Faithfulness to God and His Throne
Ministry by Percy Lyon
– Part Two

Esther's name means 'star', and she moves in her orbit as a light set in the heavenly firmament, whereas Vashti is as a wandering star, as exercising her own will.

• Seeing that the Spirit of God is not engaged with the record of heathen festivals, this great feast of king Ahasuerus must have a present, moral bearing.

• As God is pleased to acquaint us with the details of all this feasting, this first chapter might furnish a typical setting forth of His majesty as the King supreme, somewhat in the sense of the doxology to the King of the ages in 1 Timothy 1: 17.

• Then in 2 Timothy we are in the presence of public failure in the assembly, which may be prefigured by the insubjection of Vashti,
  • involving the surrender of the light of the assembly's part and place in the counsels of God as the divinely destined consort of Christ in the coming age of glory, according to Ephesians 1: 21-22, and the testimony proper to this.

• Through her insubjection, Vashti introduces a discordant note into this festal scene, and the majesty of the throne requires her removal from her royal estate. This is judicially depicted for us as to the professing church in the book of Revelation.

• The inviolability of the throne is thus established in the presence of all that has arisen in defiance of it.

What then is the divine answer in our day to such a challenge?

• How stimulating it is to faith to consider that in a broken day such as the second epistle to Timothy portrays, the stability of divine purpose is presented – a great stay to heartbroken, assembly-men like Paul and Timothy.

• We read in 2 Timothy 1: 9-11,
  • "God; who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings, to which I have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of the nations".

• This makes clear that God has no intention of giving up a testimony to the glory set forth typically in the book of Esther.

• While that book bears dispensationally on the suffering history of the remnant just prior to the coming age of millennial display, one is concerned about its moral bearing upon us. It must have a voice from the Lord for us in our day.

• We are favoured to have our part in the great assembly revival of these last days, and features of moral worth proper to it are prophetically set out in Mordecai and Esther.

• The designation "the Jew", so frequently applied by the Holy Spirit to Mordecai, is suggestive of genuineness, as in the expression, "a Jew who is so inwardly" found in Romans 2: 29.

• Further in Mordecai's relations with his orphaned cousin, parental care shines, a precious feature marking assembly recovery, and one which is to be continually maintained in all our gatherings.

• He is also characterised by unswerving defence of the throne, and this, as well as the other features mentioned, may be traced in 2 Timothy.

• We see, too, the place given to the Holy Spirit as typified by Hegai, to whom, as keeper of the women, Esther was confided.

• Our concern is surely, that all these features which have entered into the recovery shall be maintained in freshness and power to the end.

J.P. The word, "Vashti refused to come" gives us an insight as to the character of that which has departed from the truth.

P.L. Yes, it was an affront to the throne, and introduced into this vast kingdom an element of lawless-ness which would, if unchecked, finally disintegrate all.

• Memucan, one of the seven counsellors, suggestive of Paul, pointed out that the issue at stake extended far beyond the immediate matter on hand; chapter 1: 16-20.

J.P. So the setting aside of Paul, which is all around us today, is a most serious matter.

P.L. Yes; Paul writes, "All who are in Asia … have turned away from me", 2 Timothy 1: 15.

• As feeling that, the question for us is, can we now furnish the antidote, and in piritual power?

K.A.W. Would Esther 1: 6 suggest the right state and conditions necessary for the king's satisfaction?

• I was linking it in my mind with 2 Timothy 2: 19-22.

P.L. The white hangings may, in this sense, typify the purity of those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

• That is how we find a way back into the light in which the Ephesian assembly was set up. At the end of the Ephesian epistle Paul salutes all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.

• Then the green curtains speak of freshness in life here, as responding to the rain and the sun, while the blue would bear on heavenly light, according to the suggestion that we get in Exodus 24: 10.

• Further, the couches suggest conditions of rest – a great matter when moral questions have been resolved, whether bearing on the universal, or the local position.

• The pavement represents the sure ground on which our feet can travel, and God's feet can rest.
  • But in this setting the pavement is not of sapphire, as in Exodus 24: 10, but of red and white marble, and alabaster, and black marble, indicating that moral questions are not left in the indefinite hues of uncertainty.

• But everything is reduced to a divine issue in clarity, so that all can be named in its own outstanding colour, furnishing its distinctive glory to God.

L.B.G. The stability of the throne occupied by Ahasuerus would remind us

• that "the firm foundation of God stands", 2 Timothy 2: 19?

P.L. Yes, that is, God is going on with His testimony for the satisfaction of His love; that is the way it affects us now.

• In chapter 6 Mordecai is brought forth in testimony, as we might say, and taken round the city as the man whom the king delights to honour.

• In chapters 8, 9 and 10 he is set up in public glory in relation to the throne, the last chapter particularly bearing on a coming day.

• The Holy Spirit in 2 Timothy makes much of the testimony of our Lord, as our rallying point in days of difficulty, and also of moral and spiritual qualities essential to our continuance therein.

• The ground is thus being held testimonially in view of the day when Christ will come forth in public glory.

R.H.P. Is not Esther coming forward in ability to rule? I understand that the word for queen here is not that for the wife of a king, but the word for a female ruler.

