[0:00] Now you might remember the battle of the Malachites with Moses. Okay. I'm going to read through here. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and Rephidim. This is happening as the very first battle that happens between Israel and anybody at all.
[0:15] Israel has been taken out of the country of Egypt and has been taken into Saudi Arabian Peninsula. They spent a year there. They've gone over the law. They've received the law. They've received instruction. They built the tabernacle.
[0:26] And now they're moving up to what they're going to inherit, which is the promised land. And a nation comes out to attack them. Now came Amalek who fought with Israel and Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go out.
[0:38] Fight with Amalek tomorrow. And I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek and Moses. Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
[0:50] And it came to pass when Moses held up his hands that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him.
[1:02] And he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
[1:16] Now somebody needs to take a study of this and preach it because there is so much imagery of the cross. You've got the rod above his head. You've got the man on either side. He's on top of a hill.
[1:27] He fights until the sun goes down. The battle is over at sundown. Anyway. And Joshua, of course, in the battle, Joshua's name is Jesus. I mean, it's the same name from Hebrew to...
[1:37] But anyway, that's somebody else's sermon. One of you men can take that. But that's a glorious story. But what happens here is we see at the end of the whole thing. And the Lord says unto Moses, this is after the battle is finished and Amalek has fled.
[1:51] Write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Anybody know any Amalekites today?
[2:04] Okay, it's going to happen. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovanissi. For he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
[2:16] So two things we notice here. One is what God says and what Moses says seem to be different. Not contradictions, but different. God is going to simply wipe out Amalek.
[2:29] Remember this. I'm going to wipe them out. Now, Moses is praising the Lord that there will be a fight with Amalek until this happens. But the second thing is he calls the altar Jehovanissi.
[2:41] Jehovanissi means the banner. God is my banner. And God has been their banner, has been above them. This is the rod above Moses, has been above them. And in that name they have conquered.
[2:53] So this is a tremendous way to start off as a nation. First battle that you have, you win. And not only that, but you have a memorial for the Lord. That happens. So who are the Amalekites?
[3:04] And what's with the concubines? Okay. The Amalekites. Oh, here we go. Here we go. The Horems, or the Horites, also dwelt in Seir before time.
[3:17] But the children of Esau succeeded them. Mount Seir is in Jordan, southern part of Jordan. And the land that they eventually take over will be all of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, which is at this point in time when Esau moves to Jordan, is actually housed by the Ishmaelites.
[3:33] But they will supplant them. Esau, which dwelt in Seir, destroyed the Horim, or the Horites, and they succeeded them and dwelt in their stead even to this day.
[3:43] These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the land. Lotan, and he goes through a list. Lotan's sister was Timnah. And Timnah was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son, and she bared to him Amalek.
[4:01] So who is Amalek? Amalek is a son through a concubine to Eliphaz, who is Esau's son, right? So these are actually brethren of the Israelites.
[4:14] So the very first people that Israel fights are brothers. You'd think that he'd know. But what about the concubines? Famous concubines in the scriptures. And I'm going to give this to you also just because somebody in here needs to take this and study it through and preach on it, because I think there's some nuggets that are really hidden in here, the whole thing about relationships not being legitimate.
[4:35] Abram, he has Hagar with Ishmael, Genesis 21.10. She's a bondwoman. Psalms 83, 5 through 6, enemies, enmity between them. Abraham, after he has born Isaac, he later on has Keturah, which we have the Midianites.
[4:52] Her place was as a concubine, only gifts to the sons, no inheritance. Gideon, he has 70 sons, but he also has, through his concubine, who's unnamed, the son Abimelech.
[5:03] And Abimelech ends up killing his 70 sons. The Levites' concubine, you might remember this from the book of Judges, he goes down to Gibeah, which later on becomes Gibeah of Saul, and he has a concubine with him, leaves her outside, she gets raped, she dies, he cuts her to pieces, sends her throughout the nation.
[5:20] And then finally, Solomon's concubines, very numerous, 300, and of course they were never any good to him either. They turned his heart away from the Lord. But there's something that you might want to study through. I think that would be an interesting study to find out.
