Haman, Hitler and Hamas

As an intercessor for her people Queen Esther said, "I will go to the king. . . and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4: 16) She accused the antisemite Haman of his treachery against the Jewish nation.

Much is made over the fact that Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not explicitly mention the Name of God, although his name is hidden in several acrostics.

The Gemara (Chulin 139b) says that the name “Esther” comes from the Hebrew root “to hide.”  

Sometimes God interacts with the world through open miracles like the 10 plagues against Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea.

But the scroll of Esther teaches that God mostly acts in hidden ways that seem natural.

The phrase hester panim (הסתר פנים) means "hiding of the face" and is often used when discussing the Book of Esther. Hester panim is like the sun on an overcast day: just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.

According to the Hebrew for Christians website, Purim teaches us that God’s providential love is always at work, whether we perceive it or not. Satan was at work in the Persian empire, using the wicked villain Haman to blot out the Jewish nation.

But nothing happens apart from God's sovereign will, and therefore everything works together for the ultimate good for those who trust Him. (Romans 8:28)

Secondly, Purim teaches that God's plans for Israel will never fail, and those who disregard Israel do so at their peril.

Third, the story of Esther provides a warning for tyrants and rulers who oppress God’s people.

Today many Esther fasts and prophetic acts are converging as God’s people fast and pray.

There is the 3-day Esther fast of which the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) is participating, the one-day Orthodox Jewish fast of Esther, the 50 hours of prayer going on in Iraq for the Isaiah 19 Highway and this evening in Jerusalem the hostage families are leading in prayers saying the Shema at the Western Wall. The Shema prayer is one of the most famous prayers in the Bible:

Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy 6:4

During yesterday’s Global Prayer Gathering of the ICEJ, an intercessor prophesied about an ax being laid to the root of the tree of militant Islam. She prayed that many Muslims will prophesy. Don’t be surprised, because the God of Israel is able to infiltrate the Islamic culture.

Two examples from my book, “Miracles Among Muslims: The Jesus Visions—”

In the 1990s I was part of a revival in the United Arab Emirates, and the spiritual warfare helped to loose that nation into aligning with Israel.

During Ramadan the Lord appeared in an open vision simultaneously to 19 Muslim schoolboys, and they all knew he was Jesus, not Muhammed. Their parents asked the local imam if it was OK for Jesus to appear to their children, and he wisely said it was a good thing.

God can cause imams to prophesy. Our ministry held a healing meeting in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, and one of the young Arabs who was saved asked me to meet with his father who turned out to be the leader of a prominent mystical sect of Islam. The sheik told me that a Voice commanded him to take a broom and to sweep the streets of Jerusalem prior to June of 1967. Although it was personally embarrassing, he obeyed. The sheik asked the Voice why he was sweeping the streets of the Old City and the Voice said, “It’s because I’m about to sweep one power out and another power in.” We all know what happened—the Israelis swept into power during the lightning 6 Day War.

Now we fast forward to today and a decisive Purim miracle is needed in this war to defeat the Haman of Hamas!

Persia, the very country in which the Purim villian Haman lived and in which the events of the Book of Esther took place – is today called Iran. Now there are new Hamans, new Nazis, proclaiming their intentions of genocide against the Jewish people.

Something unexpected happened at the execution of high-ranking Nazis sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials.

Moments before Julius Streicher was hanged in 1946, Newsweek reported: At the gallows he shouted, “Purimfest, 1946.” Obviously Streicher was familiar with the scroll of Esther, and how Haman and his 10 sons were hanged. Streicher was one of 10 Nazis hanged after being sentenced at the Nuremberg Trials, just like Haman’s 10 sons in the Book of Esther. Amazingly, Streicher saw the historic link between the Nazi genocide and the attempted genocide of Haman.

But there is an even deeper irony, according to an article that I filed in 2012 by South Africa’s chief rabbi. The scroll of Esther lists the names of Haman’s 10 sons and, three of the Hebrew letters in these names are written in smaller letters and one letter, a vav, is written in larger style.

In the 20th century the following explanation was discovered: The large vav equates numerically to 6, corresponding to the sixth millennium; the smaller Hebrew letters add up numerically to 707; together, these numbers refer to the Jewish year 5707, corresponding to 1946, the year in which the Nazis were hanged. Thus, the odd- sized letters in the names of Haman’s 10 sons alluded to the year of the execution of 10 Nazi war criminals.

Today we celebrate that Queen Esther is one of the great heroines of Jewish history. At risk to her life, with bravery and conviction, she intervened to save her people. Through her bold and dramatic life, Queen Esther demonstrated that God’s presence permeates Jewish history. 

We need to see God’s presence and sovereignty in everything, even though He is hidden.

Following the devastation of the Holocaust, the supernatural miracles of the re-establishment of Israel demonstrate God’s supernatural hand in world events.

Even in Israel’s current distress, we see the outworking of God’s presence and plan of redemption.

In response to Persia’s latest declaration of intent to commit genocide, our example is Queen Esther. She pursued a practical plan of action but first she sought a spiritual plan by instructing her relative Mordechai to gather the Jewish people to fast and pray.

At this time of grave danger, we are following Esther’s example spiritually with fasting prayers and practical acts of advocacy on behalf of the Jewish state.

May the Almighty once again bless His people with redemption and liberation so that we may give thanks to Him just as the Jews pray at Purim, “for the miracles, redemption, mighty deeds and victories in battle.”

Ezekiel 36:37, “Thus says the LORD God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the House of Israel, to do it for them.” He is waiting to be entreated by Israel.

PURIM LESSON: King Saul was a Benjamite. Because of his disobedience to execute the Amalekite king Agag, 600 years later Haman the Agagite threatened to destroy the Jewish people. By contrast to Saul, Mordechai was a faithful Benjamite who along with Queen Esther defeated Haman (a harbinger of Hamas). Saul's failure put his future descendants into great jeopardy! The Purim holiday teaches us to obey the Lord -- He sees the far-reaching consequences of our actions!

Today let every intercessor pray Psalm 144 for the hostages held by Hamas:

“Send down thine hand from above; deliver me, and take me out of the great waters, from the hand of strangers; Whose mouth talks of vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of wickedness.”

To contact Christine Darg and support her work, please visit www.JerusalemChannel.tv/donate/