P.L. Exactly; so that wifely relations with the king are not pronounced in the book of Esther. It does not give us the Ephesian view of union with Christ.

• Ahasuerus, a heathen potentate, is abstractly used by the Spirit to set out the idea of the majesty of God's throne, but not as a type of Christ in relation to union, according to Ephesians 5: 31-32.

• We do, however, get a suggestion of the assembly's place in glory according to Ephesians 1: 22-23, when she will be manifested as Christ's consort, and the truth of union must underlie this in regard to Christ and the assembly.

J.P. You have in mind that what comes before us in Esther 1 bears on the end of Ephesians 1, and not on Ephesians 5.

P.L. Quite so. Further, this scene being set in Shushan, it is evident that the service of God is not pronouncedly in view.

• The book of Esther bears on the testimony here, as seen in the epistles to the Corinthians, and those to Timothy.

H.J.M. In the first eight verses of Esther 1, is there anything akin to 1 Corinthians 1: 4-9, where Paul addresses the Corinthians in relation to the glory of the fellowship –

• "the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord"

• – before any moral questions are raised?

P.L. Yes, in the sense of the Ephesian outlook of the writer of the epistle. It is in the light of the stability of divine purpose in Ephesians, that he can greet the Corinthians thus, in measure abstractly,

• but with some warrant to do so by the presence of "the approved", 1 Corinthians 11: 19, Chloe, Stephanas and others, who furnished concretely moral and spiritual features of assembly character.

H.J.M. I wondered if the "mother of pearl" – see note a to verse 6 – would in those conditions suggest certain assembly elements.

P.L. Yes, Matthew-wise.

• Luke, in emphasising the feminine element in his writings, would give us the grace of the hangings in their refinement, beauty and diversity, which the assembly will furnish in the coming age, and did at Ephesus, and should do so in character amongst those available for it now.

• There is a flexibility in curtains, reminding us of the flaxen measuring line used by the man in Ezekiel.

• Whereas the thought of stability attaches to the pavement,
  • "the firm foundation of God stands",

• where our feet can tread firmly in relation to what has been worked out at the cross.

• As to what the pavement represents, we are governed by "the Lord's commandment" in Paul's authoritative teaching, as we have it in 1 Corinthians 14: 37.

• It is also suggested in Ezekiel 43: 12,
  • "the law of the house: Upon the top of the mountain all its border round about is most holy",

• but the curtains suggest rather the thought of adornment and refinement which Paul seeks to promote in 2 Corinthians.

C.P.H. May we come into this grace, as subject in our spirits?

• "Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things", 2 Timothy 2: 7.

P.L. Yes, indeed. We must notice the sevens, representing the Spirit's power undiminished: "seven days", "seven chamberlains", seven wise men, "princes of Persia and Media", and later "the seven maidens", chapter 2: 9.

• We do not find in this book the numeral eight, which would link with what is eternal in character.

• "Seven" bears on what is complete here in divine ways and operations in the Spirit, and looks on dispensationally to the millennial day.

R.H.P. Are you thinking of "the seven Spirits which are before his throne", Revelation 1: 4?

P.L. Yes, all this fits into Revelation and these "sevens" suggest a system in the Spirit, operative to secure the pleasure and will of the throne, in days when that throne has been assailed by the very vessel set up here responsibly and testimonially to defend it.

L.F. Why is there the magnificent display of one hundred and eighty days? Is it in contrast to the seven days?

P.L. We might liken the feast of the one hundred and eighty days to the anticipation of the thousand years of display; but the seven days' feast seems to be the climax.

• The Spirit speaks of days, because He is speaking to us as to sustained sequence and continuance, in a cumulative way. We have the thought of days in the book of Daniel. It is a precious thought to faith, for faith's history is linked up with days.

J.G.H. In Psalm 45: 9 we read, "Upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir".

P.L. Yes, and in that psalm there is reference later to the inner apartments, but we do not have the latter thought in Esther 1, where the prominent idea is that the king has as his consort the queen, and she is reigning with him as in Psalm 45: 9. The idea is also seen in Nehemiah 2: 6:

• "The queen also sitting by him".

• We must bear in mind that this book comes in between the original exodus from Babylon, recorded at the beginning of the book of Ezra, and Ezra's coming up with others out of Babylon. Ezra 7.

• This latter movement takes on a fuller character, and leads to the opening up of Ezra's richest ministry, as we have it in Nehemiah 8.
  • It is important to see where this book stands historically.

• There had been a return to Jerusalem, and building had commenced, but the people had been discouraged. But God had come in for them through the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and then through the reigning king, Darius, who was the father of this Ahasuerus of the book of Esther.

• We must have the maintenance of conditions, such as are brought about through the devotion of Mordecai and Esther in this book, to make way for the revival of the truth under Ezra's ministry, and all that makes room for it in the exercises and activities of Nehemiah.

J.P. I was struck with the suddenness with which Mordecai and Esther are brought to light according to chapter 2: 5-7.

P.L. Yes, the suddenness bearing on divine sovereignty, as in the case of Elijah, who appears without any previous recorded history; 1 Kings 17: 1.

• The assembly revival of the past one hundred and fifty years has been entirely a matter of divine intervention.

