Amalekites Among Us, Part 3

Praise the Lord and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Otz thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

I'm excited to bring you today's program, Amalekites Among Us, Tracing God's Arch Enemy. Let's look at verse 16. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me.

And neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also in my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law, it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish. Amen.

So she said, all right, uncle, I hear you. I will do what you say, but do me this favor. Send word out to all the Jews in the city of Shushan.

For the next three days, neither eat nor drink. That's fast and pray and I'll fast and pray here in the palace with my maidens. And after that, I will go before the king.

And whatever happens, if it means my death, so be it. Amen. And so when the time came at the third day, she dressed in her most beautiful royal apparel. She was beautified when she went before the king and she came walking into the throne room of the king unsummoned and unexpected. And when he saw her, when he laid eyes on this beautiful woman who probably was trembling from having not eaten in three days.

Amen. And trembling because her very life was on the line and trembling because the lives of thousands of her Jewish people were on the line and trembling because the Spirit of God was upon her. She was not alone. The Spirit of God was with her in that moment to give her favor. And just like God gave her favor with the king when she showed up during the beauty pageant, he looked at her and extended the golden scepter and she reached out and touched it on the top.

Amen. And so when that happened, he said to her, what is it, Esther? What is it that you want? What did you come here for? I mean, he obviously knew it had to be very important for her to literally risk her life to come unsummoned, something she had never done before.

I mean, come on. He got rid of Vashti because she didn't come when he called her. Now she's coming and he didn't call her. How did she know she would have favor?

But he knew it had to be very, very serious. And so he says, what is it that you want? What's your petition?

I'll grant it to you. And she said, this is my petition. I want you and Haman to come to a banquet that I have prepared for you. Now, folks, this is faith.

I said, this is faith. She already had the banquet prepared. It was prepared. Her people, her maidens, all of those who took care of her, they were putting the tablecloth on the table. They were putting the napkins on the table. They were putting the wine glasses on the table. They had everything ready.

Amen. And she had already prepared. She believed that when she asked him if you will come that he was going to come. And so he said, OK. And they had to hastily send out word to find Haman and tell him to hurry and come, come, come, come to the feast that the queen is prepared for you and the king. And so that is faith there that she already had it prepared. So they come and she has this lavish feast prepared for them.

And they have a beautiful, wonderful evening. And finally, the king says, but Esther, come on now, what is it you really want, hon? What is it you're asking me? Whatever it is, I'll give it to you to the half of my kingdom. Wow. That's brave. That's brave. You're going to tell her I'll give you whatever you want to the half of my kingdom. But he knew she didn't have a covetous, greedy heart.

And so he trusted that she had something else on her mind. Amen. And what did she say? She said, if it pleases the king and I found favor in your sight, would you come back tomorrow night for dinner? You and Haman, I want to prepare you another feast and I promise you that tomorrow night I will tell you what it is I desire.

Amen. So he said, fine, we'll do that. Can you imagine how big Haman's head is now? He's going home. He's so elated. He can't wait to get home and tell his wife and his 10 sons that he and only him was invited to have dinner with the king and the queen. And not only that, he was invited to come back tomorrow night and have dinner again. He could not wait to get home.

He was hopping and skipping and running. But his joy was short lived because on the way he passed that Mordecai the Jew. And he was not bowing down. And Haman was so aggravated about that.

Amen. Let's read chapter 5 verse 9. Then when Haman forth that day joyful with a glad heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he stood not up nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.

Nevertheless, Haman refrained himself. And when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and his wife. So he was so vexed. I mean his joy for that moment. But he thought, no, no, I don't have time for this right now.

I got to get home and tell my wife and everybody all the good things that are happening to me. And that's exactly what he did. He got home. He was so excited beside himself. His wife says calm down. What's going on? What happened? And he proceeded to tell her.

And not only that, he went back and rehearsed everything. I am the prince above all princes. I am the king's right hand man. I have all these riches and glory that he's given me.

And on top of all of that now, the queen thinks I'm special. And he was so delighted. And so they had this great wonderful time. And so that night, Haman went to bed with visions of banquet and wonderful things in his head. But in the palace, the king could not sleep. He got a case of divine insomnia and he could not sleep. And what do you do when you can't sleep?

