Esther is one of those few portions of the Scripture that should definitely be viewed from an allegorical point of view! This does not in any way imply that the events as described in the Book of Esther did not take place. On the contrary, those events are definitely part of the historical record; however, there are definite allegorical aspects from that book upon which we need to carefully think.

We will focus upon the allegorical perspective of the book a little later; however, lets first take note of the literal events. From the information that we garner, we will then be able to build our allegorical perspective.

For now, let’s simply realize that the Book of Esther is the story of a Jewish maiden who became queen over the Persian Empire! The name Esther means “something hidden.” Therefore, the name of the book implies that in order to understand the Creator’s intent, we may need to look beyond the obvious. One thing that is not hidden is the recurrent irony that so often emerges.

There is an interesting fact; indeed, it has been a matter of great historical debate that none of the names of God ever one time shows up in the entire Book of Esther. If something is hidden, perhaps we may need to involve ourselves in deeper study.

For now, lets read through a short narrative outline of the book:

1. Chapter 1 – There was a great king known as Ahasuerus who reigned from Shushan (the king’s palace); this king controlled the area that included all the lands that extended from India to Ethiopia. This kingdom was so affluent that the king proclaimed a feast (party) that lasted six months! Obviously, in order for a national celebration to be able to last that long, it implies that his kingdom was at peace with all of its enemies at least temporarily. Notice the grandeur of his kingdom as described in Esther, “Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble. 7 And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king” (Est 1:6-7). On the seventh day of the feast, the king’s heart was “merry” with wine. He commanded his seven eunuchs to bring his queen (Vashti) in order to put her beauty on display. The queen refused to make her appearance; this led to the King’s seven princes of Persia and Media advising him on the matter. Memucan, one of the seven counselors, advised the king to put away his queen and see her no more; his reasoning was, “Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashti has refused to appear before the king” (Est 1:17 NLT). Further, Memucan recommended that the king should find a new queen more worthy than Vashti. The King acted according to Memucan’s advice.

2. Chapter 2 – The King became nostalgic after he had banished Vashti; as a result, his attendants convinced him to send men throughout the kingdom who would find goodly virgins and bring these maidens back to Shushan so the king could choose the fairest among the whole group! One such maiden was Hadassah (Esther); who was the niece of Mordecai, a prominent man from Israel’s tribe of Benjamin. Mordecai, advised Esther to hide from everyone with whom she would come in contact the fact that she was a Jewess. Mordecai and Esther were among the people who had come from Jerusalem many years earlier during the time that the king of Babylon took the children of Israel into captivity. The kings search for a queen was so important that Esther and all of the other maidens spent twelve months in perfume baths and precious oils of myrrh in order to get prepared to come into the presence of the king. The day finally came when Esther was ushered into the king and she became the fairest of all in his eyes; indeed, she was chosen to become the new queen. Coincidental with those events, Mordecai discovered that there was a plot to kill the king; he relayed the conspiracy to the King through Esther and successfully blocked the assassination.

3. Chapter 3 – The King promoted Haman the Agagite above all his other officials into a position that we would recognize as “prime minister.” In fact, the king made a decree that all were to show honor to Haman. However, The queen’s uncle Mordecai would not make obeisance and this made Haman furious. Nevertheless, Haman never ploted openly against Mordecai; instead, he decided to establish a general decree the effects of which would result in total destruction of he Jews. As part of the decree, Haman caused his officials to cast a lot (Pur) before him. The idea was that the lot (Pur) would be used to establish the date for the destruction of the Jews. Haman pledged ten thousand talents of silver from his own treasuries in order to ensure that the decree would be published throughout the empire. An order was issued that on a certain date all of the Jews could be killed and destroyed (the day of the event was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month which had been established by the casting of the Pur.)

4. Chapter 4 – When Mordecai heard of the kings decree he mourned openly in sackcloth and ashes. Esther communicated with Mordecai through one of her servants who gave Esther a copy of the king’s edict. The servant also conveyed details about how much Haman had pledged to the Kings treasures. As Esther continued to correspond with Mordecai via her servant, she relayed that she could not simply go into the king’s inner court and make intercession for her people since the King had not summoned her for thirty days. She explained that there was a law that anybody going into the king’s inner court would die unless they had previously been summoned. The law detailed that anyone who might presumptuously go into the inner court, would be condemned to death unless the King would extend his golden scepter toward that individual. Mordecai made it clear that deliverance would come for the Jews regardless of Esther’s efforts, “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” (Est 4:14). As a result, Esther responded by sending instructions for the Jews to fast for three days and then she would go into the king’s inner court, her attitude being, “if I perish, I perish” (Est 4:16).

