| The Apocalypse of . . . Esther?? continued |
| Esther's Days cont. "When Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone... Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 3:5-6 And the king took the ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman. 3:10 [Upon Haman's orders,] letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy ... all Jews ... [I]n the name of the king Ahasuerus [were they] writ- ten, and sealed with the king's ring." 3:13, 12 |
| Latter Days cont. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed..." Rev. 12:17 "And it was given unto him [the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Rev. 13:7; Daniel 7:21, 25 "The powers that be are ordained of God." Rom. 13:1 "He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Rev. 13:15 |
| Sealing a document with the signet ring of a king is equivalent to signing in the king's name. The coming persecution will probably be organized by leaders acting "in the name of God." (Have not the great historical persecutions been performed in His name?) The transfer of the ring from the hand of Ahasuerus to the hand of Haman recalls a passage in Job: Satan answered the LORD... Put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh [to afflict it]... And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand... Job 2:4-6 With these words, God transferred power from his hand to the hand of Satan. The initial result of Haman's plan? Prayer and repentance and fasting among Jews throughout the kingdom. Likewise, repentance appears to be a prime motive of God for the analogous threat of annihilation in the Latter Days. Even as Mordecai sought out Esther to intervene with the king, so it appears will the 144,000 faithful Israelites on Earth seek mercy for their less worthy brethren, by appealing to the ascended Church for it to intercede with the King of Heaven. Esther 6-7 tell of the sudden fall of Haman and exaltation of Mordecai, due in part to the past, unrewarded act of Mordecai in revealing the conspiracy against the king. Although a detailed analogy of these events to their cor-responding latter-day events is difficult to see (and we should not expect that every event in Esther has symbolic meaning), their essence is this: the "principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12) -- represented by Haman -- will be destroyed and/or cast down by the Lord. Following this, the 144,000 of Israel will be elevated to the chief ministry of heaven (= the "palace"). This fulfills Revelation 14:1f.: the 144,000, who had been left on the Earth after the Church was taken up, in this passage have themselves been taken up to heaven "before the throne." Rev. 14:3 Another result of God's plan: And many of the people of the land became Jews [i.e., came to believe in the God of Israel]; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them... For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went throughout all the provinces. Esther 8:17; 9:4 The Battle The ensuing battle between the Jews and all their enemies, described in Esther 9, will have a latter-day counterpart. This coming conflict is prophesied in the book of Micah: |
Micah "And the REMNANT OF JACOB shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people... 5:7 "...as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. 5:8 "Thine hand shall be lifted up upon all thine adver-saries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off." 5:9 |
| It is tempting to equate this battle with Armageddon, thereby neatly wrapping up the end-time scenario. Such a view must be challenged, however, because there is nothing in the allegory of Esther, nor in the Micah parallel, to suggest the Second Coming of Christ. Ahasuerus remained on his throne in his palace: he did not personally prosecute the battle. Likewise, the action in Micah is totally focused on the REMNANT OF JACOB. In Revela-tion 19 and elsewhere, the Lord is prophesied to actively fight the great battle of the Day of the Lord. Therefore, this battle foretold by Micah and the Esther apocalypse must not be the final end-time conflict. Most modern theories of end-time events predict a 31/2- to 7-year period when a great many things will take place: the Rapture, followed (or preceded) by 31/2 years of Great Tribulation, at the completion of which Anti-christ and Babylon have been destroyed; the Beast, the kings of the Earth, and Gog and Magog etc. have all been subdued; and Jerusalem and Judah have been saved by the Lord by fire. The stars have stopped falling, the Earth shakes no more, and the Church has returned to reign for a thousand years. For obvious reasons, this scenario may be dubbed the Wham-Bam Theory. The Esther apocalypse disagrees with the above view, in part by foretelling that the fall of Babylon and the battle that follows later are widely separated events. The whole span of affairs in Esther's day, from Vashti's fall to the battle of the Jews with their enemies, took about ten years, and that time-span should not be dismissed as irrelevant. What remains to be revealed by the Esther allegory, therefore, is the chronology of its prophesied end-time events. That chronology will now be given, and it will be supported and expanded in following chapters. Continue Return to Index |
Esther "The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus... 9:2 "...to lay hands on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them; for the fear or them fell upon all the people. 9:2 "Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them." 9:5 |