• As having distinctively Christ and the assembly in mind, it is not merely the extension of any recovery which had previously taken place from Luther onwards, much as we thank God for this.
  • But it takes on all the features of heavenly light, and looks on to the coming glory of the holy city, to the manifestation in display of all that is now being maintained in testimony here.

• By way of analogy we might almost say that the Lord saw Esther in the disciples anticipatively – that is, the assembly in the ways of God. Like the true Mordecai, He took over His own, so soon to be orphaned, and said to them,
  • "I will not leave you orphans", John 14: 18.

• He threw, as it were, His wings over them, and called them "Children", John 13: 33. Does not that set forth the parental care seen in figure in Mordecai?

L.F. Does the recovery to the full glory of the Ephesian position come by way of faithfulness in the public position?

P.L. That is the point, 2 Timothy opening the door to the full assembly position as set forth in Paul's ministry, from the foundation in 1 Corinthians, Jesus Christ, to the great Ephesian top-stone.

L.B.G. Would this, taking place historically, just when it does, stimulate persons to make a move to Jerusalem from these captive conditions, as in the case of those who went up with Ezra, and later with Nehemiah?

P.L. Surely, all the exercises set out in this book would but stimulate a fresh and spiritual movement up to Jerusalem, such as Ezra led.

• According to the setting of the book of Esther, there is no question but that in his plot Haman had the objective of destroying all the saints whose hearts were exercised in regard of Jerusalem, as well as all the Jews scattered everywhere through the empire.

• Of course, Satan's objective in seeking to destroy all the Jews was, as in Herod's day – Matthew 2 – to destroy Christ as coming according to prophecy – Micah 5 – where it is clear that the Lord was to be born in Bethlehem.

• God's thought in the return from captivity was the preparation of a people to receive Christ. Now all these adverse movements that affect the saints in a general way, bear supremely on the assembly as the object of satanic hatred, as here in the place of Christ, to perpetuate Him in testimony.

L.F. Would not the consideration of this book stimulate us to be constantly on the alert as to what God is doing at any given time?

• The fact that the name of God is not mentioned in the book reminds one of Mr. Darby's saying that God ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. [ J.N.D., Synopsis, Volume 5, page 374.]

P.L. Surely. There is a seemliness and a timeliness about faith's actions in this book, which confuses faith's foes. God has His people according to His own time, we may say reverently.

• "There is … a time to every purpose" says Solomon. Ecclesiastes 3: 1.

W.B.H. In pointing out that the book of Esther comes in between the early part of the book of Ezra, and Ezra's going up to Jerusalem have you in mind that what we have in the book of Esther brings before us a collateral line, rather than an historically sequential one?

P.L. Yes, and while it is a collateral line, there is also an historical sequence.

• The Napoleonic movement, which was aimed at the domination of Europe and its outgoings, may be viewed as an attempt on the part of the enemy to forestall in violence the universal operations of the Spirit in this era of great assembly revival.

C.P.H. Would you say more as to the gospels in connection with these books?

P.L. Atmospherically we find something akin to John's gospel in these early chapters, the books of Revelation, and 1 and 2 Timothy having also some bearing in relation to them.

• The book of Esther, culminating in the exaltation of Mordecai, looks on to the coming age when the assembly as the heavenly city will serve to make Christ glorious, as Esther uses her queenly influence to promote the greatness of Mordecai.

• There are in the post-captivity books three great lines in the recovery.
  1. There is what is administrative, bearing on Matthew's gospel as seen largely in the book of Nehemiah.

  2. Then there is the prophetic line in Zechariah and Haggai, who encouraged the builders to go on with their work, which we might link up with the prophetic word as seen in Mark's gospel.

  3. There is also the priestly Ezra, whom we might connect with Luke's line of spiritual teaching.

• John has been called the backbone of Scripture, especially of the gospels. We have spiritual features in the book of Esther, which might correspond with John.

• We see how Mordecai took on, parentally, his cousin, as the Lord in such perfection acted towards His disciples as seen in John 13: 33-35.

• There is what we might call a 'John' background in the book of Esther to those post-captivity books, which we have linked with the three synoptic gospels.

W.B.H. In the book of Revelation, as in Esther, is not the central issue the throne, continuing right through to the eternal state in chapter 21?

P.L. Yes, and the divine rights are fully secured in an evil day. John's ministry brings us back to Paul's. We need the Esther features to bring us back into the operative setting of Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra and Nehemiah.

D.C.W. What is the moral bearing on us now in localities of Vashti's action, and the king making this decree, after conferring with his wise men who knew law and judgment, and then the edict going out through his realm and extending to households?

All this gives us to see the importance of making full way amongst us, on the one hand, for the Spirit's formative work in the sphere under His hand, as typified in Hegai's custody of the women, and, on the other, for the vigilant parental care set out in Mordecai.

• This is so fully exemplified in Paul at Ephesus, as rehearsed by him in Acts 20 in addressing the Ephesian elders. This is a daily matter in love's toil, all to the end that assembly features should be promoted amongst the saints, that will result in their being able to move together unitedly, in Esther character, in the defence of the throne.

• The spirit of Christ, coming into expression in such persons as Mordecai represents, in his constancy and care, is always in concert with the present speaking of the Holy Spirit in His ministry to promote with us, as of the assembly, the queenly features and influence as set forth in Esther.