5. Chapter 5 – On the third day, Esther dressed in her royal apparel and went in to the king without being summoned. Thankfully, she obtained his favor and he held out his golden scepter toward Esther and she reached out and touched his scepter. Indeed, the King offered Esther whatsoever she desired up to half of his kingdom. However, all Esther asked for was for the King and Haman to attend a banquet that she would prepare. The King consented and during the banquet he again asked concerning her request. Once again, Esther’s request was that they attend yet another banquet on the morrow. Again the king consented. Coincidentally, on the way out of the palace Haman ran across Mordecai who according to his practice simply would not bow himself down. This enraged Haman! He was feeling so important because he had just been invited for a second time to a royal banquet. Haman relayed to his wife and friends how Mordecai had so vexed him; they counseled Haman to build a special gallows fifty cubits high (that is 75 feet or almost 8 stories high). They suggested that prior to the banquet, Haman could simply inform the king about Mordecai’s insolence and get permission to hang him.

6. Chapter 6 – During the intervening night, “could not the king sleep!” (Est 6:1) So the king asked for the chronicles of his kingdom to be read. During the reading, the king realized that Mordecai, who had uncovered the plot to kill the king, had never been publicly honored for his loyalty. In the morning, Haman stood in the kings outer court in order to ask the king for permission to hang Mordecai on his gallows. The king heard Haman and invited him into his inner court. The king asked Haman, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?” (Est 6:6) Haman was so full of himself that he told the king, “Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: 9 And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour” (Est 6:8-9). So the king told Haman perform all those things unto Mordecai. After fulfilling his duty, Haman (who had earlier planned to hang Mordecai) went home completely humiliated; and before he could get his wits about him, the kings chamberlains came to deliver Haman to Esther’s second banquet.

7. Chapter 7 – We should immediately realize that up to this point, the King had been totally ignorant of what was really going on in his kingdom. At long last, the king was about to discover the real source of evil in his empire! As Esther began to identify the real source of evil; she told the King that she and her people were sold to be slain. Obviously, the king wanted to know who would be so presumptuous as to condemn his own queen to death. Esther pointed out the man Haman! The king was so angry that he departed out of the court; in the meantime, Haman threw himself upon Esther’s couch in order to ask for mercy and just then the king walked back into Esther’s court and disbelievingly asked, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face” (Est 6:8-9). To cover the face in this context means the same thing as the black shroud getting placed over the individual who stands before the gallows. It so “happened” that one of the king’s chamberlains (probably the one who had picked up Haman for the banquet) told the king that Haman had constructed a gallows fifty cubit high; the king told the chamberlain, “hang him thereon.” (Est 7:9).

8. Chapter 8 – When the king discovered that faithful Mordecai was Esther’s uncle, he put Haman’s ring upon Mordecai’s hand (essentially making Mordecai his new prime minister). Esther obviously asked the king to reverse his earlier edict and not destroy the Jews. Since the law could not be changed, the king told Esther and Mordecai that they should write their own superceding edict affixed with the king’s stamp. This new edict would give the Jews the right to defend themselves against any who might try to take their lives or to take their property!

9. Chapter 9 – Since the new Prime Minister Mordecai was himself a Jew and obviously had great favor in the eyes of the king, surely the majority of the people throughout all of the provinces realized that the Jews were not worthy of destruction as Haman’s decree had indicated. Instead, on the day identified by Purim it turned out that only those rising up against the Jews (the true enemies) were themselves destroyed. On that same day, the ten sons of Haman were killed. The king asked Esther what else she might want; she requested that the ten sons of Haman (who were killed earlier in the day) would be impaled on poles and she asked for the Jews to be given yet another day in order to utterly confront those who had shown themselves to be enemies; the king granted both of her requests! Therefore, Esther established by a decree that the fourteenth day and the fifteenth day of the month of Adar would be known as the days of (Purim).

10. Chapter 10 – The king established a tribute (tax) among all his provinces and Mordecai and the Jews prospered from that time forward.

