The Process of Elimination

This is part five in the series Welcome To The Wilderness. In this blog we will look at Queen Esther. Esther’s wilderness experience occurred in a bath tub. She soaked her way through her wilderness experience.

Our Jewish friends just completed their celebration of Purim. Purim is not a Biblical Feast in that it was not something God initiated. Purim is a festival where the Jewish people celebrate the great deliverance from the wicked man Haman.

This deliverance is another type of the Bride of Christ coming into perfect alignment with her husband the King to co-labor with Him to destroy the works of the enemy.

Jesus is returning to a victorious Bride, not a worn out, fearful hag that is looking for His rescue mission to snatch her off the planet. The Proverbs 31 woman is the church in her glory. She arises while it is still dark. This aligns with what Isaiah the prophet said in chapter 60.

The message of Esther is about the perfect timing of her rise to a position of prominence and influence. Esther came to the kingdom for such a time as this. What was the time that was so important? It was the imminent threat of annihilation at the hands of Haman. The name Haman is of “foreign derivation” and means magnificent. He is the perfect Old Testament type of the prince of darkness that masquerades as an angel of light.

It is interesting how Haman had a close relationship with the King of Persia just like the prince of darkness once had a close relationship with the King of Glory. Haman was even promoted above the other princes in the kingdom. Prior to his downfall, the prince of darkness was called the “anointed cherub.” No other angel is called the “anointed cherub.”

Like the prince of darkness Haman became puffed up and sought to elevate himself beyond what was proper. This self inflated attitude was his downfall just like it was the prince of darknesses downfall.

So Esther comes on the scene and is chosen to be the bride of the King. Prior to being chosen she spends twelves months soaking. She spent six months soaking in oil of myrrh and six months soaking in spices and cosmetics for women. This process was for the beautification of the candidates in line to possibly become the Queen.

The Bible tells us God beautifies the meek with salvation. Salvation is deliverance! The purpose of personal deliverance is to equip us to be deliverers. To work out our salvation with fear and trembling is simply to get out-of-the-way so that the King and His Kingdom can manifest in us and through us. Fear and trembling are terms that have been so misunderstood and misused by those who live in legalism land. These terms speak of the magnificence and awe-inspiring work of the process of elimination.

This process of elimination is not about disqualifying people from the conflict, although people can disqualify themselves. No, this process of elimination is about the removal of everything that will keep us from running our race with endurance so that we can finish strong, and victorious.

Let us do a word study on Esther chapter two verse twelve. I love when God does sneaky things. One of His names might as well be Jehovah Sneaky. Follow me and see what I mean.

“Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulation for the women – for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women.”

The Hebrew word for twelve is shen-ah’-yim and it means two, not twelve. It comes from the root word shaw-nah’ which means to repeat, to do again. The number two is the number of agreement, or covenant. This wilderness process of soaking speaks of a covenant agreement between two people who love and respect each other.

In our third blog on the Wilderness [Prepared In The Wilderness] we saw this same thing with the apostle Paul. In the wilderness covenant agreements are made. These agreements may be tested but the tests only serve to strengthen the resolve of the people who understand them and take them seriously.

The prince of darkness continues to try to divide and conquer covenant partners. The prince of darkness was successful in the original Garden with Adam and Eve. But with Christ and His Bride, once they have walked together through the wilderness they will never be separated.

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw sing a love song entitled ITS YOUR LOVE. There is a line in this song that says, ‘And asking You to do what you’ve been doing all over again.” What a beautiful picture of the process of elimination.

This woman, the future Queen, was in a repetitive cycle where she was being transformed from an unknown slave into a force to be reckoned with.

You see, the Jews operate on a lunar cycle of 30 days. She was in her cycle. I certainly am not a specialist nor do I want to get technical here, but a women’s cycle involves the removal of old blood and cells that would hamper the process of her receiving seed that would produce life.

The Hebrew word for months is kho’-desh and it means the new moon, month or monthly. It comes from the root word khaw-dash’ which means to be new, renewed or repaired. God is the restorer. And God is always bringing us to new places in Him.

She had two soaking sessions that lasted six months each. Six is the number of man. It also represents man in his fallen state. The fact that she had two separate sessions in the tub speaks of God’s seriousness about getting her ready for her call. Everything in God’s Kingdom is to be established with two to three witnesses. Where two or three are together in His name God promises to be present. God was in this process.

