• 2024-10-17 | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 22:38
  • Passages covered: Esther 3:1, Isaiah 14:12-14, 2Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 20:2,7,8-9, Revelation 11:7, Revelation 13:1,7.

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Genesis 40 Series, Part 37, Esther 3:1

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #37 in Genesis 40. We are spending some time in the book of Esther looking at two of King Ahasuerus’ chamberlains, Bigthana and Teresh, who were keepers of the door. They were angry and full of wrath against the king, and they sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. We have been looking at this historical parable, and since this is the Bible we have to look for the deeper spiritual meaning. What would be the point of telling us this?

You know, the Bible is a big book but considering these are the Word of God, everything is extremely important and significant concerning God’s plans for salvation and judgment. So what would be the purpose besides it being an interesting historical tidbit. We could spend a long time going to verse after verse that show us how we are to approach the Bible and how we are to look for the deeper spiritual meaning. You will not hear that from the pastors in the churches because they are not taught that in seminary. They are taught a manmade hermeneutic, and you can look at the condition of the churches to see a result of that approach. They are in a desolate condition. 

Christ spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak. That is our guide. When Christ was here in the flesh, He spoke all the time in parables – He always taught in parables. It seems fairly obvious. God came in the flesh that one time in history, and that was His opportunity to instruct the readers in how to read the Bible. He is the Word made flesh, and when the Word taught, He always spoke in parables. Do you get it? God rammed that point home in hundreds of verses.

Again, these two men in the book of Esther are a figure of the corporate church. The number “two” identifies with the caretakers of the Word, and the churches had that duty. These two men kept the door, and Christ is the door, and He is the Word, so keeping the door is to maintain the faithful sharing of the Gospel through preaching and teaching. It all relates to keeping the door.

They were pitifully poor doorkeepers for the king because they were plotting against him. The same is true of the churches and congregations. They were pitiful doorkeepers as they twisted the scriptures to pervert the true Gospel of grace, and they added man’s works to grace which sent forth a stinking savour into the nostrils of God. They were wretchedly poor doorkeepers. They were supposed to share the truth in the day of salvation which would minister the proper doorway or entrance, and then it was dependent on God whether any hearing that truth would be able to enter through the door. But if they are not ministering the truth, they are not ministering the proper entrance. God could still work around that, and He would always save His people. He was faithful even when doorkeepers were unfaithful. 

But unfaithful doorkeepers are what these men represent, and finally they were hanged. That is what we have been following as we looked at the hanging of the baker in Genesis 40. The baker bakes bread. Bread identifies with Christ who is the bread of life.

One more point I would like to make is that the book of Esther is amazing. In Esther 1 King Ahasuerus had a queen named Vashti who refused to come before him, and he finally put her away and there was a search to obtain a new queen and wife. His good counselors instructed the king to call all the virgins to come and to select a wife from among them. We can see the Gospel in this as God likens the elect to wise virgins in Matthew 25. And when the bridegroom came, the five wise virgins went in unto Him, and the door was shut. In the case of Vashti, she was put away by the king, and we can see how that relates to national Israel. God was married to Israel, and then He divorced her, and then He sought His bride in the New Testament era. Of course the bride of Christ can be traced back to the atoning work of Christ at the foundation of the world, but as far as history goes there was a progression from Israel to sending the Gospel to the nations, and then all who became saved became part of the bride of Christ. They had their sins washed away and were purified, just like the virgins in the book of Esther were purified. The elect receive the spiritual attire of “fine white linen,” which is the bridal gown described in Revelation 19:7-8, which is the righteousness of saints.

So we see this picture of Israel in Esther 1, and then in chapter 2 with these two doorkeepers God is moving from His Old Testament relationship with national Israel, and He puts them away and develops a new relationship with the New Testament churches and congregations. But now with the hanging of these two doorkeepers, it points to God’s judgment which began at the house of God and the end of the church age.

And notice what happens “quick on the heels” here, which we can understand to relate to God’s loosing of Satan, and then Satan rising up to slay the “two witnesses.” We will see this illustrated in this historical parable in chapter 3. Esther 2 ends with both men being hanged. They were cursed. Then immediately we see what it says in Esther 3:1:

After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.