You get a book and you start reading it because usually if you start reading, you'll fall asleep. And so the king sent for his servants and said, go to the library and pick out one of the books of the chronicles of all the events that are recorded of the king and come and read to me. And so they did. And all night long, they're reading, they're reading and the king is still awake and they're reading.

But they come to this one event that caught his attention. And it was about the time that two of his chamberlains had plotted to kill him and how that Mordecai, the Jew who sat at the gate had overheard it and had advised the palace and sent the word and that they had got the two men and investigated, found out it was true and it hung them. And he said to his servants, well, what great honor did we do for Mordecai for doing this thing that he saved my life?

I don't remember. What did we do for him? And they said, we didn't do anything for him.

He said, well, that's not right. We've got to honor him because of him. He saved my life. We can't let this go. We've got to honor him. What shall we do? I know I'll ask Haman what he thinks we ought to do.

He's my right hand guy. He'll know what to do. And it just so happened at that very time, Haman is hardly coming to the castle because his wife and his friends had told him, you want to get over this Jew?

You need to get rid of him once and for all. You need to build a gallow and hang him on it. But he knew he had to get permission first from the king.

Right? Now, would the king turn him down to kill one Jew when he was going to kill all the Jews? He knew it was just a formality. Go tell the king. So he's coming in to tell the king that he has decided he's going to hang Mordecai because he's not obeying the king's commandment to reverence him and bow down. And before he could get the words out of his mouth, the king says, you're just the guy I want to see.

I want to ask you your opinion. What should be done for a man whom the king delights in and wants to greatly honor? And Haman said, oh, I tell you what you should do.

Because of course he thought he was talking about him. He said, I think you should give him your royal apparel, one of your royal robes, and put it on him. And I think you should put your crown on him and you should let him be put upon your royal horse and led through the city while someone goes before him and says, this is the man whom the king wants to honor. And the king said, that's a swell idea.

Go out and do it to Mordecai. Honestly, I don't know how Haman held it together. I don't know how he held it together, folks.

He had to do that. I mean, does God have poetical justice or what? I mean, God is up there.

He's like chess and he's like, OK, do your little thing because I got this move. Amen. And God always turns the tables. And I know I'm telling you a lot of history and we're enjoying it, but there's a spiritual message here, too, saints. If God before you can be against you, if God is on your side, everybody can be against you.

But you're going to come out on top because God will turn the tables around every time. Amen. And so that's what happened. So in the midst of all this now, this all happened the day the day that would be the evening. He had to go back for the second feast.

Amen. And so now he goes home and he tells his wife, he's got to get ready, you know, get off, get a shower, get cleaned up to go to the dinner. And he told his wife, I cannot believe what just happened.

I cannot believe. What what did the king say about you hanging him? He says, oh, I never even got to tell him. And he told her the story. He told his wife the story of how that he had to do all of this for Mordecai. And when his wife heard this now, let me tell you something. This had to be the voice of God speaking through his wife. Read Chapter six, verse 13. And Haman told Zarech his wife and all his friends, everything that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zarech his wife unto him.

Oh, my goodness. Listen to these words. If Mordecai be the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall. Thou shall not prevail against him, but thou shall surely fall before him. I mean, they knew they recognized even the devil recognizes that once you begin to fall before the Jews.

You're not going to prevail. Amen. I mean, Hitler believed that they had to be eradicated out of Europe. He believed that. And that's why he came up with a final solution. And six million of them were killed in the death camps. A lot of people don't know.

But his scientists were very close. They had already tested some missiles that they had that they could reach New York City because he believed that New York City is run by the Jews. Wall Street is run by the Jews and the largest population of Jews outside of what? Because Israel wasn't a nation then.

Understand that, don't you? They weren't a nation. They came after World War Two. And the largest nucleus of Jews was in New York City, outside of Europe. And so he had these missiles that he was going to going to shoot them folks at the skyscrapers and towers of New York City around Wall Street. A lot of people don't know that.

You watch your History Channel, you'll learn a lot of things. He was bent on eradicating Jews off the face of the earth. Amen. And so they told him, once you begin to fall before, if he's truly a Jew of the seat of the Jews, and now things are going downhill fast, there's no way you can prevail. Amen. While they're talking, here comes the people from the palace saying, come on, you got to go. It's time to go for dinner. Let's get here. Let's get in here and go. So they went to the dinner, the second night of the great dinner with Esther, the queen, and Ahasuerus, the king.