So now we have covered the major literal events of the book; however, as we noted at the beginning of this study, there is something else that is hidden in the book. Certainly God Himself is hidden throughout the story as He works on behalf of the Jews without them being aware of His hand at work. True, there are no less than eight names of God including Jeshua (Jesus) hidden in equidistant letter sequences in the book. Nevertheless, there are other perhaps more important things that are hidden behind the text.

Proverbs 25:2 teaches us that, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov 25:2). In keeping with the name Esther which means “something hidden.” Let us search out what it is that may be hidden by God.

We can begin with the understanding that God consistently reveals things in His word through types and shadows. A “type” is a foreshadowing event of something that will take place much later in the narrative. For example perhaps the most significant “type” in the Scripture is Abraham taking his “only” son to be sacrificed on a lonely hill three days after God had given him the command. The fulfillment occurred when Father God sent his Son Jesus Christ to be crucified and to die for the sins of the world on that very same hill two thousand years later! Further, His Son rose from the dead three days after the crucifixion. Another “type” of the same event is Jonah spending three days and nights in the belly of a great fish, in the same way that Jesus remained in the grave for three days. These foreshadowing Biblical events are known as “types.”

We are going to learn that the story contained in the Book of Esther is a type of the lives that we Christians now live! Indeed, we are going to discover that each of us is a king sitting upon our very own throne! Esther is a living parable (which means to cast along side) of our own lives! When we approach the book as a parable, we can obtain a great deal of information! A parable is designed to help one see themselves in another situation. The parable hidden in Esther is really our own story. We should be able to recognize through the Book of Esther how God is actually working in our own modern day lives.

Man is a king; he was made to be a king, “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet” (Ps 8:5-6). Man was intended to display the majesty and glory of God by properly governing himself and this earth. However, man has been completely frustrated without God! Therefore, we see King Solomon claiming that all of life is vanity, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.” (Eccl 1:9-10)

Ahasuerus is the king in the story, “Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces” (Est 1:1); however, Ahasuerus is not the king’s name instead Ahasuerus is a title like Pharaoh, Czar, or Kaiser. Ahasuerus literally means “the venerable father.”

Who then is the king identified in the Book of Esther? Secular history claims that he is perhaps Xerxes the Great who attacked the powerful nation of Greece during the days when Alexander the Great was merely a child; however, other scholars claim, and I agree, that it is more likely that he is the son of Cyrus the first who is identified in the book of Daniel as, Darius the Mede who “took the kingdom (of Babylon from Belshazzar), being about threescore and two years old. 6:1 It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; 2 And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first” (Dan 5:31-6:2). The Babylonians essentially thought that their kingdom was impervious to an external attack; nevertheless, the Persians under Cyrus took over the city of Babylon without engaging in a single battle!

The identity of the king is really unimportant since Scripture never provides an authentic name! Instead, if we hold up the Book of Esther as a mirror we should actually begin to see ourselves in the image of the king! Every human being is a self contained kingdom ruled by a king. The body of an individual is his own kingdom. Ruling over our complex body is our soul (mind will and emotions). Our kingdom body is always affected by what has been filtered through our soul. However, the body and the soul are not all that makes up the human being. We also have a spirit component to our being; our spirit is the queen of our kingdom. Secular humanism believes that man (like an animal) is nothing more than a body and a soul. However, man also has a spiritual component and that spirit is like a queen to a king. The spirit of man comes from God, “what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” (1 Cor 2:11). The Bible identifies that at death, this spirit returns to God, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Eccl 12:7).

We must realize that this whole story of Esther is not merely a simple historical event out of the ancient past; instead it is a divinely inspired and magnificently accurate portrayal of what is going on in our own lives today! You as a living soul (mind will and emotions) are the king over your kingdom! Your empire is your very life. Your queen is the spirit essence that God gave you at birth; however, when Adam fell, he banished (cut off from spiritual contact with God) the old queen (old spirit – Vashti). Since that time, we all have gone out in search of a new queen (the new born-again spirit – Esther). Mordecai who was related to Esther came into your life with her (the new spirit); Mordecai is a picture of the Holy Spirit! Mordecai’s job is to protect you and to advise you; he brings the wisdom of his people, which is the fruit of the spirit. On the other hand, the prime minister of your kingdom is a very sly creature. This character is what the Bible describes as the flesh; we humans call it the self-life or the ego! The flesh is cunning, subtle, and deceptive; he tricks us into believing that the only way that we can obtain what we really want is to choose our own way! The flesh wants us to ignore our new spirit (Esther); indeed, if the flesh had its way it would destroy her and all of her people. The devil knows that if he can get us operating out of the flesh, then none of our human efforts will amount to a thing, “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63)! Can you begin to see how powerful are Paul’s words, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh (you do not take advice from Haman – the flesh), but in the Spirit (instead, you take the advice and counsel from Mordecai – the Holy Spirit)” (Rom 8:8-9). This passage describes the major battle for the Christian; it is perhaps the very essence of the struggle in our Christian life!

