Three Elements in the Book of Esther

When I look at the Book of Esther, I think of it primarily on three levels:

First of all, it was a historical event. It happened around 500 years before the time of Yeshua. Even just as a historical event, it is mind blowing. Jewish people in exile become the head of the government; a holocaust almost happens, suddenly thwarted. The historic event of what happened in the Book of Esther is an awesome thing. Esther shows that the Bible is a revelation of God to us, yet also historically true. One of the things that separate biblical revelation from other religions is that it is based in historical fact. Because Islam is not based in fact, they believe in revisionism. There is an allowance to back and rewrite history. But it is vital that we have respect for historical truth: it is part of Truth as a whole. There is revealed Truth and then there is historical truth.

You cannot rewrite history. God respects truth. If we get so mystical, so revelatory, that we deny truth, we’ve gone past where God is. As the remnant of Israel, we believe in mystical revelation, but you have to tie mystical revelation into historical truth. If you don’t, the church begins to slip out into some kind of Buddhism or Hinduism that some call Christianity, but really isn’t.

On the second level, the book of Esther is a parable. It is a parable of the Gospel. They go to hang Mordecai on the gallows. ‘Gallows’ in Hebrew means ‘wood.’ Also, ‘cross’ in Hebrew means ‘wood.’ It’s the same word. They go to hang Mordecai on a piece of wood, but the tables turn, and Haman gets hanged there. You see Mordecai as an image of Yeshua and Haman being an image of Satan. The whole gospel is there. How did God do that? God arrange a historical event where every element of the Gospel is represented.

However, the book of Esther is not only a historical event or a parable of the Gospel in Yeshua’s time: It is a prophetic parable of the End Times.  It is a parable of what is happening right now and is going to happen through the next few years until Yeshua returns. We need to understand that it is being fulfilled, and not just in general terms. It’s being fulfilled in you. It’s being fulfilled in us. It’s being fulfilled right now.

Good Girl/Bad Girl

As we look at the book, we see that Esther as a woman was not only a historical figure, but a prophetic image of a woman as well. Throughout the Bible there is what I call the two images of “good girl/bad girl.” The “bad girl” represents the human race betraying God in spiritual adultery, starting with sin, going all the way to the end to the great Harlot. The “good girl” is the idea in which the woman represents the bride of Messiah: the glorified, pure people of God. This tension goes all the way through the Bible.

Ruth is an example of what we see as a “good girl.” She had a good mother-in-law, Naomi. But we must realize that Ruth married twice. When she married Boaz, she gained another mother-in-law: Rahab. Ruth had a relationship with Rahab. They met together. They prayed together. From Rahab, to Ruth, to Esther we can see the prophetic picture that God has established.

Rahab is the image of the Church coming out of the gentile pagan world, receiving Yeshua.

Ruth is the picture of the Church coming back to her covenant with Israel in revelation.

Esther is the revelation of the Church coming into her fullness in her Jewish identity to fight battles of the End Times.

First, you are Rahab. You come out. You find out that you’re saved. You are no longer pagans. Then, many believers receive the revelation of Ruth, just as Ruth came out of the gentile nations and into covenant with Israel. (Other Christians are like Ruth’s sister-in-law Orpah who turned her back on the Jewish people. Half of the Church is Orpah and half is Ruth.) But there is the third stage of this where you must stand in the place of intercession and spiritual warfare in the End Times just as Esther stood for the Jewish people in her time.

Esther was queen; not just queen over the government, but she was the beauty queen. She set the fashion. She had girls waiting on her. She had image. She was beautiful. Likewise, we as the Church are part of the Bride of Messiah. We come in and we worship the Lord. Men and women alike stand before the Lord in a place of bridal intimacy. There is glory, there is praise, and there is pleasure in His presence. We are beautiful before Him.

But then, just as with Esther, Mordecai comes in with an irritating message:

Esther 4:13-14 - “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther responds out the necessity of the moment:

Esther 4: 15-16 - Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:  “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

The Dilemma

Esther was in a time in which the pagans of her generation decided to kill the Jewish people. Since she stands as an image of the Church in the End Times, we as the Church need to see it and deal with this confrontation worldwide. In our generation, we are facing international Islamic Jihad. But the Church does not want to face that reality any more than Esther wanted to.

Think about her mentality. Two million lives were in the balance. She was stuck. Suddenly, her life wasn’t about her. But on the other hand, it was. The whole dilemma, where she stood as the queen, coming before the king for everyone’s lives in the nation, was dependent on one thing: her charm.

Recently, I was thinking that sometimes I feel like a king in dilemma. I just want to be before the Lord. I don’t even want to intercede. I just want to “Oh, Lord I love you. You love me. I love You. You’re beautiful. I just want to be with You.” I want to stay in that Song of Songs mentality and bridal intimacy. But then there is another part of me that wants to pull out the sword to fight the battles of the End Times.

