Turn to Esther 3. We will probably go into chapter four and maybe even a little bit into chapter five. Today, if possible, I would like to lay out how Esther ties into May 21 and how it locks in. I would like to lay out how this locks in. This is not just a light thing. It locks in.
Since Esther locks into May 21, this will help us to understand what happened on May 21, which was Judgment Day. Also, once it locks in, then the Feast of Purim takes on an entirely new light. We would necessarily have to look at this in a different way.
We need to remember the spiritual chronology in the book of Esther. In chapter one with Vashti, we have national Israel as she typifies Israel. Then she is put away as God put away Israel in 33 A.D.
Then in chapter two, there is the gathering of virgins to Shushan. We saw how that during the New Testament period as the Gospel went out into the world, it typified the looking for the Bride of Christ and that God typified those who came in as foolish and wise virgins. In several places, He identifies virgins with those who came into the churches.
Then at the end of chapter two, we have the two doorkeepers who were rebels. They were caught, exposed, hung, and made an open shame. This pointed to the end of the church as the church came under the judgment of God, just as those two men came under the judgment of King Ahasuerus; and then the church age ended.
Chapter three immediately begins with the advancement of Haman, with his promotion, which was pretty much in conjunction with the death of the doorkeepers. This is because this depicts the end of the church age, and what did God do then? He loosed Satan.
Then Ahasuerus promotes Haman’s seat above all of the princes, just as Satan took his seat in the temple as the “man of sin.” However, Mordecai refuses to bow down; and Revelation 13 gives us the information about the beast that comes up out of the sea. At the time of the great tribulation, an image is made to the beast and all who will not bow down should be killed.
So Mordecai was to be killed. That was what Haman wanted to do. All of the people of Mordecai were to be killed also.
We can see how chapter one identifies with Israel, how chapter two identifies with the New Testament church age, how chapter three identifies with the great tribulation. It then progresses and actually moves on in a very orderly way.
This is why I said that this is a spiritual chronology. It is giving the history of God’s salvation plan, and then it gets to the point of the end of the church age and God’s judgment on the churches with the advancement of Haman. Then Haman goes to King Ahasuerus and buys the Jews, and the king sells them into Haman’s hands. It is said a couple of times in Esther that the king sold them. Esther said this to King Ahasuerus, “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.” This is why she went before the king.
We looked at Judges 4:2 last time. Let us look at this again. This kind of language is found a few times in the book of Judges. We read in Judges 4:1-2:
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of JEHOVAH, when Ehud was dead. And JEHOVAH sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan…
There again, God’s people, Israel, do evil and God sells them.
What did this mean? It meant that He turned them over; He gave them up. He put them into possession; because if you buy something, it becomes yours. It becomes your possession.
So God sold His people into the enemy’s hands because of their rebelliousness. This is exactly what God did during the great tribulation when He loosed Satan. When He turned over the churches and congregations to him, He placed them in his hands, “Do with them as you will.” “Well, I want to destroy all the Jews.” “Go to it” is basically what God said.
At the beginning of the great tribulation, where were God’s people? Those who heard the Gospel were those who primarily were going to church. We were in the churches when God handed them over into Satan’s hands back in 1988. We did not hear about the end of the church age until about 2000 or 2001, and so the church is where we were.
We do not see this laid out in Esther. Historically, King Ahasuerus seems to have no concern for the Jews at all; but we know that God has a great concern for His elect. He knew that not one of them would ever perish. That is not possible. But He wanted to allow Satan to do this. That was His plan in order to destroy and bring judgment on the churches. Satan, from his perspective, wanted to kill all of the elect. This is why he brings false gospels that have no salvation in them. If people actually believe them, they will be destroyed.
So King Ahasuerus sells the Jews into Haman’s hands, and then it says in Esther 3:12-13 that the scribes are called on the 13th day of the 1st month:
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. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces…
There were 127 provinces, which typified the whole world; and these letters were carrying a message of judgment and that there was a set date for the destruction of the Jews.
