd month.
Many other dates in Esther are very obvious and are given right on the surface. The first decree was the 13th day of the 2nd month. Purim was Adar 13. The second decree, which is in chapter 8, is the 23rd day of the 3rd month. There was no hiding these, but God hid the date when all of these tremendous events were taking place concerning Haman and Mordecai. He hid this because He did not want us to know this until the right time.
This is the right time. The Lord was aware that we would be so finely in tune with the particular date of the 17th day of the 2nd month that as soon as we would see it, this would click with us.
Then we find on that date, even if we had not known that it was supposed to be Judgment Day, that the language identified completely with the Day of Judgment, as we read in Esther 7:7:
And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden…
All of this language of “the king arising,” a “banquet of wine” and “in his wrath” identifies with Judgment Day.
Then when we discovered the events that took place, they matched exactly what we had been teaching when we had no reference in the book of Esther, which was that Satan was put down and that Christ was exalted and that all of the elect were delivered.
This is the very same thing that we read in the book of Esther. Haman dies on this day, Mordecai is given his house, and all of the Jews are delivered when Esther pleads with the king; and so it matches exactly.
I think that God has encouraged us, because this means that May 21 could still be correct. It could still have been Judgment Day. But since there was such an accurate spiritual chronology in the book of Esther, we were wondering why there was no reference to five months for a period of time. We read of Israel in chapter 1. Then we read of the New Testament church age in chapter 2. We then read of the end of the church age with the death of the two doorkeepers and the advancement of Haman, picturing the great tribulation and the sending out of the Gospel into all of the provinces, and so on, right up until the fasting, which identified with the intense spiritual fast of getting the Gospel out leading up to the date of May 21. Then Judgment Day spans three chapters in the book of Esther with a great emphasis on May 21 itself. But where was the five months?
Then we realized that what God has done is that He has doubled the five months of torment. He is perfectly within His right to do this, because He gave a law in Exodus 22. This is mentioned three times in the first nine verses of Exodus 22, but I will just read verse 9. We read in Exodus 22:9:
For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour.
What does it mean if there is a law that says this? What does this mean? Do you remember the law that said that you could only whip someone by giving them so many lashes? This law says, “Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed,” and this law is very important because this meant that there had to be a limit to judgment. Every law of God is important. God cannot go beyond His law. He cannot do less than His law requires.
When Jesus was to be a high priest, He was not a Levite. He was not of the order of Aaron; therefore, God had to insert Melchisedec into history in order for Christ to be “after the order of Melchisedec.” Otherwise, Jesus just could not show up and say that He was a priest having no law to base that upon. God had to give the law of Melchisedec and then Jesus could be a priest “after the order of Melchisedec.”
Everything must have a law, and so God cannot just say randomly, “I will measure out the cup of wrath, the punishment for Babylon, which is really this world or the kingdom of Satan and all the unsaved, and I will measure it to be five months of torment.”
This was exactly what we were saying. The judgment of God, the penalty for sin, was five months; but then God just doubled this. We, however, could not just say this. We could not say this, as some have accused that we are trying to come up with something in order to justify the continuance of date setting. But we could not say this if God had not given a law stating that the judgment can be doubled for certain sins.
Then in the context of Babylon’s fall in Revelation 18:2, we read that this identifies completely with the end of the great tribulation, which was, in actuality, May 21. Then we read in Revelation 18:5-6:
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
The cup of God’s wrath is to be filled double. But we just could not say, “From May 21 to Adar 15 is about 10 months. We were looking at five months of torment, so let us just double it.” We could not do this, number one, if God had not given this law, but He did, and then make this statement in reference directly to Babylon at the time of her fall, “Double the cup. Double the punishment. Double the wrath.”
Then it goes on to say in Revelation 18:7:
How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her…
This is the same word that we read in Revelation 9 concerning the five months of torment. It says again:
…so much torment and sorrow give her…
How much torment? He told us in the preceding verse: double. Double the torment.
So now we have in the Bible God directing us to double the time of torment. But then there is another obstacle. The reason is because if we just doubled it and it landed on just any date, it would not fit.
