Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
I do have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com. I do post prophetic dreams, visions, words (sometimes we do not always understand them ourselves and some are coming to pass). The audios and transcripts are also posted; ancientscrollsonline.com.
Shema Deuteronomy 6
Shema, O Israel, the LORD God, the LORD is One.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Numbers 10:35, Psalm 68:1
Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered; and let those who hate You flee before you.
Father YHVH,
You are the King of the universe, king over heaven and earth. The kingdoms of the earth belong to You and Your Son, Yeshua. Your mercy endures throughout all generations. We pray that Your righteousness and justice and Your glory will fill the earth.
Place within Your remnant (the bride of Yeshua) the desires of Your heart so that they may follow them and pray for Your will to be done in the earth. We are not going to pray against your will, but pray that You will remember Your righteous people and have mercy upon them. Circumcise our hearts and prepare us for the arrival of Your Son, Yeshua, and that our garments will be free from spot, blemish and wrinkle. Place within us courage and boldness to face down the enemies who hate You in this hour and the days and years to come.
We thank You for Your Word. We bless Your holy name. In Yeshua’s name.
Alright, the new year takes off with a new CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Commander in Chief Biden, and Kamala Harris. There is no misunderstanding, we are continuing in the wrong direction. I would love to see this nation live and thrive, but sometimes the CCP makes the choice of death for us. The greatest foundation laid for our nation was the Bible and the Constitution to guarantee us specific freedoms that would not be infringed, but the Chinese Mao government has been most successful in transforming this nation into a regime similar to their own dragon nation who are the persecutors of God and His people.
This is where we are with choices some of us did not make. I do not have complete understanding of where we are going next. My husband and I discuss many scenarios. I do know currently we are in persecution under the new CCP administration with Christian and conservative voices being censored and issued threats of re-education camps. The censorship is not going to stop. Soon the CCP will make it a crime to possess Bibles. I do not know how much longer I will be on the program as the persecution increases, but I will stay on as long as I can. You all do know that Christian programs will be eventually forced off radio stations and TV.
The LORD told us to not fear, and the Word told us to be overcomers.
So, obviously the nation has been going through a shaking for a year and it is not over yet. The church is going to go through a great shaking as the persecution ramps up. The FBI is investigating an explosion at the First Works Baptist church in El Monte, CA. The Pastor Mejia’s message of repentance has not been well received by the community there. 15,000 signatures have been gathered to push him out of the city. The pastor did say this attack would not deter him from preaching that sin is sin.
As I was thinking on these things I began to think about Esther, in the book of Esther and that she serves as a type of church. So, I thought we would take a look at the characters in the story, and the plot of it and see what we may be able to dig out of it. To begin with her name means ‘star.’ She was an orphan who was raised by her cousin Mordecai, she was his uncle’s daughter. Esther 2: 5 speaks they were from the tribe of Benjamin. This will prove to be interesting later on.
They were exiled after the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon. They were free to return to Israel, but would not, and he chose to live in one of the provinces under the direction of Persian Empire. As the story goes Esther is required to enter a beauty pageant by decree of the king, Ahasuerus (Aha shew err us) because he became very disappointed in Queen Vashti. So he is going to replace her with someone more suitable. Queen Vashti is the granddaughter of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Esther never reveals her Jewish roots throughout the story, until near the end of the story when persecution rises against her people from the inner circle of the king’s officials, namely Haman, a vizier or prime minister of the king, and the antagonist in the story.
Haman is called an Agagite which seems to denote that he was descended from the royal family of the Amalekites, the bitterest enemies of the Jews. It is suggested that Agag was a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, just as Pharaoh was designated the appellation for royalty.
In I Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel, who anointed King Saul to be king over Israel, gave him a word from the LORD to utterly destroy the Amalekites, every one of them with the inclusion of their animals. God saw in the future that a descendent of the Amalekites would destroy the Jews. King Saul went to war but spared Agag and the best of the herds. The sages say that King Agag’s wife was pregnant and was able to make a way of escape. From her descendants came Haman. The LORD was greatly displeased with Saul for allowing Agag to live and rejected him as king. What the King Saul could not do, that is, slay Agag, Samuel did. He called for Agag and he hacked him to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.
King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin who allowed King Agag to live. Mordecai and Esther were descendants of King Saul; as I said earlier, they were also from the tribe of Benjamin.