Amen. And so while they're having dinner, the king says, now Esther, I know there's something on your mind that you want. Now what is it? So she spoke. She said, king, let me plead for myself and let me plead for my people.

We have been sold to be utterly destroyed, to be killed. And the king said, who is he that dares to presume to do such a thing? Where is he?

This is the word I'm telling you straight from the Bible right here. Where is he? The adversary Haman.

He's the enemy of the Jews. I bet you Haman swallowed a whole turkey leg. The king was so enraged, he was speechless. He threw down his napkin.

He got up and he just fled out of the room into the gardens. I guess he was thinking, I can't believe this. I cannot believe this has happened. This Haman?

All this stuff that he's been doing. The king finally got himself together. Meanwhile, Haman starts pleading to Esther for his life. Spare me, oh, thou wonderful queen.

I didn't mean you no harm. And he's pleading for his life. And about that time, the king comes back in the room and there by this time, Haman has actually fallen onto the couch where the queen is sitting. And when the king saw that, he says, are you going to try to force my wife to in my own house? And he called for his men. They came and the Bible says they covered Haman's face.

When you cover somebody's face, you're getting ready to put them in the Haman's noose. And his people were glad to tell the king, and by the way, Haman has built the gallow to hang Mordecai. And the king says, go hang Haman on his own scaffold. Go hang him on his own gallow.

I mean, does God know how to turn it around on the devil? And then he gave all the wealth of Haman's house to Queen Esther and the ring that was on Haman's finger, he put on Mordecai. And he promoted Mordecai to prime minister.

Now we could end the story here. We could say, oh, hallelujah, wonderful, Haman's dead. The problem is the edict to kill all the Jews on the 13th of Adar is out there and cannot be reversed.

And Esther began to plead with the king. She says, please, please reverse this law. Please reverse this law. The king said, hun, I can't. I cannot. I would to God I could, but it's not possible.

It cannot be reversed. But I'll tell you what I will do. I'll do this. We will send word out through the whole nation, all the provinces, that the Jews are allowed to defend themselves. And that if anybody comes to harm them, they're to fight back.

That much I can do. Amen. And so the word went out and that's exactly what happened when the day came. The Jews were out there to defend themselves and they began to slay those that came against them. But there are some verses in here that are absolutely incredible that I like to see. Chapter nine, verse one says, the day that the enemies of the Jews hope to have power over them, though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them. So God says he'll turn it around. Verse two says, and when they came to lay hands on such assault, they're hurt. No man could withstand them for the fear of them fell upon the people.

And it even says that some of the people converted to Judaism because they saw how that their God fought for them. And so they began to slay all these people. They actually slew outside of the city of Shushan through the whole nation. They slew the Jews, slew seventy five thousand people who came to kill them in the city of Shushan. They killed five hundred people. Actually, I should say five hundred and ten. And the reason I say that is because the ten sons of Haman. Now, I want you to look at this with me.

This is very important. Chapter nine. Let's look at verse six. And in Shushan, the palace, the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. Now he's going to name each and every one of Haman's ten sons.

Are you ready? OK. And son number one and son number two and son number three and son number four and son number five and six and seven and eight and nine and ten. How many like how good I read those names? I'm telling you, folks, I practiced and I gave up.

I'd still be on son number two. And so it names every one of these. And it says that, you know, I should have backed up one a couple of verses. But anyway, it says that they were all of these they killed in Shushan, says in verse five, they smote all of them with the stroke of the sword. So that's how they killed the five hundred and ten in Shushan. OK, so obviously Haman's sons were killed by the sword.

But let's read on and see what happens. So now the king comes to tell Esther what has happened and he reports to her personally about all the ones that were killed. And he tells her that Haman's ten sons were killed. And look what Esther says in verse 13. Then said Esther, if it pleased the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan tomorrow. Also, according unto this day's decree. And let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

I mean, we already read the guys were killed by the sword. So why does she want them hung on the gallows? Because she wants to make a public display. She wants any secret enemies that still might be out there breeding anti-Semitic hatred.

