Thursday
Evening Bible Study
August
29, 2013
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
King Ahasuerus had divorced his wife, Vashti. He had been drinking one night with his buddies and had asked her to come in and parade herself in
front of them. When she refused, he dumped her.
It was after this that Ahasuerus (also known as
Xerxes I in history) went off to fight his grand battles with the Greeks. After
having been defeated, he returned to Persia to an “empty” palace.
His counselors advised him to hold a beauty contest, and a young Jewish gal, Esther, won the position of Queen. Esther was an
orphan, and was raised by her cousin Mordecai.
We saw a brief incident where Mordecai had uncovered a plot to assassinate
the king, the assassins arrested, and the record of this assistance being recorded in the royal record.
We saw the King promote a man named Haman the Agagite.
We believe that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites, an ancient enemy of
the Jews. The King ordered everyone to bow when they
met Haman, but because Mordecai was a Jew, he would not bow to Haman. This
enraged Haman so much he decided that he would try to wipe out the Jewish race.
He tricked Ahasuerus into signing a decree to have
all the Jews wiped out, yet the king didn’t know it
was the Jews he was going to wipe out, just a “certain people” who were
“different”. Neither the king nor Haman knew that Esther herself was a Jew and
that she too would be killed by this decree.
When Mordecai found out about Haman’s death decree, he asked Esther to
intercede with the king and said,
(Es 4:14 NKJV) For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and
deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your
father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom
for such a time as this?”
There was one problem in Esther’s way – under Persian law, if anyone came
into the king’s presence without being summoned, they
could face instant death unless the king holds out his “golden scepter” to
them. And to make things worse, Esther hasn’t seen her
husband or been summoned by him for thirty days.
Esther asks everyone to fast and pray for three days, and she will go see
the king. She said, “and if I perish, I perish!”
Last time we saw some miraculous things happen as God
began to deliver the Jews from Haman.
First Esther invited King Ahasuerus and Haman to
a private banquet. At the banquet, instead of bringing up the problem, Esther
simply invited Ahasuerus and Haman to a second
banquet.
Haman was very excited to be honored in this way. He
was so excited he even began to make plans to have Mordecai his enemy executed.
That night the king couldn’t sleep, so he had his
servants read to him and they read the story of how Mordecai had foiled plot to
assassinate Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus
then found out that nobody had ever done anything to reward Mordecai.
Early that morning Haman is about to ask the king to have Mordecai executed
when the King asks Haman what he should do for someone he wants to honor. Haman
thinks he’s the one who is going to be honored, but
instead the king asks Haman to put on a parade to honor Mordecai. Haman is
devastated.
At the second banquet, Esther reveals that she and her people are under a
death threat by Haman, and the king promptly has Haman executed.
Haman went from thinking he was the king’s best friend, to being hanged on the very gallows he had built to have Mordecai
hanged on.
8:1-17 Esther Saves the day
:1 On that day King Ahasuerus
gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And
Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he was related to
her.
:1 gave Queen Esther the house of Haman
Esther is given all the property belonging to
Haman.
:1 Esther had told how he was related
to her
Esther finally reveals that she’s Mordecai’s cousin.
I think this is amazing to think that his adopted daughter is the queen of
Persia, and Mordecai hasn’t tried to capitalize on it.
:2 So the king took off his signet ring, which he
had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai
over the house of Haman.
:2 signet ring … to Mordecai
Mordecai is not only Esther’s cousin, but he’s the
very one that the king had wanted to honor for having foiled the earlier
assassination plot.
Mordecai now becomes the new “prime minister” of Persia.
Persia is now modern Iran. Could you imagine a Jew today becoming the
president of Iran?
:2 Esther appointed Mordecai
Esther had been given Haman’s
property. She now makes Mordecai the administrator of the property.
:3 Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down
at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the
Jews.
:4 And the king held out the golden scepter toward
Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king,
:4 held out the golden scepter
This is a new meeting between Esther and the king, perhaps thirty days
later. She is again putting her life into her own hands to come and negotiate
for her people.
Just because Haman is dead doesn’t mean that the
law just passed to kill all the Jews will go away. There is still a threat to
the Jews.
Once again the king holds out the scepter instead
of having her put to death.
:5 and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found
favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am
pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman,
the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,
which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s
provinces.
:6 For how can I endure to see the evil that will
come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my
countrymen?”
:5 let it be written to revoke
Lesson
Finish the task
Some people might have been happy with just seeing Haman put to death.
For Esther, this wasn’t all that needed to be
done.
Her actions have been for one purpose – to save the Jews, not to see Haman
put to death.
She still has things that need to be done.
Haman’s original death decree law is still in effect for the twelfth month.
I seem to be much better at starting things than at finishing things.
I get started on a project and begin to feel a sense of
accomplishment, then get distracted and put it aside and don’t finish.
I know you could say I’m making too much of a
single word, but when Jesus told the parable of the talents …
(Mt
25:23 NKJV) His lord said to him, ‘Well done,
good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over
a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of
your lord.’