Let’s think about this for a minute. Prophetically, Mordecai was speaking to the international Church. These are the End Times, yet the Charismatic, Bridal-intimacy Church, beautiful in the gifts of the Spirit and everything else, just wants to be before the Lord. Who wants to hear about all the politics in the Middle East? Play me an anointed song. But God says, “Listen. You’re not going to get away with this.”

There is a phrase in Islamic Jihad that says, “Saturday comes first and then Sunday.” Saturday represents the Jewish people and Sunday represents the Christian church. It simply means that Islam will first kill all the Jews, then the Christians. Mordecai asked Esther if she thought she could hide. Likewise, do not think that the Islamic Jihad is only after the Jewish people.

In September 2000 the Intifada started here in Israel. Ariel Sharon went up on the Temple Mount and the next day Yasser Arafat declared a new Jihad war against the Jewish people. Then one year later came 9/11.  Often there is a sense that things occur here in Israel and then in the rest of the world.

1Peter 4:17 - For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

We are in a war here. These are the End Times. We have to wake up and face the Jihad. It is not enough to have bridal intimacy. We also have to fight the wars in the end. You can try to pretend that these are not your issues, but they are. You can try to pretend that nobody knows that you are of Jewish origin, but don’t think that they don’t already know. Christians around the world may think that they can hide the fact that they are connected to the Jewish people, but no one is fooling the Muslims.

The Muslims know who you are, and you may try to hide it, but they say that they are going to come after you after they come after us. Amazingly enough, the president of ancient Persia (Iran) denies that the Holocaust ever happened. Truth is truth. Truth is historical truth and you have to deal with it. Part of being prayerful and part of being revelatory is to deal with historical truth.

The Holocaust did happen. Some say that other than the crucifixion of Yeshua, it may be the worst single historical event that ever happened. But I don’t think so. I think the worst is yet to come. In the first half of the 1900s the great evil of that half century was German Nationalism. The power and principality of the second half of the 20^th century was Communism. However, in this 21^st century, the evil of our generation is Islamic Jihad, and we are either going to face it or we’re not. The president of Iran not only denies the Holocaust and is in defiance of the United Nations, but he is also building nuclear weapons and has stated that he plans to wipe Israel off the map!

The Jihad is on us and you have to wake up. You can’t just be in the palace having a good time with the king and say that nothing is going to touch you. It’s on you and you have to wake up and decide whether you are going to fight it or not. This is the evil of our generation. There is something in you that must rise up and say yes.

Seeing Both Sides

Genesis 1 says that God made mankind (Adam), both male and female. We all have something of both images within us. In part, we are the bride. We come before Jesus as His lover for the sake of beauty and enjoyment with no other agenda. But I am telling you that there is another part of me that wants to take out the Sword of the Spirit and attack. That is a part of Yeshua. He is the Commander of the angels of heaven. He is lining up the army, checking their weapons, getting ready to go, even now. I want to see that part come upon our people as well. We need the anointing of both. You have to see that one is dependent upon the other. You have to see with both of your eyes.

Eyes in the Bible are symbols of prophecy. Are we seeing with just one eye? Israel tends to see with the eye that understands the battle of the End Times and the Church tends to see with the other, understanding bridal intimacy. But in this time we have to see with both eyes or else it's not going to be good enough.

There is a double revelation from God. One has to do with spiritual warfare over Israel in the Middle East. That is the fighting revelation; the masculine revelation. The other revelation is our bridal intimacy with the Messiah; the feminine revelation. We need to have both. Mordecai represents the masculine part of that, coming to Esther (who represents the feminine aspects), saying, “Listen, you cannot escape from this. This is why you were called.” It becomes personal for every individual. One cannot work without the other. You have to have both.

Double Dedication

If you have 20 minutes to pray today, what are you going to do? You have to have time before the Lord in bridal intimacy and you have to understand the spiritual warfare of these End Times. You have to know how to have feminine intimacy with Yeshua and you have to know how to stand up and fight with Him and not be afraid. So, how will you accomplish this in your 20 minutes of prayer? The answer: if 20 minutes isn’t enough, double it to 40 minutes. Be practical. It is going to take a double commitment. It is going to take double dedication.

Just like Esther, we are to be beautiful before the Lord, but now we have to take extra time to fast and pray, to confront and deal with all these negative issues in spiritual battle. It doubled Esther’s work, which probably meant that she had to lose a little sleep. If you’re going to sleep 8-9 hours a day and watch a couple of hours of TV and then watch an anointed tape, that is not going to cut it. If we are going to make it through this time then we have to double our dedication. That is what Mordecai did. He did not want to, but he had no choice. He was already on the enemy’s death list.