Notice that! When you receive a promotion, what is one way of looking at it? There is a “rising up.” You are promoted. You were at a certain level but now you are higher. That is how we all understand it, and it is the same here. King Ahasuerus promoted Haman and set his seat above all the princes. And in the Bible “seat” identifies with ruling. Look at Isaiah 14:12-14:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Haman’s desire was to be like the king, or to be the king, and Satan’s desire was to be as the King of Glory, God Himself. We read in 2Thessalonians of the “man of sin” in 2Thessalonians 2:4:

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

And in Esther 3:1 King Ahasuerus promoted Haman. If we understand King Ahasuerus to represent God and Haman to represent Satan, then we must ask the question, “Has God ever promoted Satan and elevated his position above the princes that were with God?” Yes. This ties into the fact that Christ has the keys of hell and death in Revelation 20, and He bound Satan, as it says in Revelation 20:2:

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Then we are told of his loosing in Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

Who loosed Satan? It was Christ who bound Satan, and Satan was in the condition of hell, and then when the figurative “thousand years” expired, which was the end of the church age, it was then that Satan rose up.

And in Esther, at the point when the two doorkeepers were hanged, Haman was promoted. He rose up, and his seat was above all the princes. So let us go to Revelation 11 where it speaks of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Satan ascended or rose up from the bottomless pit, which is also called “the deep,” so he ascended or rose up from the deep. So it was at the point of the completion of the testimony of the two witnesses, and that is why we say that Satan was loosed at the end of the church age, and that is why we say the “thousand years” is figurative because the church age was 1,955 years (from 33 A. D. to 1988). So the loosing of Satan in Revelation 20 was synonymous with his rising up here, as well as his rising up in Revelation 13 where he is called the beast, as it says in Revelation 13:1:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea…

Then what did the beast do? It says in Revelation 13:7:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Where would you have found the saints? They were in the churches. 

Let us go back to Revelation 20 where Satan was loosed, and it says in Revelation 20:8-9:

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city…

The camp of the saints and the beloved city, Jerusalem, represent the corporate church here.

Again, it said in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

In Revelation 13 it said he would overcome the camp of the saints. It is very consistent, and these verses all tie together. So too the historical placement in the book of Esther is very consistent. At the point that the two chamberlains were hanged, Haman rose up. And Haman is a very obvious type of Satan, the adversary and enemy of the Jews, representing the people of God. Haman was an enemy of Mordecai, a type of Christ. So the death of these two chamberlains happened at the point of Haman’s rise. It is a very clear spiritual picture when we see it in the light of these verses in Revelation.

So that means there is a continuance from Esther 1 with Vashti representing Israel; Esther 2 representing the churches; and Esther 3 showing the end of the church age, the time of the Great Tribulation and progressing to the point of Judgment Day when the table is turned, and Haman who had wanted to destroy Mordecai had to lift him up, and then Haman himself was hanged. Circumstantial evidence within the book of Esther indicates that Haman was hanged on the “seventeenth day of the second month,” the Hebrew calendar date when the flood began, which is the underlying Hebrew calendar date for May 21, 2011, the beginning of Judgment Day.

So this is just incredible to see this in the book of Esther when so many people wonder why this book is even in the Bible because God’s name is not mentioned outright. And yet God uses this historical parable to lay out His entire plan for His relationship to Israel (which lasted about 2,000 years); and His relationship to the churches (which lasted about 2,000 years); and the loosing of Satan and his rising up to prominence when God gave him rule over the churches and over the nations in an unparalleled manner; and then Judgment Day itself. 

It is just incredible to see the way God hid truth here and how He can describe these events in just a few chapters but it covers an enormous span of biblical history taking us all the way to the end of time.

We will close our study at this point. We do want to get into another important passage that describes Judas hanging himself. We saw that the baker was hanged, and he was a picture of the corporate church. Absalom was hanging in a tree, and he pictured the corporate church, and the two doorkeepers of King Ahasuerus were hanged, and they are a picture of the corporate church.

But what about Judas? He was one of the twelve disciples, and he betrayed the Lord. He was infilled with Satan. That is interesting. And he also hanged himself. We see that Satan makes “appearances,” often in figures, like we see with Joab and his darts; or like Haman who rose up at the time of the hanging of the two chamberlains; or like Judas who was infilled by Satan. And that makes us think of when Satan was loosed and he entered into the churches and congregations, and it was at the end of the church age. And what happened to the churches when they came under the wrath of God? They were accursed, which is equivalent to being hanged.