In the story of Esther some conflict arose between Haman and Mordecai because Mordecai would not bow to him. The sages say Haman wore an image, or an idol (we see this in the end of days, the image of the beast), on his clothing and to make obeisance to Haman was also to acknowledge the idol as well. Because Mordecai would not prostrate himself Haman developed animosity toward him. From this, came evil machinations of annihilating the Jews.
Mordecai would go to the king’s gate daily, and the king’s servants would ask Mordecai why he would not pay homage to Haman. They applied pressure to have Mordecai conform but he would not. At some point he does tell them that he is a Jew, and so they tell Haman. Esther 3:3-6
Esther, was a virgin so she was under the custody of a eunuch whose name was Hegai (Hay-gay). It is a Persian name and means “eunuch.” The custom in ancient days was to castrate youths and put them as officials and servants in the court because of king’s the harem. After she was intimate with the king, she came under the charge of another eunuch named Shaashgaz. He was in charge of the concubines. His name means ‘he that presses the fleece, or shears the sheep.’
The word tells us that it was the eunuchs that threw Jezebel out of her chamber window at Jehu’s command. The tolerance of Jezebel was over, and this action was able to bring into existence reformation, of returning to the foundational principles of God. II Kings 9. It was a eunuch, Ebed-Melek, that made appeals to King Zedekiah to have the prophet Jeremiah delivered from the miry dungeon of the king’s son. Jeremiah 38. The prophet Daniel was a eunuch and his three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Interestingly, in Acts 8, an Ethiopian Eunuch who had gone to worship in Jerusalem was returning home when Philip caught up with him and expounded the scriptures. He was a man of great authority under Queen Candace. He carried the gospel back to the Ethiopia.
Isaiah 56:3-5 3Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying: “The LORD will utterly separate me from His people’; and let not the eunuch (barren)one say: ‘Behold I am a shriveled tree.’ 4For thus says the LORD to the barren ones who observe My Sabbaths and chose what I desire, and grasp My covenant tightly: In My house and within My walls I will give them a place of honor and renown, which is better than sons and daughters; eternal renown will I give each one, which will never be terminated. The Milstein Edition Isaiah translation.
And not only are the eunuchs memorialized in the Father’s House but also in the Word. The eunuchs who threw Jezebel out the window; the eunuch, Ebed-Melek, his name means servant of the King, who pleaded for Jeremiah. The eunuchs in charge over Esther. The Ethiopian Eunuch. They are remembered already.
I am going to go somewhere just briefly to tie some things together concerning the characters from the tribe of Benjamin.
Some of you may remember when Absalom took the throne of his father King David. King David and his house fled with great urgency thinking Absalom would put the whole city to the sword. On their way they came to Bahurim and a certain fellow, named Shimei from the house of King Saul (Benjamin) came and pelted King David with stones, and cursing him as he went along. Clearly, he held grudges against King David because of his relative King Saul. Abishai, the servant of David, wanted to kill him, but King David replied: “So let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, Curse David. See how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite. Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the LORD has ordered him.” On that day King David showed mercy to Shimei when his servants wanted to slay him and would have had not Kind David intervened.
This story really has a twist. King Saul, a Benjamite, was not obedient and allowed Agag to live. During his being held, he was allowed to cohabitate with his wife and she conceived. She escaped, later gave birth, and because of this, generations later, Haman comes into existence to destroy the Jews. Though King Saul is the blame for this misfortune to come upon the Jews years later in the story of Esther, it is also from his house (Benjamin), his descendants from Shimei that Mordecai and Esther arrive to destroy Haman.
When you read the story of Esther it is noticed that God is concealed. A question would be why is God not making Himself obvious in the story, for He moves upon prophets, seers and dreamers. None of these are seen in the story. Why is God concealed in the story? It is because He is going to be revealed through Esther, who is a type of church. In this story she is the one who is loved by the king and she is the one who exposes the true villain and his machinations to not just destroy the Jews, but also, king’s wife, his love, the queen. She is the one who helps bring the downfall of Haman and his plans.
Haman, is a type of antichrist, beast system, hater of YHVH and Jews. Mordecai, who is at times a type of church does not bow or prostrate himself before the beast, nor the image, he will not commit idolatry. The church, the true church, in these end days will not bow to the beast, or the beast system. They will not bow to the image.
Haman in the story prepares all sorts of deaths for the Jews, yet does not see his own demise, his own destruction, nor that of his ten sons. He thinks the plans he carefully constructed will be successful and he has in his snare the hated Jews. He has the King on his side, the military, the citizens. He has the Final Solution to the Jewish problem, like Hitler thought he had also. But he was hanged from the gallows he built for Mordecai.
