What are your thoughts on Esther 1?

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Originally Posted by TGBTG

Uhmmm..there’s nothing like a gentile bride. Jew and gentile make up the bride

Amen.

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Originally Posted by good samaritan

I will posts some thoughts on Esther 1 later, but I didn’t know if anyone else has seen any types and shadows that they would share?

I wrote a book about the types and shadows of the book of Esther. LOVE THAT BOOK.

Here is some of it.

Esther tells the people to pray and fast, because Haman has set out to kill all the Jews in the land. The three days and nights set to fast represent the overall truth of the work of the cross, which took three days and three nights from death to resurrection.

She goes through those three days, representing our hearts getting set right in faith about what the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus did for us. and then goes into the INNER CHAMBER.

The inner chamber is a type of the most holy place. Like the Persians, if you went into the inner chamber of God's most holy place, and were not welcome, you would DIE! The work of the cross is the ONLY means to be made ready for the entrance into the most holy place, represented by the three days and nights of preparation..

The Bible says in Hebrews 10 that we can go boldly into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, since our sins were remitted, showing us that the three days and three nights of the work of the cross brought the remission of sins that can give us boldness to enter!

She requests the king to meet her and Haman at the banquet of wine. WINE STANDS FOR THE BLOOD of Jesus.

And having prepared by the truth of the cross, and at a feast of wine that stands for the feeding on the truths of the blood shed for us, ESTHER ACCUSES HAMAN of evil and the same gallows (hanging) that Haman devised for Mordecai are those upon which Haman dies. THE WORK OF THE CROSS IS APPLIED TO OOUR SITUATIONS OF PERIL and the enemy is defeated all over again by the cross of Jesus. Heb 2:14 says that he death of the cross saw Jesus take the devil's power of death and destroy him with his own power!

Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Esthers-Boldn...802/ref=sr_1_1

Will share some of chapter 1.

[good samaritan]

Originally Posted by mfblume

I wrote a book about the types and shadows of the book of Esther. LOVE THAT BOOK.

Here is some of it.

Esther tells the people to pray and fast, because Haman has set out to kill all the Jews in the land. The three days and nights set to fast represent the overall truth of the work of the cross, which took three days and three nights from death to resurrection.

She goes through those three days, representing our hearts getting set right in faith about what the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus did for us. and then goes into the INNER CHAMBER.

The inner chamber is a type of the most holy place. Like the Persians, if you went into the inner chamber of God's most holy place, and were not welcome, you would DIE! The work of the cross is the ONLY means to be made ready for the entrance into the most holy place, represented by the three days and nights of preparation..

The Bible says in Hebrews 10 that we can go boldly into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, since our sins were remitted, showing us that the three days and three nights of the work of the cross brought the remission of sins that can give us boldness to enter!

She requests the king to meet her and Haman at the banquet of wine. WINE STANDS FOR THE BLOOD of Jesus.

And having prepared by the truth of the cross, and at a feast of wine that stands for the feeding on the truths of the blood shed for us, ESTHER ACCUSES HAMAN of evil and the same gallows (hanging) that Haman devised for Mordecai are those upon which Haman dies. THE WORK OF THE CROSS IS APPLIED TO OOUR SITUATIONS OF PERIL and the enemy is defeated all over again by the cross of Jesus. Heb 2:14 says that he death of the cross saw Jesus take the devil's power of death and destroy him with his own power!

Check it out:

https://www.amazon.com/Esthers-Boldn...802/ref=sr_1_1

Will share some of chapter 1.

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The Rebel Bride

Esther 1:2-4 That in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days.

Six months of feasting were ordained by king Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes in history. All the vast domain of his Syrian empire was in celebration of the king’s glory.

His queen, Vashti, held her own feast at the same time. Ahasuerus summoned her via seven of his chamberlains, Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas. She refused.

There’s a message for Christians under the New Covenant to gain from the Book of Esther. The king of Persia represented God in this story. This queen, who would be replaced, represented Old Testament Israel. Queen Esther, the new queen, represented the New Testament church.