We remember that the King told Esther, “what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom” (Est 5:3). The king offered his queen up to half the kingdom. We need to understand this offer in the context of our make-up. Most of us are not even accustomed to thinking of our inner being as made-up of spirit and soul! We are not naturally equipped to even recognize how we can distinguish between the two. However, in order to really be successful in this life we need to get more sensitive to the difference! The problem is that the greatest mystery to man is man himself! We humans can do marvelous things like create computers, and go to the moon, and split the atom; but we cannot conquer our own nature! The greatest mystery of all is our own nature! We really do not understand ourselves! About the only thing that we recognize is that we (whoever we are) are living somewhere inside of this fleshy body. We know there is something deep down inside of our bodies! What we need to realize is that inner being is divided into two parts. Even psychology recognizes the conscious and unconscious aspects of our being. The conscious portion of our inner being is the center of our mind and the source of our reason. It is also the core of our emotions. According to the Bible, our consciousness is our soul (mind will and emotions)! Mind and emotions have equal influence upon our will; this is where we live. Therefore, this soul directed by our will is the king before whom all options must appear and by whom all decisions are made! Our will is the one aspect through which all of our decisions are ultimately filtered.

However there is a second aspect of our life’s inner being. This second aspect is most often recognized as the unconscious (the spirit); it is a deeper hidden aspect! Before we were Christians, that area of our lives was darkened confused and uncertain! The human conscience is located in the spirit; however, the conscious can be very wrong! I am sure that we have all felt pangs of conscious that were simply misguided! At various times in our past we learned that going to this inner man for direction was an all too often unfruitful exercise. At times like these we were torn between our choices and left uncertain and bewildered. Into that darkened life came the life of Jesus Christ, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

Once we received Jesus Christ into our lives (the Holy Spirit) we discovered that he began to assert the authority of his lordship in our lives. We were born again and the spirit within us was made alive, “you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, (Haman) fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God . . . hath quickened us together with Christ” (Eph 2:1-5). This new spirit under control of the Holy Spirit became a place of glory and beauty; through the new spirit the glory of God eventually possess the whole vessel of man!

Therefore, the guidance that we receive from this marriage of our human spirit and soul, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, is true and morally upright and clear. Therefore, when we are made alive in resurrection power by the life of Jesus Christ, our human spirit then becomes the means through which the Holy Spirit begins to influence and repossess the soul (our mind will and emotions). The regenerated, renewed, re-born human spirit of man is fully subject to the control of the Holy Spirit of God and the two are cooperatively working together. Just as we learn form the Bible that the man and woman become one in marriage, so the new spirit (the queen) becomes one with the soul (the king). If you would like to know more concerning the cooperative nature of the born-again spirit and the Holy Spirit of God, we suggest the Rivkah Ministries Bible Studies entitled, “Inside Information” and “Spirit Soul and Body” You may obtain a copy of those studies and/or sound files from the website address as follows: http://www.Rivkah.org.

The inner king always has the power to reject the pleadings his queen (which is the new spirit led by the Holy Spirit). This relationship is beautifully portrayed in the Book of Esther as we observe queen Esther reluctant to even come before the king. Even so in our lives the soul (mind will and emotions) is supreme and has the power to reject or accept everything that is presented. Even babies know how powerful the will really is! God designed the will so that it could resolutely rule over its domain! And, we should begin to appreciate that God is so respectful of the will that even He will not coerce the will nor violate its powers. Instead, God woos us and wins the consent of our will.

There is only one item known to man that can penetrate into this deepness of the spirit, “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit” (Heb 4:12). The spirit indeed can discern, “the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Only the spirit can visit us in these deepest recesses of our heart.

