Today, Jews celebrate their holiday Purim. It commemorates victory over a crisis that occurred in the 5th century BCE that threatened to annihilate all Jews in the vast Persian Empire, which encompassed all of the present Middle East. Queen Esther became a heroine who saved her people—the Jews. The story even includes an elaborate beauty contest that Esther won in order to become the king’s wife.
Jews usually celebrate Purim at their synagogues with a reading of the story of Esther, which is found in the book of Esther in the Jews’ Tanakh, their sacred biblical text that Christians called the Old Testament in their Bible. Joyous festivities on Purim include a celebratory meal with alcohol, eating Hamantaschen (triangular-shaped pastries), and perhaps the wearing of masks and costumes. This holiday is called Purim because that is the plural of the Hebrew word pur, which means “lot,” and this story includes the casting of lots.
I wrote a chapter about Purim in my first Still Here book, The Third Day Bible Code. The chapter is entitled “Queen Esther Saves the Jews on the Third Day.” This Bible story is true, I think (though that is disputed), and it is most intriguing. It begins with an elaborate beauty contest that Esther won in order to become the wife of Persian King Ahasuerus. Purim is celebrated because Queen Esther was Jewish, and she became a heroine in saving her people from complete annihilation throughout the vast Persian empire.
This account of Esther includes a mysterious third-day motif that has occurred in other most important events in the history of the Jewish people that are recorded in the Bible (e.g., Genesis 22.4; Exodus 19.11; Joshua 1.11; 2 Kings 20.5; Esther 5.1; Hosea 6.2). I believe this third-day motif is a type. I explain in my book (p. 34), “In typology, a type is a person, object, historical event, or institution that represents, symbolizes, or prefigures something else, often of like nature, that usually happens in the future, called an ‘antitype.’ So, a type is often regarded as a symbol, emblem, token, or sign.”
The Third Day Bible Code is the only book ever published about this third-day motif in the Bible and its extraordinarily deep meaning. I further explain (pp. xiv, 219) that it “serves as a hidden code that unlocks God’s timetable for salvation history.” So, since today is Purim, the following is Chapter 18 in this book:
Queen Esther Saves the Jews on the Third Day
“‘Neither eat nor drink for three days,…’ On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace” (Esther 4.16; 5.1).
Introduction
The Old Testament book of Esther is a fascinating short story about the Jews in Exile during the 5th century B.C. The book is named after its central figure—a young Jewess named “Esther.” The setting is the city of Susa, the capital of Persia and Esther’s hometown. (Present Iran is former Persia.) The story line of the book is that when the Jews throughout the entire Media-Persian Empire were about to be exterminated in one day, Esther came to the rescue to become their heroin.
This apparently true story about Esther and the Jewish people became the catalyst for the subsequent establishment of the Jews’ Feast of Purim. Jews still celebrate this feast annually to this day. Held on Adar 14-15, Adar being the last month in the Jewish calendar,[1] it corresponds to our February-March.
Although the Feast of Purim was not instituted by Moses, and therefore is a minor festival among the many Jewish holidays, it is a very popular one. On the day before this feast, on Adar 13, many Jews observe a fast, called “the Fast of Esther.” They break this fast that evening with a communal meal, which begins the Feast of Purim. A synagogue worship service follows the meal, and after that there is a public reading of the book of Esther. That’s when the fun begins.
The evil conspirator of the drama is a man named “Haman.” Jews have always compared him to the devil. Upon each reading of Haman’s name in the story, the congregation interrupts the reader and exclaims loudly in unison, “Let his name be blotted out.” This expression, “blotted out,” refers to the names of human beings being blotted out of the Book of Life, an actual book that the Bible says is kept in heaven.[2] Children love to participate in this periodic rancor by clapping their hands, stomping their feet, booing and cranking hand-held noisemakers, called groggers, at various specified intervals during the public reading of the book of Esther.
Throughout the two days of the Feast of Purim, there is much rejoicing. Many hymns are sung that have been composed based on the book of Esther. And plays and various dramas of the story have been enacted during the Feast of Purim throughout the centuries. This has been especially so during times when Jews have endured persecution, which is what the story is all about.