We Jewish people are already on the death list and we are coming to tell the international Church to wake up, because you’re a part of this too. I am not saying to take time away from your bridal intimacy with the Lord. I am saying that you have to double up on it and add the sword and a willingness to fight. You must double your dedication.

Double Anointing

However, with double dedication comes a double anointing. But how are you going to have a double anointing if you are not dealing with the other half of things? You can’t have a double anointing just being in bridal intimacy. You have to put it together with spiritual warfare. That is how you get the double anointing. It’s not just an Esther anointing, it’s also a Mordecai anointing. It is an anointing of stubbornness and determination with a willingness to face evil and not back down at the point of death. It means to stand with Israel and against Satan, not letting go of the fight until we win! We are calling you to a double dedication with a double anointing.

The Oil of the Holy Spirit

The oil in the Bible represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We are talking about double anointing. There is one part of the anointing that is like perfume. It is in the anointing of beauty and pleasure that you come before the Lord to worship. But oil is also weaponry fuel. We need to have a double anointing. We need a perfume for bridal intimacy, but you also need weaponry fuel to fight in these End Times. I want us to wake up and begin to learn.

The Bride and the Harlot

Revelation 12:1 - A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Here is the goal of Rahab, Ruth and Esther. Here is the picture of the perfect bride of Messiah. This is the good girl contrasted with the bad girl. In Revelation, the picture of the Bride is set against the picture of the Harlot:

Revelation 17:1-2 - Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Notice here that the sexual symbolism works positively or negatively. We are called the Bride of Messiah which holds the positive marital symbolism about our worship intimacy. As Paul said in Ephesians 5, this is a great mystery. Marriage is speaking about the marital relationship between Yeshua and His Bride, the Church. Revelation 17 uses the same type of imagery, but in reverse: sin and carnality in the spirit is spiritual adultery.

Which of these two images are you going to be? Esther was standing right in the middle with a choice. You can’t stay still. You can’t be half good girl and half nothing. You can’t stay in worship, avoiding spiritual warfare. It doesn’t work that way. You either move toward the Bride or you move toward the Great Harlot.

The international Church is right where Esther was. In the End Times she will either move to the right or to the left. If the Church moves to the right, she takes upon her head the 12 stars to identify herself with Israel, taking up the fight against the Harlot in Holiness. But if she does not receive Mordecai’s message, if she is not willing to stand up against the evil of Islamic Jihad in our generation, then she will begin to retreat and back away, moving in the other direction. You cannot stand in the middle. If you only have half, the devil will fill in the other half with something else. Either you fight or you don’t fight. And if you don’t fight, you lose.

Evil Serves God’s Purposes

Do you know how embarrassing this is? It’s so embarrassing that God has to use Islam to bring His purposes to pass.

Revelation 17:17 - For God has put in their hearts (this is talking about the Beast) to fulfill His purposes.

Satan— the Beast, Islamic Jihad— is going to fulfill God’s purpose to give kingdom to the Beast until these words are fulfilled. Why?

Revelation 17:16 - And the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot and make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.

The Muslims think that they are serving God, and in a certain sense they are, because they hate the immorality of western civilization. Islamic Jihad is the worse evil in our generation and it’s probably the worse evil in the history of mankind. But part of it is serving God’s purposes because they hate the filth of adultery that is coming out of the western world. It is hard to find one movie coming out of Hollywood today that does not glorify adultery. It’s of the great Whore and God hates it. So if He can’t get the Church to do something about it, He will use Jihad. That’s embarrassing. I don’t want it to be that way. I’ve become a Jihadist. I want to kill. What do I want to kill? The stuff in my own soul. You don’t have to look too far. The Jihad, the Holy War, is right here in our own bodies. All the evil of this world is right here and we have to learn to hate it. We have to start with us. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. We are the ones to crucify the flesh. We are the ones to fight immorality.

The Choice

I feel the dilemma of Esther. Are we willing to make the decision that she made? Are we willing to say, “Yes I will stand”? I will not only have my perfume anointing of intimacy with the Lord, but I will also stand to fight the battles of these End Times. If we are willing to do that, this will cost us everything. She said it might kill her. It might kill you. You have to say, “If I perish, I perish. If I have to pray and fast and to fall out of favor, if I have to lose everything, I will stand faithful to my covenant. I will not hide my identity.” We must face this in a practical way. It means carving time out of our entertainment. It means carving time out of our restaurant time. It means carving time out of our lawn time. It means carving time out of our shopping time. This requires double dedication. You stand in the double dilemma of Esther. This is about dedication, holiness and repentance. Get it deep down in your will where you make a decision of dedication. This is an issue of life or death.

The good times will come, but they come only after you stand and fight.