The Book of Esther
CHAPTER 5
PART 1
In Chapter 3 we saw that Haman (a type of the sinful nature) was responsible for a decree of death (a type of the wages of sin) aimed at eliminating the Jews.
In Chapter 4 the Jews mourn the decree of death (a type of repentance) and
Mordecai (a type
of the Holy Spirit)
persuades the
somewhat reluctant
Esther to intercede
with the king (a
type of our king of
kings) on behalf of
her people.
INTRODUCTION
Mordecai reminds Esther that God will save his people one way or the other, but that she can be God’s instrument. He refers to God’s providence when he says, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther
is finally
persuaded.
When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if
I perish, I perish.
5:1-5 On the
third day
Esther put on
her royal
robes and
stood in the
inner court of
the palace, in
front of the
king’s hall.
The king was
sitting on his
royal throne
in the hall,
facing the entrance. When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the sceptre.
Esther entered
the king’s court
on the
third day!
This is of course relative to the start of their fast. Remember that for three days all the Jews in Susa along with Esther and her maids were fasting in preparation for what Esther was about to do.
THE THIRD DAY
Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. (Est 4:16)
the Third Day
What is the
significance of
in Scripture?
Paul writes concerning Jesus:
1 Cor 15:3-4 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…
Remember that when Paul wrote this, the New Testament was still being written and “the Scriptures” refers to the Old Testament.
Why then would Paul make this statement when there is no explicit prediction in the Old Testament about the Messiah dying and rising on the third day?
THE THIRD DAY
Paul had Luke as a travel companion on his second and third missionary journey. Luke authored both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.
THE THIRD DAY
Luke, Timothy, Paul and Silas in Philippi
Luke recorded in his gospel that Jesus said something similar to Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 15:3-4 when speaking to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Luke 24:45-46 Then he opened their
minds so they could understand the
Scriptures.
THE THIRD DAY
This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day…
Again Jesus had previously said something similar to the Twelve in Luke 18:31-33 (also Matt 20:17).
THE THIRD DAY
We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.
So the passages in Luke are possibly the source of Paul’s statement, most likely provided to Paul by Luke himself.
1 Corinthians was written around AD 55. Luke’s gospel was probably completed between AD 50-60. In any event, as fellow travel companions, Paul would have been privy to information contained in material that Luke was collating for his gospel (Luke 1:3). 1
1 When Paul wrote to Timothy around AD 56-57 (see http:// datingthenewtestament.com/ Timothy.htm) he already quotes a passage from Luke’s gospel as Scripture.
1 Tim 5:18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
While the first verse is from Deut 25:4, the second is not found in the OT and is a quotation from Luke 10:7 where Jesus says, “for the worker deserves his wages.” In fact Paul uses the identical Greek words as Luke. So (not surprisingly) it seems that Paul knew of Luke’s gospel at this time and considered it Scripture on the same level as the writings of Moses.
THE THIRD DAY
But it still doesn’t answer the question as to what Jesus was referring to. Where is it written in the Old Testament that the Messiah would rise on the third day? There is no passage which literally predicts this, so Jesus must have been referring to prophetic “types” in Scripture.
On the road to Emmaus Luke records that
Jesus “opened their minds so they could
understand the Scriptures” so it appears that
he wasn’t simply quoting verses but
expanding and interpreting them.
This is the way typology is handled.
THE THIRD DAY
Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32)
We’ll find that there
are many other
references to the
third day in Scripture.
Note the first three
days of creation:
On the first day light
appeared in the
darkness. Jesus is the
light of the world – who
appeared to expel the darkness and show the way to God.
Matt 4:16 “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
LIGHT APPEARS
On the second
day the waters
below were
separated from
the waters
above. This
speaks of the
separation
between God
(above) and man
(below) because
of our sin.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
SEPARATION
On the third day of creation we see:
The emergence of dry land which speaks of the
resurrection of Jesus. The land which is “buried”
under the
water
emerges
and brings
forth life.
