“Those who curse you (Israel) will be cursed and those who bless you will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
Nachmanides, (known as ‘Ramban,’ an acronym for Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman) noted that any change from the normal in a biblical word or letter indicates some hidden meaning. It is something that happens very rarely and should, therefore, be afforded serious consideration.
So, it is interesting when one examines the list of Haman the Amalekite’s ten sons in the Book of Esther that we notice three letters are written differently:
1. The letter ת ‘Tav’ is small,
2. The letter ש ‘Shin’ is small,
3. The letter ז ‘Zayin’ is small, and
4. The letter ו ‘Vav’ is large.
Bear with me further:
• The Tav ת, the Shin ש, and the Zayin ז are written smaller
• The Vav is larger than the others
The three letters together ( ת ש ז ) form the number 707
The vav ו is a six, as in the sixth millennium or 5707, which is equivalent to 1946 AD in the Gregorian calendar. This is the exact year that ten high ranking Nazi war criminals were hung following the Nuremberg trials.
Julius Streicher, one of the ten war criminals, shouted, ‘Purim fest 1946!’ as his last words before being hanged. Somehow, he understood the significance of Purim.
There is indeed a striking parallel between the ten sons of Haman the Amalekite and the Nazi war criminals! The hanging occurred on October 16, 1946 (Tishri 21, 5707) on ‘Hoshana Rabba,’ the day when God’s verdicts are sealed on the final day
of Sukkot. It could have been that Julius Streicher recalled a speech of Hitler given on January 30, 1944, where he announced that if the Nazis were defeated, it would mean a second Purim for the Jews.
Esther’s request for Haman’s sons to be hanged the next day on the gallows was prophetic. The Hebrew word, ‘mecha’ (tomorrow) can also mean, ‘future.’ This bears timeless testimony to all expressions of anti-Semitism. God will mete out
justice in the fullness of time against Israel’s enemies. Anti-Semitism is the seed of the spirit of Amalek. Hillel Ben David noted that:
“Wherever you find someone with a fanatical, implacable and illogical enmity to the Jewish people, you have found Amalek. His very existence is founded on his antipathy and hatred for the offspring of Jacob, the agents of that bondage, called conscience.
Amalek is called the first of the nations. He was the first of the nations to attack Israel. Everything that is first contains the blueprint of all that is to follow. The seed comes first. Contained in the seed is the tree. Amalek is the bitter seed of Jew hatred.”
The reason I mention these things is that the promise of God to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is a principle which is not bound by any restrictions of time:
“Those who curse you (Israel) will be cursed and those who bless you will be blessed.”
The first word for “curses” (mekalelcha) has a root meaning, “to make light of something heavy.” The second word for “curse,” (aor) has a completely different root that means, “to utterly destroy.” So in effect what God was saying is: “I will bless those who bless you, but those who should so much as disrespect you, I will utterly destroy.”
The current situation in Israel is urgent. The threat of war is looming from all sides, but God’s covenants remain steadfast immovable and His faithfulness endures throughout all generations! In these perilous times, we can do no better than to align ourselves fully to His Divine purposes and understand that individually and corporately our lives are entwined as believers in God’s destiny for Israel and the Jewish people. Should we oppose or separate ourselves from it, we are in danger of reaping the negative consequences specified in Genesis 12:3 such as the timeless story of Purim in the Book of Esther well illustrates.
