What happens when Christians join with Jews and pray on the high holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement?
Evil is crushed.
Haman is hung.
Sinwar is slain.
It was nearly three and a half years ago that Lou Engle spoke to us in the days leading up to Pentecost, telling us of a vision to call for a million women to go to Washington, D.C. We spoke to him about the importance of the day of Yom Kippur; that it was the Biblical national day of prayer. I asked, “What would happen if the Church joined with the Jewish people on the Biblical day of prayer, the Day of Atonement?”
What happens is that Israel’s greatest human foe was defeated!
But first, a little cultural context.
The Jewish sages say that to observe the Lord's feasts, one must first celebrate Passover. It is a symbolic feast that shows you are crossing over from the worldly kingdom of Egypt into the chosen people and the Kingdom of Light.
As the New Testament Jewish sage Sha’ul (aka Paul) wrote, we are grafted into Israel through the spirit of adoption. Celebrating Passover is the cultural way of being invited into celebrating the remaining 6 high holy celebrations, among which is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
Many people present at the Million Women March, I would venture to guess, had never celebrated Passover. They had been taught by centuries of Church doctrine to instead celebrate “Easter,” which has its origins in the pagan goddess worship of Ishtar (pronounced “Eesh-tar”). In fact, yet another amazing fact about this gathering is that it was calling the Esthers to come.
The very name “Esther” came from the same name - Ishtar! The Church is now becoming keenly aware that it has been associated with and celebrating a goddess of sex and fertility! And on October 12, the Day of Atonement, the Church gathered and repented of that. She smashed the altar of Ishtar and danced on the dust of its rubble!
But on that Yom Kippur, these beautiful Esthers, many of whom had never eaten a Passover meal, gathered together and said, “If I perish, I perish” and boldly walked into the court of the King of Kings and humbly bowed in worship, asking for His scepter to be extended to grant her audience. And He did.
How do we know? Well, I don’t know if you could feel it across the livestream or on the video recordings but the presence of the Lord was there. It was rich and strong and obvious. I saw security guards and reporters getting into the praise and worship. It was amazing.
But beyond the feelings and the hunches comes the cold hard facts: Days later, Haman is slain.
Esther 3:12 tells us that Haman’s edict to kill the Jews was scribed on the thirteenth day of the first month (that is, the Biblical month of Nissan aka Aviv), which is actually in the spring. Verse 15 tells us that the couriers went out hurriedly by order of the king. Jewish history tells us that the edict was made public on Aviv 14, Passover day. After that, Mordecai asks Queen Esther, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
She calls for a three-day fast. On the third day of the fast, she risks her life by going before the king outside of the prescribed fashion. The king extends his scepter and spares her life. He also goes so far as to tell her whatever she wants, up to half of his kingdom, is hers. All she has to do is ask. Why didn’t she just ask him then and there?
One can only guess. Perhaps it’s because the fast was not yet complete. Perhaps she had the wisdom not to bring the subject up in front of a court full of anti-semites. Perhaps it was that the appointed time had not yet arrived.
The Jew-killing edict was written on the 13th (of Aviv) and according to one Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 1053; Kaf Hachaim 490), Haman was hanged on the 17th of the same month. While we were praying late in the afternoon at the end of Yom Kippur in Washington, D.C. it was October 13th in Israel. We were asking praying for Israel and the Jewish people. Days later, on the 17th of October, Yahya Sinwar, the evil mastermind behind the October 7th massacre was executed. Haman is dead.
We, the Church, with ears to hear and eyes to see, joined with Israel on the Biblical National Day of Prayer, Yom Kippur, and Israel’s number one murderer has been slain! As a matter of fact, it occurred on the very next Feast day - the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles (aka Sukkot)! This feast is symbolic of the wedding feast and is a time when people give gifts to one another. It was as if the Bridegroom gave a gift to the Bride - “Your stalker is dead. I WILL protect my queen!”
Who is this queen? She’s had great marketing under the name Esther but her true identity, before she was forcibly removed from her home and placed in the king’s harem-making spa, was Hadassah. Her name means “myrtle” which is a small tree symbolic of righteousness.
As we bask in the glow of His presence at the Yom Kippur event in Washington, D.C. let us make a decision:
We are no longer Esthers.
No more will we be known as or associated with the pagan fertility goddess Ishtar. No more will we sacrifice anything for this entity that has robbed us of children, perverted our minds, destroyed our marriages, or addicted our loved ones.
We will not rebuild her altar when spring rolls around and our children want to dye eggs. We will not celebrate Ishtar’s holiday Easter. Instead, we will embrace our true identity in righteousness! We will celebrate Passover when Yeshua died; the Feast of Unleavened Bread when He was buried; the Feast of First Fruits when He was risen!
We are no longer Esthers.
We are Hadassahs.
P.S. All glory for this victory goes to Creator Yahweh! But we do want to give honor where honor is due: We salute the Israeli Defense Force and the valiant soldiers who constantly risk their lives; the Israeli intelligence community; the Jewish people faithfully praying daily for Israel’s victory over terrorism and evil.
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