While showering and washing my hair I began to think about Esther and the period of preparation of one year in order to meet the king. (Esther 2:2-4, 8-9 & 12-17.) Even though she was young and naturally beautiful, she still ad to fulfill 12 months of purification: 6 months with oil of myrrh followed by 6 months with sweet odors and other hings. It is one of the principles of salvation that the cross must come before the crown and so it is not surprising that myrrh is a bitter. It is known for purifying, soothing and cleansing, and an agent to prevent corruption. The 6 months of bitter cleansing was followed by six months of sweetness.
In Exod. 30:23 we find that myrrh was one of the ingredients used to make the holy oil to anoint the tabernacle the house of God. Sweet spices are listed as ingredients used to make a perfume giving a sweet fragrance to the LORD, holy and tempered and pure and beaten small, the perfume was then used before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation where God met with man.
We find myrrh mentioned in Psalm 45:8 and in the Song of Solomon it is found 8 times. The Psalm and the Song are both about the bride and the groom, Christ and the ecclesia as shown in parable form in Esther.
Aloes and cassia are among the other things used to purify. Many personal care products today include aloes to make the skin and hands softer and more beautiful in appearance and in health. Aloes are used in healing burns and wounds. The skin is the largest organ of the body and its outward appearance is capable of revealing the inward condition of the body. Warts, for example, can predict cancers. Dermatologists are now in the forefront of the battle against certain diseases of the immune system, cancer, Parkinson’s and AIDS included. Using photo-light and chemicals doctors are now bringing about healing in many cases, according to a recent article in the N.Y. Times magazine section. We too, use light to bring about the healing of our mind and bodies and the light we use is found in the word of God, in Jesus, the light of the world.
There are two kinds of myrrh. One kind must e cut or extracted from the tree and it meant the death of the tree. Christ—the tree of life, had to die. The other kind of myrrh flowed freely from the tree in drops, no cut being needed, and so we also see that no one took Christ’s life; he freely gave it, yielded up his body on the cross. As in many other symbols in the Bible, it takes two incidents to show more details of the life of Christ. e.g. the two goats on the day of Atonement, one killed and one set free.
We find myrrh was present at the beginning and the end of the life of Jesus, as the gift of the wise men which was accepted, and as the offering of the soldiers which was rejected by Jesus. Mat. 2:11 and Mark 15:23. Also at his burial, two men came bearing a mixture of 100 lbs weight of myrrh and aloes. It has been said that the writer John who tells of the stinginess of Judas also speaks of the lavishness of Joseph and Nicodemus for they brought enough to anoint many bodies. But it was not enough spices to anoint the body of the Lord and so the women brought more spices. (Lk. 24:1-3.)
A 100 lb. weight was not a load easily carried, yet these two men wrapped the body of the Lord with linen wrappings and the 100 lb. weight of spices and carried it to the garden sepulchre. He’s not heavy, he’s my brother. We too, can carry heavy burdens in the strength that God supplies. We can do all things through Jesus Christ that strengtheneth us, that strengtheneth ME!
Back to Esther we find that the work of preparation was not casually or quickly done, it took a period of time and was applied daily. Our Bible readings done daily help to prepare us for the coming of the bridegroom. “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! wrote the sweet psalmist of Israel. (Ps. 119:103) And so over a period of time, the bitter yields to the sweet. Our lives lived in loving obedience to his commands make us a people prepared to meet the Lord.
(John 12:3) it was Mary (Marahbitter, see Naomi) of Bethany the house of dates, who foresaw the day of Christ’s death and anointed his head with a pound of very costly spikenard and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. It was done in anticipation of the future feast of which that supper in Bethany was but a pale imitation. What was worth a year’s wages was spent in a moment in time; but the sweet fragrance of her offering will last throughout eternity. A very rich, rare sacrifice revealing her love and faith in her Lord. Together with the widow who gave her two mites, her all, they find a preciousness in the sight of their Lord. So are we precious to him when we give our all to serve him and to build up the house of God.
The box of spikenard Mary offered had to e broken to fill the house with its fragrance. The body of Christ had to be broken on the cross when they pierced his hands and feet and side that we might e filled with the fragrance of his sacrifice. We see each week this represented in the bread broken that all of the family of God, the general assembly of the first-born might be filled. The sweetness of the life of Christ is to be seen in us.
The very first mention of fragrance is in connection with sacrifice. (Gen. 8:21.) All of the other senses were found in the first sin. When Noah offered sacrifice after coming out of the ark, the LORD smelled a sweet savour. Jesus, like Noah whose name means rest and comfort, brings rest and comfort through his sacrifice and obedience. Our lives given in sacrifice of our desires to e obedient to the will of God will ascend as a sweet and pleasing aroma to God It is no coincidence then that the period of time Noah spent in the ark while the New World was being form ed. was a year and 10 days. (Gen. 7:11, 8:14). A year of preparation, plus 10 days. The 10th day was the day of atonement. Sacrifice over, Noah’s family was to e fruitful and replenish the earth. New life, a new beginning after the cutting off of the flesh.
The sweet spices include cinnamon which is the same word used in Esther and means to stand upright. Adam & Eve when they sinned, hid in the bushes, crouching down, trying to get out of sight. God, through sacrifice, made them to stand upright. Christ, thru his perfect sacrifice, makes the humble and contrite ones, those flat on their face before him as was typified by Abraham in Gen. 15:12 and 17:1-3 to stand upright. First mentally and morally, and then when he returns, physically.
Another sweet order is that from the calamus Ex. 30:22-23. This comes from a hollow reed cane. In Isaiah 42-3 and 43:24 we find it used for a shaft with a hollow center. It is the hollow branch of the candlestick through which oil is drawn up to give light. It is used of the bone in Job 31:22 the hollow bone filled with marrow that provides nutrients. It is used of grasses with hollow stems and is used in Isa. 46:6 of a balance. The fragrance came from the sweet inside part of the hollow cane and according to bro. Hall in his book on the Songs of Songs, becomes a fitting symbol for the inward thoughts of Jesus portrayed in the anointing oil. His thoughts were enlightened as the candlestick, sweet as incense, perfectly balanced showing the goodness and severity of God and were a measuring reed that we should use to measure ourselves against.
Jesus the one seed, the one kernel of corn, was like the seed of the hollow stalk that brought forth seven ears of corn in the dream of Pharaoh. From one seed, that had to die, comes forth the multitudinous bride of Christ, the perfected and purified ones, of whom Esther is a most beautiful example.
May our days of preparation soon be over and the marriage to the king take place.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One