The Jews’ Escape from Crisis
Esther was beautiful in both face and form. Through an interesting series of events, including a quasi- modern beauty contest, King Ahasuerus (=Xerxis I; reign: 486-465 B.C.) chose Esther to be his wife. During his reign over the vast Media-Persian Empire, King Xerxis’ dominion stretched over 127 provinces at the empire’s greatest extent, all the way from India to Ethiopia in northeast Africa, thus including Egypt.
Esther had an unusual background. Her parents had died, apparently when she was quite young. So her cousin Mordecai raised her as his adopted daughter. Mordecai had instructed Esther not to reveal publicly that she was a Jew. Thus, Esther became queen without anyone, including her husband—King Xerxis—knowing she was a Jewess.
Soon after Esther became queen, King Xerxis advanced one of his servants, named “Haman,” to the position of prime minister throughout his entire empire. Now, Mordecai apparently held a governmental position as well, since he sat at the king’s gate. During antiquity, judges who ruled city-life often conducted their judicial duties at the city’s main gate, which may indicate that Mordecai was a member of the king’s judicial system. Regardless, whenever the egotistical Haman would pass by Mordecai’s presence, Mordecai refused to do as others, bowing down and paying homage to Haman. This so angered the proud Haman that, learning that Mordecai was a Jew, he deceptively persuaded King Xerxis to legislate the extermination of all Jews throughout the empire. Haman had alleged unjustly that the Jews’ laws (=traditions) were not only different, but contrary to the king’s laws.
Now, this happened during the first month of the year. The holocaust was to occur during one day in the last month of that year, on Adar 13. Haman was granted authority to determine this date, and he did so by casting the lot.
The casting of lots was not peculiar to Israel. Recall from the story about Jonah that the pagan sailors had cast lots to discover that Jonah and his god were the cause of the storm. Although the Bible relates many instances of the casting of lots, surprisingly, it does not provide any prescription for doing so or description of the articles involved. Usually, two small, rather flat, objects, called “lots” (Heb. goral), which may have been stones, were used. One lot had the word “yes” written on it in the practitioner’s language, and the other lot had the word “no” on it. A question, or a set of questions, would be devised beforehand. Then the two lots were placed inside a container, perhaps an urn, and it was shaken. A question would then be stated, after which someone would reach inside the container and draw out one of the lots for the answer to the question being posed. Another process involved only one lot, it having a “yes on one side of its flat surface and a “no” on the other side. In this case, the single lot would be placed inside the container, and the container would be thrust so that the lot would be cast out of the container and unto a flat surface. Whichever side of the lot faced upwards indicated the answer being sought to the question. This method was called, “casting the lot.”
The edict to destroy all Jews on Adar 13 was issued on the 13th day of that first month (Esther 3.12). When Mordecai learned of the planned extermination, he was stunned. He knew that this decision had been taken on account of him. He, too, had kept his Jewish identity secret until he apparently had felt pressured to explain his refusal to bow down to Haman (v. 4). So he “tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry” (Esther 4.1). And the other Jews of the empire followed his example. Mordecai also sent a message to Esther, informing her of the crisis and telling her to plead with the king on behalf of their people. Esther obliged because she had always trusted Mordecai’s judgment and thus had been obedient to him. Then we read that Esther told Mordecai,
“‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace. As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor and he held out to her the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter. The king said to her, ‘What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom’” (Esther 4.16—5.3).
Then Esther requested that both her husband King Xerxis and Haman attend a banquet she would prepare and host for the king that evening, which would still be the third day of Esther’s fast. Both of them gladly accepted. At the banquet, Esther again requested that they attend another banquet, to be held on the next evening. She would prepare and host it as well, and then she would make known her request to the king. The reader is left to speculate why the additional banquet and thus the delay of her request. Nonetheless, the fact that Esther gained regal access to the king on the third day of the Jews’ distress ensures that her wish would be granted.
During that next banquet, Queen Esther informed the king of the entire situation. The king became enraged and had Haman impaled to death on a stake, in accordance with Persian custom. The stake rose up seventy-five feet high. Ironically, Haman had earlier prepared this exact stake for the impaling of Mordecai.