[5:32] The first wife, the inheriting one, the one flesh versus the concubines, the added-on twos that happen. There's strife, there's fighting behind them. Anyway, we're not going to focus on that.
[5:44] So these are the dukes and the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn son of Esau. Duke Teman, Duke Omar, Duke Zephelah, Duke Kenaz, Duke Korah, Duke Getam, and Duke Amalek.
[5:56] These are the dukes that came from Eliphaz in the land of Edom. Okay, so now we know who the Amalekites are. So let's take a peek at what else we can learn about this battle that happened.
[6:09] Remember what Amalek did. And so this is Moses at the end of his life. He is giving the speeches to Israel, and he's wrapping things up, but he's reminding them of this very thing that God had reminded them of. Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you were come forth out of Egypt, how they met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God.
[6:35] Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies around about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it.
[6:49] Okay, it's serious business. First battle, first nation, first victory, win. But you notice what Amalek did? How did he attack?
[7:02] He was a coward. He came from behind. The stragglers, the weaklings, the unarmed, the armies up in front, he comes from behind to attack.
[7:13] So he catches them off guard. God does not take kindly to this. So, Moses had said they're going to have war from generation to generation. So let's take a look at that.
[7:25] The Amalekites provoked God by attacking Israel for no reason. That's the battle we just saw. Next, they band together with the Canaanites to attack Israel in Numbers 1445.
[7:36] What happened there? Do you guys remember? Okay, in 1445 BC, Joshua fights Amalek. Moses is on top of the mountain. What happens in 1444, a year later?
[7:50] There's a rebellion, isn't there? They decide not to go into the land. We're going to take a look at that in a minute. So the Amalekites come up again. Next, they band together with Moab and Ammon against Israel in the book of Judges.
[8:03] Gideon fights Midian and Amalek and the people of the east. And then the Amalekites through Samuel. God commands King Saul to destroy the Amalekites. But we find that he does not do so.
[8:15] They invade Ziklag, burn it, and take all of David's wives and children. They are a problem. They're a thorn. During the time in Numbers as well, we run into a prophet by the name of Balaam.
[8:26] We're not going to go into that. That's a whole other fascinating study. And in fact, when he is giving this prophecy, he is looking over the camp of Israel. And they are laid out in the plain in the form of a cross, which is just a fascinating little detail.
[8:41] You can take a look at that. But he says he has two portions to this prophecy. First one is specifically the kingly line of the Amalekites. He shall, meaning Israel, he shall pour the water out of his buckets.
[8:54] And his seed shall be in many waters. And his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. I want you to remember that because we're going to reveal something in about 15 minutes that fits this very perfectly, very clearly.
[9:07] But the other thing, more about the nation itself, and when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable and said, Amalek was the first of nations, but his latter end shall be that he perish forever.
[9:20] Third time we've heard that. He's going to perish forever. First among nations. If you turn to Genesis chapter 10, there's a table of nations. You will not find Amalek. And we know why. Because he comes from Esau, which is born later than Genesis chapter 10.
[9:33] And he's a couple generations down from Esau. But he's first of nations because at this point in time in history, he's the first one who has such a large people group under one leader. Egypt, which Israel had come out of, they had 10 vassal kings.
[9:47] There was no real, the pharaoh did not have consolidated power, as we're used to later on. I'm sorry. That's not true. By this time it was consolidated power. Yeah.
[9:59] I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It got consolidated under Joseph. So that was a misstep on my part. Scratch that. But they are a powerful nation. They have a whole land mass.
[10:10] And they are feared amongst the people. We're going to move on. King Saul and the Amalekites. So we alluded to this already. Samuel had asked Saul to go ahead and do this. Samuel also said unto Saul, and this is after Saul has fought on all sides and he's had great victories.
[10:24] He says, okay, now take the attention. Let's turn on this issue and let's take care of it. So he said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.
[10:39] Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that he hath.
[10:51] And spare them not. Utterly destroy all. And spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
[11:02] Anything missing there? This is utter and complete destruction. This is Jericho destruction. Destroy, burn, nothing for you. Destroy it.
