The revelations that the Lord has given us are great. About Melchizedek the king, about Melchizedek for the nations, about Melchizedek today, about the fact that Jesus is forever a Priest, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek. Forever!
“The Lord has sworn and will not relent: You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). He swore and shed the Blood of the Lamb on the Cross of Calvary, because the blood seals any oath, this is the last oath that the Lord has sworn that Jesus today is Melchizedek! This means He is for the peoples – for all the peoples of the earth!
This picture symbolizes Israel and what is happening there. In the middle of it is the image of Esther.
“I went down to the garden of nuts to see the verdure of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded, and the pomegranates had bloomed?” (Song of Solomon 6:11)
This is Israel. I came to Israel to look at the verdure of the valley, to see if the vine has budded, if the pomegranates bloomed? And you know what I want to say? – That they are blooming! I see in my spirit that they are blooming, they have not withered.
See what’s interesting: in this picture, this maid, the Bride, doesn’t look happy. And the one who holds her doesn’t look like her beloved, his face is more like a Gentile than the king of Israel.
I want to talk about two marriages.
“So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther” (Esther 7:1).
Why did the man who chose Esther come with an enemy? Why did Esther’s husband was friends with the enemy of Israel? – He came with the devil!
Esther was brought up as an orphan, Mordecai was her uncle, and she did not marry by her will, she did not choose this groom, she did not have the right to choose. She was prepared, rubbed with oils, and then presented to be chosen, as at auction.
Doesn’t sound like free love, does it? Maybe today’s girls would dream about it, but this is not love. It was a necessity. And she didn’t take anything, she didn’t ask for anything, because she didn’t want to.
In that casting, she was chosen by the king.
“The king loved Esther more than all other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king”(Esther 2:17, 18).
Ahasuerus was a Gentile. And he took her. It is not written that she loved him. You won’t find it in Scripture that she loved him.
And then – she was not called to the king for thirty days … Probably, he did not long for her with all his heart.
“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who hasn’t been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days” (Esther 4:11).
How is it possible not to see your beloved wife? This is a “big brother” marriage. And what did she do? Being a wise woman, she paid the same – she used him, she was a real Jewish woman. She used his treasury, his strength, his troops, his weapons to fight for her people. And he didn’t know much about her people. He was not up to it.
Doesn’t look like love! Esther agreed with her fate, but decided: “I will do all to serve God Most High!” And she focused on her service.
She destroyed Israel’s enemies, used the king to give her new permission to extend those days, she did her best to protect her people, and he didn’t care much about her affairs – it felt as if he was living his life and she was living hers.
Today we are talking about two marriages – the marriage of Ahasuerus with Esther and a different marriage, about which it is written like this:
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me is love” (Song of songs 2:4).
Do you hear this? This is something different than the casting of Ahasuerus. It was a banqueting house.
“Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick.” (Song of Solomon 2:5).
This is the marriage of Shulamite with the Bridegroom Jesus, Israel, the Messiah! And what happened in the time of David, in the time of the true prophets – it was love, it flared up and went out, but it was love. But what happened in the time of Ahasuerus is happening today.
Ahasuerus owns Esther because she has no other choice.
“You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart
with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace.” (Song of Solomon 4:9)
Ahasuerus never said such words to her. He was not capable of it. He had other wives, and many.
In the Song, the Bride replies: “My beloved is mine, and I am his.
He feeds his flock among the lilies.” (Song of Solomon 2:16).
If this were so, the king would have delved into all the affairs of Esther, and he himself would have made all the enemies of Israel his enemies. But he believed that this was her business – she was engaged in revenge, and he paid for everything that needed to be paid.
“There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed,
the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.” (Song of Solomon 6:8-9)
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it.
If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)
The second marriage that I expect, and I believe the prophets expect, the Lord expects, is the marriage of Christ and the Shulamite. He loved her to death. Ahasuerus did not love to death, he would never have given his life for her.
And she also loved him to death. That’s why she wrote: “love as strong as death.”
I saw this picture – it is very expensive. And on it the Bride doesn’t look happy, she does not hug him, but protects herself. He holds her with power. And around them are strange people, similar to the Egyptians.
“I went down to the garden of nuts to see the verdure of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded and the pomegranates had bloomed.” (Song of Solomon 6:11)
Pray today for the Bridegroom to return for Shulamite! We raise a prayer for Israel – so that Shulamite waits for her Bridegroom and does not give herself over to sin, so that she does not give herself to anyone else, so that she remains faithful to Him until death, until this Bridegroom – Beloved comes to His vineyard.
Esther uses Ahasuerus. She doesn’t love him. Because she was created not for him, but for her Bridegroom – the real one, Who will give His life for her!