Amalekites Among Us, Part 2

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. with murder on his mind, a beauty pageant, two beautiful queens, one exiled and the other exalted, God's divine boomerang that saved the Jews from execution, and the present political events that threaten Israel's existence because of the spirit of Amalek. You don't want to miss this extraordinary expose, Amalekites Among Us, Tracing God's Arch Enemy. Now, let's turn to the very last part of this chapter and let's read verse two little verses, verse 32.

I'm going to skip a whole lot of other things and go down here. Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.

In other words, Agag is thinking, I got by. Saul didn't kill me. I made it.

I survived. It's all going to be good from here on out. I mean, you know, what is this little prophet going to do? You know, the king spared my life.

I'm not worried about this little prophet preacher guy. All right, but let's read on the next verse. And Samuel said, speaking to Agag, As thy sword hath made women childless, so thy mother will be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and Gilgal. Now, I'm sure that Samuel didn't walk around carrying the sword. He was a preacher. He was a prophet. I don't know if he did it or not.

I saw it in the movies. He reached over and grabbed Saul's sword. But wherever he got the sword, right then and there, he said, You think the bitterness of death is past? Well, you think again, brother. Because of you, there are many motherless Israelites.

But right now, your mama's going to be motherless. And hewed him. Didn't just stab him once, people. Hewed before the Lord. Amen. So finally, folks, finally, the last Amalekite is dead. And God's word has been fulfilled. And he's wiped out the memory of him from off the face of the earth, because the servant of God now has slew the final Amalekite, King Agag.

Not according to Jewish history. That night, now here's why I wanted you to say in the morning. So you would understand that from the time that they finished the battle and brought Agag in as a prisoner of war, instead of killing him, there was a night. There was an overnight. Because Samuel came, what?

In the morning. And Jewish history says that overnight, while Agag was in the prison being held, they sent a servant girl to him with his dinner. And he raped her. And she became pregnant with his child. Now this is not in the Bible, but this is in the writings of the Jews.

Amen. And therefore was born unto Agag, though he was dead, there was born to him another Amalekite. And it's true because the Amalekites show up again in Israel's history 500 years later. So now let's turn to the book of Esther. And you say, where is it?

Because it kind of gets lost. Okay, it's before Job and Job is before Psalms. Find Psalms back up and you will find Job back up and you will find Esther.

Okay, that's the best landmark that I can give you to find it. Now, during the holiday of Purim, the Jews read the whole book of Esther out loud and they have all the children gathered around and the children have little noisemakers. And they read the whole story and every time that the name Haman is spoken, they go boo! And every time they say Mordecai, they go yay! They get this story in the kids hearts.

You know those kids, they love Purim, they love doing that. So they get this story in them and we're going to find out why it's a very good story. And I think we've had some, so far we've had quite a bit of intrigue.

Have we not? I mean the Bible is fascinating people. I mean why don't you just read it from cover to cover?

It is fascinating. You want espionage? You want intrigue? You want murder plots?

You want sex? It's in the Bible. That's why I know it's real and true because God reveals everything, the good, the bad, the dirty, the ugly. If he left all those sort of details out, it wouldn't be believable.

But it's about real people. Amen? So let's go, I'm going to paraphrase because of course we cannot read the whole book of Esther. So I'll paraphrase a lot but we'll read some. Let's go straight to chapter three. Because we want to pick up the line of Agag, the Amalekite. Chapter three. After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, now get ready, get ready, the son of Hamadatha, or Hamahatha, I don't care.

Here's what I care about. The Agagite. Yep, that's it. Agagite. Now we all know who that was. So in other words, let's just make this real simple for all of us here. Haman is a descendant of Agag.

Amen? He's a descendant of Agag and he's managed and he's managed now to be in a very high place. He's been promoted to prime minister in the land of Persia.

All right, let's just get through this real quick. You know that Israel and Judah had many kings. You know that in the time of Solomon's son that was split up the ten tribes, the two tribes, and then there was simultaneously a king in Israel and a king in Judah. But we know that their wickedness got so perverse and terrible that Israel then went into captivity. And 150 years later, Judah caught up, went into captivity. They were carried away to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar was the king. However, later Babylon was conquered by the Persians. And so that's where the story we have here. It's taking place in Persia.

Amen? And the capital city is Shushan. Now let me just tell you this. You probably already know it, but in case you don't let me tell you Persia is modern day Iran and Iraq.

So keep that in your mind. And so he was promoted. Haman was the Agagite and advanced him and set his seed above all the princes that were with him. And the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman for the king had so commanded concerning him the king had said that everyone that when Haman came walking through the gate and down the road that everyone was to bow to him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Amen?

He refused to bow down to him. And Jewish history says that Haman wore a chain with an idol around his neck. So we can understand why Mordecai would not bow down to him.