[11:13] Get rid of it. Then Samuel said, and this is after the battle. So he's gone out. He's fought. And he's won a great victory. He has chased them away.
[11:23] And everything's great. But he comes up and Samuel comes to meet him. He's like, what is this brang of oxen and buying of sheep that I hear going on around here? Then Samuel says, again, you can read this chapter.
[11:36] It's exciting. But we'll move on here. Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Remember Agag? We'd heard about him from Balaam in Numbers 14. This is the leading king.
[11:48] This is the head that leads the Amalekites. He's alive. Saul has kept him alive. Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.
[11:59] And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. And then Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.
[12:10] And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. That was what Saul should have done. Saul did not do it. It's your favorite verse, right?
[12:24] In the Bible, too, it's hacked him to pieces. He didn't just run him through with a sword. He hacked him to pieces. There's anger here. There's a demonstration of you have overstepped the boundaries tremendously. And I'm not going to leave you a trophy.
[12:36] There's not going to be anything left. Utterly destroyed. So, are the Amalekites destroyed? No, we find out later on that David has to fight them.
[12:47] And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south in Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burnt it with fire. So David and his men came to the city.
[12:57] And behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.
[13:08] And this unfolds to be almost like a mutinous situation. David's able to talk to his men. And they finally go out and they gather everything back. Let's take a look at a couple of things here, though. They burned it with fire.
[13:20] Agag means burning with fire. And they took everything. Yes, everything was taken captive. They took everything from them.
[13:31] And that's what Amalek means, is to lick the plate clean. So where Amalek goes forth, he cleans it. And where Agag goes, he burns it. So what's the resolution?
[13:44] We have a promise from God. We have a prophecy from Moses. God says they will be completely wiped out. Moses says we'll have battle from generation to generation. We've seen battle from generation to generation.
[13:55] We had an opportunity to completely wipe them out, but completely failed. We can ask. Yeah, we don't have to worry about Saul on that one. But let's take a look here. We have.
[14:06] How's this looking for you guys? It's like. Jacob. Okay. So we have Jacob, the son of the promise, versus Esau, who have Amalek versus, I'm sorry, Amalek versus Israel.
[14:24] And then finally out of Israel, we have Saul versus Agag. So it is becoming narrower and narrower. It's becoming delineated here. Benjamin has been chosen to fight this battle, and Benjamin blew it.
[14:37] So who are we going to set up next to finish this off? So I've got some trivia for you. And those who were in the class, please don't answer.
[14:48] What book of the Bible has no mention of the law of God, no mention of the temple, no mention of prayer, no mention of God, the Jews have names of foreign gods, and disregarded by scholars and questions as to why it should even be in the Bible?
[15:09] Anybody? I hear it. Yes. Esther. Famous theologian, won't tell you who it is, said this, I am such an enemy of the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist.
[15:20] I am so great an enemy to the second book of the Maccabees and to Esther that I wish they had not come to us at all. I'll let you guess who that was. But when I went into Bible school, the question was still there.
[15:33] Why is this book here? Well, we'll study it. It's interesting. It's a piece of history. But where's the spiritual food in this book? Well, let's take a look. We're going to start looking at this here. So, looking at credentials for the first king who was supposed to battle Agag.
[15:49] What tribe was Saul from? He's a Benjamite. What household was he from? He's a Kishite. So he's a Kishite from Benjamin. What was the name of the man, the king that Saul was supposed to kill?
[16:06] King Agag. And what tribe is he from? Okay. So that gets us going. What tribe was Mordecai from? Look up Esther 2.5.
[16:21] Say it. Yeah, it starts with a B. Let's see. Benjamin, Judah. Benjamin, right? And what household is he from? Mordecai is from the household of?
[16:34] Kish. That's right. It's right there in the scripture, right? It says Kish. Not Kish. We eat Kish. Okay. What was the name of the enemy of the Jews? And this phrase is repeated again and again and again in the book of Esther.
[16:45] His name is? Haman, the son of Hamadatha. He who troubles the law. Esther 3.1. He is an? Agagite. Okay.
