The Esther Protocol
Instructions for the Last Days
I've always found the Book of Esther elusive and mysterious; it left me with a sense that I had missed something. The random details it contained cried out for me to dig and prod but I was content to take the book at its face value as I had neither need (so I thought!) nor inclination to know more until now.
The more I study the Bible including exploring its Hebrew and Greek texts as well as phraseology and figures of speech, the more I feel that I am only scratching the surface. I have also realized that while the Companion Bible and Strongs Concordance gets me halfway there, there are times when the book does not open itself up completely without the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the bible is a holy book which the Father uses to talk to us and reveal things to us for a particular time and purpose. And I also believe that not gaining a scholarly understanding of all the variations of interpretation of a particular chapter and verse is okay as the most important thing is the message from the Father via the bible for the time and place.
Going back to the Book of Esther, this summer break, I’ve decided to get to the bottom of its mystery and came to believe that it is a worldly portrayal of the end times, or God is using it to teach me about the end times, to put it another way. Where Daniel and the Book of Revelation describe the end times in a supernatural style, the Book of Esther is a direct forecasting of how it will occur in this worldly sense. The book both prepares as well as warns for the times ahead through Esther who symbolizes the Body of Christ. I believe that the story of Esther is a coded message about the origin and the destiny of the Israelites that can be told to generations during perilous times when they can’t openly talk about their God.
Overview of the Book of Esther
The authorship of the Book of Esther is unclear. Some argue that Mordecai himself wrote it around the 4th century BCE. However, it is noted that he is described in the third person terms throughout the book.
One of the more obvious features of this small book is that it doesn’t mention God in any form or word. Bullinger in the Companion Bible poses that it’s because God had let Babylon take over the Israelite nation that was set up by Joshua and turned His face from the people. As God predicts in Deuteronomy 31:
16 [A]nd these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed.
Instead, God’s names or initials are hidden in acrostics (first letter of consecutive words) in Hebrew which appear five times at various points of the book. Esther herself was also encouraged by Mordecai to hide her Jewish origin. So, we can sense that it was a perilous time when Jews could face persecution for their identify and faith. They were living as Babylonian captives; a “people scattered and dispersed” (Esther 3:8) among the locals yet they did not abide by the king’s laws but maintained their own laws and customs. We see similar difficulties faced by the Israelites in the Book of Daniel.
Queen Vashti, the Disobedient Generation
An interesting foreground tale is the expulsion of Queen Vashti from the palace and what can be inferred by that event.
Vashti did not obey the king’s request to appear before him at a banquet and ended up being cut off in a manner similar to those in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.
The fate of Queen Vashti and the parable both point to how we lose the Lord’s favor when we do not abide by His commandments. It began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and again with the first generation of the Israelites who escaped Egypt but lost their ticket to the Promised Land when they rebelled against the Lord as outlined in Numbers 14:
22 because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
The Lord’s initials first appear here (underlined) in Hebrew when King Ahasuerus decrees that “all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small” (Esther 1:22). The Body of Christ is often described as the ‘bride’ or ‘wife’, and similar to marriage vows, we have a covenant with God which includes the First Commandment that we must honor our God and have no other gods before Him. The acrostic here expresses the Lord’s initial YHVH backwards which according to Bullinger infers that Jehovah was turning back and overruling man. Therefore, the overall effect of the decree is reminding us of the most important commandment and how the Lord will turn his face from us if it is disobeyed, as best outlined in Leviticus 26
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, …17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
Esther, the Body of Christ
We find Esther at a time where God has hidden His face from her people for their transgressions; they are living a precarious existence in someone else’s kingdom repenting and hoping that God will return to their aid. Esther’s name in Hebrew was Hadassah, which meant myrtle. In Scripture, myrtle is often used to depict the Body of Christ in obedience and in glory of the Lord. For example, in Zechariah 1:11 it says:
So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is resting quietly.”
And in Isaiah 55:13:
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
The name ‘Esther’ itself is a derivation of a Persian word for ‘star’, which alludes to the birth of Christ and the wise men saying “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:2). She is described as an orphan, and we are only told that her father’s name was Abihail which translates in Hebrew to ‘my father is might’. We are also told that Mordecai took her in and raised her as his own daughter when her father and mother died. This is reminiscent of how the Lord God describes His bringing up of Jerusalem (another word symbolizing the Body of Christ) in Ezekiel 16:
5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised... I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you…13 You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.
Esther is taken to the palace when King Ahasuerus seeks a replacement for Vashti. She spends six months with oil of myrrh, and another six months in fragrance. Oil represents the Lord’s anointing which for us is received by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And in the end times we are told that it will allow us to know the truth from lies:
1 John 2
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Fragrance is often associated with knowledge of God as outlined in 2 Corinthians 2:
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
When Esther is finally introduced to the king, we find that “The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins.” (Esther 2:17). This echoes the passage in 1 Peter 2:4 about being chosen by the Most High: “As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.” And “For many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). We are told that Esther obtained ‘grace’ in the king’s sight. ‘Grace’ or synonymously ‘favor’ are the words most often used in the bible with God’s children or followers of Jesus as well as Jesus Himself when he was on earth, and reflects the faithfulness of the Father to His children as contained in the covenant via Moses “‘For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.” (Leviticus 26:9).
The climax in the Book of Esther is when Haman plots to destroy Mordecai and the Jews and arranges for the king to issue an edict accordingly. Mordecai urges Esther to beg for mercy and plead for her people with the king. Initially Esther is uncertain; she had been hiding her Jewish background the entire time as advised by Mordecai and one cannot appear before the king without an invitation and to do so may result in death.