As we get into the story in chapter 4 when Mordecai learns of the death sentence proclaimed against the Jews, he cries out with a loud voice in the midst of the city. He dresses in sackcloth; Esther sends him more regal clothing but is unable to accept them. A eunuch acts as a messenger between Mordecai and Esther and she learns of the terrible decree to slaughter the Jews. Mordecai presses her to speak to the king, but she had not been called by the king for thirty days and to go into the inner court without the king’s permission may result in her death, unless he holds out his golden scepter and grants her life.
Mordecai sends answer: “Do not think in our heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther responds that everyone must fast and not drink water for three days and that she would go to the king and if she perishes, she perishes.
Now is not the time for the church to be silent. It is for such a time as this that the church has come into the kingdom; and if we perish, we perish.
Chapter 5, on the third day Esther (this is the third day of her fast) she puts on her royal clothing and stands in the inner court of the king’s palace. Verse 2. So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther, standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. Verse 3. And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom.
If the current status of persecution ramps up, the LORD will exhibit favor on His people by granting them life; those who dare come into the inner court of the king.
Okay I am at the end of the program.
When we come to the end of the story of Esther, she is able to reveal to King Ahasuerus who the evil beast really is. It is not the Jewish people; it is the evil Haman. The decree to annihilate the Jews included Esther as well. She petitions the king for her life and those of her people as well. All this stuns the king, and Haman is left speechless. When the king leaves to gather his thoughts, in his absence, Haman falls upon the couch with Esther (who represents the church) and makes petitions for his life to be spared. Upon the king’s return, it looks as if Haman is sexually assaulting his wife.
Haman, the beast/antichrist is taken away and hanged on his own gallows that he had constructed at his house for Mordecai.
In chapter 9:10-14, the ten sons of Haman, which represent ten kings in Revelation 13:1, were also hanged.
The end of the beast/antichrist is told from the beginning. God has spoken it and will it not be performed?
Isaiah 14:24
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.
Isaiah 46:10 I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.I have purposed, so shall it stand:
If it be God’s will I will have a teaching next week. So, have a good week, remember to walk by faith and not by sight; keep your spiritual garments clean from blemishes, spots and wrinkles, ask God to cleanse you of all unrighteousness every day, remain in His service, Love God and love your neighbor.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.
Apologetics Press – How Could Haman Be a Descendant of King Agag?
Additions to the Book of Esther (pseudepigrapha.com)
AddEsth.11
[2] In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream. [3] He was a Jew, dwelling in the city of Susa, a great man, serving in the court of the king. [4] He was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had brought from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judea. And this was his dream: [5] Behold, noise and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth! [6] And behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly. [7] And at their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against the nation of the righteous. [8] And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth! [9] And the whole righteous nation was troubled; they feared the evils that threatened them, and were ready to perish. [10] Then they cried to God; and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river, with abundant water; [11] light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor. [12] Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind and sought all day to understand it in every detail.
AddEsth.12
[1] Now Mordecai took his rest in the courtyard with Gabatha and Tharra, the two eunuchs of the king who kept watch in the courtyard. [2] He overheard their conversation and inquired into their purposes, and learned that they were preparing to lay hands upon Artaxerxes the king; and he informed the king concerning them. [3] Then the king examined the two eunuchs, and when they confessed they were led to execution. [4] The king made a permanent record of these things, and Mordecai wrote an account of them. [5] And the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the court and rewarded him for these things. [6] But Haman, the son of Hammedatha, a Bougaean, was in great honor with the king, and he sought to injure Mordecai and his people because of the two eunuchs of the king.