[16:56] Okay. Which should remind you of Amalek. So the book of Esther has a very purposeful place in history. It is a necessary for tying together one of the promises that God has made.
[17:09] And one of the fighting enemies that Israel has had all along up until this very day. He doesn't hate just Mordecai because Mordecai didn't bow down to him. He hates all the Jews.
[17:23] That's pretty deep. Let's take a look here. These are the passages to talk about Haman. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
[17:38] And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And this was, remember, he was going to make a proclamation. What's the proclamation he made? Kill all the Jews.
[17:49] Not just Mordecai. Kill all of them. He hates all of them. And Esther said, the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. That Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
[18:04] On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman, the Jews' enemy, unto Esther the queen. So the battle happens on Purim. No, that's not.
[18:15] After dinner time, he's hanged on the gallows and God gives, or Ahasuerus gives the whole household all the possessions to Esther. She does not claim them.
[18:25] She does not ask for them for herself. Who does she end up giving Haman's household to? Mordecai. So she does not do what the Amalekites would do, lick the plate clean.
[18:36] She actually passes it on. Next. The ten sons of Haman and the sons of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews, were what? They were hanged. Okay?
[18:47] So we're wiping out his whole household, aren't we? Because Haman, the son of Hamadatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them. Amazing. So we see that in the book of Esther, we have a resolution to this issue that came up in Exodus chapter 15, chapter 17, with the battle.
[19:07] God has said something that he will wipe them out. Moses had said that they will have battles all throughout. And now we see Jacob versus Esau, which then becomes Israel versus Amalek, and then Saul versus Agag, and he fails.
[19:22] He fails. Then finally, Mordecai, a Benjamite of the house of Kish, same lineage, stands up and succeeds against Haman, the Agagite.
[19:33] So let's take a look at what the Lord did here. Restoring the house of Benjamin. And you think about that. Is that really an important piece of history? I mean, Benjamin was a tiny little tribe.
[19:46] Where is Benjamin? Anybody remember where Benjamin ended up being? South. But where in the south? Right in the middle of Judah. I mean, he was in Judah, very literally inside of Judah.
[19:59] Yeah. Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, son of Kish. Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin. He's also a son of Kish. So they're literally brother lines, right?
[20:13] Saul is from the... Handsome king Saul is removed from power and given to one better than he. What do you think is the corollary there? Mordecai is given power.
[20:24] Beautiful queen Vashti is removed from power and given to one better than she. I'm sorry, David. I shouldn't have let you answer. King Saul is rejected from being king.
[20:36] Mordecai is given the king's ring, royal robe, second to the king in authority. Okay, right? King Saul allowed Agag to live.
[20:48] And what that ended up doing to him? Haman, his ten sons, and all his enemies were put to death. King Saul laid hands on the spoils.
[21:00] What was he supposed to do? Destroy everything. Destroy. Utterly destroy. It means such a destruction that I can't take it home. Okay?
[21:11] He didn't do that. He didn't read his history books, by the way. The Jews did not lay hands on the spoils. Fascinating. Fascinating. Fascinating. King Saul's kingdom had no rest.
[21:24] He ended up in tumult all the way through to the end, and he dies in a battle. Jews had rest from their enemies. Because why?
[21:36] Because they'd taken care of that which should have been taken care of back in Saul's day. They finally obeyed. King Saul's kingdom is ripped away from him.
[21:47] Mordecai was great in the king's house, famous in Medo-Persia, and waxed greater and greater. He's a Benjamite. Smallest of the tribes. Saul, house of Benjamin, initiated hatred towards David.
[22:04] And you know that feud that happened throughout Saul's life. War and division between house of Saul and of David. But the result of killing Haman and his sons and winning the battles and not taking the spoils and the restoration is that Benjamin and Judah unite together to build the temple.
[22:25] Read it. It's Nazra. Benjamin united with Judah to build the wall. Nehemiah. In fact, in Nehemiah chapter 2, you see that the queen is sitting next to the king.
[22:37] Which queen is that? Saul of Tarsus from the tribe of Benjamin, chosen as an apostle to the Gentiles. Think about it. Benjamin, tiniest of the tribes.