LAND EMERGES
The land is prepared as a place for man to live. Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2 NASB)
The plants and
trees are created
as provision and
sustenance
for life. The
resurrected
Jesus is our
“living water” and
the “bread of life”
i.e. our spiritual
sustenance.
SUSTENANCE
After having no water
in the desert, on the
third day Moses
turned the bitter
water at Marah into
sweet refreshing
water.
Ex 15:22-25 … For
three days they
travelled in the
desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter… Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
THIRST QUENCHED
The resurrected Jesus forever quenches our spiritual thirst by giving us living water to drink (John 4:13-14).
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
THIRST QUENCHED
It was on the third day of the week
that Jesus attended a wedding in
Cana and supplied a shortage by
turning water into wine.
John 2:1-8 On
the third day
a wedding took
place at Cana
in Galilee…
When he rose, Jesus
supplied our shortage
- by making a way of
salvation for those
who had no resources
of their own.
Fill the jars with water… Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.
THIRST QUENCHED
Jesus fed
the hungry
multitude
on the
third day.
Our spiritual
hunger is satisfied
in Jesus.
Matt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will
be filled.
HUNGER SATISFIED
I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. (Matt 15:32)
David gives food and water to a dying,
mistreated slave on the third day.
1 Sam 30:11-13 They found an
Egyptian in a field and brought him
to David. They gave him water to
drink and food to eat… He ate and
was revived, for he had not eaten
any food or drunk any water for
three days and three nights. David
asked him, “To whom do you belong,
and where do you come from?” He
said, “I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago.”
Badly treated by our former master, we too were restored and revived by the events of the third day.
HUNGER SATISFIED
Hezekiah is healed from his fatal disease and gives thanks in the temple on the third day. God instructs Isaiah to say:
HEALING
This is what the LORD… says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD.
We were healed of our disease (of sin) on the third day.
And the type continues after Jesus’ resurrection. Saul (Paul) has his sight restored on the third day.
Acts 9:8-18 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind… Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.
HEALING
Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus… has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again…
When we were unsaved we were spiritually blind:
2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…
But Jesus came to open our eyes:
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed…”
John 9:39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
HEALING
Led by a pillar of cloud, it was on the third day that the Israelites found a place of rest in the desert.
Num 10:33-34 So they set out from the mountain of the LORD and travelled for three days. The ark of the covenant of the LORD went before
them during those
three days to
find them a
place to rest.
The cloud of
the LORD was
over them by
day when they
set out from
the camp.
REST
By his death and resurrection on the third day, Jesus gave us rest from our futile efforts to be saved by works.
Heb 4:3-10 Now we
who have believed
enter that rest…
There remains,
then, a Sabbath-
rest for the people
of God; for anyone
who enters God’s rest also
rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
And Jesus offers rest to our souls:
Matt 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest.”
REST
Ezra rested for three days.
Ezra 8:31-32 The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from
REST
enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived in
Jerusalem, where we rested three days.
Jesus “rested” in the tomb in Jerusalem for three days.
On the third day
after his dream,
the chief cupbearer
was released from
prison by Pharaoh
and saved him from
a death sentence.
Gen 40:20-21
Now the third
day was
Pharaoh’s birthday…
He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand…
So too on the third day Jesus was restored to his position and released from a death sentence.
LIBERATION
And as the cupbearer was pardoned by the king, so we are pardoned by Jesus’ death and justified by his resurrection.
Rom 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Note that there is a technical difference between pardon and justification.
Pardon: you are guilty - but are shown mercy.
Justification: you are not guilty, you’re innocent – and so the charges are dropped.
And as the cupbearer was spared the death penalty, so in the resurrection we have the promise of eternal life:
1 Cor 6:14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
LIBERATION
On the third day Joseph’s brothers are freed from prison.
Gen 42:17-19 And he put them all in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this
and you will live…”
Likewise Jesus was
freed from the
‘prison’ of death
on the third day.
