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In my previous article I raised the questions as to why the Lord would keep bringing attention to the Book of Esther through out history and why the Adversary would try to have it omitted from the canon. I also stated that the answer to those questions could only be that the Book of Esther must have significance for the Lord's people through out history and therefore it is deserving of deeper study to discover any further hidden secrets. It is from those suppositions that I encourage you to look a little deeper into the story and read it a little more thoughtfully.
When I was revisiting this book, I decided to do some background work and discovered the information already presented as well as some other facts that are not readily apparent in the text. Some of these are easliy discovered with the use of commentaries and handbooks. For example, the biblical history of the main characters is a very interesting study in itself and should be persued to deepen one's understanding of the overall plot of the story. In fact, this ancestral history also demonstrates how disobedience to the Lord can create devastating results - even attempted genocide! Therefore, I hope I have whetted your appetite for what can be learned if you dig a bit deeper into the Scripture using the tools I've recommended.1 You will then discover for yourself some of those things which I will not be covering in this article :)
The most interesting discovery which I have found in the Book of Esther is contained within a few verses which have always caught my attention whenever I have read them. Please read the following:
Did you notice that Esther is requesting to have Haman's ten sons hung on the gallows - in spite of the fact that they have already been killed? That request, to me, has always seemed strange. Why would anyone want to hang dead men on a gallows? What is the Lord trying to show us through this odd request?
According to Rabbinic scholars and Jewish commentators, through out the Book of Esther whenever King Ahasuerus is mentioned by name it is referring to him but whenever you come across just "the king" it is referring to the Lord Himself. Also, the Jewish sages have commented that "There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later."2 In light of this information, a fresh reading of verse 13 could be interpreted as Esther asking the Lord to hang Haman's ten sons on the gallows in the future.
There is an interesting confirmation of the assumption that this request is for a future time. In Esther 9:6-10, the names of Haman's ten sons are listed and when read in the Hebrew Torah, the first, seventh and tenth names contain Hebrew letters that are smaller than the others and the tenth name also contains a letter which is larger. The smaller letters are a tav, a shin and a zayin where as the larger letter is a vav.
The Jewish scholars believe that whenever you encounter a change in the usual way that a word or letter is written in the Torah, it is an indication that there is something hidden there!3 Isn't that something? Here we have a clear indication that something is hidden! Well, in the Hebrew aleph - bet, the letters are alpha-numeric, meaning that they also have numeric equivalents. When you add the values of these three Hebrew letters, you get the number 707. In Hebrew, when the year is mentioned the millenium is not spoken. But the larger vav points to the 6th millenium. So, 707 of the 6th millenium would be 5707 on the Hebrew calendar which just so happens to coincide with the year 1946. It is a historical fact that on October 16, 1946 ten Nazi war criminals were executed by hanging.4 This date just also happened to be 21 Tishri, 5707 on the Hebrew calendar which was the seveneth day of Sukkot.5 Isn't it fascinating that the seventh day of Sukkot is also known as Hoshana Rabba, the day that the Jewish people believe that God's judgements are sealed for the following year?
There is also another interesting element that supports the prophecy hypothesis of Esther 9:13 as it relates to the Nazi executions. It appears that a fifteenth century Jewish scholar, Rabbi Elijah Solomon, held to the belief that the Germanic people were descendants of Amelek. There is also a belief among modern Jewry that Haman's son, Porata, had fathered his own sons prior to being killed and those sons are believed to be the ancestors of the Germanic tribes.6 Curiously, it seems that the Nazi's themselves believed in this connection. Adoplph Hitler prohibited reading the Book of Esther on Purim and also ordered all the synagogues in Poland to be closed on that day. Apparently he also believed in the prophetic nature of Purim and even stated in 1944 that if the Nazi's were defeated, the Jews would celebrate a second Purim.7 Therefore, it appears that the Nazi war criminals could indeed be Haman's ten future sons! And amazingly, at least one of those Nazi sons of Haman must have known of this connection as well. It is recorded that Julius Streicher screamed, "Purim Fest 1946!" shortly before he was hung on that fateful day!8
So, in light of these facts, I definetly believe that Esther's request is indeed a prophecy! But, could there be even more hidden things in this controversial book? Could there be another pattern that the Lord wishes for us to discover as we dig for His hidden treasure? Please read "The Book of Esther: A Gulf War Connection?" to find out!