Now, the law of the Medes and the Persians was unique. Once the king had ordered some edict or law into existence, it could never be rescinded. So, in an effort to overcome this edict, which had now become law, the king cleverly passed another edict to counteract the first one. He ordered that when the day arrived for the people to kill all Jews in the empire, on Adar 13, the Jews would be allowed to prepare themselves in advance by assembling, planning and preparing to annihilate anyone who would attack and plunder them (Esther 8.11). Thus we read, “on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes, the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who had sought their ruin; and no one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples…. So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them” (Esther 9.1-2, 5). “Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur,” that is, the “lot” (v. 26). And Jews have celebrated this holiday, called “The Feast of Purim” (vv. 26-32), ever since, even to the present. So ends this most engaging story of Esther and God’s protection of her people, the Jews.
Much Typology of the End Times
This story about Esther is full of types that prefigure the end times. During those latter days, a world leader—whom Jews call “Armilus” and Christians call “the Antichrist”—will arise and lead the armies of all the world’s nations in an assault against the State of Israel. Like Haman, their purpose will be to exterminate all Jews worldwide, beginning in Israel.[3] When this final crisis begins, a remnant of Jews will gather at the temple in Jerusalem to pray and fast, passionately imploring God to deliver them. Then Messiah Jesus will come to deliver this penitent Israeli remnant that has thus far survived the holocaust. And Jesus will afterwards lead these Israeli men in a military campaign in destroying their enemies. Thus, the story of Esther has several types that prefigure what will happen to the Jewish people in the latter days.
One thing that needs to be understood about typology, which is often true of parables, is that some of the details of the narrative may not coincide with the intended message. Thus, scholars often caution against focusing too much attention on every detail in a parable or a historical event that contains typology, only requiring their relevance to the main theme. Nevertheless, there are many details in the story of Esther that have profound significance in their foreshadowing of the Jewish people in the end times.
Let us now consider this extensive and interesting typology in this saga about Esther, which branches out into four different directions. These four figural types are as follows: (1) King Xerxis typifies God as the sovereign ruler, who thwarts evil plans and establishes justice; (2) Mordecai typifies the Jews as the victims of persecution; (3) Esther typifies Messiah Jesus as the Deliverer of the Jews; (4) Haman typifies both Satan and the Antichrist as the author of the evil plot. As for Esther being a type of the Messiah, Judaism recognizes several messiahs (Heb. mashiah), with “the Messiah (ben David)” anticipated as the supreme messiah. Interestingly, Esther is the only woman Judaism has ever recognized as one of its messiahs, even calling her “the Redeemer.”[4]
King Xerxis, a Type of God
That night after Esther’s first banquet, which was held on the third day of her fast, King Xerxis could not sleep. So he had his servants read to him from the royal chronicles. Perhaps the king figured that if such dull history couldn’t put him to sleep, nothing could! Or maybe he was so vain that he cherished hearing about his many accomplishments. Regardless, the king’s servants providentially read to him about how Mordecai had thwarted an inside assassination attempt on the king’s life. Yet the king had never known about it. Therefore, Mordecai had never been honored for his noble deed. Just then, Haman entered the outer court, and the king called him into his presence. The king asked Haman’s advice as to what he should do for someone he wished to honor. Haman thought the king was thinking of him. So Haman advised the king to have the man dressed in one of the king’s royal robes, crowned with one of the king’s crowns, put him on one of the king’s horses and parade him on horseback through the city square with the proclamation going before him, “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor” (Esther 6.9) Then the king told Haman to go do so with “the Jew Mordecai” (v. 10). Haman did so that next day, but the king was not aware of Haman’s humiliation.
The incident in which King Xerxis had his government annals read to him correlates with the future scene described in Dan 7.9-14. In it God, as “the Ancient of Days,” meets with his heavenly council just prior to the time of the end of the world. Then “the books” are opened (v. 10), which presumably contain records of historical events that recently will have transpired on earth. These books likely will be read aloud, discussion undertaken and a decision made by those sitting on the other thrones (v. 9). This decision will be against the Antichrist, foreshadowed by Haman, and in favor of the saints, prefigured by Mordecai.
The scepter of King Xerxis, as with any ancient king, symbolized his empirical authority. When the king extended his scepter to Queen Esther (Esther 4.11; 5.2; 8.4), her touching it parallels God’s exaltation of Messiah Jesus as follows: “The lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes” (Ps 110.1-2). So, even the detail about Queen Esther touching the king’s scepter prefigures realities in the endtimes.