Because Jews don't have a problem with reverencing someone, but they're not going to reverence an idol worshiper or an idol. Amen? So this is how we see the line of the Amalekites that should have been blotted out if Saul would have obeyed and killed Agag and not let him spend the night and all that had happened.

They should have been wiped out, but here they are 500 years later. And we're going to find out that the descendant Haman is a vitriolic Jew hater. He is anti-Semitic on steroids. He hates the Jews.

At this point he does not realize yet that Mordecai is a Jew. But now, I skipped right to chapter 3 because I wanted you to see the line. But let me paraphrase quickly chapters 1 and 2. What occurred here that caused Esther to be the queen? Well first of all, the king Asaheras was given a huge banquet.

It lasted for seven days. And he had all the men in his part of the palace and they were having their feast. And the Queen Vashti, she was in her part of the palace having a banquet for the women. And on the seventh day of the banquet, and the Bible says when they were well drunk and very merry with drinking, the king got a good idea. Go tell Queen Vashti to come in here.

I want all these guys, all these drunken guys, to see how beautiful my wife is, how beautiful my queen is. And when they sent the word to her, she obviously knew they were going to all be a bunch of drunks. And she did not want to put herself in that position, so she refused to come. Well when the word went back to the king that she refused to come, obviously he was embarrassed. And so he was angry because when you get embarrassed, you get angry.

Anger is really covering up your true feeling of being embarrassed, and you're angry at the person you think is responsible for embarrassing you. And if that wasn't bad enough, then all the men begin to say, you're going to let your wife get away with that? If word goes through, and you know word will go through to all the women, it'll get everywhere, it'll get to our house and our wives, and the wives will think that they can do what they want. And the wives will not obey their husbands, and it will be a terrible thing.

You've got to do something about this. You can't let her get away with that. And so he banished her. He stripped her from being queen, and he gave all that she had to Haman. So it wasn't too long after that, the king was lonely. And now he sobered up, you know, and then he realized, you know, maybe he thought I shouldn't have let my pride get to me that bad after all I'm the king.

And he missed. He wanted a wife. And so his advisor said, we got a good idea. Have a beauty pageant. And send word out through the whole hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and you've got to understand that that kingdom went as far as, including India, all the way up into the Holy Land, up into that part. And so they said, send, have all the beautiful young virgins, send people out to find them, and bring them in, and we'll have a beauty pageant, and you can choose yourself a new queen, and so they did. Now Mordecai had a young cousin named Hadassah. However, he had given her an Iranian or Persian name, Esther, because he told her not to reveal that she was Jewish.

And he did not go around either letting everyone know that he was Jewish because of all the ramifications. So she went by Esther, and no one knew, and Esther means beautiful, and that was the name he gave her. She was taken and brought to the palace.

Now they lived in the capital city of Shushan, and she was one of the ones who were brought in. Now, it was a long, drawn out process. They didn't get to see the king right away. Every woman, every young girl, I should say, had a 12 month period of what they called purification.

Six months in one oil, and six months in milk baths. They went through all of these things, and then when it was their time, they would go with the king one night, and every night he'd have a different one until he decided which one he liked better. And the thing about it is they had all these jewels and all these clothes and all these things that the girls could pick anything they wanted to wear. And Esther didn't pick any of them. She didn't want any of the jewels and the furs and the gold and the silver and all the clothes. Whatever the head, the head man who overlooked the women, whatever he gave her to wear, that's what she wore. She asked for nothing, and he really liked her because she was different. She was not, you know, I'm sure all those girls were hoping and praying they would get picked, which means women when they get like that can get pretty catty with each other. Amen? I don't think I'd want to be in the back room of a beauty pageant.

Behind those beautiful smiles on stage is a whole lot of infighting. But see, Esther wasn't like that. She had a true humble spirit, and she really probably didn't care if she was picked. She probably just wanted to go home and see Uncle Mordecai. And when it finally came time for her to go before the king, she didn't choose anything. Whatever he gave her, that's what she put on. And the Bible says that she found favor in the sight of the king, and he loved her above all the other women.

Beauty pageant over. Crowned her his queen. Amen? That's how she became queen.

Amen? And so this was a beautiful thing, and so the thing of it is her uncle Mordecai, he kept in touch with her through her maidservants. They would keep in touch. Plus he would go to the gates of the palace and he would look up and she would come to the window and such as that and keep in touch with him. Now time went on, and one day Mordecai was outside of the gates of the palace where he would go every day. And he happened to overhear a conversation between two of the king's chamberlands. These would have been men that would have been there at the king's bedroom.

And they stood at the door and, you know, whatever he needed they helped him with. And they were having a discussion of how they were plotting to kill the king. And Mordecai heard it. And Mordecai sent word to Esther and said, you've got to report this right away. And she went and reported it to whoever, she didn't go to the king, but she reported it, and she reported it in the name of Mordecai.