She wants them to see this is what happens to Agagites and Amalekites who come against the children of God that rise up against the Jewish people. But, folks, there is something so incredible in here. I want you to pay attention.

This is very important. Get your juices flowing because if I would have read you all those names, which I cannot pronounce, there's no way I can. But here's something that's a secret thing in the Hebrew scroll written in Hebrew. Name one, name seven and name ten. Each one of those names has a single letter in the name that is written in a smaller point size than the rest of the letters.

Okay, let me tell you. You're writing the name Sharon in all caps. All caps, S-H-A-R-O-N.

But let's say we're doing it in 12 point size, which is your normal book size print. But when you get to the letter A, you make the letter A about an eight. So you've got S-H, big, small a, big R-O-N. When you look at that, that A is going to jump out at you. And you're going to say, they made a mistake. You need to go back and fix that.

Okay, that's what I'm saying. Name one, name seven and name ten each have one letter in the name that is a small point size. There is no grammatical reason for it. There is no reason for it.

The only reason could be for some reason you're supposed to let that jump out at you and say, what does that mean? Now I've told you before that the 22 letters of the Hebrew aleph bet have a numerical value. And what are these three letters that are in these three names? Tet is worth 400. Shin is worth 300. Zine is worth seven.

You add it together, you come up with 707. Now the Hebrew calendar, I'm talking about the Hebrew calendar, not the calendar the whole world goes by. On the calendar we all go by, right now we're in the year 20.

Amen, 2015. But the Hebrews are not in that. They're in their own calendar.

And their calendars, when I say Hebrews, I mean the ritual, the religious, not what the world does, starts with a five. Now how many know if we want to date something like today, we would just put down and we're in a hurry. We just write down 3.08.15. Do we bother to put the 20 in? No. We all know it's 20.

We don't need to do it. It's the same way with them. They don't bother to put the first number in, which is five. It's understood that it's five. Okay? So if we add the five onto the 707, we come up with 5707. How many are with me so far?

You say, why do I care? If you translate 5707 into the modern calendar, you come up with the year 1946. And on October the 16th, 1946, in Nuremberg, Germany, at the trials of the Nazi war criminals who were tried for all the atrocities that they did against the Jews, the verdict was given they are to be hung. And 11 men were to be hung on that day at the same time on the gallows. But the night before, because the Nazis gave this to all of their top men, secret little cylinders of cyanide. Sometimes they hid them in their tooth.

They had all places where they could hide them so that if they were ever taken, they could just commit suicide. One of the guys had cyanide and he committed suicide before they could hang him. Ten guys were left to be hung. Ten guys, folks, on the gallows in 1946. And when they were being hung there, one of those men who was a vicious anti-Semitic editor who wrote magazines and such against the Jews. His name was Julius Streicher. Before they snapped it and that thing fell and before he was taken down, he yelled out, Hi Hitler! And he yelled out something else. He yelled out Purim 1946.

Purim Fest 1946. He got it. He understood. He knew about the Jewish history. He had to study it in order to write about it. And he understood and he equated the hanging of those ten men who had tried to destroy the Jews with the Agagite Haman back in the time of Esther.

And he yelled out Purim 1946 because God will have the last say. There are so many nuggets I could tell you, but I don't have the time today. But that one I wanted to give you. There's a lot of things like that.

But I said that and I'll close with this thought. This week on Tuesday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was invited. Invited by the head of the whole House of Congress to come and give a speech. Because Iran is quickly on the path to develop nuclear weapons. Remember Iran was Persia. They do not need nuclear power for anything because they got 300 years plus worth of oil. What do they need with nuclear power when they got all that oil?

They don't want it so they can heat their houses, people. They have said boldly outright, just like Hitler said it outright, that I will kill the Jews. And you know what? He made good on his word. And when that war was over and the Jews were put in their homeland, they said never again. See, they were pacifists. They went to their deaths. They went to their deaths saying, Shema Yisrael, the Lord our God is one.

Like sheep before the slaughter. But they said never again. Not next time. We will come out fighting next time.

Amen? And so he went to plead because our White House wants to continue to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Peace talks. Let me tell you what peace talks are like. Let me find something here that's not important. I don't know what I have that's not important. Okay, this is peace talks with the Iranians.