When we thought that the end of the five months or Judgment Day would be October 21st, when we double these 153 days, this did not fit anything. Then we looked again at Genesis 7 where there is the reference to 150 days, but doubling that did not fit anything either. When we double this, it is 300. It is close, but no cigar.
There is another reference, though, that God gives, which is Tishri 17. He already put His finger on Iyyar or the 17th day of the 2nd month, which was May 21. Then we left the Hebrew calendar and went to our Gregorian calendar for October 21.
But let us just continue following the Hebrew calendar. When we do, Tishri 17 is a date that happens to be in the midst or at a dividing point from Tishri 17 to Adar 15. From Tishri 17 to Adar 15 is 147 days. From May 21 to the point of Tishri 17 is 147 days.
Again, that date of Tishri 17 is not pulled out of a hat. It is not given to make things fit. If God had not given this date, it would not fit, but He gave this date. He is the One who said that the flood waters prevailed for 150 days and then referred to the 17th day of the 7th month.
So when we correct a little misunderstanding that we had regarding the five months and we back it up to Tishri 17, since October 21 was actually Tishri 23, then it falls on the last day of the feast of Purim, which is Adar 15. That day is a day of rest. But it is a day of rest after what happened? It was after the Jews had this day turned from a day of tragedy and a day of expected destruction to a day of glad news. What would fit this day was news of “good tidings of great joy,” which is what we read when Jesus was born. This was a day when all of their enemies end up being destroyed, which is a very, very good description of the end of the world.
This is because we should have been destroyed. All of the elect are sinners like anyone else. Due to our sin, we should die. We should perish, but God has turned that day and changed it. On that day, who does die? Who dies are all of the enemies of the Kingdom of God, all of the unsaved people. Then we enter into eternal rest.
In other words, the spiritual chronology in the book of Esther when we do not see the five months in view is when we do see the ten months. God does not emphasize the five months. It is ten months later or 294 days, which is 2x147, that takes us to Adar 15; and so we do have the judgment in the book of Esther, but it is the doubling of it or two times the five months, which takes us to the end of the feast of Purim.
Returning to Esther 8:1:
On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.
So Ahasuerus, the king, gave the house of Haman to Esther. If you look up the word “house,” you will find that this is really used a lot in the Bible. You can read about the house of Aaron or the house of Levi. It is used many, many times; and so we read about the house of Haman.
Let us look at Isaiah 14:17, because Haman typifies Satan. In verse 17, we find Satan in view typified by the king of Babylon. We are breaking into the context of this, but Isaiah 14:17 says:
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
This is referring to Satan. He kept men bound in spiritual prison, and God refers to it as “the house of his prisoners.”
Remember the statement that Jesus makes in the New Testament. This was because they were accusing Him of casting out devils through Beelzebub or of basically being of Satan. Jesus said in Matthew 12:29:
Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
This is referring to Satan as the “strong man.” He has a “house” and in his house, he has “goods.” Jesus is saying that in order to spoil his house, you first have to bind him.
When did Jesus bind Satan? He bound him at the cross. When Jesus bound Satan at the cross, did He immediately go into Satan’s “house” and gather out all of the elect? No; that did not happen at the cross, did it? What about throughout the church age? We could say that this happened to some degree when anyone became saved. But, in reality, those saved throughout the church age were not very many. All throughout the 1,955 years, there were some saved here and there; but God had a plan to save up and to reserve the plundering of Satan’s house in a tremendous way to the very end at the time of the great tribulation when He was saving a great multitude from all around the world.
So here is Esther, typifying the believers, and she is going into Ahasuerus on the very last day; and God was still saving on May 21st because that was still the 6100th day of the latter rain. All sorts of things were converging on that day, just like Noah and his family went into the ark on the 17th day of the 2nd month, typifying salvation on that day. We know that the ark represents Christ and they entered in on that day. Then also on that day, God shut them in. He shut Noah in; and in doing that, He shut them all in.
So God was saving on the 17th day of the 2nd month, on May 21, just as Esther was going before the king pleading for her life and for the life of her people. Then her prayer is heard. They have already disposed of Haman (Satan). He had already been taken out to the gallows.