The rebellion manifested in the queen when she defied her husband and is analogous to Israel’s rebellion against the Lord. Israel was known for rebellion throughout the Old Testament. When Christ arrived, Israel was His own people. He was their Messiah/King, and they wouldn’t cross the street to hear His words. When He presented Himself as the prophesied king, riding a colt the foal of an ass, into the city, the praises were soon silenced by the religious leaders. Like Vashti, they had their own agenda.

Notice the number of men sent to summon Vashti—seven. This parallels a picture from the overall Old Testament of God’s relationship with Israel. There were seven men who saw the face of the angel of the Lord—Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These men repeatedly urged Israel to return to the Lord and Israel repeatedly refused to return to Him. This seemed to be the essence of their ministries.

The story of Queen Esther isn’t just another story. Though it testifies God’s providence over His Old Covenant “Church,” Israel, it is ultimately a message to the current Church using historical events, showing the Lord’s desire to obtain another bride called because Israel failed. Albeit, it’s a Church that’s open for all nations, including Israel!

Recall the story of Elijah. Ahab was the king of Israel, but worshiped the false god Baal. It was no coincidence that Elijah’s name means “God is God.” The prophet urged Ahab and the nation to turn back to God and depart from idolatry. His remarkable ministry proved that Israel’s God is indeed the true God. He challenged the false prophets to a contest to see whose God would answer by fire atop Mount Carmel. This is only one example of the seven men who urged the bride of Christ to stand by His side.

As Vashti’s heart departed from the king in Queen Esther’s story, so Israel’s heart walked out on God when the nation committed spiritual “whoredoms.”

Let the reader pause for a moment to ensure that these words are understood properly. It could have been any nation. Israel was no worse than any other nation. Should the Lord have desired to call another nation to be His people, they, too, could have departed from Him as much as this nation did. It’s the human condition of sin at work. This is what happens when mankind is in sin; un-regenerated and unable to serve God with the indwelling of His Spirit. To be in God’s will is impossible without His Spirit fully indwelling us. This is why so many think that true Christianity is too difficult. They try to serve God through coercing their fleshly abilities to do as God requires. It cannot work this way. In fact, this error of human effort to serve the Lord is the message of Queen Esther’s story, when viewed spiritually.

The principle is that the Bride cannot remain faithful to Jesus Christ with sin. This is why people fail to serve Him. Jesus said that His yoke was easy and His burden was light. However, this truth only applies to those who have learned how the Spirit of the Lord is released to operate in their lives. The force of sin must be dealt with by the presence of Jesus Christ within -- literally inside. Evil is accomplished when people are possessed of an evil spirit. Conversely, the Lord’s perfect will in His body can only succeed when His Spirit “indwells” (not possesses) us. The force of sin can only be dealt with through the New Testament work of the cross, as shall be seen later with Esther’s entrance into the scene. Her story shows this truth in typical manner.

During the Old Testament era, the Lord sent wise men and scribes. Israel killed some and scourged others from city to city, heaping up a bloodguilt upon Jerusalem when it culminated in its crucifixion of Christ (Matthew 23:34-35). When a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, it’s because danger approaches. Christ said that He would have protected Jerusalem beneath His wings from such bloodguilt and its repercussions, but she refused.

Jesus wept after He spoke those words of Israel’s doom and went to the Mount of Olives. There the disciples asked him about the temple, having just heard him speak of their house that would be left desolate to them. He repeated the impending doom by stating that not one stone would be left unturned.

When Ahasuerus received word of his queen’s refusal to heed his call, his advisers informed him that the wives of all the men in the kingdom would likewise dishonour their husbands if the king didn’t publicly handle his own situation properly. As the other wives, to whom the advisers referred, other nations knew that Israel served the One True God. This put her in a position as an example to the world of God’s people. What would the nations think of God by seeing His people sink into such insolence toward Him without a just response from His hand? If the King did not respond, did this mean that the True God was a Deity with Whom one could play and rebel against? A God whose word meant nothing?