This is what you may as well do with it. That's how good it can be trusted. They will tell you anything because built into their Islamic doctrine, built in, they are allowed to lie on behalf of Islam. If it will promote Islam, they're allowed to lie to their enemy and it will not be a sin.

In fact, they will be rewarded. So they've been having peace talks all this time and while they are, Iran is getting closer and closer and closer to that bomb. Remember once before Netanyahu came and he had, he drew a red line and says, Hey, that red line, we're going to bomb them. And the White House had a fit.

And everybody said, you can't do that, you can't do that. So they backed off. Well, now Iran's only closer. And let me tell you something, the intelligence that Israel has is phenomenal.

I mean, they have intelligence. The world does not even know some of the secrets that Israel has and even secret weapons that they have. They have to, they're surrounded by 22 nations and millions and millions of people that hate them and want to wipe them off the face of the earth and have said, we will do it. So Hitler said he would do it and he did it. And now the heads of Iran said they will do it and we're all saying, well, let's sit down at the peace tables and talk about it. And Israel says, we're not talking anymore. Talk is not going to help us now. Oh, you know what he said?

In fact, it's only going to make their pathway to the bomb quicker because while you're in the peace room talking, they're in the laboratory building. And there were a lot of people that said he shouldn't have come and gave that speech, but he was invited by the head of both houses of Congress. And he paid due respect and homage as he should to our White House and to our president.

He paid the homage that a leader should pay to another one. But he said, frankly, but I disagree, I disagree. And here's the thing about it. Our lives are on the line.

If you were in my shoes, you wouldn't be talking peace talks. But then he warned, he says, but don't you think that you're safe over here in America, that the ocean is dividing us and you're safe because now they're developing missiles that can cross over the ocean and hit the eastern seaboard. They call Israel the little Satan. Guess what they call us?

The big Satan. They truly believe, Islamists truly believe that America is run by Jews, that behind the scenes the Jews are running everything. They believe that.

And so they say that they will see the flag of Islam flying over the White House. And here's the thing, and I'll close with this. But he brought up towards the end of it. Isn't it ironic that he was there on Purim? He was given this speech on Purim. You understand this?

But we just, all this I've just showed you. And he even alluded to when Esther had to go before the Gentile king. The Gentile king and beg him and plead for her people. And he was putting himself as a modern day Esther going to a Gentile White House and saying, will you help us?

I'm pleading for my people. Amen. This, here's the thing about it.

This is not a political thing as parties go. It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with God setting his word. The Jewish people are the apple of his eye. He will defend them. And he said, I'll bless them that bless you.

I'll curse them that curse you. And if America fails to stand beside Israel, then we will begin to fall. We will begin to fall. God is not going to let them wipe Israel out. It's not going to happen. It's going to get very close to it.

It's going to get very close. And Jesus is going to come riding out of heaven on a white horse. And the saints will be with him and the host of heaven.

Amen. I hope you're enjoying this intriguing teaching, Amalekites Among Us Tracing God's Arch Enemy. The Amalekites are the descendants of Ishmael, Jacob's uncle, and Esau, his twin brother, who married Ishmael's daughter.

These have proven to be Israel's worst enemies to this very day. But Amalek is also God's enemy. When Israel came out of Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness on their way to their promised land, the Amalekites not only attacked them, but went after the weakest and frailest of the people. God swore that he would be at war with Amalek through all generations. In fact, centuries later, when Saul became king of Israel, God told him to utterly slay the Amalekites. But Saul disobeyed and spared their king, Agag. The prophet Samuel later killed him with a sword, yet his descendant Haman the Agagite turned up centuries later when Israel was in exile in Persia. He devised a plot to kill all the Jews in the provinces of the kingdom, and he would have gotten away with it, but God orchestrated a beauty pageant, an assassination plot, and two banquets given by Queen Esther, the secret Jewess who risked all to save her people. The trail of intrigue that followed the Amalekites' hatred of the Jews leads straight to the White House and the political arena where Israel is still fighting for her survival.

But if God is for you, he is more than all who can come against you. Amalekites Among Us Tracing God's Arch Enemy is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-178. Mail to Sound of Faith P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203 or go online to soundoffaith.org where you can also order on MP3. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203 and request SK-178. Until next time, this is Sharon Ott singing Maranatha.