The essence of the book is a king who is deluded; he is ignorant of the fact that his best friend is actually his worst enemy. The king must come to the point where he realizes that the man Haman is really not working in his best interests; just as we must learn that our flesh is not working in our best interests. Our own works of the flesh: anger, stubbornness, belligerence, impatience; etc., do not work for our ultimate good! Regardless of what we may believe to the contrary, these works of the flesh lead us into defeat!

As we investigate the Book of Esther, we first discover that the kingdom enjoys complete peace during a six-month feast. This is very much like Adam who was in the Garden of Eden and experienced absolutely no conflict. Adam communed in the spirit with God (who is a spirit). In Esther we observe that it was a time when the king, “shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days” (Est 1:4).

Man was placed in the garden and given the opportunity to subjugate his own human reason and give deference to God’s revelation! In so doing he would be able to fulfill his destiny! However, man became lifted-up in his own reason and another voice tempted the man to follow his own human reason or the, “knowledge of good and evil.” This other voice convinced the man and thereby became the god (ruling spirit) over the fallen man.

In our story, when the, “king was merry (drunk) with wine” (Est 1:10), he became prideful and commanded his servants, “To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on” (Est 1:11). According to the Jewish oral tradition, Vashti was to come before the king, with ONLY the crown royal; in other words she was supposed to appear naked. In essence the king wanted to degrade his queen and make a public show of her in front of all.

When we apply this king to the story of man we realize that when collective mankind decided to choose the supremacy of his own soulish reason (mind will and emotions) over revelation from God, that is the instant when the man actually fell. We have observed that man can do marvelous things like create computers, go to the moon, and split the atom; nevertheless, he cannot change his own human nature!

When the queen was commanded to appear before the people in such an depraved fashion she simply refused and as a result she was banished. The king made a choice from which he could not retreat. Likewise, when Adam was approached by Eve with the forbidden fruit, he deliberately chose to follow his reason rather than God’s revelation. At that moment, Adam cut himself off from the glory of God’s presence in his own spirit. This began the utter loneliness in the spirit that man has experienced since that time.

The question arose in Persia, “What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus?” (Est 1:15). And the answer was supplied, “let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus” (Est 1:19).

Here we find a law that cannot be altered; the Book of Romans defines the outcome of Adam’s choice as, “the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). God told Adam, “thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17). So we find that God established the law of inevitable consequence. The man was left to the freedom of his own choice; however, the man was unable to altar the consequences of that choice. I can choose to drink water or poison; however, if I choose to drink the poison, I cannot alter the outcome of that choice! This means that I myself can set in motion a law that cannot be broken. In God’s economy, inevitable consequences must take place. When Adam chose to give heed to his reason over revelation, he set in motion a thread of circumstances of which he was utterly powerless to stop. Man initiated God’s law of sin and death! That choice set in motion a series of events that no man has ever been able to halt. The human spirit lost direct contact with God and Man became soulish; that is, the man established that he would be governed only by his own mind will and emotions! This has resulted in the long sad tale of death in our human history marked by man without direct contact with his God.

Thankfully, in chapter two we discover that there is redeeming grace. When the king came to himself, “he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her” (Est 2:1). Man has never really forgotten that he operates by a spirit in his deepest recesses; nevertheless, the spirit in man is void of God! So next, we find that the king’s servants convince him to set out in search of a new queen. It is as this point in chapter two of Esther where the other primary characters show up:

1. We are introduced to Mordecai – whose name means “little man or humbled man.” He is a representation of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ who was humbled as a human man! We need to know that Mordecai was a descendent born of David’s grace! Notice the story, “when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came. 6 And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: . . . 9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. 10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse , because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?” (2 Sam 16:5-10). We obtain a great deal of important information when we look carefully at Mordecai’s genealogy, “5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite” (Est 2:5). We need to realize that if David had allowed Abishai to kill Shimei, Mordecai would never have even existed; therefore, he came into the picture only by the grace of King David. Likewise, it is only by the grace of King Jesus that the Holy Spirit is accessible to us!

2. Next we meet an individual who is an “Agagite” named Haman (which means a noise or tumult); he was an Amalekite. We learn from the story that Haman is a type of the flesh. In the same way that Mordecai, who existed only because his ancestor was allowed to live, Haman should never have come into existence; if the word of God had been carefully followed, he would never have been born. Likewise, if Adam (the first king) had carefully followed God’s instructions, the flesh would never have become a problem. Haman was, “the son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Est 3:1). When we discover the roots of Agag, we observe that Saul (the first king), “took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag” (1 Sam 15:8-9). Samuel had earlier instructed Saul to utterly destroy all of the Amalekites; when he saw that Saul did not kill the king, “Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal” (1 Sam 15:33). Since all the Amalekites except Agag were salin by Saul, it is very likely that during the short period that Agag was allowed to live, he must have impregnated some female. Obviously, Haman came from this ill-fated union.