[22:49] Itty-bitty little guy over here. Was elevated to glory and crashed. And then, of course, Judah falls to Babylon. Babylon falls to the Persians.
[23:01] Persian king comes in. The queen makes a mistake. Gets divorced. A new queen is put in place. She happens to be a Jew. There's a lot of God's planning happening in here.
[23:13] A lot of God's planning happening. So finally, just a quote from Mordecai. He's talking to Esther. And this is when she's trying to make a decision as to whether or not to put my life on the line to talk to the king.
[23:26] He's going to show her that whether you go into Asherah or not, your life's on the line. If you go into Asherah and you die, you die. If you don't go in, you'll die.
[23:39] For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall the enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.
[23:50] What had happened to Saul and his household? His household was wiped out. Mordecai knows his Bible. Mordecai sees the times and he's like, wow, this is the opportunity.
[24:01] This is the opportunity. God is going to fulfill prophecy and you're in the right position to do this. And so he encourages her with those words. But you and your father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
[24:14] A little thought around this. We actually face these kind of situations in our own lives. They're not as drastic as king's going to kill us if we walk into a hallway and such. Or that the people are out to get us or kill us.
[24:29] But we are asked to be obedient. Saul was obedient. How far? Not far enough. He was not complete in his obedience. God had said utterly destroy.
[24:42] Very clear. Very clear. They'd already seen Jericho. About, what, two, three, four hundred years earlier. Seen what happened in Jericho. They didn't exactly finish the job because Achan had taken some of the spoils.
[24:54] Which he was not allowed to take. No. They were supposed to utterly destroy. So he knew what utterly destroy meant. And he knew what utterly devoted meant. And yet somehow he thought himself higher than God's command.
[25:05] And so he did the deed. Because in fact Saul comes to Samuel and says, oh I did everything you said. But he hadn't. He had left things undone. And he had left the trophy. King Agag.
[25:17] Who he was supposed to have killed. So we read in 2 Timothy 3.14-16. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. And hast been assured of.
[25:27] Knowing of whom thou hast learned them. This is not me. Somebody else did this. Yes. I'm going to stop right here.
[25:38] I'm sorry. This is something else going on. Okay. So wrapping up the book of Esther. Esther has a key point in the Bible. To demonstrate God's faithfulness.
[25:49] That he will carry on to completion. The very things that he says. So go through the Bible. As you're going through the Bible with your children. Especially because you have a chance to slow down. And think it through. Is to look at the promises.
[26:00] And then start looking at their fulfillments. And the book of Esther fits perfectly. Because it demonstrates all the backdrop. To how the story of the rebuilding of the wall. And the rebuilding of the temple.
[26:11] And the union of Judah and Benjamin. Comes to fruition. Through a man. Who was willing to obey. Because he understood the times. He understood the scriptures. He understood what had to happen. And he gave courage.
[26:22] Through his teaching. To Esther. Who was his. Right. It was his niece. Who was adopted as a daughter. So he gave her instruction.
[26:34] And she followed. And willingly obeyed. And thus brought deliverance to Israel. But the time was now. The time was now. Let's close. Father in heaven. Thank you so much for your word.
[26:45] Thank you for its completeness. Thank you that it's not just a bunch of little stories. That are strung together. By some strange little philosophy. But they actually fit. They fit. And Lord. When we don't understand.
[26:55] The problem is with us. Not with your word. And Father. It's fascinating to see you. This nation. Amalek. Shows up. Again and again and again. Even through Hezekiah's time.
[27:06] And if we don't take note. We don't see what you're doing. And we're missing what you're doing. But here we see Lord. That you were faithful to your word. To 100% all the way down. Coming to rectify.
[27:18] Even the sin and the weakness of Benjamin. Through this woman Esther. And through Mordecai. That you've lifted them up. Lord. And you brought about salvation for your people. We thank you for that.
[27:30] We thank you for the placement of this book in your book. We thank you for your faithfulness. Demonstrated through this. That demonstrates to us. That we can trust in your faithfulness. In our lives. And that we should obey 100%.
[27:42] And not put the burden of sin on our children. In Jesus name.