AddEsth.13
[1] This is a copy of the letter: “The Great King, Artaxerxes, to the rulers of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia and to the governors under them, writes thus: [2] “Having become ruler of many nations and master of the whole world, not elated with presumption of authority but always acting reasonably and with kindness, I have determined to settle the lives of my subjects in lasting tranquillity and, in order to make my kingdom peaceable and open to travel throughout all its extent, to re-establish the peace which all men desire. [3] “When I asked my counselors how this might be accomplished, Haman, who excels among us in sound judgment, and is distinguished for his unchanging good will and steadfast fidelity, and has attained the second place in the kingdom, [4] pointed out to us that among all the nations in the world there is scattered a certain hostile people, who have laws contrary to those of every nation and continually disregard the ordinances of the kings, so that the unifying of the kingdom which we honorably intend cannot be brought about. [5] We understand that this people, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to all men, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws, and is ill-disposed to our government, doing all the harm they can so that our kingdom may not attain stability. [6] “Therefore we have decreed that those indicated to you in the letters of Haman, who is in charge of affairs and is our second father, shall all, with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, without pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of this present year, [7] so that those who have long been and are now hostile may in one day go down in violence to Hades, and leave our government completely secure and untroubled hereafter.” [8] Then Mordecai prayed to the Lord, calling to remembrance all the works of the Lord. He said: [9] “O Lord, Lord, King who rulest over all things, for the universe is in thy power and there is no one who can oppose thee if it is thy will to save Israel. [10] For thou hast made heaven and earth and every wonderful thing under heaven, [11] and thou art Lord of all, and there is no one who can resist thee, who art the Lord. [12] Thou knowest all things; thou knowest, O Lord, that it was not in insolence or pride or for any love of glory that I did this, and refused to bow down to this proud Haman. [13] For I would have been willing to kiss the soles of his feet, to save Israel! [14] But I did this, that I might not set the glory of man above the glory of God, and I will not bow down to any one but to thee, who art my Lord; and I will not do these things in pride. [15] And now, O Lord God and King, God of Abraham, spare thy people; for the eyes of our foes are upon us to annihilate us, and they desire to destroy the inheritance that has been thine from the beginning. [16] Do not neglect thy portion, which thou didst redeem for thyself out of the land of Egypt. [17] Hear my prayer, and have mercy upon thy inheritance turn our mourning into feasting, that we may live and sing praise to thy name, O Lord; do not destroy the mouth of those who praise thee.” [18] And all Israel cried out mightily, for their death was before their eyes.
AddEsth.14
[1] And Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord; [2] she took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body, and every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. [3] And she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: Lord, thou only art our King; help me, who am alone and have no helper but thee, [4] for my danger is in my hand. [5] Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that thou, O Lord, didst take Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers from among all their ancestors, for an everlasting inheritance, and that thou didst do for them all that thou didst promise. [6] And now we have sinned before thee, and thou hast given us into the hands of our enemies, [7] because we glorified their gods. Thou art righteous, O Lord! [8] And now they are not satisfied that we are in bitter slavery, but they have covenanted with their idols [9] to abolish what thy mouth has ordained and to destroy thy inheritance, to stop the mouths of those who praise thee and to quench thy altar and the glory of thy house, [10] to open the mouths of the nations for the praise of vain idols, and to magnify for ever a mortal king. [11] O Lord, do not surrender thy scepter to what has no being; and do not let them mock at our downfall; but turn their plan against themselves, and make an example of the man who began this against us. [12] Remember, O Lord; make thyself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! [13] Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. [14] But save us by thy hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but thee, O Lord. [15] Thou hast knowledge of all things; and thou knowest that I hate the splendor of the wicked and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien. [16] Thou knowest my necessity — that I abhor the sign of my proud position, which is upon my head on the days when I appear in public. I abhor it like a menstruous rag, and I do not wear it on the days when I am at leisure. [17] And thy servant has not eaten at Haman’s table, and I have not honored the king’s feast or drunk the wine of the libations. [18] Thy servant has had no joy since the day that I was brought here until now, except in thee, O Lord God of Abraham. [19] O God, whose might is over all, hear the voice of the despairing, and save us from the hands of evildoers. And save me from my fear!”
AddEsth.15
[1] On the third day, when she ended her prayer, she took off the garments in which she had worshiped, and arrayed herself in splendid attire. [2] Then, majestically adorned, after invoking the aid of the all-seeing God and Savior, she took her two maids with her, [3] leaning daintily on one, [4] while the other followed carrying her train. [5] She was radiant with perfect beauty, and she looked happy, as if beloved, but her heart was frozen with fear. [6] When she had gone through all the doors, she stood before the king. He was seated on his royal throne, clothed in the full array of his majesty, all covered with gold and precious stones. And he was most terrifying. [7] Lifting his face, flushed with splendor, he looked at her in fierce anger. And the queen faltered, and turned pale and faint, and collapsed upon the head of the maid who went before her. [8] Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, and in alarm he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms until she came to herself. And he comforted her with soothing words, and said to her, [9] “What is it, Esther? I am your brother. Take courage; [10] you shall not die, for our law applies only to the people. Come near.” [11] Then he raised the golden scepter and touched it to her neck; [12] and he embraced her, and said, “Speak to me.” [13] And she said to him, “I saw you, my lord, like an angel of God and my heart was shaken with fear at your glory. [14] For you are wonderful, my lord, and your countenance is full of grace.” [15] But as she was speaking, she fell fainting. [16] And the king was agitated, and all his servants sought to comfort her.