3. Finally we meet Hadassa meaning “myrtle” (a fragrant tree). Hadassa is ultimately know in the story as Esther. Esther is part of the royal bloodline and her name means, “something hidden.” Esther is a type of the new human spirit that came into the king.

Esther was “placed” in the midst of the king’s search for a queen and Esther became his object of affection, “the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins” (Est 2:17). The king recognized Esther and made her queen. As a result the king, “made a release (lowered the taxes) to the provinces” (Est 2:18). In essence, everything in the kingdom had become good! This is what Paul refers to as, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor 5:17). The king has received a new life! It was not true as Solomon wrote, “there is no new thing under the sun!” The new spirit (Esther) brings a wonderful and a refreshing quality to life.

We cannot fail to recognize that when Esther and Mordecai came into the life of the king, their entrance was accompanied with a powerful deliverance that included the very life of the king! We find that when, “Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. 22 And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof” (Est 2:21-22). Likewise, along with the coming of a new spirit into the man, so too came the Holy Spirit of God (who knows all things)! This spirit brought the man eternal life! Mordecai (type of the holy spirit) is now sitting in the gate of the king and ensuring protection from death.

Further, the would-be assassins were, “both hanged on a tree” (Est 2:23). The literal Hebrew means that they were “impaled” on a tree (perhaps a pole somewhat like a telephone pole)! The specifics of that event were, “written in the book of the chronicles before the king” (Est 2:23). At this point the king was unaware of what was recorded in the book of chronicles. Likewise, God has chronicled in a book all that He has done for us. When we being to understand our deliverance and exactly what was impaled, “nailing it to his cross” (Col 2:14-15), only then do we begin to fully experience the deliverance that God has completely intended for us!

Up to this point we have only shown how chapters one and two clearly relate to the Christian’s new birth experience. However, there are eight remaining chapters. These chapters detail great exploits that were performed for Israel on behalf of the king because he was listening to Esther and Mordedcai. The point is that once the new spirit is placed in man, there remains a great deal more to be accomplished by the Christian who is guided by the new inner spirit! The new birth is only the beginning!

As we wind down this study, let’s notice that our flesh (Haman) must be conquered. In our analogy, Esther’s job as queen was to inform the king that he was receiving the wrong advice. The problem that Esther faced was how to get the king to realize that he was using the wrong counselor. Esther faced a very difficult situation because in order to approach the king she threatened her own life. In effect, Mordecai told her, “Don’t think that you can confront Haman (your flesh) all on your own.” Esther (the human spirit of the king) was utterly incapable of outwitting the evil Haman. The great lesson of the book is that which we can easily observe in Romans 7; essentially, we are utterly incapable of using our own human spirit to overcome the flesh! We also need the spirit of God (Mordecai)! We cannot win the battle against the flesh through human determination: by biting down on our teeth (in human determination) or clinching a fist (as a show of steadfast human willpower) or signing a New Year resolution! Esther (the new spirit in man) had to learn that the only thing capable of handling the evil Haman (the flesh) was Mordecai (the Holy Spirit)! Essentially, Esther (the new spirit in man) had to die to her own human ability in order to handle this evil self. We must through the Holy Spirit conquer the flesh, “but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom 8:13)! Essentially, our flesh is altogether selfish; notice what Ray Steadman discovered with regard to the meanings of the names the ten sons of Haman:

1. And Parshandatha, and – curious self, that is nosiness, snooping, prying etc.

2. Dalphon, and – weeping self that is self-pity;

3. Aspatha, – unknown

4. 8 And Poratha, and – generous self, spend thriftiness, stinginess

5. Adalia, and – unknown

6. Aridatha, – strong self, that is assertiveness, boldness, forcefulness;

7. 9 And Parmashta, and – preeminent self, that is ambition, drive, determination;

8. Arisai, and – bold self that is impudence, audacity, rudeness;

9. Aridai, and – dignified self that is pride;

10. Vajezatha, – pure self that is self-righteousness!

So, in a nutshell, what is the “Rest of Esther?” “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom 8:13)!