She made sure that they understood that the tipster was Mordecai the Jew. Amen? And so it was written in the book of the Chronicles of the King and put up on a dusty shelf and that was the end of that.

Amen? And so that you say, well, why do we care about this? Because this is very important in our story, this plot to kill the king.

Now Haman, meanwhile, was basking in his honor as prime minister. Let's go ahead and read a few more verses in chapter 3. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment, or why don't you bow down to Haman? Now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. Oh, and when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. He was greatly annoyed, perturbed, and aggravated before, but when he knew that he was a Jew, he was filled with wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him that the people of Mordecai, or that they were Jews. Wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews. Not just Mordecai, but all the Jews.

Amen? That were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai, and in the first month, that is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast poor, that is the lot, before Haman from day to day and from month to month to the twelfth month, that is the month of Adar. Now let me tell you what's going on here. He decided he's going to come up with an agenda, that he's not only going to get rid of Mordecai, he's going to get rid of every Jew in 127 provinces. And it was going to take time to get to plan this out, but he decided we got to pick a date, we got to pick a date.

What date do you want to pick? I don't know, let's cast lots. Or throw the dice. They threw the dice, and it came up the month of Adar. And poor, P-U-R, means lots. That's why they call this holiday or festival Purim. So it came up the month of Adar, and Haman said unto the king, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the king's prophet to suffer them. So he's going to the king, making it look like they're a problem for you, and you need to get rid of them. So if it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business to bring it into the king's treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, he gave it to Haman, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy, and the king said unto Haman, the silver is given to thee, the people also to do with them as it seems good to you. The king made a very hasty decision, amen, and he hastily signed off on it and took his ring so that it could, when they wrote it all out in a document, he could seal it with the king's ring.

And why this is significant? Because once it was sealed with the king's ring, it could never be reversed. You couldn't reverse it. No matter how bad a law it was, once it was sealed, no matter how what a poor decision it was, as obviously it was here, the king was hasty, he didn't get advice or counsel from anybody else, he didn't check it out to see if it's true, that there's a problem with these Jews, he just said okay, do what you please, here's my ring and sign off on it. Let's look at verse 13, and the letters were sent by post into all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill, to cause, to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women in one day. They were all going to be killed in one day, thousands and thousands of people, even upon the 13th day of the 12th month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. In other words, after they killed them, they could help themselves to their property, their land, their riches, their money, just like all of the SS and the Gestapo and all of Hitler's men did when they killed the Jews, and when they rounded them up and put them in the death camps and they just went and claimed all of their riches. Some of that stuff is still turning up now that's been hidden away.

Expensive paintings and jewelry and such that was hidden, some of it is still turning up from World War II, so this is what he allowed them to do. Now, Mordecai got wind of the plot and word began to go out to all the Jews and you can imagine the response. They began to mourn and lament and cry and wail and weep and Esther looks out her window and there's Uncle Mordecai at the gate with sackcloth and ashes on. And she's like, what's wrong with him?

What happened? And she sent one of her maidens to find out what was going on and she came back and told her about the new edict and what had happened. And also Mordecai sent the message, tell Esther she must go to the king and make supplication for her people. Now she must reveal that she is a Jew and go and make supplication for her people. But Esther sent back the word, but uncle there is a palace law that if anyone whether man or woman should show up in the court, the throne room of the king without having been summoned by him to come, they will be killed unless he extends to them his golden scepter. And she added, I got to tell you uncle, he hasn't sent for me in 30 days. That was the message that Mordecai got back.

Amen. And now let's read what Mordecai said and these are words that should sound familiar to you. That will be in chapter four, looking at verse 13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

I can just imagine what came over Esther when she opened up that scroll and read those words. Sweetheart, don't think that just because you're the queen sitting up in the palace that you will escape, but hear the faith, hear the confidence in Mordecai's words. If you don't help your own people, then deliverance will come another way. He was convinced in spite of this terrible edict that could not be reversed, that God would deliver the Jews just like he delivered them in the wilderness when Aaron and her student upheld the hands of Moses. And all the many times that God had delivered the Jews, he said, honey, if you won't help, he says, let me tell you something, the Jewish people are not going to perish.

Their deliverance and their enlargement will come from another source. But what about you? What about your house? And how do you know this whole business with this beauty pageant? That you happen to win this beauty pageant over all these other women, thousands of beautiful young girls, and you happen to win it. How do you know that it wasn't for such a time and a moment and hour as this that you could intervene on behalf of your people? And when she read that, it struck her to her very soul. Amen. It pierced her very heart.

And let's read her answer. 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. Amen. I hope you're enjoying this intriguing teaching, Amalekites among us tracing God's archenemy. 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, but 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.