These letters were basically killing, which reminds us of 2 Corinthians 3:6 that says, “For the letter,” referring to the Bible, “killeth.” This sending forth of these letters sealed with the king’s ring identifies with the Word of God, the Bible, as information goes out into all of the world and is published to all of the people.
Look at Esther 3:14:
The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day.
Does this sound familiar? Where else do we find something like this in the Bible? The only thing that I think comes close is Caesar’s proclamation that all of the world would be taxed. That had to do with his kingdom and all of the nations under him and that everyone would be taxed; but in the book of Esther, it is definitely identifying with what God said in Matthew 24:14:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
This is exactly what is going on in Esther. It is preached to 127 provinces and published to all people, and what was it concerning? It was concerning the end of the Jews, a set date, a time when they were to be killed.
We can see how this relates to May 21, but, of course, the date here was not May 21. It was the 13th day of Adar. But let us look at this spiritually and see what the people were hearing. The Jews, the elect who are in all of the world today, are in every nation; and these Jews in the 127 provinces heard the date that would be of the 12th month and the 13th day.
The number 12 in the Bible relates to the fullness of whatever is in view. Fullness, in this case, is the fullness of time, because it had to do with time. We have seen repeatedly that the number 13 in the Bible has to do with the end of the world. 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history and the time of the end.
So this actually related to the Jews as well as to all of the people in all of the provinces, because this was published in all of the provinces. Not only the Jews heard this but everyone who was not a Jew also heard a message of judgment that would come, spiritually, in the fullness of time and that it would involve the end of the world. And then we saw the tremendous repentance of Mordecai and that all of the Jews in all of the provinces began to sit in sackcloth and ashes.
This should comfort us because God is really giving us an insight into what spiritually happened when all of the world heard this. This did not happen to all of the people of the world but to the spiritual Jews of the world. All of the elect people were broken by this information. They were troubled by it and they were weeping. Spiritually, they were brought low.
Let us go back again to the timing of the proclamation. It was given on the 13th day of the 1st month. Haman came before the king. Remember that Esther 3:7 already told us that they cast the lot. The date was chosen earlier but we find out in verse 12 that the date selected by lot would be Adar 13. This is published on the 1st month and the 13th day, and so that would have been exactly eleven months later.
So Haman gets the king’s permission. The letter is written. It is sealed by the king’s ring and it becomes law. It is unalterable. You cannot change or alter the law of the Medes and the Persians. In that way, too, we see how the king’s law and his word identify him as God as the Word of God is unchangeable. You cannot alter the Word of God.
So the proclamation is given on the 13th day of the 1st month of Ahasuerus’ twelfth year. Where was this published first? Where was this proclamation given? It was given in Shushan. It says this in Esther 3:15:
The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.
This means that they definitely heard it. This word “perplexed,” by the way, is the word “entangled” in Exodus 14:3 when Pharaoh says of the Jews, “They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.” This word is only found three times in the Old Testament. It is found here in Esther 3, in Exodus 14, and then in Joel 1:18 where it is also translated as “perplexed.” Joel 1:18 relates to the time of the great tribulation.
So here in Esther 3, the city of Shushan hears this announcement and it is perplexing to them. We are not going to get into what this means spiritually. The important thing is that they hear it.
When did they hear this? If this was given the 13th day of the 1st month, when did Shushan hear it? They heard it on the 13th day of the 1st month. When did someone in the province of India hear it? They probably heard this a lot later than that because the post had to go by horseback or camel or dromedary. How ever they went for that long of a distance, it probably would have taken some time. But in Shushan, it was published immediately because that was the central government. That was where the law was given; and so everyone in Shushan heard this on day one. It is important that they heard this from day one.