• The reference to her seven maids, and to "the best place of the house of the women", emphasises femininity as developed in the Spirit's power, and in the tenderness of His overtures.

• Ministerial power and skill also enter into the matter, as for instance, in 2 Corinthians 11: 2, where Paul writes,
  • "I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ".

We know the issue of all this love and care. Esther has the royal crown set upon her head, and the king makes a great feast, Esther's feast; but as soon as she is elevated to the throne, she is called into service. It was "in those days" that the rebellion broke out on the part of the two chamberlains. Chapter 2: 21.

• As every fresh ray of heavenly light as to the assembly takes substantial form in the saints – which is God's blest answer to the Vashti element of insubjection to the throne – Satan is incited to a fresh attack.

• We have in verse 20 a further reference to Mordecai's relations with Esther. How parental they had been, and Esther appreciates them still; she does what he tells her "like as when she was brought up with him".

• Now they are to the end that her queenly influence should be cast rightly into the scales in an issue that sought to overthrow the throne in a violent attack.

• We are not now to view the throne as in chapter 1 – where it comes before us abstractly, in the light of divine purpose – nor as in the end of the book, where the throne is viewed millennially, with Mordecai in great power. Esther there is supporting him and Ahasuerus resting complacently in it all.

• But in the section of the book which we are now considering, we have what is morally greater than any glory of the coming age.
  • We have a portrayal of the subjective work of God in the saints assembly-wise that recognises, in the current testimonial sphere, the divine rights vested in the throne, and holds true to them, even when the public representation of the authority of the throne sways, as coming under a darkening influence.

• The glory of the coming age will pass, while what Esther typifies here – spiritual formation in the saints of the assembly – will outlive the millennial display of glory. It will go into eternity in its own identity – as the holy city and the bride – in which it will have been manifested in the world to come.

There is immediate action in relation to this attack on the throne by the two chamberlains. The matter is reported, investigated, found out, and finalised.

• In such plots against the throne at the present time, it is urgent, when they are detected, to look diligently into matters, so that, if true, they may be proved by facts and disposed of in the moral judgment and action of the saints assembly-wise, as in the light of the cross.

• These two men were "hanged on a tree", reminding us of Peter's reference to the Lord's sufferings on the tree. 1 Peter 2: 24.

D.C.W. Does the word come in, "tell it to the assembly", Matthew 18: 17?

• Mordecai informs Esther, and Esther presents the matter to the king in Mordecai's name, so that it goes through right channels. Does that suggest the way that matters are to come to the assembly?

P.L. Yes, this matter of the rebellion of the chamberlains was patent; and generally speaking, in cases of public evil, the conscience of the saints is carried.

• There was, according to the record in Esther 2, no element active to retard this judgment being executed.

• So the enemy having been defeated in regard to a public case of evil, so to speak, as exposed in 1 Corinthians 5, falls back on what we might call his stratagems depicted in Colossians and Ephesians. His ruses are more dangerous than his public violence, and cannot be always exposed and met in a day.

• So the following chapters in the book of Esther portray Haman, the cultured man according to the flesh, the deadly weapon of Satan in the christian profession, by whom, through philosophy or ritualism, the foe would rob the saints of their very life.
  • In Colossians 3: 4, Christ is our life.

• According to the later chapters of Esther, the saints have to fight for their lives, and so do we.
  • "Your life is hid with the Christ in God",

• the apostle writes – Colossians 3 3 – but to know anything of that experimentally, we have to enter into conflict with the enemy in his subtle attempts to defraud us.
  • "Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize", Colossians 2: 18.

    Then according to Ephesians 6: 12,

  • "Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies".

• While it is to Colossians, and especially Ephesians, that we turn to learn the source and character of the opposition now to be faced, it is in the setting of 2 Corinthians that the conflict actually goes on, with a local setting of administration. For in this part of the book of Esther, Mordecai is habitually "sitting in the gate".

• As tracing Paul's militant movements in 2 Corinthians we may discern many Colossian and Ephesian touches, indicating that his carefully calculated military strategy was directed and coloured by the high levels of the truth developed later in those epistles.

As already remarked, in these chapters now before us we are viewing matters as in the current testimonial realm, in which the throne appears to sway from time to time, as coming under darkening influences.

• The custody of the throne, its preservation in purity and stability, are, from this point of view, a holy trust in the hands of the saints as found in the way of assembly recovery.

• Thus the defence of the throne is a service to all the saints everywhere, just as was the service of Mordecai and Esther to all the Jews throughout the vast empire of this king.

J.P. What an encouragement that is to every local company, no matter how small, as seeking to hold the ground in view of the blessing of all believers everywhere!

P.L. Exactly; it is a peculiar mission for all of us who have, in days of public assembly captivity, the light of which Esther 1 bespeaks.

• Though we can look for no return to first love with the assembly here as a whole, yet for those who are favoured with the light of the assembly, to make Christ's name great here in the defence of God's rights as vested in Him, is a current, burning, night-and-day matter.

