Hadassah

Esther 4:14 {Mordecai to Esther}
"14 For if you remain completely 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?”

(Queen Esther ponders Mordecai's news.)

I love this beautiful story about Queen Esther and how she so courageously saved her people from total anihilation by their enemies!  

In honor of what she did, the Jewish people celebrate Purim, which is in the month of Adar.  It falls between mid February to mid March.  In 2016, it was celebrated on 24th-25th of March. Children all over Israel dress up in various costumes, like Esther or Mordecai; kind of like our Halloween.  

Did you know that God's Name is not mentioned anywhere in the entire book?  Nope.  NOT ONCE!  Extraordinary!  So how did this book ever come to be included in the scriptures?  The facts below make for some very compelling reasons as to why Esther is a book that most definitely deserves to be in our Bible.

The name she was given by her parents, "Hadassah," means, "Myrtle tree," in Hebrew.  Esther, her Persian name, means "Star."

(Myrtle blossoms)

Above is a picture of one of the flower of the Myrtle tree.  It is a very beautiful,  very fragrant tree.  It's white, five-petaled flower typifies not only Jesus' righteousness, but ours as well. It also typifies the believer.  Five is the number of grace. 

It was a blessing tree used in both the tabernacle and temple as well as during the Feast of Tabernacles.  Most "Sukkah," which is what the Jewish people call their temporary shelters during this feast, include branches from the Myrtle tree.

(Myrtle tree)

Though Esther in the Persian language means, "star," something bright and highly visible, in Hebrew it means, " I hide my face."  Very telling!  You see, God had warned His people that if they turned away from Him to follow other gods, He would "hide His face" from them and send them into exile.  He made good on His promise and sent them away from the city of peace--Jerusalem means "city of peace"--into the city of confusion--Babylon means "confusion."

(God has to hide His face.)

Deuteronomy 31:16-18
"16 And the LORD said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I WILL HIDE MY FACE  from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely HIDE MY FACE in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods."

Isn't it curiously "coincidental," that THE ONLY book of the entire Bible which "happens" to mean, "I hide my face," also, as I said, does not contain any mention of the name of God?  He is hiding His face!  Check it out; 167 verses; ZERO MENTION OF GOD! 
However.....though it does not appear on the surface, you can see Him everywhere, working behind the scenes, either controlling directly or turning backward any evil intended to harm His people.  Hidden in the Hebrew text itself in acrostic form, at every crucial turning point, every critical juncture, the Hebrew text clearly shows that, although he has hidden His face, He did not forsake His people!  He was still protecting them.

These are the letters of His name in Hebrew: "Yahweh--[יהוה] yod hei vav hei, reading from right to left.  They appear in four places in acrostic form at critical junctures.  It is BACKWARDS when He is OVERRULING the devil's evil devices; FORWARD when He is RULING DIRECTLY.  This, by the way, is how Bible codes are done, a phenomenon with which the Jewish rabbis are quite familiar.  

There are two occurrences where He is overruling; two where He is ruling directly and one where a different Name of His stands alone.  

The Bible code, secrets hidden in Hebrew letters and messages in acrostic form may be new to us but they were originally discovered by Jewish rabbis long before Jesus came to earth.  The unpronoucable, unspeakable tetragram of the Name of God, "Yahweh," is a perfect example of this type of hidden message.  These things are for us to find and be blessed in their discovery.  Check out the article on this topic by following the link below:
http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-name-of-god-yahweh.html

That's my God!!  Whenever the devil comes to accuse, our God says, "Overruled! Out of order!  Case dismissed!"

Webster's dictionary defines an acrostic as:
1. a composition, usually in verse, in which sets of letters (as the initial or final letters of the lines) taken in order form a word or phrase or a regular sequence of letters of the alphabet
2 : an ACRONYM —
The first time His Name appears is in Esther 1:20.  It is backwards.

Hebrew reads from right to left, so if you were reading it backwards, you would read left to right.  The letters that spell His Name--"Yahweh," The Covenant-Keeping One,"--are in parentheses.
It is backwards here because He is overruling, turning back Vashti from being queen so He can position His choice for Queen: Esther.

(Ahshueras signs a decree.)