Also, when the kings of the Medes and the Persians would give a law, I think that we can be pretty sure that they would date it, which is just like so many things of our day. I do not think that we are any different than past civilizations. We date everything. Our newspapers have the date. Not everyone does this, but if I write a letter, I date it. I date my notes. Sometimes I put the wrong date, but I date my notes. If you look at a book, the book will have its date in the beginning of the book. We tend to date everything.
Of course, as far as the laws of kings, it would be wise for them to have a date. What if they had a question about that law? What if they needed to find that law again? How were they going to find it? Remember that they did search for the decree of the king in the book of Ezra. In Ezra 6, this is after Cyrus had given permission for the Jews to begin rebuilding the temple. Then it was stopped and then they began to build again under the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. But then the question came up as to why they were building this, and so word came back to the later King Darius as we read in Ezra 6:1-3:
Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem…
So they actually had a “house of the rolls.”
This is like congress today and the presidents of our day. They pass a lot of laws. New laws are constantly being made and old laws are constantly being changed or altered. In the case of the Medes and the Persians, they could write a new law, as we will see in the book of Esther, but they could not change one of their old laws.
These laws were very important, and so they would be kept in order. There would be the rolls of King Cyrus according to his years, and we see that they found “the first year of Cyrus.” Of course, if they already have them dated by year, what is the next step? More order was needed than that because a king could make many decrees in one year; and so they would have them by month and, naturally, they would have them by day. This is the way it would be done if they were very orderly, and these people were very orderly and law-abiding people. I think that we can be very sure that the law that was given in Shushan would have had a date on it. It would have had a date.
For some laws, we can absolutely see the importance of having a date, like in Daniel 6 when King Darius who took Babylon made a decree that he was deceived into making. We read in Daniel 6:7-9:
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
So here was a law given with a date, an expiration date of 30 days. Do you think that this was important for them to know the date that this law was given? Else, how would they know when the 30 days would have been up unless they knew the first day when it began? That would have been the only way to know when they were safely past the 30 days and could make a decree again.
So even though it does not say that the law was dated, it would have had to have been. We do not read that it was given on such-and-such a day and then expired 30 days later, but it would have necessarily had to have had the date even though we do not read it explicitly.
It actually does not matter, but I think that it is a fact that their laws would have had dates. It does not matter because it was published in Shushan and the city of Shushan was perplexed.
This would have included Esther. Where was Esther? She was in the palace. Would Esther have heard about that law? I am sure that she would have. She would have also known that that law was given.
Then we move into Esther 4. We read in Esther 4:1-12:
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the king's gate. And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther…
So Mordecai had a copy of the writing and he gave it to Hatach the chamberlain, and Hatach took it to Esther; and so she would have had a piece of paper or a scroll of some sort that would have had this new decree laid out. On it would be the time that it was given.
It continues:
…and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people. And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther's words.
We will slow down maybe next week and go back over this to see some of the significant things spiritually, but right now we are interested in the dating and the timing of the decree given and how this relates to Judgment Day.
Notice what Esther said when Mordecai sent word back for her to go into the king. She responds, “I have not been called to go into the king for thirty days.” Is this true or false? This is false. She did not say “for thirty days.”
This is how I have always read this and I think that this is how we have always read it, that the last time that she went into the king was thirty days ago. This is how we would say it.
It is January 1st, so let us say that the last time I went into the king or into the palace or personally met with the king was on December 2nd, thirty days ago; and so I have not been called to go into the king for thirty days, meaning that was the last time. But she is not referring to that. What is she referring to? She says, “I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.” Why “these”? “These” is a demonstrative pronoun. It refers to something that is close or to something that is near or to something that is far: these or those, this or that. This is normally referring to an object, to something that is in view.
For instance, if we go to 1 Kings 17:24, this word that is translated “these” is found there. This is a pretty common word. It says:
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God…
“By this” is referring to the action of her son being raised to life. She is referring to a particular thing, not just anything but “by this.”
It is the same thing in 2 Kings 5:7:
And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?…
This was the case of Naaman the Syrian. The king of Syria sent a letter to the king of Israel telling him that Naaman was coming to be cured.