• It depends on subjective formation in the saints as set out in Esther, fostered by Mordecai. The spirit of Christ in the saints, for which Mordecai stands, labours for that universally; but it is not until chapter 8 that Mordecai has access to the king. He is, indeed, not allowed to go even into the king's gate as clothed in garments of sackcloth.
  • All therefore hangs upon Esther – the working out subjectively of assembly features in every locality – if Satan is to be defeated in his underground tactics.

• What he is aiming at is to deflect from the maintenance of divine rights those to whom authority has been committed. He seeks to cause the throne to be set for the destruction of the Jews, who according to the post-captivity books, represent the element of genuineness among the people of God as seen in Romans 2: 29.

• It is thus that the foe would, by his strategy, overwhelm the testimony and those bound up with it. His ultimate objective is to prevent, if possible, the incoming of Christ by the divinely appointed way. How vain was the attempt that was repeated in the command of Herod to destroy all the boys of Bethlehem from two years and under.

The tenderly nurtured Esther has now come to the hour for which she was destined, and toward which all the lavish care of Hegai, and the continued care of Mordecai had been directed to prepare her. Would she rise to it, as answering to Mordecai's spiritual leadership?

W.B.H. Does the link with John's gospel, which you had in your mind, come into this part of the book especially? I am thinking of what you have said as to the throne being preserved by what Esther does.

• It now seems to be without the support of chamberlains and counsellors, who figured so prominently in the first chapter. It is now a question of what Esther does and how she acts.

• Have you in mind that the Lord leaves the saints, according to John's gospel, in the scene of conflict trusting them, because of what they are substantially as the fruit of his own ministry?

P.L. Yes, bringing us also to John's epistles, where there are many antichrists abroad, and there is need of a priestly state with the saints to prove the spirits whether they are of God. 1 John 4: 1.

• Esther, in chapter 5 and onwards, represents a state of matured holy love that can fill out the position, not now being dependent upon parental care, as in her youth.

• John delights that his children are found walking in the truth; but then he salutes the elect lady and her sister with great respect. They are as Esthers in their localities, stars in the dark night of threatening apostasy.

W.B.H. Whilst, quite rightly, we turn to Matthew in relation to ecclesiastical order and administration, does John's ministry develop a state of spirituality among the saints which holds things for God?

P.L. And it is that, which in family feelings and unity, has turned the scales in recent and many previous conflicts.

• It has been particularly evident of late that the feelings of the saints, as of the family of God, and also as of the body of Christ, have come into play as meeting the plausible, but determined effort of the destroyer of God's people, and the divider of them, prefigured in Haman, whose spirit as an Agagite might pass muster in religious orthodoxy with unspiritual people.

J.P. In the recent history of the testimony, in what way has this element come to light, because, as you say, there has been conflict in relation to it?

P.L. The opposition to the truth has taken on an Agagite character. I am referring to Haman's ancestor, Agag, king of the Amalekites, as to whom Jehovah had sworn that He would have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

• Agag came gaily before Samuel – 1 Samuel 15: 32 – saying something sounding to uncircumcised ears as if it were Scripture: "Surely the bitterness of death is passed". Or as some might say, 'Let bygones be bygones, as long as you can let me live; I will never be a trouble again!'

• But remember the oath of God! He is determined to deal with Amalek root and branch. He has done it in the cross, and He looks to the saints to do it now in spiritual judgment and power.

• Militant skill lies in spiritual strategy, so as to force the foe – by way of inward formation in the saints as after Christ – into the open, which is the last thing he desires.

• John records that Judas went out and it was night. John 13: 30. His exit was hastened by the service of the Lord in feet washing, and further in relation to a state of love among the saints, of which John was the expression as found in the bosom of Jesus and leaning on his breast.

R.H.P. Is the Lord in John 8 a pattern for us in meeting the opposition of the Jews, which the Lord exposes with supreme skill, telling them that their origin is of the devil?

P.L. Exactly; that lowly, heavenly Warrior in John 8 lays bare, as you say, the Haman element that was in such opposition to Him.

M.R. He says to them that if they were Abraham's children they would do the works of their father.

P.L. That lays bare the difference. To apply it in a simple way to current history in the testimony, many so-called brethren, who have left the path, would assert, so to speak, "Abraham is our father", John 8: 39.

• They assume to trace their origin to Mr. Darby and his ministry, but the Lord would raise the challenge with them: Are you doing the works of your father?

• It is a question of present correspondence in spirit and power with the assembly revival from the beginning: is it being maintained at the high level which was set forth in the leaders of that day?

D.C.W. Is not Mordecai's attitude very important?

• "Mordecai bowed not" to Haman, "nor did him reverence".

• Is that Mordecai element one which we need with us and in us, so that a stand is taken against this insidious influence?

P.L. Exactly. The issue is joined, as you say, and Mordecai is taking the field now aggressively, because he has the support of Esther. We might say that Paul had to wait for Esther to come to light in the Corinthians.

• He could lay bare the plot of the chamberlains, and there was enough conscience at Corinth and more, to come into line with his judgment, and deal with the offender according to 1 Corinthians 5.

• But ere he could enter upon military operations against the entrenched foe in relation to a much deeper issue – as in the latter part of the second epistle – he must have the saints with him assembly-wise. Therefore it is a question of waiting for spiritual formation to be developed in the saints through his ministry.

