October 11, 2009
Scripture:
Scripture:
Scripture:
Prayer
Hymn 308 – I love to hear the story
Prayer
Esther 7
As we’ve been seeing, this book shows what will happen in the future. This chapter shows what will happen after the Appearing.
Now we read in the last chapter that this man, Haman, had built a gallows to hang Mordecai on. Haman is a type of the Antichrist, while Mordecai is a type of Jesus Christ. This is a shadow of the conflict that there will be between Jesus and the Antichrist. We also read how Haman had to parade Mordecai through the streets on the king’s horse. Here we see a picture of the Lord’s Appearing. However, when He comes He won’t begin to reign immediately. First, He will have to take care of the Antichrist, who will be thrown into the bottomless pit.
So now we go to Esther’s second banquet. Again, the king and Haman come; and again the king asks Esther, “What is your desire?” If you look through the book of Esther, you will see that this is the third time that the king is asking this question. Now, before this time, Esther hadn’t told anyone that she was a Jew. Vv. 4, 5. You see, by this time, the king had come to love Esther. Vv. 6 - 10. So this is the end of Haman.
Again, this story is a type of Jesus appearing after the Tribulation and dealing with the Antichrist. But as we read this, we can see God working behind the scenes, even though He isn’t mentioned at all. God works in our lives too, and we can be sure that all bad experiences are for our good. We read in Samuel that those that honour God, God will honour. We must serve Him, or there will be no reward for us. And it doesn’t have to be big things; God is just as pleased when we do small things for Him.
In v. 3, Nehemiah commanded that the gate of Jerusalem be kept shut until the sun was up. Everyone who was admitted to Jerusalem was admitted in full light. Often, evil goes on in the dark: “men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). They built the wall so that they could keep Jerusalem pure; they didn’t want to give the enemy an opportunity to get in. You’ll find as you go through Bible history that the infiltration of evil is a very real thing. We need to preserve truth and holiness. How important that the sunlight of God’s word be shone on anything that comes into our lives. And as parents, we must be the doorkeepers of our homes: what do we allow in? It must be subjected to the light of God’s word.
V. 4: We saw while looking at Esther how not too many Jews return to Jerusalem; we saw in Ezra how they built the foundation of the temple and the altar; but then they stopped. We find out why in Haggai 1:2 – 5. They didn’t think it was time to build the Lord’s house; they wanted to build their own homes. But that was about 80 years before this time in Nehemiah; right now, they still didn’t have all their houses put together.
Read v. 5; Now, God prompts Nehemiah to gather the people together to take a record of who was there. We’re given the record of those that came at first, a record that Nehemiah found. This is almost the same as the record given in Ezra. It’s interesting to note that most of the time, they are listed as families: “the children of … ” We can see a number of different groups in this list: the priests (v. 29), the singers (v. 44), the porters (v. 45) and the Nethanims (v. 46).
We often wonder why lists like this are included; they were of utmost importance to the Jews. They had to know their lineage. We too should know that our names are written down in an important place: the book of life.
Hymn 103 – Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Prayer