So the king of Israel is saying:
…Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man…
This is not referring to just any man, but to the man who sent the letter, the king of Syria.
This is also found in Esther 9:26:
Wherefore they called these [note: this is not the word] days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter…
So it is this particular letter. There could be a million letters, but “this” is the letter.
When Esther is saying, “I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days,” she can hold up the copy of the writing in her hand, the copy of the decree that was given her that was probably dated. Even if it was not dated, she would know that the decree was given thirty days ago on the 13th day of the 1st month.
For that period of time, she was trying to explain to Mordecai, to the one who adopted her, “I have had no opportunity; I have had no chance to make any plea to the king for these thirty days,” because that period of time was what was in view between her and Mordecai. That was what she was referring to.
Mordecai does not care if she went into the king six months ago. No; the important thing that they are discussing is the decree that was given, and that is what Esther is referring to when she said, “I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.”
This tells us the date that she and Mordecai are having this discussion. What date would that have been? Thirty days later after 1/13, because the decree was given on the 13th day of the 1st month, would have been the 13th day of the 2nd month. This would have been when she was speaking to Mordecai.
This has been checked out, by the way, by someone who is very good at this, Mike Cook. He is the one who came up with the 722,500 days, which is the timeline from the cross to May 21, 2011. I think that he is very, very good at finding out these kinds of things. I have a spreadsheet from him for anyone who would like to see it that lays out the whole 12th year of King Ahasuerus. You can see it day-by-day, and from the 13th day of the 1st month to the 13th day of the 2nd month is 30 days.
Why is this important? This is important because what does Esther then say to Mordecai? Look at Esther 4:13-17:
Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
So now we are reading an historical account in Esther where Esther said to Mordecai, “Gather the Jews and fast for three nights and three days.”
Let us say that they began that night, which was the night of the 13th, then the night of the 14th and the night of the 15th. The first day would have been the 14th, the second day would have been the 15th, and the third day would have been the 16th; and so it would have been 2/16.
Then it says in Esther 5:1:
Now it came to pass on the third day…
On the third day, she went into the king. This would have been 2/16 and this is pretty close. But someone might be wondering, “Close to what? What are you talking about?” Well, remember the flood?
Let us go back to Genesis 7. By the way, “close,” as they used to say, only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades. God does not deal with “close.” When somebody says, and I have heard this with timelines, “Well, we go here and we jump there and then we are just two weeks away from something important.” No; no. God does not do things that way. With God, it is precise and it is exact; it is not horseshoes. Leaners do not count. You have to get it right on the mark and then you can know that this is what God is doing.
In Genesis 7, after seven days when God first forewarned Noah and said, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth,” we realized that this statement was given in 4990 B.C. Then we realized that 2 Peter insists that we give one thousand years for a day. When we go seven thousand years later, it lands in 2011, which was last year because this is now 2012. But remember the day that the flood began.
It says in Genesis 7:11:
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
This began the flood period on the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah’s calendar.
We were all amazed – I know that I was – when 7,000 years later, we were looking. We knew that 2011 would be 7,000 years, but where would it fall? Well, it so happened that May 21, 2011 was the last day of a 23-year great tribulation period, exactly. From May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 was a full 23 years. It was also precisely 8400 days and the number 84 has everything to do with the great tribulation.
So there is the spot. God put His finger on it. He locked it in; and so we thought that May 21 would be Judgment Day. Actually, what it turned out to be was the day that God shut the door.
Some people say that Genesis 7 does not refer to a door because it says in Genesis 7 that “the LORD shut him in.” You tell me, what else could have been shut? What else shut them in? Did they have the door open when the flood came? No; of course it was the door.
God uses this language of “shut” in connection with a door many times. He shut the door and the door in the Bible represents Christ; and He is the door to Heaven. He is the only door. We will not get into this right now, but this was the significance. The great significance of May 21 was that it was the end of the great tribulation after 7,000 years.
