A Spiritual Exposition of the Book of Esther, Chapter 6

Introduction

This post is the sixth of what will hopefully be ten posts in total to provide verse-by-verse expositions of each of the ten chapters of the Book of Esther. The reader should fully understand that these studies are solely intended to show the many spiritually hidden aspects of God’s Magnificent Salvation Plan, which God has intricately interwoven within the historical account of the Book of Esther. The key to understanding the true meaning of the Book of Esther is to see that the whole book is an Historical Parable, which prophetically points us to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, Who Is The Only Lord, God, and Savior. Moreover the book is one of concealment (“Esther” in Hebrew means “concealment”) that spans from Old Testament National Israel, to the future fulfillment of the feasts of Passover and Pentecost in the New Testament era, and a “preview” of the yet to be Judgment Day and beyond into eternity in the New Heavens and the New Earth. We can also see key personages of the Bible throughout this book by those who serve as “Types” to each represent 1) God the Father, 2) National Israel, 3) the Lord Jesus Christ, 4) Eternal Israel, 5) The Holy Spirit, and 6) the Devil. A summary overview Christian commentary of the Book of Esther is Here (which also includes a link to a much more comprehensive study).\

The Spiritual Theme of Esther Chapter 6: A Preview/Prefigurement of Palm Sunday (Esther 6:11)

Esther Chapter 6: Palm Sunday Prefigured

In Esther 6:1-9, we are provided with information concerning the king’s inability the night just prior to Haman’s coming to request permission to hang Mordecai on the high gallows that Haman had built. The king awoke to request that the chronicles be searched to determine who had intervened to save his life from an insurrection. Moments after the king learned that Mordecai was the hero and that nothing had been done to reward Mordecai, Haman arrived at the king’s palace.

Esther 6:1, “¶On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.“

As in other sleep related interventions recorded in the Bible, God’s providence shines through. The timing of the king’s inability to sleep was perfectly orchestrated for the subsequent events to unfold as they did.

We can find two similar events earlier in the Bible, whereby God supernaturally intervened in the night to cause two different supreme leaders to each take key actions that ultimately led to amazing blessings for God’s elect.

Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41:1-46 made it possible to bring Joseph out of prison and up to being second in command to Pharaoh. We read in the first verse Genesis 41:1, “¶And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.” After God made it possible for Joseph, the man, to interpret the dream, we read this: Genesis 41:42&43, “¶And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him [ruler] over all the land of Egypt.“
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream unfolded in a similar fashion: Daniel 2:1, “¶And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.” Then we read because of God’s providence, Daniel was able to reveal the dream and its meaning to Nebuchadnezzar, when no one else could, and we see Daniel, the man, elevated like Joseph in Daniel 2:48, “Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise [men] of Babylon.
In this sixth chapter of the Book of Esther, we will see a third example of God’s Divine intercession (involving strange dreams and/or sleep deprivationoccurring in the night) to bring about blessings for the people of God, which, in this example, raised up the man Mordecai from obscurity.

In all three cases of Divine intercession and providence, 1) Joseph, 2) Daniel, and 3) Mordecai were each specifically placed in time and space to be prefigurements of the Lord Jesus Christ, who were each elevated from obscurity to the right hand of each man’s king with power and great glory (where each king also spiritually prefigured God Almighty in Heaven) .

Esther 6:2, “And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana (Bigthan) and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.”

It was only by the grace of God that this information had been correctly recorded and was able to be researched as a result.

Esther 6:3, “And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.“

This irony was clearly foreordained by God, because had Mordecai been honored earlier, then the historical account that we find in this chapter, and all of the following chapters of the Book of Esther, never would have unfolded as they ultimately did.

Esther 6:4, “¶And the king said, Who [is] in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.”

Notice that only moments before Haman entered the palace with the intent of seeking the king’s permission to hang Mordecai, that the king had only just become aware of Mordecai’s brave effort to save the king’s life and his kingdom. This perfect timing is no accident, because God’s timing is always perfect!

Esther 6:5, “¶And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.”

When the king heard that his chief prince was at hand, who better for the king to ask counsel in the making of a new and important decision?

Esther 6:6, “¶So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, 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?

The king asked Haman what should be done to reward the man to whom the king most wanted to honor. Prince Haman, in his unbridled pride, immediately presumed that the king was taking about him, so Haman provided a grandiose plan of what Haman desired for himself. Because, in reality, Haman wanted to be elevated to the level of the king and, ultimately, usurp the king’s authority. Hence we read the following:

Esther 6:7, “And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,”

Haman could not possibly have thought up a more extravagant way to honor himself, and so he gave the king the following advice…

Esther 6:8, “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:“

Esther 6:9, “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.“

Prince Haman believed that he had just been given the opportunity to be elevated equal to the king, and essentially usurp the king’s power by being bestowed with the remaining tokens of the king’s authority. And we should remember that Haman had already been given the King’s ring.