It is at this time that the king is saying to Esther that he will give her the house of Haman, that “house” that Christ had gone into in 33 A.D. to bind the strong man. He bound him then. This guaranteed that Satan’s house would be plundered, but this happened over the course of time. It was over nearly two millennium before God finally fulfilled this and took out all of His elect who were in the “house of bondage,” those who were in Satan’s kingdom, when He finally translated them out of darkness and “into the kingdom of his dear Son.”
This is what I think is in view with this language, as the king is saying that he will give “the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen.” Then it says in Esther 8:1 again:
…And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.
Up until this point, Esther had not confessed Mordecai. She had not admitted and recognized to the king or to her people or to anyone that Mordecai was her relation. He was more than that, because he was her adopted father. As far as adoption, believers are adopted into the family of God. Just as Mordecai is Esther’s adopted father, God is our adopted Father.
So she is now confessing Mordecai to the king. She is acknowledging that he is her adopted father and that she is a Jew. In other words, she is picturing many of these individuals who were out in the world who were becoming children of God and confessing this. They are identifying with Christ. They are acknowledging that they have become saved and that they have become a child of God.
Then we read in Esther 8:2:
And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
We have a little bit of a problem here because Esther typifies the believers and Mordecai is a type of Christ. So how can Esther set Mordecai over Haman’s house? How does this work? Do believers have the authority to set Christ over anything?
The answer comes in the beginning of the verse where it says:
And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai….
So the king has already taken the prior action. Esther then sets Mordecai over the house of Haman, but there was a prior act that the king did. First, he took it from Haman, because he had given it to Haman.
Look at Esther 3:10. This is when Haman had gone in to request that the Jews be destroyed. The king took off his ring in verse 10. It says in Esther 3:10-12:
And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were 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 sealed with the king's ring.
So the king gave Haman his ring. The ring was probably worn on the king’s finger. Then Haman had the scribes write this letter that would be the death sentence for the Jews, including Mordecai, because Haman had so much wanted Mordecai to die. Then after this writing was done, he sealed it.
That word “sealed,” by the way, is the same word used in the book of Daniel where we read, “Seal the book, even to the time of the end.” This is the very same word.
When they would seal it, they would also close the letter. It would be a seal that kept the scroll rolled up so that no one could open it until it got to the intended recipient. He would then break the seal and see that this was from the king, that it had the full authority of the king, that it was written in the king’s name, and then he would open it.
We know this from 1 Kings 21 when Jezebel wrote a letter in Ahab’s name. Remember that she was writing to have Naboth killed. As far as we know, Ahab did not know anything about this. She was basically being an imposter of the king, because Ahab was the king. We read in 1 Kings 21:8:
So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal…
She sealed the letters “with his seal.” This tells us that the letter would have been closed. It would not have been an open letter.
We might think about taking a letter to a notary and that he seals it and then hands it back to us. It is just a seal at the bottom of a letter. But this would have closed the scroll so that it could not be read until it got to the person whom it was intended for.
This is just as God said when He said, “Seal the book, even to the time of the end.” Basically, this also was done in the name of God. It was done in the King’s name. God sealed the “letter” or the Bible. He sealed the whole Book until it got to the intended recipients, which were us, His people living at the time of the very end of the world. Then He opened the Book and we began to understand many things in the Bible. And this is what is in view. The seal was basically something that would show and prove that the king fully authorized it.
If we go back to Genesis 41, we find a pretty good historical parallel in Egypt during the days of Joseph. When Joseph was brought out of prison and interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, Pharaoh was so taken with Joseph having such wisdom that he made Joseph ruler over Egypt. It says in Genesis 41:40-44:
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
So we can see here the significance of the ring. For one thing, even though it may have other significance, it conveys authority. It conveys the authority of the king.
When Pharaoh gave Joseph the ring, it was a symbol that he was second in command over all Egypt. This ring would demonstrate this. Anyone could see the ring on his finger. If Joseph had wanted to make a decree, he could seal it with the king’s ring and it would have had the full authority of Pharaoh.