• We have but two or three verses at the end of Esther 2 dealing with the overthrow of the plot of the two chamberlains, culminating in their being hanged, but what a history of spiritual skill unfolds in the subsequent chapters in relation to the Haman issue!

• The spirit of Christ in Mordecai, allied spiritually to a subjective state seen in Esther, is set for the common maintenance of the throne; not now Matthew-wise as meeting an open attack in a locality, but John-wise in calculated strategy to expose and overthrow the satanic scheme aimed at the destruction of every Jew, throughout the empire.

W.B.H. You are linking the dealing with the chamberlains with 1 Corinthians 5, where it is a question of a clear, straight-cut matter of evil that can be readily dealt with, almost regardless of the state of the saints.

• But this matter between the Jews and Haman is a matter that must be worked out in the spiritual state of the saints: is that in your mind?

P.L. Yes, and it involves readiness to lay down one's life for the brethren, as Esther comes to it later: "If I perish, I perish".

L.F. Is it significant that the word used for, 'enemy' in connection with Haman has reference to what is within?

P.L. Yes, note p to Psalm 8: 2 helps as to the different words used.

• "From among your own selves shall rise up men speaking perverted things to draw away the disciples after them", Acts 20: 30;

• that is what we have here.

H.J.M. Does Esther stress the importance of the development of assembly features amongst the saints in virginity and purification?

P.L. Quite so, also response to parental care, and unreserved committal to the blessed Spirit. Her military prowess in heaven's skill is now coming into view.

• It is to be noted that the spouse in the Song of Songs, when described at length by her great Lover, is generally seen expressing some militant features.

• She is not yet united to him, so the full Ephesian conflict is scarcely in mind, but Paul's warfare in 2 Corinthians brings in what is to some extent Colossian and Ephesian in character. See 2 Corinthians 10: 5; 11: 31; 12: 1-4, etc.

W.B.H. So, while in 1 Corinthians the apostle has to deal with gross evil and so on, in the second epistle does he go behind such public matters in dealing with the false apostles, deceitful workers, and all that had been seeking to corrupt the virginity and chastity of the saints who were "espoused … a chaste virgin to Christ"?

P.L. Yes, it is a question of chastity, which the enemy seeks to corrupt in his dark designs, through a rival to Christ.

• It may be in hero-worship, or in some dominant Diotrephes, or reigning king at Corinth, naturally amiable, walking softly like Agag.

• Surely, someone would say, his overtures of friendliness should be embraced! – but if so, alas, to the undermining in the saints of that for which Christ gave Himself to secure in them.

D.C.W. Did Mordecai have a thorough judgment of that kind of man, and was it thus that he was able to resist that influence?

P.L. Quite so; evidently the war with Amalek from first to last according to the divine fiat – Exodus 17: 16 – was written indelibly in his mind and heart.

R.C.R. Does this conflict require that the saints generally should become clear? It speaks in Esther 4: 4 of her maids and her chamberlains coming into the matter; all the brethren are to be in it.

• You were referring earlier to Paul's skill and patience, waiting to gain the saints at Corinth in the second epistle, before he brings the issue to a head.

P.L. That was a skilful move, because he recognised from the first that the immediate case of wickedness – 1 Corinthians 5 – though urgently calling for assembly judgment, was not so serious as the divided state among the saints, which gave birth to that flagrant delinquency.

• So that when open wickedness breaks out among us, the saints are not only repudiating it, but they are feeling the divided state among them that gave birth to it.

R.C.R. From the beginning of the epistle it is the state of division among them that appears to have weighed most with Paul. There was the overt matter that had to be dealt with first, but it was the underlying state that he was primarily concerned about.

P.L. Yes, it was the fact that there were divisions among them that was reported to Paul by the house of Chloe, suggesting that the Esther element was there among them, and Paul's concern was its development.

R.C.R. Undivided affection for Christ would bring about undivided conditions among the brethren.

P.L. Yes, indeed. There is no bond more wondrous, or binding, more strong yet tender, than consecration of heart to Christ and to the assembly.

C.K. Does Paul seek to develop that faithfulness to Christ, and love for Him, by getting the Corinthians to judge this evil together?

P.L. Yes, but the public case of evil in 1 Corinthians 5 – this brazen attack on the throne by the two chamberlains – was dealt with,

• only to be followed by a far deeper issue, involving that Mordecai should go forth into the city with a loud and bitter cry, clothed in sackcloth, and that Esther should be ready to lay down her life.

• She did not take her life in her hand when she reported to the king in Mordecai's name the plot of the two chamberlains.

• But it is a question of not counting one's life dear, as Paul said in Acts 20: 24, when we are engaged in conflict which, while in its immediate setting is Corinthian, in its final issue reaches to what is Ephesian in character.

• For the conflict of Ephesians 6 is to hold the ground here for the coming Heir, in the presence of the great hierarchy of evil. It was the incoming of Christ as Heir that Satan was really seeking to prevent in his scheme, through Haman, to exterminate the Jews.

• What a call there is for priestly detection and discernment of the moral springs of a movement to which some saints, through the very amiability of the flesh unjudged, or through family loyalty, insensible to fleshly features – refined and cultured though these may be – lend themselves. A movement deadly, subtle and sinister, which cannot be nailed down on the spot, as in the case of the chamberlains.