I want to take a detour for just a moment. We are in chapter two where we see Esther bathing to be prepared for her night with the king. Esther is not aware that she is about to run into her destiny. She thinks she is simply in the running to be Queen. Like Gomer in our first blog on the Wilderness, Esther was about to become who she always was and did not know it.

In chapter four, which you can read later if you would like, she will receive a word from her relative Mordecai that is really the word of the Lord. God’s word is likened to seed in the Bible. This seed is going to impregnate her with her destiny.

While she is in the wilderness she has no idea she is about to run headlong into her destiny. But God knows what is about to happen. How important it is for us to stay in His process until He is done.

One of the lessons of the wilderness that we learned when we looked at John the Baptist is we must stay until God is done. Most of us, and I include myself in this group, always think we know when we are done. I just came up from a very long wilderness season. I cannot count how many times I told the Lord I was done. I am sure He just smiled each time I moaned and complained to Him.

The first six month session was in oil of myrrh. The Hebrew word for oil is sheh’-men. Shemen means fat, or oil. It comes from the root word shaw-man’ which means to be or become fat, to grow fat. This is the word from which we get semen. This word means God’s life being released.

Myrrh is actually pronounced more. I know! How do you get more out of myrrh? Myrrh is used in the anointing oil that was used to anoint prophets, priests and kings. The root word it comes from means to be bitter. It can also mean to be strong or strengthened. There is a saying, “what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.” Myrrh is collected from certain trees by a wound that results from cutting through the bark into the sapwood.

Myrrh also means a sticky white substance. It is symbolic of semen also. Sometimes there is pain in the process to become pregnant. Even after impregnation happens there is bitterness. Ask Mary the mother of Jesus. The angel called her highly favored. Yet she had to endure all kinds of unkind things from those that did not understand how she got pregnant and what [or Who] she was carrying.

Esther’s next round of baths included spices and cosmetics for women. She was becoming a sweet aroma that would bring her to the place of intimacy with the king. In our modern use of cosmetics women try to hide their imperfections. The Hebrew word for cosmetics is tam-rook’ and it means a scraping, rubbing. It comes from the same root word for the word beautification in this verse. That root word is maw-rak’. This word means to scour, to polish.

This is the complete opposite of covering up. When we cover up our imperfections the enemy has a legal right to devour us. What is kept in darkness is food for the prince of darkness. This prince of darkness showed up in the Garden as a serpent and divided the covenant couple from one another and from God.

God said that this serpent would spend the rest of his life on his belly and his diet would be dust. Dust is a metaphor for our carnal nature, or our old man, or our Adamic, fallen nature. When we attempt to cover up our faults this serpent feeds on us and off of us.

Women often use the phrase, “I have to put on my face” in referencing putting on their makeup. There is a problem when we want to cover up who we really are. Now before you get all upset ladies, I am not advocating throwing all your makeup in the trash. What I am saying is this, is there a heart problem that is communicating that we are ugly?

The bride in Song Of Solomon felt ugly. “I am dark”. Her wilderness experience brought her to a place of elegance and glory.

In addition, there is very little chance a husband and wife can experience sexual intimacy when one is under the covers and the other one is on top of the covers.

Cover ups are great intimacy destroyers. If we are covering things up it would be better to bring them into the light. Yes, there may be pain but the end result will be life, new life, and abundant life. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

This word actually means to rub away an injury. When we hide we are acting out of the first Adam’s nature. He hid and covered himself with fig leaves. What are the fig leaves we cover ourselves with?

God does not punish! God restores! With the first Adam God said, “Adam, Adam, where are you?” God wanted Adam and his wife Eve, who had just blown up the planet, to know where they were. God was not lost, Adam and Eve were lost.

It was after their greatest failure and God’s great redemptive act, no not the slaying an innocent animal so He could cover their shame, although that was a prophetic type of the innocent Lamb that was slain and that would be slain, they started having children.

No, God’s greatest redemptive act was to convince Adam and Eve that they did not have to hide from Him. In the Last Adam, Jesus Christ and His Bride the church, He is still trying to convince those in hiding to come out from under their covers and meet with Him.

He is not the destroyer! He is the restorer!

For HIS Glory!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury
A Hisstorymaker