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Prophets often personified Jerusalem prophetically as a woman who sank into whoredoms when she walked from the Lord toward false idols.

Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Lamentations 1:1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

God saw her as His wife.

1 Kings 11:36 And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.

2 Chronicles 12:13 So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

In considering Israel as God’s wife, we can better understand the Biblical point of this relationship as a marriage.

The prophets indicated that God put His name in Jerusalem as a man gives his name to his wife in marriage. What did God do to actually put His name in Jerusalem?

He put the Ark of the Covenant there. The Ark of the Covenant was known by the Name of the Lord (2 Samuel 6:2). The temple was where Israel placed the Ark in Jerusalem.

Matthew 21 recounts a parable given by Jesus the day He rode into Jerusalem as her king and was rejected. When Israel cried to Jesus, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” He came in the way in which Zechariah prophesied the king would come for His wife.

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Jesus arrived as a king comes for his queen (Matthew 21:1-9).

This occurred on the Mount of Olives, the same mountain from which He departed after weeping for Israel and foretelling her destruction. He instructed the disciples to retrieve the beasts on which He’d ride into the city from the Mount of Olives. After He departed from the mountain and entered the city on a colt, and seeing Israel reject Him as King, He then returned to the same Mount of Olives to give the famous Olivet Discourse about the end of the age. Truly, an age ended in the first century. A new age came into effect; the age of the New Covenant.

continued...

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...continued.

The religious leaders commanded the people to stop worshipping Jesus on the day of His triumphal entry, just as Vashti refused to come to her king’s feast.

Jesus said, “If these hold their peace the stones will surely cry out.”

The stones were Jews and gentiles (lively stones) who would be born again and built up as the spiritual house, not actual rocks on the ground (1 Peter 2:5). We cry out and worship. The Lord Jesus Christ made a temple out of us, out of His believers, after their natural temple was not used to honour Him!

Jesus then went to the temple in Jerusalem and found moneychangers instead of worshipers. They should have heralded Him as King and ushered Him into His temple. Why didn’t they clean out the temple, welcome Him, and praise Him as their King?

He told them that they turned the house of the Lord into a snake-like den for thieves. While they changed money, the temple was meant to change lives! His Word foretold that He would come to the temple.

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Psalm 118 was quoted by the people that day as they praised Jesus.

Psalm 118:25-26 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. (26) Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

“Hosanna” literally means, “Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD.” It is a praise that is extended to a king. When they cried “Hosanna!,” Zechariah’s prophecy of Christ’s coming to the daughter of Zion was also connected to this event. Zechariah foretold that the King would come bringing salvation for which the people pleaded in their cries, “Hosanna.”

He went to the temple from which they were supposed to praise Him according to Psalm 118:25 (“We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD”). However, He found moneychangers instead. (Many “churches” are actually in this predicament today.)

Jesus spoke to Jerusalem’s leaders that day about the city that was represented by a vineyard given to them by the Lord of the vineyard to cultivate and bring Him fruit. Instead of presenting the Lord’s servants with the fruit, they maimed and killed them, keeping the fruit for themselves. The fruit represented the praise and honour stolen by the Pharisees who coveted men’s esteem. Isaiah 5 spoke of Israel as the vineyard who was meant to bring forth grapes of honest judgment and righteousness, but instead brought forth wild grapes of oppression and a cry.

Jesus then asked them if they hadn’t read certain scripture:

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Those words are found in precisely the same Psalm 118 from which the people originally quoted in their worship to Jesus before the religious leaders silenced them—Psalm 118!

Psalms 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

It’s only three verses earlier! They knew very well that this passage was only a few verses before the one with which they chose to worship Him!

In effect, He told them, “Can’t you see how you fell into the enemy’s hands and have become the very people who were foretold to reject me, the Cornerstone, Who would be made the head?”