• The letters of our brother Mr. Taylor witness far less to conflict as to rebel chamberlains – although how pronounced is he as to them – than to the great battle in regard to Haman, into which, with a loud and bitter cry, Mordecai is calling Esther. Would you say that?

J.P. Yes, some of us were just speaking of that, and of the stress that Mr. Taylor laid on the assembly, and what he suffered in order that the assembly might have her place in the minds and affections of the saints. And that is the great bulwark against the attack of the enemy.

P.L. He told me that, as a young man, he had asked God as to what should be the line of his ministry, and the answer came, Christ and the assembly! We can say thankfully that he was true to his trust.

L.F. When the initial attack of Amalek was met, Moses built an altar and called it "Jehovah-nissi", Exodus 17: 15 – 'Jehovah, my banner'. Where Christ is brought in, the banner becomes a rallying point.

P.L. Quite so. We are now, of course, in deeper battles than those that belong to the wilderness position, which bear on Satan acting on the flesh in us individually, as having typically received the Spirit.

• But we must gather up the earlier Amalek battles, and the spoil of them, in our souls if we are going to embark on this crucial conflict with Haman. I do not think there is any further allusion to Amalek after this, suggesting that this is the last issue, and we are engaged in it all over the world.

• Which man is going to dominate, Mordecai – Christ – or Haman? For Mordecai does not come into power and rise to a type of Christ until Haman is hanged; and Esther has an increasing part in the matter, as ready to lay down her life for her brethren.

R.C.R. Is this like David taking the stronghold of Zion, which corresponds with 2 Corinthians 10: 5,

• "overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God"?

• Paul then speaks of being in bodily presence weak, and refers to the kind of things which those who oppose would make much of in disparagement of him, as setting great store on human appearance and human ability.

• This is not an obvious kind of battle, is it, but subtle opposition to Christ – Christ and the assembly, to prevent, if possible, Christ getting His own proper place in what Zion represents?

P.L. Yes, and I think that Mordecai's sackcloth bears upon circumcision – the complete refusal to recognise the flesh.

R.C.R. As in Colossians.

P.L. Yes, the battle against Haman really involves Colossian issue.

• We have passed on from the uprising of the chamberlains, prefiguring the case in 1 Corinthians 5, into 2 Corinthians, where, as we have noticed, the conflict takes on Colossian and Ephesian features.

• The issue now is whether the throne will be swayed by what Haman represents – the influence through great men, and behind all this the god of this world – or whether there is an element among the saints that will bring Mordecai already into testimony as in Esther 6.

• This makes way eventually for him, as prefiguring Christ as Heir, to take over all in glory in chapters 9 and 10.

• I think, when in chapter 6 Mordecai is led in royal apparel on the king's horse round the city at the command of the king, by Haman, the unwilling agent of the king's pleasure, we enter Colossian territory, with all the glories of Christ in mind, according to the divine pleasure.

R.C.R. So Colossians begins with that great reference to Christ, He the great Leader encouraging us to follow Him into this realm.

P.L. Quite so.

J.G.H. In Colossians 2: 11 it speaks of the "putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ".

P.L. Yes, the whole incubus of it.

D.C.W. So it is the mind that is the danger in Colossians, "vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh", Colossians 2: 18.

P.L. Quite so. The most subtle form of the enemy's attacks is by nice persons – the cultured christian gentleman. It is through Agag who can walk softly, and use well-sounding expressions, that Satan aims at the domination of the saints, with a view to their extermination in regard to all that is vitally theirs.

R.C.R. Circumcision cuts at the root of all that, however nice I may be.

P.L. Yes, Esther did not like the look of a man in sackcloth; she might think it was not according to court manners. She sought other clothes for Mordecai, but he would have none of it.

• The man of God has his own wardrobe, and sackcloth plays a large part in it. Paul reminded the Ephesian elders of how he had appeared among them with tears.

L.B.G. Prayer is not mentioned here; will you say something as to it?

P.L. I think that is understandable, because God's name is not mentioned in the book. "Lo-ammi", Hosea 1: 9, is, so to speak, written over the people.

• Of course, prayer is ever our resource against the foe. But while the word is not found here, I think Esther's waiting attitude in the court before the king, and her touching the top of the sceptre, when the king extends it to her, depicts prayer; then later her supplications to the king are mentioned.

J.C. There is much emphasis given to fasting.

P.L. Yes, indeed, and how the loud and bitter cry reminds us of what Paul went through, and Epaphras too, but supremely of the Lord's own last and wondrous cry on the cross, expressing such depth of feeling, as tasting the bitterness of divine judgment in the removal of the man whom Haman represents.

• What priestly feelings of abhorrence of the features marking that man are in activity with Paul in writing to the Colossians, and priestly yearnings to save the brethren at all costs from a foe undiscerned by them.

• They have to be stirred up to fight for their lives, as were the Jews throughout the empire later in the book. Many have no conception of the battles that go on.

H.A.W. Would you say that this loud and bitter cry issued from a heart free from self-consideration, that was considering for God, and realised how God would be affected?