Acts 2:24 But God
raised him from
the dead, freeing
him from the agony
of death, because
it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
LIBERATION
On the third day of travel, David discovers the plight of the inhabitants of Ziklag who had been taken captive..
1 Sam 30:1-18 David… reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites… had attacked Ziklag and burned it and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it… David recovered everything…
We too were rescued
on the third day.
John 8:34-36 Jesus
replied, “…everyone
who sins is a slave to
sin… So if the Son
sets you free, you
will be free indeed.”
LIBERATION
Jonah was in the
belly of the whale,
but was delivered
on the third day.
Matt 12:40
(KJV) For as
Jonas was
three days
and three
nights in the
whale’s belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
So Jesus himself showed in this passage that the ordeal of Jonah was typical of his death and resurrection.
LIBERATION
Using a prearranged signal involving arrows, on the third day of hiding, David is saved by Jonathan from the wrath of his father (Saul).
1 Sam 20:5 (ESV) David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the
new moon, and I
should not fail
to sit at table
with the king.
But let me go,
that I may hide
myself in the
field till the
third day at
evening…
SAVED FROM WRATH
After his resurrection on the third day, Jesus saved us from the wrath of his Father.
1 Thess 1:10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Rom 5:9-10 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
SAVED FROM WRATH
The two Israelite spies emerge from hiding on the third day to return to the safety of their camp and the protection of their commander in chief, Joshua.
Josh 2:22-23 When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then
the two men started
back. They went
down out of the hills,
forded the river and
came to Joshua son
of Nun and told him
everything that had
happened to them.
PROTECTION
After the third day (of resurrection) we can go to our place of safety and the protection of our commander in chief, Jesus. Jesus (Yeshua) and Joshua (Yehoshua) both mean “Yahweh is my salvation” in Hebrew.
2 Thess 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
PROTECTION
On the third day Nehemiah sets out to examine the walls of Jerusalem, with the intention of rebuilding them.
Neh 2:11-12 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not
told anyone what
my God had put
in my heart to do
for Jerusalem.
The walls Nehemiah
would build offered
the inhabitants
protection from
their enemies.
PROTECTION
Like Nehemiah’s walls, Jesus’ work of redemption offers us protection from Satan and our enemies.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name… (John 17:11)
PROTECTION
Jacob leaves without informing Laban and on the third day Laban learns what has happened.
Gen 31:22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
Contemplating harming Jacob, Laban is warned by God to show restraint:
I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ (Gen 31:26-29)
DEFENDED
So on the third day Jacob is protected from Laban’s wrath, defended by God as he upholds his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
We too are defended by our resurrected Lord:
Rom 8:34 Who
is he that
condemns? Christ
Jesus, who died—
more than that,
who was raised
to life—is at the
right hand of
God and is also
interceding for
us.
DEFENDED
After arriving in Ziklag, David receives news on the third day that his enemy Saul is dead. Saul had often
hunted David with the intention of killing him.
2 Sam 1:2 On the third day
a man arrived from Saul’s
camp with his clothes torn and
dust on his head …
On the third day
the news broke that
Jesus had risen from
the grave and vanquished man’s greatest enemy – death!
1 Cor 15:25-26 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
ENEMIES VANQUISHED
The Israelites discover the deception of the Gibeonites
on the third day.
Josh 9:16 Three days
after they made the
treaty with the
Gibeonites, the
Israelites heard that
they were neighbours,
living near them.
We too were deceived
until Jesus gave us the truth.
Titus 3:3 At one time we too were … deceived…
John 14:6a Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
NO MORE DECEPTION
DARKNESS ENDS
The plague of darkness in Egypt ended on the third day.
Exodus 10:22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.
On the third day Jesus’ resurrection allowed those in spiritual darkness to see the light.
Col 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
After being in contact with the dead, the Israelites were ceremonially unclean. On the third day and seventh day they had to purify themselves with water.