After he turned those tables, people came to him to be healed. However, not the Pharisees and religious leaders. That was significant.

Matthew 21:13-15 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,

The blind and the lame were later referred to as those whom the king invited to the marriage after the original invitees refused.

Luke 14:21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

The people besides the religious leaders! These parables of the marriage supper were spoken shortly after Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem. They are noticeably associated. Jesus was rejected in Matthew 21 and Luke 14 quoted above, and also, found in Matthew 22, the very chapter following the record of His rejection.

The servants of the parable originally went to the people who were intended to come to the wedding.

Matthew 22:2-3 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Just as Vashti refused to come to the king's feast, Israel refused to come to Christ.

Matthew 22:4-6 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Vashti refused the seven men.

In Israelite history, the prophet Isaiah was like a servant sent to draw guests to the wedding, as it were. As Jesus’ parable showed the abuse and murder of the servants, Isaiah was sawed in half after having been bound inside a log, according to history. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit serving as a prison. Israel resisted and fought God’s advances toward her.

In Jesus’ parable, after the wedding guests refused to attend the marriage, we read:

Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Forty years after the cross, Jerusalem was burned by fire to the ground. Theologians agree that this destruction was distinctly foretold by Jesus in these very parables.

The parable continued and said that others would come to the wedding instead of those initially invited.

Matthew 22:8-10 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

The Believers who serve the Lord as part of the New Testament Church were represented by the people who came to Jesus after Israel refused. The common Jews and even the Gentiles were foreshadowed by the lame and blind people who came to Him after He drove the moneychangers out of the temple.

After Ahasuerus banished Vashti from his palace, he commanded his staff to seek out another bride for him. Esther was among the women selected as the group from which the king would choose his queen. She happened to be a Jew.

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Vashti is Religion, Esther is God’s Desire

Virgin women from across the Persian empire were rallied together to stand before Ahasuerus as he chose his next queen. In preparation for his decision, a chamberlain was chosen to speak them all and offer whatever adornments they desired in order to prepare themselves for the king. It was their choice!

However, the heart of the true queen responded in a way none of the other women did, showing us the true nature of the Bride in God’s eyes, the Body of Christ. (Esther 2:9, 15).

Esther didn’t choose to be adorned with what she thought was best, but sought recommendation from the king’s chamberlain, knowing that he knew better than she the king’s desires.

It’s not our will, but His will be done (Matthew 7:21).

She wanted what the king wanted. What a contrast from a queen who was so caught up in herself, that she refused to accept his invitation to his feast while having held her own. The religious leaders of Christ’s day were also caught up with themselves and sought men to esteem them, rather than direct it toward God and give God glory, themselves (Luke 16:15).

We need to ask God what He wants us to do, how to treat people, and how to serve Him.

Allow me to jump ahead of myself for a moment, and note the problem that so many have with Christianity. They try their best to serve Him, and do not rely on His Spirit to lead them and to inspire them. This will come to the forefront in a powerful manner as we continue through Esther’s story and what it foreshadowed.

Seeking the will of God and not our own, is what makes the true Bride. Even the Lord’s prayer to the Father instructs us to pray, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Not our wills.

We cannot even choose what we want to believe. We must ask the Lord Jesus Christ to inform us what He wants us to believe and preach.

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Many feel Esther should not even be in the Bible, noting that God's name is not mentioned once in it, among other reasons. However, a good study of Hebrews 10 and our entrance into the most holy place is overwhelmingly confirmed in types in Esther's most important part of her story, going into the king's inner chamber followed by a feast of wine, signifying the truths of the shed blood of Jesus and our basis for defeating the enemy in everyday life.

[good samaritan]

Notice the number of men sent to summon Vashti—seven. This parallels a picture from the overall Old Testament of God’s relationship with Israel. There were seven men who saw the face of the angel of the Lord—Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These men repeatedly urged Israel to return to the Lord and Israel repeatedly refused to return to Him. This seemed to be the essence of their ministries.

Also the seven angels to the seven churches that are in Asia