Haman Must Honor Mordecai

Esther 6:10, “¶Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, [and] take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.“

The king agreed and said, “…do even so to Mordecai the Jew…” Wow! Was that ever a shock to Haman! Haman had a moment earlier planned to petition the king for the death of Mordecai, and now all the king’s honor was to be given to Mordecai! The Tables of God’s Justice had surely turned!

Moreover, it is particularly noteworthy that the king knew that Mordecai was a “Jew” and hence Haman’s fate was sealed when Haman heard the king utter those words. There was never any earlier indication that Haman had informed the king that it was “the Jews” who were the people that Haman had convinced the king to have exterminated at the end of the year. So now not only was Haman not honored, but Mordecai “the Jew” was the most highly favored in the kingdom! Hearing those words would have been a double gut-punch to Haman.

Esther 6:11, “¶Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.”

Haman was forced to lead Mordecai on the king’s horse, arrayed with the king’s royal apparel, through town, with everyone knowing that this very person was the only one that wouldn’t bow down to Haman! Wow!

Palm Sunday?

At the beginning of this study of Esther Chapter 6, this teacher claimed that the spiritual theme of Chapter 6 was that it served as a preview/prefigurement of Palm Sunday. How could that be given the disparities between what we just read in this verse with what we know about Palm Sunday? What we know today as Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where crowds waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna” as He rode towards Jerusalem on a donkey with her colt. This event, recorded 2,000 years ago, occurred just before Jesus’ Crucifixion on Good Friday and Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday. While many know the story, few understand its deeper spiritual significance.

In another post, entitled “The True Meaning of Palm Sunday“, this teacher explains how that first Palm Sunday served as the means by which God not only fulfilled the prophesy of Zechariah 9:9, but also served to identify Jesus as being the Passover “Lamb of God”. The Passover lamb was chosen on the tenth day of the first month, five days before its sacrifice. In 33 AD, this would have occurred on the Sunday that we now know as Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem—as evidence of His selection by God as the “Lamb of God” to fulfill the Passover. John the Baptist confirms this in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” and in John 1:36: “Behold the Lamb of God!” Revelation 13:8identifies Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem in 33AD to observe the Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to BE THE PASSOVER!

Moreover, we read of the cries of the people saying “Hosanna (ὡσαννά (hōsanna)^G5614 meaning “Oh Save“, which identified Jesus as the Savior. Just as significantly, the crowds also shouted that Jesus was the “King of Israel”! as we read in John 12:13. That claim was correct of course, as we find Jesus identified in 1 Timothy 6:14-16,: “the King of kings, and Lord of lords,” and in Revelation 19:16: “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Jesus Is the eternal King, above all creation, and not a mere national political ruler. And is it not interesting that lowly Mordecai was wearing the king’s robe and wearing the king’s crown? Think about that! Can you see how this account of lowly Mordecai, “the Jew”, being identified by king Ahasuerus as “the man whom the king delighteth to honour” is a spiritual prefigurement of Palm Sunday where God was having lowly Jesus, “The Jew”, identified as The Man Whom God delighted to honor as 1) The Passover Lamb, 2) The Savior, and 3) King of (eternal) Israel!

One other point needs to be made. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, hence a “Jew”, while Mordecai was of the tribe of Benjamin, and hence a Benjamite, so how was it that Mordecai was also identified as being a Jew? The answer is that the twelve tribes of Israel were divided after the death of Solomon such that there were ten rebellious northern tribes, which were identified later in scripture as “Israel”, while the two southern tribes that remained loyal to the Davidic line of kings, Judah and Benjamin, where thereafter referred to in scripture collectively as “Judah”. Therefore, Benjamites, those from the tribe of Benjamin, like Mordecai and Esther, could also correctly be referred to as “Jews”.

Esther 6:12, “¶And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered.“

Following this most amazing honor by the king, Mordecai remained humble and went back to his previous post as if nothing had changed.

But Haman, who was now entirely humiliated, ran home in anguish and shame. The covering of a man’s head is a sign of mourning and shame as we read in 2 Samuel 15:30, where king David fled Jerusalem in fear of Absalom, “And David went up by the ascent of [mount] Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that [was] with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.“

Esther 6:13, “And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every [thing] that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.“

When Haman arrived at home he told his household the news, his friends, as counselors, along with his wife knew that this would not work out well for Haman. Evidently even his closest friends and wife were unaware that Mordecai was a Jew, but they likely did know that the Jews were scheduled to all be killed at the end of the year. They could see how Haman had set a trap for himself.

Psalm 9:16, “The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.“

Please also see Biblical Poetic Justice and Biblical Irony and God’s Justice.

Note also the correlation with what we read regarding Jesus, Who also Is “of the seed of the Jews”, in Romans 14:11, “For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.“, which is referring back to Isaiah 45:23, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”

Esther 6:14, “¶And while they [were] yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.“

Haman’s time was up! It is possible that Haman might have still thought that there was some hope for him in that the king and queen still wanted him to attend their private banquet. Particularly since Haman was not yet aware that Esther was a Jew, or that she was a close relation to Mordecai “the Jew.”PostBlock