AddEsth.16
[1] The following is a copy of this letter: “The Great King, Artaxerxes, to the rulers of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven satrapies, and to those who are loyal to our government, greeting. [2] “The more often they are honored by the too great kindness of their benefactors, the more proud do many men become. [3] They not only seek to injure our subjects, but in their inability to stand prosperity they even undertake to scheme against their own benefactors. [4] They not only take away thankfulness from among men, but, carried away by the boasts of those who know nothing of goodness, they suppose that they will escape the evil-hating justice of God, who always sees everything. [5] And often many of those who are set in places of authority have been made in part responsible for the shedding of innocent blood, and have been involved in irremediable calamities, by the persuasion of friends who have been entrusted with the administration of public affairs, [6] when these men by the false trickery of their evil natures beguile the sincere good will of their sovereigns. [7] “What has been wickedly accomplished through the pestilent behavior of those who exercise authority unworthily, can be seen not so much from the more ancient records which we hand on as from investigation of matters close at hand. [8] For the future we will take care to render our kingdom quiet and peaceable for all men, [9] by changing our methods and always judging what comes before our eyes with more equitable consideration. [10] For Haman, the son of Hammedatha, a Macedonian (really an alien to the Persian blood, and quite devoid of our kindliness), having become our guest, [11] so far enjoyed the good will that we have for every nation that he was called our father and was continually bowed down to by all as the person second to the royal throne. [12] But, unable to restrain his arrogance, he undertook to deprive us of our kingdom and our life, [13] and with intricate craft and deceit asked for the destruction of Mordecai, our savior and perpetual benefactor, and of Esther, the blameless partner of our kingdom, together with their whole nation. [14] He thought that in this way he would find us undefended and would transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians. [15] “But we find that the Jews, who were consigned to annihilation by this thrice accursed man, are not evildoers but are governed by most righteous laws [16] and are sons of the Most High, the most mighty living God, who has directed the kingdom both for us and for our fathers in the most excellent order. [17] “You will therefore do well not to put in execution the letters sent by Haman the son of Hammedatha, [18] because the man himself who did these things has been hanged at the gate of Susa, with all his household. For God, who rules over all things, has speedily inflicted on him the punishment he deserved. [19] “Therefore post a copy of this letter publicly in every place, and permit the Jews to live under their own laws. [20] And give them reinforcements, so that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, on that very day they may defend themselves against those who attack them at the time of their affliction. [21] For God, who rules over all things, has made this day to be a joy to his chosen people instead of a day of destruction for them. [22] “Therefore you shall observe this with all good cheer as a notable day among your commemorative festivals, [23] so that both now and hereafter it may mean salvation for us and the loyal Persians, but that for those who plot against us it may be a reminder of destruction. [24] “Every city and country, without exception, which does not act accordingly, shall be destroyed in wrath with spear and fire. It shall be made not only impassable for men, but also most hateful for all time to beasts and birds.”
AddEsth.10
[1] And Mordecai said, “These things have come from God. [2] For I remember the dream that I had concerning these matters, and none of them has failed to be fulfilled. [3] The tiny spring which became a river, and there was light and the sun and abundant water — the river is Esther, whom the king married and made queen. [4] The two dragons are Haman and myself. [5] The nations are those that gathered to destroy the name of the Jews. [6] And my nation, this is Israel, who cried out to God and were saved. The Lord has saved his people; the Lord has delivered us from all these evils; God has done great signs and wonders, which have not occurred among the nations. [7] For this purpose he made two lots, one for the people of God and one for all the nations. [8] And these two lots came to the hour and moment and day of decision before God and among all the nations. [9] And God remembered his people and vindicated his inheritance. [10] So they will observe these days in the month of Adar, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of that month, with an assembly and joy and gladness before God, from generation to generation for ever among his people Israel.”
AddEsth.11
[1] In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and Ptolemy his son brought to Egypt the preceeding Letter of Purim, which they said was genuine and had been translated by Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy, one of the residents of Jerusalem.