So back in Esther 8:2, we read:
And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman…
Does this mean that God, typified by Ahasuerus, had given Satan authority? Yes. We noted this before. During the great tribulation, Satan was given authority for 42 months to rule, and that is just another figure that represents the entire great tribulation of 23 years. God gave Satan the authority to rule over the churches and the world in a way that he had not been allowed to do before. This is why in both areas there is such a tremendous increase in wickedness over these last 23 years.
So the king gave the ring to Haman; but on this date of the 17th day of the 2nd month, the king takes the ring, he removes Haman’s authority, and he gives the ring to Mordecai. Now Mordecai, who is a definite picture of Christ, has full authority over everything that Haman had authority over, which is just as Christ now has full authority over everything that Satan had been given authority over.
So Esther has witnessed this. She has witnessed this transfer. The king has already done this. He has already given Mordecai the ring, which indicates that Mordecai has great authority under the king. Therefore, when it says:
…And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
This is basically an acknowledgement of what the king had already done. God has exalted Christ. The believers recognize this and acknowledge this, “O Lord, this is Your dominion; You are God.” This is why Esther is said to set Mordecai “over the house of Haman.” Remember that this relates back to binding “the strong man” in order to “spoil his house.”
Let us go on to verse 3. We read in Esther 8:3:
And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.
Basically, the word “device” is the word for “thoughts” or “thinking.” We find this in Jeremiah 18:11-12:
Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices [or our own thoughts], and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Remember that we read in Genesis before the flood, “The thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” That word for “thoughts” is the very same word that is translated here as “devices,” and so it is a word that means this.
Then we read in Jeremiah 18:18:
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Is this not a very apt description of what so many have done today? They have heard the Word of God. They have heard the counsel of God. Have they obeyed and hearkened? No; they have devised devices, “Let us smite these ones who are bringing this message with our tongues and speak evil of them. They are a cult. It is heresy.”
They do not bother to check it out. They do not bother to be a Berean to see if it is so, to compare Scripture with Scripture, to see if this is carefully derived from the Bible. What need is there for that when they can just smite us with their tongues? That is all that they have to do today. They can just throw out a couple of words, which is basically just an excuse. It is an excuse so that they do not have to listen to God and to obey Him. They do not have to hearken to what He says. They can just simply label things.
That is how it works in society in many ways, and so they carry this same method of the world right over into the Gospel realm and they just smite us like the people of the world will smite someone whom they do not like. This is a way of telling us to get out of their way because they do not want to listen to us, but we cannot carry the world’s methods over into the spiritual area. You do this only if you are of the world, only if that is where your mind is.
Going back to Esther, we read in Esther 8:4-5:
Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:
Once again, Esther is going to the king, but not on her own merit or on her own basis. This had nothing to do with her works. It was all by grace, as she represents the believers.
Then Esther touches the king’s scepter. The Bible tells us, “The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” It says in Hebrews that this is righteousness, “A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” This is because the scepter is pointing to Jesus.
It is on that ground and that ground alone, the righteousness of Christ that He has bestowed upon His people, that we can enter into the inner area where God is and we can beseech Him and request for our life for Christ’s sake, for what He has done, and for the lives of all of our people, for what Christ has done for all of the elect.
Again, Esther finds favor in the king’s sight; and what is her request? Her request is that the letters devised by Haman be reversed. These were letters that were devised from his thoughts in order to bring about this day of destruction for the Jews.
This word “reverse” is found twice here in Esther 8 and once in another place. Actually, this Hebrew word is found all over the place. It is translated as many different English words, but the only other time outside of the book of Esther that this word is translated as “reverse” is in Numbers 23:20.
This is in the historical setting of when Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse Israel. Balak had wanted Balaam, a soothsayer, to curse Israel. Balaam tried to do this. He would go and attempt this; but every time he tried to do this, blessings instead came out of his mouth upon Israel.
It says in Numbers 23:20:
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
This is the same word, and is this not interesting? If God blesses you, that cannot be reversed. But the curse can be reversed. This is because we are in our sin and under His wrath and, therefore, we are cursed; and yet that can be reversed by the grace of God as He saves someone.