Num 19:11-12 “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean.”
Matthew Henry writes:
“Why did the law make a corpse a defiling thing? Because death is the wages of sin, which entered into the world by it, and reigns by the power of it.” 1
1 Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary 19:11-22
PURIFICATION
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary states:
The necessity of applying the water on the third day is inexplicable on any natural or moral ground; and, therefore, the regulation has been generally supposed to have had a typical reference to the resurrection, on that day, of Christ, by whom His people are sanctified; while the process of ceremonial purification being extended over seven days, was intended to show that sanctification is progressive and incomplete till the arrival of the eternal Sabbath.
Jesus’ death and resurrection on the third day provided purification for our sins.
Heb 1:3b After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
PURIFICATION
On the third day the
wicked sin that occurred
in the territory of
Benjamin was dealt with.
Judg 20:30 They
went up against the
Benjamites on the
third day…
Our sin was dealt with by Jesus’ death and resurrection:
Acts 5:30-31 “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”
A SIN SACRIFICE
When Israel came under God’s
judgement for taking a census
(2 Sam 24:13), it was on the third
day that David made a sacrifice
and the judgement ceased.
2 Sam 24:25 David built an
altar to the Lord there and
sacrificed burnt offerings and
fellowship offerings. Then the
Lord answered his prayer in
behalf of the land, and the
plague on Israel was stopped.
David’s sacrifice is typical of the sacrifice for sin made
by the Son of David (Jesus) which saved us from God’s judgement.
A SIN SACRIFICE
The Israelites request Pharaoh’s permission to make a journey into the desert, in order to offer a sacrifice on the third day.
The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God… (Ex 5:33)
A SIN SACRIFICE
After his resurrection he tells Mary, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” (John 20:17). And his purpose for going to the Father on the third day was to present himself as a sin sacrifice.
Heb 9:24-26 For Christ did not enter a man-made
sanctuary … he
entered heaven
itself, now to appear
for us in God’s
presence… But now
he has appeared once
for all at the end of
the ages to do away
with sin by the
sacrifice of himself.
A SIN SACRIFICE
When God tests
Abraham by telling
him to sacrifice
his only son, we
read that:
On the third
day Abraham
looked up and
saw the place
in the distance.
(Gen 22:4)
“The place” was Mount Moriah and Abraham was headed there to offer his son Isaac as an offering to God. Yet in faith he assures his companions, “We will worship and then we will come back to you” (Gen 22:5)
A SIN SACRIFICE
But before Isaac can be killed, a substitute sacrifice is provided by God in the form of a ram.
Gen 22:12-13 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said… Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
A SIN SACRIFICE
Just as the ram died in the place of Isaac, so Jesus died in our place and was offered as a sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Rom 3:23-25 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
And just as Isaac returned alive from the place of sacrifice, so too Jesus was resurrected after his sacrifice.
A SIN SACRIFICE
The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem was completed “on the third day” of Adar.
Ezra 6:15
The temple
was
completed
on the
third day
of the
month Adar,
in the sixth
year of the
reign of
King Darius.
REBUILDING A TEMPLE
The rebuilding a fallen structure (in particular the temple) was used by Jesus as an analogy of his resurrection.
John 2:18-19 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous
sign can you
show us to
prove your
authority
to do all
this?”
REBUILDING A TEMPLE
Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.
Jesus’ disciples
only realised the
implication of Jesus’
words here after his
resurrection.
John 2:20-22 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?
REBUILDING A TEMPLE
But the rebuilt temple was also the place where the people met with God. Again this is symbolic of how Jesus’ death and resurrection allows us to have fellowship with God.
Heb 10: 19-22 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since
we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings…
REBUILDING A TEMPLE
While camping at Mount Sinai, it was on the third day that God revealed himself to the Israelites and subsequently made a covenant of law with them.
Ex 19:16-19 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain… Then
Moses led the
people out of the
camp to meet with
God, and they
stood at the foot
of the mountain…
Moses spoke and
the voice of God
answered him.