How else could that have worked out? That had to be God putting His finger on that date of the 17th day of the 2nd month, because May 21 of 2011 in the Hebrew calendar is the 17th day of the 2nd month. God, by causing all of that to happen, was saying, “Yes; this is the date and this is where you look.”
So in Esther, we find that a decree is given. Spiritually, the context is during the great tribulation and this decree is published to all of the world. It is sent out on the 13th day of the 1st month. Then Esther refers to a time period of 30 days.
Come on. How easy would it be to be wrong about this and to be off? If she had said 40 days, it would not fit. If she had said 20 days, 29 days, or any other number, it would not fit. The number 30 is the one number that makes this fit. If the decree had been given on the 10th day of the 1st month or the 28th day of the 1st month or any other day but the 13th day of the 1st month, it would not fit. If there had been no period of three nights and days of fasting, it would not fit.
But someone could say, “This does not fit because it is on the 16th day of the 2nd month when Esther goes into the king.” Yes, but let us read from Esther 5. It says in Esther 5:1-4:
Now it came to pass on the third day…
That would have been the 16th day of the 2nd month. It continues:
…that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him.
God does not want us to miss the timing, which was 2/16. On the 16th day of the 2nd month, they were to come to this banquet.
Was not that first banquet that Esther had a very strange banquet? I have always thought that it was just so strange, because they do come and then look what happens. We read in Esther 5:5-8:
Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is; If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said.
What date would this have been? This would have been on the 17th day of the 2nd month.
We see everything that had to fall into place in order for this to have worked out. Any other date but the 13th day of the 1st month would not fit. If Esther had said any other length of time than those 30 days, it would not fit. If they had fasted for any length of time different than the three days and three nights, it would not fit. If they had fasted not at all, it would not fit. If they had come to the first banquet and everything had been laid out there, it would not fit. But for some reason, she tells them to come back the next day; and God makes a point that she came on the third day. The first banquet was on that day, and then the next day or “tomorrow” would have been the 17th day of the 2nd month.
If what had occurred at that second banquet of wine would have been something that had no spiritual significance, then I would say that maybe all of these things were coincidences. But what happened on that 17th day? How did it begin?
The king could not sleep; and so Haman had a bad day. He had a very bad day. He was in the outer court and he was brought in and he was humiliated. He was humbled and brought low right away. He had to take Mordecai, who was his enemy, around on horseback through the city. What was that doing to Mordecai? It was lifting Mordecai up and exalting him. Things went downhill from there for Haman, and then he is hung on a gallows later that day on the 17th day of the 2nd month.
That would have been a good place for the book of Esther to end, but it does not end there. Time goes on, because there is still a set day. There is still the 13th day of the 12th month, and Haman still has ten sons. They are not killed until the 13th day of the 12th month.
We will look at this, spiritually, next week. But can you see this? I hope that you can, because I can see it. I see that God has put His finger on the date of May 21 through this 17th day of the 2nd month. On that date, He is telling us that we were correct and that there was a spiritual judgment day. Satan was put down. Christ was exalted and lifted up, as Mordecai was brought around on horseback, and that it is not yet the end because we have to go a little further.
I wanted to lay this out because I would appreciate any feedback towards this. Also, I think that we are going to have to start sharing this information, because there is a second letter that goes out to the people and I think that everyone is going to need to know the significance of this in order to see that we really should be sharing this information.
I do not think that we will be doing anything like we did prior to May 21. We cannot because we do not have the resources. We do not have the ability to warn people about this date. The world was warned about May 21 and October 21, but no one heard about Purim; and so I think that we will try to do what we can.
Keep this in mind. It is so quiet out there that when you make a little sound, it can sound pretty loud. It is so dark that when you light a little match, it can seem like a big fire. Also, God does not need us. He can do this. But just imagine what one or two well-placed billboards could do at this time. I do not know what God is going to do, but I think that we can just do what we can and then let Him take it from there.
Let us stop here.