The Book of Esther is more than a nice Bible story. It speaks of events that not only took place historically (peshat level), but it contains events that were to happen in the future, especially during the Birth-pains (in the “sowd” level). We are not going to go over this book verse by verse, but we are going to deal with some prophetic elements found in the book.
We come to know about the festival of Purim (meaning “lots”) from the Book of Esther, where the scroll of Esther is unrolled and read from start to finish. Although Purim is not mentioned in Leviticus 23, it is a very important festival to know if you want to understand Bible prophecy. It is a festival of rejoicing (Est 9.18-19) and we meet many characters that are prophetic of the end-times. It is a “noisy” festival where the name of Haman, a picture of the False Messiah, is drowned out by noise makers and booing.
This comes from the fact that Haman is a descendant of Amalek and the Lord said we are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven (Exo 17.14). King Saul was to blot them out, but he spared Agag in 1 Sam 15. Enough time goes by for Agag to conceive children, and they became the ancestors of Haman (Est 3.1). The kingdom is taken from Saul, and an Amalekite eventually kills him. One of the “heroes” of Esther is a man named Mordechai, who is from Kish and the tribe of Benjamin, the same family and tribe as Saul (Est 2.5). Mordechai would finish what his ancestor failed to do in this book by destroying Haman the Amalekite. Deliverance is one of the themes of Esther.
The book is written in a “brick wall” formation which means “strength” but in parts written in a “columnar” formation which means “weakness.” When the ten sons of Haman are named, their names are in columnar form in the Hebrew (Est 9.7-9). In the list of names, three Hebrew letters are written smaller than the others. These letters signify the year 1946-1947 with an enlarged Hebrew letter “vav” at the end. The number ten is the number of judgment. What does this mean?
After Germany surrendered in World War II and after the Nuremburg trials, ten Nazis were hung (just like the ten sons of Haman who tried to destroy the Jews-Est 9.13) on October 16, 1946, which was Hoshanna Rabbah on the Jewish religious calendar that year, the seventh day of the feast of Sukkot. The Germans were seen as “Amalekites” by the Jewish people because of their desire to exterminate them. The Holocaust started in Nuremburg. Ten Jews were hung on “Kristalnacht.” Their leader was a man named Julius Streicher, one of the ten Nazis who would eventually be hung. All told, 96 Jews died, 1000 synagogues were burned and 7500 Jewish businesses were destroyed. Here is an interesting bit of history behind this. We will have more on this later.
The Temple Mount is called “the mount of assembly” or “har Moghed” in Hebrew, where the word “Armageddon” comes from (Isa 14.12-13; Rev 16.13-16). It is the throne of God and Satan wants to be worshipped there. Antiochus Epiphanes set up an altar of Zeus Kyrios in the Temple, trying to “depose” the throne of God and this will be repeated in the last days. Antiochus tried to destroy the Jews but the Maccabees rose up against him and defeated him, then they cleansed the altar. This is where Chanukah comes from. A friend of Antiochus sets up another altar to Zeus in Pergamon. Rev 2.13 says that Satan’s throne was there.
As Christianity took over the Roman Empire, this altar in Pergamon is abandoned, gone and forgotten. The “throne” was dormant. In the 19th century, a man finds this altar and he begins to send it back to his home country in pieces in 1871. It is reconstructed in Berlin, Germany. By 1878 they excavate the whole altar, and anti-Semitism begins in Germany at the same time and the empire of Germany begins in 1871. Germany now had the “throne” of Satan. Reconstruction was completed in 1889, the same year a baby was born named Adolph (“noble wolf”) Hitler. The altar of Pergamon appears, and Adolph Hitler appears. We know that World War I centered on Germany. After the war, the altar was still in Germany. The Nazi party arises and in 1930 the altar was opened to the public.
In 1930, the Nazi’s go from the smallest party to number two and they join the Reichstag. In three years Hitler becomes Chancellor, and then Dictator. Hitler progresses as the altar of Pergamon progresses. The Nazi’s are now in possession of the throne of Satan. Now, Hitler wants a “platform” to speak to the people from. He appoints Albert Speer (his architect) to build one. Speer has visited the altar of Pergamon in Berlin and he gets the idea to build Hitler a platform using the altar of Pergamon as a model. He builds it and when you see Hitler speaking from there, it is a reproduction of the altar at Pergamon. Satan’s goal is to wipe out the Jews as we see from the book of Esther, but this is playing out 2300 years later.
The place this “platform” is built? Nuremburg, Germany. The Nuremburg laws started there, which began the holocaust. These laws were anti-Semitic and the “final solution” concerning the extermination of the Jews was first spoken of from there. The Holocaust is the name of the Final Solution. Six million Jews died, and sixty million died in World War II. The Jews were a “tithe” of that. The word “holocaust” is “olah” in Hebrew and it is the word used to describe the whole burnt offering. The Jews were an “olah” offered to Satan in the ovens of the concentration camps, like the “olah” was offered to God. Hitler stands on a replica of the throne of Satan, and a throne is where a king speaks.
This altar still affects the earth because this is a real fight and a real war. This also relates to the Abomination of Desolation in the last days. Now, how does this relate to now? In 2008 the Democratic National Convention was in Denver, Colorado. Candidate Obama spoke from a reconstructed “Greek temple” style platform as we all know. But, what most people don’t know is that it was patterned after the altar of Pergamon. Why is this important? The power behind the government of the United States is not from the Lord. Who had the “inspiration” for this in the first place? In the Birth-pains, the False Messiah will come out of Europe, where the throne of Satan is.
However, at the exact half-way point (Nisan 10 of the fourth year) the False Messiah moves his throne to the Temple in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount, and declares himself God, with Satan empowering him.
Amalek had physical descendants, like Haman in the book of Esther. Are there “spiritual” Amalekites? Yes! Every generation has an “Amalek” and God said so, that is why the Lord will “make war” with Amalek from generation to generation (Exo 17.16). And their followers are Amalekites also. Every generation has an Amalek. The feast of Sukkot celebrates the fact that “Amalek” is always defeated and there is much joy. The feast is called the Festival of Rejoicing because everything has culminated to this event.
Repentance in Elul leads to Rosh Ha Shannah, which prepared you for the Days of Awe, which prepares you for Yom Kippur, which prepares you for Sukkot. Purim fits in because it is a month before the religious calendar begins in Nisan and you are preparing yourself. The month of Adar, just prior to Nisan, is already talking about deliverance with Purim. It will be the time that the Abomination if Desolation will be set up.
In Part 2, we will pick up here and begin discussing these things in more detail because we have only scratched the surface. We have more encoded prophecies in the book of Esther and we will see how they apply today, and during the Birth-pains. Some of these prophecies can only be seen in Hebrew and are encoded in the book of Esther.
Leave a Reply