Mordecai, a Type of the Endtimes Jewish Remnant
Mordecai was always “sitting at the king’s gate” (Esther 2.19, 21; 5.13; cf. 5.9; 6.10, 12), that is, the gate of the king’s palace. If Mordecai was a member of the king’s judiciary, it typifies God giving his Law to the Israelites and his intension for them to influence the world with it. But Israel did not successfully accomplish this divinely assigned role with his Ten Commandments. So God eventually expelled them from the land he had given them and sent them captive to the Babylonian Empire (later taken over by the Media-Persian Empire). Similarly, in A.D. 135 God began to disperse the Jews throughout the nations of the world in the Diaspora. Mordecai’s instruction to Esther—that she not divulge her Jewish identity—typifies the actions of many Jews of the Diaspora in their attempt to assimilate among Gentiles to avoid persecution. In this, perhaps Esther (and Mordecai) can be faulted, for in doing so she could not have been a fully observant Jew. Yet God, by means of his grace, often works through his people even though they are not completely committed to him. On the plus side, Mordecai’s refusal to bow down and pay homage to Haman (Esther 3.2) typifies faithful Jews refusing to pay homage to Satan’s premier man, the Antichrist, during the latter days, just as Satan tempted Jesus to bow down and pay homage to him (Mt 4.9; Lk 4.6-7). Mordecai’s example of putting on sackcloth and ashes and wailing bitterly in public, which the other Jews of Susa imitated, also typifies the mourning of the penitent Jewish remnant in the latter days. Finally, the story comes to close, in which “Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus” (Esther 10.3). This seems to typify God making Israel the head of the nations in the Age to Come.
Queen Esther, a Type of Christ
Esther typifies Jesus. Even her name does, which means “star.” The Torah says, “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Num 24.17). Jews and Christians have believed this passage refers to Israel’s promised Messiah, in which the star is a symbol of Messiah and the scepter signifies his governmental authority.
When Esther did what Hegai—the chief eunuch in charge of the king’s harem—and Mordecai told her to do (Esther 2.15, 20), she exhibited wisdom and obedience like Jesus later did. Mordecai relayed a message to Esther, telling her to ask the king to stop the planned extermination. Esther sent a message to Mordecai, informing him, “if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live” (Esther 4.11). This situation parallels that Old Testament maxim that no mortal human being can approach God without dying unless God grants it. God did indeed grant it to Jesus by raising him from the dead, thereby imparting to him immortality and causing him to ascend up to heaven, where God invited him to sit down at his right hand in his throne, called Christ’s “Session.” Esther’s instruction, that Mordecai gather the Jews in Susa to fast and presumably pray for three days, as well as Esther going to the king on the third day,[5] typifies at least the following three things: (1) by applying the Thousand Year-Day Principle to this narrative, the two days signify the succession of 2,000 years, which commenced when God turned his back on Israel due to its guilt for the death of Jesus; (2) the Jews’ mourning in Susa signifies the penitent Jewish remnant of the latter days doing likewise at the temple at Jerusalem, the capital of Israel; (3) Esther appearing before the king on the third day signifies that during the third millennium following the Christ event, Jesus, as “one like a Son of Man,” will be brought before “the Ancient of Days,” who is God the Father, to be given a worldwide kingdom as related in Dan 7.13-14. Indeed, when King Xerxis asked Esther what she wanted, the king added, “It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom” (Esther 5.3). This parallels God saying to the Messiah at the End, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps 2.7-8). Moreover, the resurrected Jesus later said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28.18). Thus, Jesus’ shared authority with God the Father is much like King Xerxis offering Queen Esther half of his kingdom. Esther’s request was that the king would insure that Esther’s people be spared. Of course, God giving Jesus the kingdom effectively does just that for his people—the Jews.