Salvation is what blessing is. We read in the Beatitudes in Matthew in the New Testament, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” and “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” because all of those blessings are indicating that someone has become saved.
This is at it says in Psalm 133:3:
As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there JEHOVAH commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
This is the blessing.
We know that God blesses the just and the unjust alike. He gives rain. There are temporal blessings that He bestows on the unsaved, but there is a certain blessing that only the elect receive and that is eternal life. This is the blessing that cannot be reversed. This cannot be altered and it cannot be changed in any way. God has blessed His people and no one can interfere.
So they hired Balaam to try to curse a blessed people, which has been Satan’s game all throughout history. He has tried and tried and tried this. We read about this constantly in the Bible. He keeps going after the people of God, but he continues to fail and fail and fail again. God always protects His people. He always delivers them.
The book of Esther is another example of this as Haman does his best. He maybe came close or closer than anyone to finally destroying the people of God. But what happens? It is reversed. This is because, ironically, that can be reversed. The reason for this is because God has blessed those people and, therefore, they could not be destroyed.
But Satan keeps trying to harm the elect, even though he is never able to fulfill this. He is never able to do this in any kind of lasting way. He can harm us physically. He can maybe harm us in other ways, but he cannot hurt us at all regarding our eternal salvation.
Going back to Esther 8, we read in Esther 8:6:
For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
This word “endure” is probably literally “be able”:
…how can I [be able] to see the destruction of my kindred?…
Then we read in Esther 8:7-9:
Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows [or on the trees], because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof…
This is one of the ways in which God hid the date, because He has been talking about the 17th day of the 2nd month for three chapters. Now the king’s scribes are called, and it almost seems as though the date is 3/23, but we have to look at this closely.
The word “then” is the Hebrew prefix vau that is normally translated as “and.” This is because the word “then” kind of gives the impression of the next instance or next event.
It continues:
[And] were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month…
The Hebrew word for “at that time” is Strong’s #6256 and it is translated in some places as “in due season.” It is the same word that is used of the latter rain in Deuteronomy 11:14:
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season…
This word is also found in 1 Chronicles 21:28-29:
At that time when David saw that JEHOVAH had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of JEHOVAH, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.
So this is actually a word where if the surrounding words were maybe more specific, it could lock in a definite time; but this is also a word that can be used in a more general way. In Esther, it is basically telling us what is taking place.
Esther and Mordecai have been granted authority. They have been given Haman’s house. Esther has gone before the king on this day. She has made request for her people, and the king has granted her request.
What happens next? Do they call the scribes in right away on that same day? No. Just think about this. What would you do? What would a wise man like Mordecai do?
There is already a writing that was written by the king of the Medes and the Persians that could not be altered. Would you just quickly jot something else down and send it out? You had better be careful about what you write, because it had better be something that does not contradict in any way the earlier writing in order to keep from somehow offending the king since his writing cannot be altered. Therefore, they had to slowly think about this.
Did they have time? It is the 17th day of the 2nd month, and so they had almost 10 months before that day of destruction would come; and so Mordecai probably gathered the Jews. In counsel with Esther, they discussed this and looked things over and wondered how to exactly write this.
It would be kind of like drafting something in Congress. It may seem at times that they just throw something together and then put it out there; but, normally, they take some time and some forethought before putting something on the floor and making it into law.
What Mordecai and Esther are doing is going to become a law; and so, without question, Mordecai being a wise man and a child of God, from everything that we can read, he would have carefully drafted this. Then they do this “in season,” because it is still basically that same period of time since this is only a few weeks later. They still have from the 3rd month and 23rd day, and so they almost have nine months until the 12th month, which is plenty of time for the posts to go forth into all of the provinces to carry this message.
So, finally, when they were ready, it was then that the scribes were called “in his season” or “in due season” in the 3rd month on the 23rd day. Then they write this information, and then this is sent out by posts into all of the provinces. It would have to be that way.
We are going to stop here. Lord willing, we will pick up next week and try to finish Esther 8. That will leave us one more week after that for Esther 9 and 10.