2011 A.D.:  Esther and Reproduction

  The Book of Esther is a beautiful one, and I love the part where Esther is warned by Mordechai (an Uncle who raised her after his brother, Esther's dad, died) that if she wouldn't stand firm and do what was right, then God would merely cause it to be accomplished by some other means, but then woe to Esther for having ducked her duty out of fear.  (Of course, she didn't duck her duty...she faced her fears, put her life in God's trustworthy hands, and did what was right!)  But I think that warning to Esther is spoken to us all.  Won't we all have at least a few times in our life when we will have to risk much, perhaps even certainly lose much, to do what is right?  But if we manage to make ourselves do the right thing, then it will probably be our favorite part of life to look back upon one day.   

  But the way the king's scepter is used to spare Esther's life when she bursts into his royal throne room uninvited (a capital offense) makes me think that Esther might be a symbolic book also! Maybe this same idea that is illustrated in Esther is also built into the human reproductive cycle; maybe the touch of a scepter to grant life to someone who's trespasses have brought a death sentence down upon them is a concept that God placed both in the Bible, and the human design and reproductive cycle. 

  And, perhaps God has guided the development of language to point at the symbolic meaning of the Book of Esther by having 'Estrous' become a word which essentially describes the menstrual cycle of some animals (which differs somewhat from an actual menstrual cycle as humans experience them.)  Sometimes I believe that God has guided the English language (and perhaps this is true of other languages also) to hold hints of his intended meaning for things that the word associates with.  This would certainly happen by accident at some hard to calculate frequency, but I think that the frequency with which I see this occur probably well exceeds chance.  That's subjective I know.

  As a Christian, I believe that Esther also refers to history that was still future back when the Book of Esther was written.  I think that the first wife, who would not dance, may have referred to the Jews and how they would not acknowledge or obey their King, Jesus the Messiah, when He came.  And there will probably be a time in the future when Esther's people (since Esther succeeded the first wife, Vashti, I take this to possibly mean the Christians) will be slated for annihilation.  And only Jesus (or the Holy Spirit or the Father) will be able to save them, perhaps, if this is true.  So, Jesus is like Artexerxes in that respect. 

  The names in the Book of Esther hint at the same sort of thing, I believe. Esther means 'star'.  In the days of Jesus birth, it was a star that led the men of the East to Jesus.  Today, it is the Christian church that is leading people, including those from the East, towards Jesus.  Artexerxes means 'righteous ruler' some sources say, and Jesus certainly was that!  And he was the maker of mankind (he stood beside God the Father as man was created, helping.  That's in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.)

  Artexerxes was the ruler over 127 Provinces.  And that number is mentioned more than once in the Book of Esther.  So, let's look at that for a moment. 

 First, let's look at one way of breaking down the 1-2-7 number.  Genesis (Book 1) Chapter 2, verse 7:  "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breather into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."  This speaks of man...humans.  So Artexerxes, King over 127 Provinces might also refer to one who was King over humans. 

  Matthew is the first book of the New Testament.  So, what does Matthew 2:7 say?

  Matthew (1st New Testament Book) 2:7 " Then Herod called the Magi together and found out the exact time that the star had appeared."  The Magi were wise men from the East who had followed a star to find the great king that their learnings told them would be born beneath the star.  Here Herod (a great enemy of the Jews in many respects) is trying to wipe out the baby Jesus, the hope of the Jews.  Just as Haman, long ago in Esther's time, was forced to pay tribute to Mordecai and was eventually killed by the one that Esther answered to (Artexerxes, ruler of 127 Provinces) so here in Matthew we find Herod willing to kill many (little babies born at around the time of Jesus's birth) to get rid of the one that he actually hated and feared, which was Jesus.  So, though I won't pretend to see it all clearly, there are some relationships here in Matthew to Esther.

  Psalms 12:7 "You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked," v.8 "who freely strut about when what is vile is honored by the human race."

  Proverbs 12:7 ""The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm."  Now that surely summarizes the Book of Esther, but it also summarizes Satan's attempt to rebel against God's plans.

    This relates to Esther, in that Haman was referred to as 'that wicked Haman' in the book of Esther.  And Haman, an Aggagite, is a vile man highly honored in his time, a man of high position.  And in the book of Esther, Mordecai advises Esther that this is a time of need for her people (when Haman is plotting to kill them) and that she must step up and be brave.  And when she does that, the Lord is with her.         

  All these 127's seen relevant to the Book of Esther in one way or another. 

  And so, this Book of Esther, the only book not found among the Dead Sea scrolls, is a highly symbolic book.  To add to its pedigree of pointing to deeper conflicts, according to some Jewish writings Mordecai is the 7th descendant of a crippled son of Johnathan, Saul's son, that King David chooses to take pity on for his deceased friend Johnathan's sake.  Had David not done this, there would have been no Mordecai.  And Haman is said by ancient writings to be the 7th descendant of an Amalekite King named Agag that an Israelite High Priest named Samuel had to kill because the Israelite King Saul who had conquered him in battle would not then kill him as God wanted Saul to.  Agag was a descendant of Amalek who was a descendant of Esau, Jacob's brother.  There was always trouble between Esau and Jacob, and it affected many generations back then, and I'm sure it is still in play today.       

 So, whether Esther is just the Book of Esther, or whether it was prophetic, and even built into our physiognomy, it is one of the Bible's great books. 

 See what you think of the picture below.  Click on the thumbnail below to view picture.  Once the picture loads, you can change it's size with the little '+' and '_' buttons at the top border of the picture, and you can scroll up and down, of course.  Enjoy.