COVENANT WITH GOD
Years later near Mount Calvary, on the third day God revealed himself to mankind and made a new covenant of grace with them.
Heb 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
Eph 2:12-13 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
NEW COVENANT
And so, on arriving in Rome it was on the third day that Paul presented the gospel of the New Covenant to the leaders of the Jews.
Acts 28:16-20 When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.
Three days later he
called together the
leaders of the Jews.
NEW COVENANT
For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.
Saul’s lost property was found on the third day.
As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found.
(1 Sam 9:20)
THE LOST IS FOUND
As a boy,
Jesus’
searching
parents
found him
on the
third day:
Luke
2:46
After
three
days
they
found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
THE LOST IS FOUND
Likewise Jesus’ search and rescue mission which culminated in his death and resurrection enabled the Father’s lost children to be found.
Luke 19:10 “For
the Son of
Man came to
seek and to
save what
was lost.”
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.
(Luke 15:24)
THE LOST IS FOUND
Hosea prophesies the restoration of the relationship between God and his people.
Hosea 6:1-2 Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.
Likewise Jesus’ death and resurrection are responsible for the restoration of our relationship with God.
Col 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
RECONCILIATION
After coming to the Jordan river and the return of the spies, the Israelites are told to cross the river on the third day - to possess the land that God had given them.
Josh 1:10-11 So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready.
Three days from
now you will cross
the Jordan here to
go in and take
possession of the
land the LORD your
God is giving you
for your own.’”
POSSESSING THE LAND
After the resurrection of Jesus we can fight to possess the land that God has given us with the victory we have in Jesus.
1 Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Phil 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
POSSESSING THE LAND
Returning to Esther, we know that the third day points to the ultimate fulfilment in the resurrection of Jesus.
Esther says, “if I perish I perish” and then on the third day puts her very life in jeopardy by going before the king. But the king extends his sceptre indicating that she is granted life and favour on the third day.
Jesus says to the Father, “not my will but yours be done” and then faces death on the cross. On the third day he is granted life and favour by his resurrection! He also goes before the king of heaven – his Father.
Rom 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
LIFE AND FAVOUR
And so in line with these many types, Jesus repeatedly predicted that he would die and be raised on the third day.
Matt 12:40 … so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matt 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Matt 17:22-23 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
THE THIRD DAY
Yet Jesus’ enemies remembered his words:
Matt 26:59-61 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so
that they
could put him
to death. But
they did not
find any,
though many
false witnesses
came forward.
Finally two
came forward
and declared:
JESUS’ ENEMIES
This fellow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.”
And while he was on the cross, those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying:
JESUS’ ENEMIES
You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God! (Matt 27:39-40)
JESUS’ ENEMIES
Sir, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. (Matt 27:62-65)
And the day after Jesus’ crucifixion the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate with a request.
THE THIRD DAY
Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:5-8)
While Jesus enemies remembered his words, the angel had to remind the believers about them.
The two days leading up to the third day are a time of barrenness, imprisonment, awaiting a death sentence, hunger and thirst, darkness, hard labour, awaiting the verdict of God, being unclean, having no land, loss of property, hiding from danger,
living in deception, captivity,
ill-treatment, facing
enemies, shortage
of supplies,
judgement,
disease, fasting,
estrangement,
insecurity,
blindness, being
lost, DEATH
AND BURIAL.
CONCLUSION
The third day is one of fruitfulness, liberation, pardon, refreshment, light, rest, covenanting with God, cleansing, taking possession of the land, restoration of lost property, return to safety, enlightenment and truth, freedom, compassion, enemies removed, abundance, cessation of judgement, healing, fellowship, security, restoration of sight, being found, LIFE
AND RESURRECTION.
CONCLUSION
The third day is the
transition and moment of release from death – and the emergence of new life and hope.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
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Scripture quotations taken from the ESV:
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB:
New American Standard Bible®,
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