Esther 1:20

20 When the king’s decree which he will make is proclaimed throughout all his empire (for it is great), ALL WIVES WILL HONOR THEIR HUSBANDS, both great and small.”
This is what this phrase looks like in the Hebrew text:

[הִ֑)יא     (וְ)כָל־     (הַ)נָּשִׁ֗ים           (יִ)תְּנ֤וּ)]<-----(read right to left)
yi-tê-nu   ha-nashim   ve-kal    hē
shall give  the wives    and all   it
You can see that God's Name is BACKWARD--overruling man's decisions.
[הוהי]
backwards
[יהוה]
foreword

The next time it appears, His Name is foreword in Esther 5:4, where Esther invites the King and Haman to her banquet of wine:
[יָ)ב֨וֹא              (הַ)מֶּ֤לֶךְ           (וְ)הָמָן֙         (הַ)יּ֔וֹם)]<-----(read right to left)
ha-yom   ve-Haman    ha-melek        Ya-vov
This day  and Haman  let the king    Come

God's Name, Yahweh--[יהוה]---appears FORWARD in acrostic form.

Esther thought this was her decision but it was actually God's decision to invite the King and the evil Haman to a banquet of wine.  He is initiating directly, behind the scenes, orchestrating events to benefit His people.
Wine, in the Bible, is representative of the Blood of Jesus as the King in this story is representative of God.  Though not perfect or "a god" by any means, he is used by the Holy Spirit in this story for the purpose of teaching us some things about God.

(Haman incensed that Mordecai sits in his presence.)

Esther 5:13
"All this avails me nothing"
[(זֶ֕(ה)  אֵינֶ֥נּ(וּ)  שֹׁוֶ֖(ה)  לִ֑(י]<-----(read right to left)

God's Name appears BACKWARD in Hebrew in this phrase.  God is turning back the evil designs of the devil.  It was Haman's bitterness against the Jews that God turned back on him.  He saw Mordecai the Jew "sitting" at the King's gate.  He refused to bow before Haman.  Being a Jew, he will only bow before God.
Haman, a picture of the devil, hates to see you and I sitting, resting in the finished work.  He wants us to get up, use the arm of flesh and our own intellect and do something.  We don't need to worry or fret; we rely on God for our wisdom and direction.  We move at His request.
Haman, interestingly, was a direct descendant of King Agag whom King Saul had spared, and an Amalekite.  These people had--still have--an ancient hatred for the Jews.  IT AVAILS THEM NOTHING.

And finally, in Esther 7:7, Haman comes to realize his goose is cooked!

"Evil was determined against him"
[(כִּֽ(י)־  כָלְתָ֥(ה)  אֵלָ֛י(ו)  הָרָעָ֖(ה]
God's Name appears FORWARD in this phrase as God sends the evil that the devil was going to do to his people and uses it to destroy him instead.  Haman is ultimately hanged on his own 50' gallows, a picture of the devil being totally defeated at the cross.

The number "50," in Bible numerics, is the letter, "nun-[נ]. Num means, "fish," a picture of the believer.  Because of the cross, we believers have full authority over the devil!

(Moses at the burning bush.)

The last time God's Name appears it is not Yahweh; it is: I AM.  Moses at the burning bush asked God what His Name was and He said, "I AM THAT I AM:"  It is that same Name here.

This is the phrase from Exodus 3:14-
[אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה]<-----(read right to left)
I am who I am
'Eh'yeh asher 'eh'yeh
Below is The Name in acrostic form.

The King, upon hearing Esther's request, was enraged and demanded to know who would presume to harm the Queen or her people.  He said these words:
"Who is he and where is he?" in Esther 7:5:

(Esther accuses Haman to the King.)

[מִ֣י ה֥וּ(א) זֶ(ה֙) וְאֵֽ(י)־ זֶ֣(ה) ה֔וּא]<-----(read right to left)
Who is he and where is he?  The final letters in each of the four Hebrew words are an acrostic of "I AM--->'eh'yeh.'  From right to left:
         [אהיה]
aleph-hei-yod-hei = 'eh'yeh--the "I AM" of Moses' burning bush!

When your "evil day"--(not "evil days,"- plural - please note) comes and it seems like God is hiding His face--HE ISN'T!  Know that God has provided everything you need to withstand in your evil day and is working on your behalf to turn that evil "day" -singular-  into "GOOD DAYS!!!"-plural!

Ephesians 6:13
"13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand IN THE EVIL DAY.....singular.....and having done all, to STAND."

(The Armor of God.)

That's God's love letter to us, Church, in the book of Esther, also known as Hadassah!