Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Esther
Esther runs on the same four beats as the Exodus: a people under a death decree, a mediator who puts their life in the gap, a decisive reversal, and a feast of remembrance. Haman's letters to destroy the Jews echo Pharaoh's order to drown the sons, and Haman the Agagite even carries Amalek's ancient grudge. What makes Esther remarkable is that this exodus happens with no plagues, no parted sea, and no named God, which is exactly why it speaks to exiles. The prophets promised a greater exodus still, and Jesus accomplished it: He is our Passover, His departure at Jerusalem was the true exodus, and Revelation ends with the song of Moses and the Lamb.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-does-esther-point-forward-to-the-greater-exodus · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Exodus 12:1-14
As you read: The pattern Esther will repeat: a lamb, blood on the doorposts, a people passed over, and a memorial feast kept forever.
1Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2“This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
3Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household;
4and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
6and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
7They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
9Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.
12For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.
13The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
Esther 3:6-13
As you read: Why Haman targets a whole people rather than one man, and how the paperwork of an empire becomes a death sentence.
6But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.
7In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
8Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.
9If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”
10The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.
11The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”
12Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring.
13Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
Esther 9:20-28
As you read: How a day appointed for slaughter becomes a day of rest, and how the reversal is written into the calendar.
20Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,
22as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
23The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;
24because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur”, that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,
27the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year;
28and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their seed.
Luke 22:7-20
As you read: Jesus taking the oldest feast of deliverance and giving it a new meaning in His own body and blood.
7The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.
8He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
9They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare?”
10He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters.
11Tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’
12He will show you a large, furnished upper room. Make preparations there.”
13They went, found things as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
14When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles.
15He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,
16for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
17He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves,
18for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God comes.”
19He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”
20Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
In Egypt God told Israel to take a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, promising, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you,” and then He said, “This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh.” Esther reproduces the four beats in a Persian court: a decree of death, a mediator who risks her life, a decisive reversal on the appointed day, and a memorial feast that “should be remembered and kept throughout every generation.” It is the Exodus pattern replayed far from Egypt and far from home.
“They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.”Exodus 12:7
“The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”Exodus 12:13
“This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”Exodus 12:14
“Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.”Esther 3:13
““Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.””Esther 4:16
“Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),”Esther 9:1
“and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their seed.”Esther 9:28
Pharaoh's first strategy was a decree: “You shall cast every son who is born into the river.” Haman's is broader and colder: “Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day.” And this is not a random politician's spite. Haman is “the Agagite,” heir to Amalek, the nation that ambushed Israel on the way out of Egypt, against whom God swore, “Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” The enemy is the same enemy, with the same aim, wearing new clothes.
“Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.””Exodus 1:22
“Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.”Esther 3:13
“Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain. If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.””Esther 3:8-9
“After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.”Esther 3:1
“He said, “Yah has sworn: ‘Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’””Exodus 17:16
“Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt;”Deuteronomy 25:17
Esther's decision is deliberately framed as self-sacrifice: “Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” That is Moses at Sinai, offering himself for a guilty people: “if not, please blot me out of your book.” Esther risked death to stand between a decree and her people. The greater Mediator did more than risk it, because Jesus was crowned with glory “that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone,” and He is the good shepherd who “lays down his life for the sheep.” Her mediation is a shadow; His is the substance.
““Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.””Esther 4:16
“Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.””Exodus 32:32
“But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.”Hebrews 2:9
“I am the good shepherd.The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”John 10:11
On the day the enemies of the Jews expected to conquer them, “it was turned out the opposite happened.” The month “was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day,” and the feast took its name from the lot itself: Purim, “from the word ‘Pur.’” A lot was cast against God's people, and it came out reversed. A lot was cast at the cross too, for Jesus' clothing. And there God performed the greater reversal: “wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.” The decree against us was not waved aside; it was executed on Christ.
“Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),”Esther 9:1
“as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.”Esther 9:22
“Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,”Esther 9:26
“Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, “They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.”John 19:24
“wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;”Colossians 2:14
The prophets promised an exodus bigger than Egypt's: “Don’t remember the former things... Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now.” Jeremiah said a day would come when people swear by the God “who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north,” because He would gather them from everywhere. Jesus fulfilled it. On the mountain Moses and Elijah spoke with Him about “his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem,” where the word is literally exodus. At the table He took the Passover and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” and Paul draws the conclusion: “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.” Esther's deliverance is a rehearsal for that, and the last book of the Bible shows the choir: the redeemed sing “the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”
““Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”Isaiah 43:18-19
“Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.”Jeremiah 16:14-15
“who appeared in glory, and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”Luke 9:31
“Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”Luke 22:20
“Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.”1 Corinthians 5:7
“They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.”Revelation 15:3