P.L. Quite so; and Mordecai was thinking of the saints, too; for Haman had been falsely accusing the saints in the king's ear.

• It is a warning to us not to play into the hands of the enemy with disparaging remarks about the brethren; he is their accuser before God day and night – Revelation 12: 10 – but God will never listen to him, the more urgent then that we should never do so.

W.B.H. What is the significance of this mourning and sackcloth being a public matter? It would seem as if the Jews thus disclosed their identity.

P.L. Well, Satan would carry on the conflict underground, if he could. The time comes when the saints must force him into the open by coming into the open themselves.

• That cry was to reverberate throughout Shushan; while many might hear it, it was really intended for the Jews who were there. It is to those available in the testimony that the loud and bitter cry comes; they are to hear it and act on it.

H.J.M. What does the added matter of the ashes represent for us?

P.L. Ashes indicate complete consumption by fire, whatever the material be.

• The saints are formidable in relation to ashes, as was manifested in the sign in Egypt, when the ashes thrown toward heaven resulted in boils breaking out on man and beast. We can take no place in relation to heaven except as we answer to the ashes.

• In Genesis 18 Abraham speaks of himself as being but dust and ashes; he could not take account of his place in relation to the stars of heaven, except on the ground of being ashes.

H.J.M. And in the spiritual setting it would involve an answer in us to the ashes of the sin offering.

H.S.D. Does it fit in with what Paul was bringing to bear upon the saints at Corinth in the second epistle – the thought of dying together and living together. 2 Corinthians 7: 3; the state of the saints is met in that chapter; so that as death worked in the saints, life was in view?

P.L. Yes indeed. So Esther takes the field on the third day. No one was ever defeated who so did. No one ever won a spiritual victory who did otherwise.

• Nehemiah on arriving at Jerusalem, stayed there three days, without apparently doing a thing, and his enemies were terrorised. They were grieved that a man had come to seek the welfare of Jerusalem; he was a three-day man.

• Such was Paul, and the evil spirit at Ephesus had to admit, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with", Acts 19: 15.

• The third day is the great resurrection day of divine triumph involving, for the saints, divine power in testimony. Let us take the field in the light of that, and there will be only one result.

• The timeliness and seemliness of spiritual movements are what the Spirit of God emphasises in the book of Esther.

1. firstly, in her readiness to accept death, saying, "If I perish, I perish".

2. Secondly, in fasting;

3. thirdly, in putting on royal apparel;

4. fourthly in the waiting attitude of a suppliant before the throne;

5. and fifthly, in her two banquets.

• Esther takes the initiative, and acquires growing power over the throne. All this is to teach us that the throne – representing the power of God for the maintenance of His rights – does not take things in hand independently of what Esther represents.

• God's power is reserved for those who act. There is a tendency for some to say in a crisis: 'We are waiting for God to come in'.

• The manifestation of the power of God on our behalf in the battles of the testimony is conditional upon the subjective state assembly-wise for which Esther stands.

• As to Mordecai, it is to be noted that, except in the matter of his glorification at the hand of Ahasuerus through Haman – chapter 6 – he is not in evidence now. Though earlier, in chapter 4, as a spiritual leader, he could call upon her to die, as did Paul in regard to Timothy.

As tracing in Paul at Ephesus these features which shine out typically in Esther, we should keep in mind that Ephesian features are to be developed in the saints while engaged in a conflict that is necessarily in a Corinthian setting.

• A universal issue may arise, but though our struggle be against the universal lords of this darkness, the crisis may find expression in a locality, between those standing for the truth assembly-wise – represented by Esther – and elements opposed to the truth – who, through lack of self-judgment, are not free of earthly characteristics.

Chapter 4: 16 of Esther puts us in mind of Paul in Acts 20 calling to him at Miletus the elders of the assembly at Ephesus.

• The Holy Spirit is still here in unimpaired power, in the presence of all the conditions that have sorrowfully arisen in the professing church.

• What a model Paul furnishes us in this militant setting, both as he brings himself before us as a model in Acts 20 and in 2 Corinthians. How ready he is to perish!
  • "But I make no account of my life as dear to myself", Acts 20: 24.

    How the spirit of fasting characterised him:

  • "In fastings often", 2 Corinthians 11: 27.

• Then this royal apparel, seen pre-eminently in the King coming into His capital as meek and lowly –
  • "meek and lowly in heart", Matthew 11: 29.

• Paul entered into conflict as thus arrayed:
  • "But I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ … For walking in flesh, we do not war according to flesh. For the arms of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful according to God to the overthrow of strongholds; overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ", 2 Corinthians 10: 1-5.

• He is seen thus also according to Acts 20: 19 "with all lowliness".

• Then what prayer marked Paul as he committed them to God, and as he knelt down and prayed with them all. Acts 20: 36.

• How he emphasised, too, the importance of maintaining the supply of food and drink, typified in Esther's banquets. What rich ministries he introduces in the early part of 2 Corinthians – the ministry of the new covenant, and the ministry of reconciliation,
  • waiting all the time for the up-building of assembly features in the Corinthians,

• which would furnish suited conditions for the exposure of the Haman element, which was operating in a hidden way among them.

Esther is to prove her mettle now, as typifying the church militant according to Matthew.