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Nov 29: Est 5-6 | Amos 9 | Heb 1-2

Reading 1 - Est 5:14

"His [Haman's] wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, 'Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy.' This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built" (Est 5:14).

...So that Mordecai might be lifted up, and his shame and suffering be seen by all! It looks very much as though Haman intended to CRUCIFY Mordecai (cp Est 2:23). Haman is the embodiment and personification of the Sin Power: his determination was to destroy his great enemy, but in reality -- as it worked out through the providence of Almighty God -- the "cross" on which the enemy sought to kill the Jew became... the scene of HIS OWN DESTRUCTION!


This is plainly typical of Christ: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death -- that is, the devil -- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb 2:14,15). "And so he condemned sin in sinful man [the flesh]" (Rom 8:3).


Reading 2 - Amos 9

"The final chapter of the prophecy of Amos reveals... Yahweh over the Altar. The Altar represents the sacrificial principles by which the judgment of Yahweh over sin and the elevation of His character are revealed. It demonstrates that the divine glory will be achieved, through the redemptive work of the Son-Altar, Yahshua the Anointed. But the altar of Jerusalem has disgraced its purpose; it no longer was identified with the work of Yahweh, but with the elevation of those who worshiped in Jerusalem. So the altar was to be destroyed, as later the temple would be shaken and removed. The vision describes:


  • Yahweh's command to destroy the altar: vv 1-6.

  • Israel's elevation shall not save those who are guilty: vv 7-10.