Prophesies Then and Now: More Hidden Treasures in the Book of Esther

In our Western way of thinking, we tend to think of history, and therefore prophesy, as happening or being fulfilled once and then it is finished, never to be repeated.  But this is not the case.  History repeats itself and prophesies are fulfilled in multiple times and in multiple ways.  This is the Biblical pattern throughout scripture and in the Book of Esther as we will see.

Remember in the last blog, I quoted the account in Exodus where the Israelites first encounter Amalek:

Exodus 17:7-8 NKJV 7 So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" 8 Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

And the promise that they would face Amelek in every generation:

Exodus 17:13-16 NKJV 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." 15 And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-Is-My-Banner; 16 for he said, "Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

We have already established in the last post that the evil Hamen was an Amalekite; a descendant of Amalek.  But did you know that besides Queen Esther, the other Hero of the Book of Esther, Mordechai, has an important family linage as well?

In 1^st Samuel we read about the selection of Saul as king:

1 Samuel 10:21 NKJV 21 When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was chosen. And Saul the son of Kish was chosen. But when they sought him, he could not be found.

So Saul is identified as a son of Kish.  Mordechai is also a son of Kish and therefore a direct descendant of Saul. 

Esther 2:5 NKJV 5 In Shushan the citadel there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.

Saul was given instruction to totally destroy Amalek, but he didn’t.

1 Samuel 15:1-3 NKJV 1 Samuel also said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the LORD. 2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 'Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"

1 Samuel 15:9 NKJV 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

This disobedience by Saul will surely come back to bite them in the future.  Fast forward 500 years to the Book of Esther and we see Hamen, a direct descendent of Agag, and Mordechai, a direct descendant of Saul, again engaged in battle!  It never would have happened if Saul had been obedient and wiped out the Amalekites as he was instructed to.  History repeats itself, in a different way and a different place.

Why do we keep Purim?  Why do we keep Hanukkah?  Why do we keep all of the Biblical feast days?  Aren’t those just the Jewish Holidays?  We keep them because we are to be watchful.  We are to be awake and ready for Messiah’s return!  We tend to focus a great deal of our attention on end time prophesies, but if the end is truly declared from the beginning, then we must clearly understand the beginning in order to properly understand the end.  If we want to understand the prophesies in the end of the Bible, then we have to understand the prophesies in the beginning of the Bible!

Genesis 1:14 NKJV 14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

This verse is not talking about seasons such as summer, fall, winter and spring, as implied in most of our English translations.  The Hebrew word translated as “seasons” is the word “moed” and is most often translated as “feast” throughout the Bible.  Moed literally means “appointed time”.  God has created and given us appointed times; the Biblical feast days to point us to His glory and to His purpose for our lives.  If we are on His calendar we will know what to watch for as we anticipate Messiah’s return.  We will clearly see and recognize Bible prophesy when it happens because we are prepared and watching in the right place at the right time.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 NKJV 9 That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Now in Revelation, a book of prophesy that is rightly associated with the end times, the millennial reign of Messiah and the new Heaven and the new Earth we find this verse.

Revelation 13:1 NKJV 1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

In the Book of Esther we read about Hamen’s ten sons who were henchmen charged with carrying out Hamen’s evil plot to kill all the Jews.  In chapter 9 verses 6-9 the names of the ten sons of Hamen are specifically listed.  Why is that?  What is the significance of listing the names of the ten sons of Hamen when there were many others slain at the same time as well? 

Esther 9:6-9 NKJV 6 And in Shushan the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha-

We should know that there are no superfluous words in the Bible.  Every word is important and every name is important, and no less so with these.  What we see with these names is only found in the original Hebrew text.  There are significant jots and tittles to be found in these names that have a connection to recent history.  Let’s look at the way they are written in the Hebrew manuscripts.

You will notice that there is an anomaly within this list of names.  There are three letters that are written smaller and one letter that is larger than the rest.  They are in the 1^st, 7^th and 10^th names.  The letters that are written smaller are the tav in the first name, the sheen in the 7^th name, and the zayin in the 10^th name, and vav, also in the 10th name, is written larger.  What is the significance of these particular letters?  Together they don’t spell any particular Hebrew word, but Hebrew letters also represent numbers.  As representative of numbers they indirectly add up to 5707.  What do I mean by indirectly?

The small letters directly add up to 707: tav=400, sheen=300 and zayin=7.  So something must be significant about the enlarged vav.  We also know that with the LORD a thousand years are as a day.

Psalms 90:4 NKJV 4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8 NKJV 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

In light of these scriptures, I am going to make an assumption that the enlarged vav, which equals the number 6, is in this verse in Esther, referring to the 6^th millennium, the span of years from 5001 to 6000.  Given that assumption, the vav in this case represents the number 5000.  Together these letters equal 5707.  The year 5707 on the Biblical calendar is equivalent to 1946 on our modern calendar.  What happened in 1946 that is directly connected to the Book of Esther?

The Feast of Sukkot, which celebrates the harvest at the end of the agricultural year, is a festival which also looks forward to the end of days and the 7th millennium when Messiah will reign from Jerusalem with righteousness and judgment of the nations.  Not only does Revelation speak of this time, but virtually all the prophets of old as well.  Sukkot represents judgment of the nations, so what happened during Sukkot in 1946?

October 16^th, 1946, the 7^th day of the festival of Sukkot, at the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials following World War II, 10 of Hitler’s henchmen, who were commissioned by Hitler to exterminate all the Jews, went to the gallows, Just as the 10 sons of Hamen, who were also commissioned to exterminate all the Jews, were hanged on the gallows in the story of Esther!  As he was escorted up the steps of the gallows, Julius Streicher, the last to be hanged, cried out to the crowd of witnesses, “And now I go to God!  Purimfest 1946!” Julius Streicher understood the prophesy of the Book of Esther and was making the connection!   History and prophesy were again repeating in a different way and a different place.

Purim is a festival which celebrates the victory of God’s people over those who would seek to destroy them, in the past, the present, and the future.  We can be assured of ultimate victory, but like Queen Esther, victory is accomplished only by placing our total faith and trust in the God who controls history, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

שלום ברוך

Shalom and be blessed

Dan and Brenda Cathcart