Two items in ancient Jewish literature that have to do with Esther and this third day motif are worth noting. First, Targum Rishon paraphrases Esther 5.1 by saying that Esther went in to implore the king, “On the third day of Passover.” The insertion of “Passover” reflects much rabbinic literature that espouses the viewpoint that that third day was also the third day of the Passover festival. That is the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread. We learned in Chapter Nine that Jesus arose from the dead on that day of the festival, which is the Feast of First Fruits. If Targum Rishon is correct, Esther’s appearance before the king on the third day typifies not only Jesus’ heavenly appearance before God in a coronation ceremony, as in Dan 7.13-14, but Jesus’ resurrection on the third day as well. Second, Midrash Esther Rabba states concerning Esther 5.1-3, “Israel is never left in dire distress more than three days.”[6]
Haman, a Type of Satan and the Antichrist
King Xerxis entrusted much political power to Haman, which effectively made him prime minister of the empire (Esther 3.1). Haman’s empirical authority typifies Satan’s earthly authority. That authority became evident in one of Satan’s temptations of Jesus. Satan showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world,” and he said to him concerning authority over them, “for it has been handed over to me,” meaning from God (Lk 4.5-6).
Haman, as “the enemy of the Jews” (Esther 3.10), typifies not only Satan but the final Antichrist. Haman had planned to have all Jews in the empire killed. Thus, the decree went out “to annihilate all Jews” and “plunder their goods” (Esther 3.13). This typifies the Antichrist’s plan to annihilate the Jews worldwide at the end of the age (e.g., Eze 38.12-13; Zech 14.1). When the king honored Mordecai, Haman was horrified and returned home. When he told his wife and advisors what had happened, they replied, “If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against them, but will surely fall before him” (Esther 6.13). So will the Antichrist.
As the Antichrist leads the nations’ armies in annihilating Israeli Jews, Jesus will come to their aid and they will be greatly strengthened for battle (Zech 10.3-7; 12.6-8). It was likewise in the days of Esther and Mordecai, that “on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes,… no one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples” (Esther 9.1-2). And “the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful. So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them,… and [they] killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them” (Esther vv. 4-5, 16). This slaughter typifies the Messianic Destruction, when Messiah Jesus will lead Israeli men in destroying their many enemies.
What happened after Mordecai’s victory is typical as well. After that slaughter, “many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews, because the Jews had fallen upon them” (Esther 8.17). This does not typify the worldwide conversion of the Gentiles to faith in Yahweh following the Messianic Destruction and Yahweh’s teaching of them, which the Bible repeatedly affirms (e.g., Isa 2.2-3/Mic 4.1-2). Rather, it typifies those Gentiles who will convert to become Jews (Isa 14.1).
Thus, God thwarted Haman’s scheme and Haman was killed, just as will happen to the one Christians call “the Antichrist” and Jews call “Armilus.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, the book of Esther provides much typology of the Jews’ predicament in the latter days and their divine deliverance from annihilation on the eschatological Day. Esther’s appearance before the king on the third day, which enabled her to request of him the stay of execution for her people, may indicate, with the application of the Thousand Year-Day Principle, that the attempted endtimes Jewish holocaust will occur sometime during the third millennium following the Christ event. But Esther’s one-day delay in presenting her request to the king admittedly is problematic for this interpretation. However, she did gain the king’s approval for her request on the third day, regardless of the fact that she delayed presenting it until the next day. For, at the first banquet, held on the third day of her fast, she said, “If I have won the king’s favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request,” let us have another banquet and then I’ll present my request (Esther 5.8). During that night of the third day, when the king learned of Mordecai’s good deed, he decided to exalt Mordecai.
Regardless of this question about the third day motif in this story about Esther, and Esther’s delayed request, the typology that we have been examining in the lives of these four principal characters of the book of Esther stands firm.
[1] Jews observe a solar-lunar calendar for their religious holidays. Due to the difficulty during antiquity, of informing all Jews of the Diaspora of the correct day of the New Moon, Jews of walled cities observed the Feast of Purim on Adar 14 whereas Jews of rural regions observed two days for the Feast of Purim, on Adar 14-15, to ensure that they did not make a mistake and observe the festival on the wrong day.
[2] E.g., Ex 32.32-33; Ps 69.28; Dan 12.1; Rev 3.5; 13.8; 17.8; 20.12, 15; 21.27; cf. Deut 9.14; 29.20.
[3] E.g., Joel 3.9-16; Mic 4.11-13; 5.8; Zech 12.2-9.
[4] R. Patai, The Messiah Texts, 23.
[5] To reconcile “three days” and “third day,” see Chapter Two.
[6] Midrash Rabba, tr. and ed. by H. Freedman and M. Simon, 9:109. Indebted to E.L. Bode, “The First Easter Morning,” 122.