Jesus taught his disciples to invoke His name to defeat the powers of darkness in Luke 10:18-20. He also tells us that at the end of the age we will experience persecution and be delivered to synagogues and prisons before kings and governors all on account of His name, and that we will be witnesses to them and bear testimony to Him. He assures us that in such circumstances He will give us the words and the wisdom:
Luke 21:
14 Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
Likewise, Mordecai urges Esther to invoke the king’s name to overcome Haman’s evil and finally convinces her when he says (Esther 4:14):
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
We are shown that the Holy Spirit is at work in Esther’s speech when she invites the king and Haman to the banquet as the second acrostic bearing the Lord’s name appears in Hebrew (underlined) when Esther says: If it pleases the king,” replied Esther, “let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.” (Esther 5:4).
Mordecai, the Hidden Trinity
The name ‘Mordecai’ is of Persian origin that translates to ‘son of Marduk’; a Persian deity. The Israelite equivalent would render it to be son of God.
To Esther, he assumes her father’s position when her parents have passed away. He continues to care for her even after her entry into the king’s palace. “And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the women’s quarters, to learn of Esther’s welfare and what was happening to her.” (Esther 2:11). This depicts the Father’s tender love and care for us.
One day Mordecai was at the king’s gate, and he hears of an assassination plot against the king by two eunuchs called Bigthana and Teresh, whose names in gematria mean rebellion and judgement. This may refer to how Jesus’ presence on earth exposed the hypocrisy and disobedience of the Pharisees and Sadducees as we know that Pharisees and Sadducees appeared in the post-Babylonian era. Mordecai overcomes the false authority of the Pharisees and Sadducees and is rewarded a royal robe signifying the royal priesthood status of Jesus under the New Covenant as outlined in Hebrews 5:
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
Staying true to the First Commandment of the Most High, Mordecai refused to kneel and pay worship to Haman (symbolizing Satan) which makes Haman more and more irate as the story continues. Haman plots to have Mordecai killed. “But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.” (Esther 3:6). This is consistent with how Jesus prophesied of the end of the age that the followers of Christ will be persecuted for His name’s sake.
“In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman (Esther 3:7) for the destruction of the Jews in return for ten thousand talents of silver. Psalm 22:18 prophesied the casting of the lots at the crucifixion of Jesus: “They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” And we see the accounts in John 19:24 when the soldiers do in fact cast lots for His clothing, and the transaction in silver occurs when Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus as described in Matthew 26:15. Mordecai is also to be impaled on a pole on a structure built by Haman, as Jesus was nailed to a cross resulting in stigmata wounds as per “they have pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16).
Upon hearing the bad news, Mordecai “tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry.” (Esther 4:1). When Esther sent him clothes to put on instead of sack cloth, he would not accept them. Here Mordecai (symbolizing Jesus) is demonstrating the teaching of Jesus that emphasizes the inconsequential nature of material things: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25).
As Jesus died on the cross but rose on the third day, Mordecai and his people avoided their deaths on the third day after fasting and prayers when Esther approached the king and made the request. Mordecai then ensured that the days of overcoming were commemorated for future generation "as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration" (Esther 9:22).
Finally, Mordecai is appointed over what was previously Haman’s estate that was given to Esther. And Mordecai, together with Esther writes to all of the provinces for the Jews to commemorate Purim. Mordecai became second to the king and was “great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren” (Esther 10:3).
John 21:
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Haman the Prince of the World
Haman is the figure that represents Satan; posing destruction against Mordecai, Esther, and the greater population of the Jewish people. He was raised to his position after the rebellion of Bignatha and Tresh.
Haman spoke “against the ‘Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.” (Daniel 7:25). But as further prophesied in the Book of Daniel “the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’”(Daniel 7:26-27). Upon Esther’s supplication before the king, Haman meets his end by being killed on the gallows that he built for Mordecai; he fell in the pit he dug for God’s chosen ones (Psalm 7:15; 57:6).
Esther 8:11
The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies.
Esther asks for Haman’s ten sons to be also impaled (Esther 9):
13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.” 14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
The ten sons of Haman are reminiscent of the ten kings describing the end of Babylon in Revelation 17:
12“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
Therefore, in the final chapters of Esther, we see a great turning of the table with attack launched by the Jews against their enemies to protect themselves: "On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them." (Esther 9:1).
The prophesy contained in the Book of Revelation describes a similar war where the ones coming against God are destroyed instead: “the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.”(Revelation 19:19) But they “were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse.” (Revelation 19:21). In particular, ‘the sword which proceeded from the mouth’ is reminiscent of the edict featured in Esther.
The scripture is specific as to the fact that the Jews did not take the plunder, and once the attacks were finished, they rested.
Conclusion
There are many aspects in the Book of Esther that we can take to heart as the Body of Christ living in the end times. Firstly, we are living in a world where God has turned his face away from fallen humanity as a whole and his chosen ones are living as strangers in a fallen world. Therefore, we need to take care in identifying who we are and where we put our faith and be prepared to let go of material things for a greater purpose.
We will see increasing persecution and eventually see a systematic, mass-destruction of the Body of Christ in the last days. We are to take heed of the teachings of Jesus as reminded by the Book of Esther especially having the strength of faith to be guided by the Holy Spirit as Esther navigated risking death. We may feel overwhelmed or fearful by the challenges we face but we must remember Mordecai’s words: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) and know that we have a part to play in this great cosmic finale.