It wasn’t “well started”, but
“well done”.
Paul wrote to the Colossians:
(Col
4:17 NKJV) And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have
received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”
Illustration
In my sophomore year of high school, the class was scheduled to run the mile. I will always remember that day
because due to the swelling and scars from surgery on my leg, for two solid
years I had not worn shorts. I was afraid of the teasing. So,
for two years I lived in fear. Yet that day, it didn’t
matter. I was ready - shorts, heart and mind. I no sooner got to the starting
line before I heard the loud whispers. “Gross!” “How fat!”
“How ugly!” I blocked it out.
Then the coach yelled, “Ready. Set. Go!” I
jetted out of there like an airplane, faster than anyone for the first 20 feet. I didn’t know much about
pacing then, but it was okay because I was determined to finish first. As we
came around the first of four laps, there were students all over the track. By
the end of the second lap, many of the students had already quit. They had given up and were on the ground gasping for air. As
I started the third lap, only a few of my classmates were
left on the track, and I began limping. By the time I hit the fourth
lap, I was alone. Then it hit me. I realized that nobody had given up. Instead,
everyone had already finished. As I ran that last lap, I cried. I realized that
every boy and girl in my class had beat me, and 12
minutes, 42 seconds after starting, I crossed the finish line. I fell to the
ground and shed oceans of tears. I was so embarrassed.
Suddenly my coach ran up to me and picked
me up, yelling, “You did it. Manuel! Manuel, you finished, son. You finished!”
He looked me straight in the eye waving a piece of paper in his hand. It was my
goal for the day, which I had forgotten. I had given it to him before class. He
read it aloud to everyone. It simply said, “I Manuel Diotte,
will finish the mile run tomorrow, come what may. No pain or frustration will
stop me. For I am more than capable of finishing, and with God as my strength,
I will finish.” Signed, Manuel Diotte
- with a little smiling face inside the D, as I always sign my name. My
heart lifted. My tears went away, and I had a smile on my face as if I had
eaten a banana sideways. My classmates applauded and gave me my first standing
ovation. It was then I realized winning isn’t always
finishing first. Sometimes winning is just finishing.
By Manuel Diotte from
Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul. Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen,
Patty Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N.
:7 Then King Ahasuerus
said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given Esther the
house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to
lay his hand on the Jews.
:8 You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please,
in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for
whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring
no one can revoke.”
:8 write a decree
The law passed earlier by Haman can’t just be
“revoked” like Esther is asking.
One of the oddities of the laws of the Persians is that once a law is
established, it can’t be changed.
But that doesn’t stop new laws from being written that
will offset the original law.
Lesson
Working within the system
Ahasuerus doesn’t ignore
the system of laws that his empire has.
He has Esther work within the system to amend the law.
We may get quite discouraged with the direction our nation is heading.
Abortion, immorality, drugs, gay marriage, it’s
all going downhill fast.
Yet we still have the ability (at least or now) to do something within the
system.
We can support candidates who support the right things. Vote for them.
We can work within the legal system.
More importantly – we need to pray and work for a revival in our nation –
we aren’t going to have the votes to change things
much longer unless a fundamental change comes within the hearts of people in
our nation. If hearts change, votes change.
:9 So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the
third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day;
and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the
satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to
Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every
province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the
Jews in their own script and language.
:9 in the third month
Haman’s “death” decree went out on the 13th day of the first
month.
(Es 3:12 NKJV) —12 Then the
king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and a
decree was written according to all that Haman commanded—to the king’s
satraps, to the governors who were over each province, to the officials
of all people, to every province according to its script, and to every people
in their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed
with the king’s signet ring.
It’s possible that Esther’s beginning steps to
talk to the king don’t take place until at least thirty days after the original
death decree went out.
(Es 4:11 NKJV) “All the
king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or
woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he
has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king
holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been
called to go in to the king these thirty days.”
Esther would fast for three days before doing anything,
and then came the two private feasts that she hosted for the king.
It’s taken two months and ten days for this new
directive to be written from the time of the original death decree. (in the third month)
It’s possible that it’s taken a month before they
work out the legalese of the new law.
The “death-day” is still a little less than nine months away in the
“twelfth month”.
(Es 3:13 NKJV) —13 And the
letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to
kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and
women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month,
which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
:9 according to all that Mordecai
commanded
Mordecai is the one who gets to draft the new law.
:10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus,
sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on
horseback, riding on royal horses bred from swift steeds.
:11 By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every
city to gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and
annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both
little children and women, and to plunder their possessions,
:12 on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month, which is the month of Adar.
:13 A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province
and published for all people, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to
avenge themselves on their enemies.
:13 A copy of the document
Josephus has a record of a letter
sent by Ahasuerus:
“The great king Artaxerxes to our
rulers, and those that are our faithful subjects, sendeth greeting. Many men
there are who, on account of the greatness of the benefits bestowed on them,
and because of the honor which they have obtained from the wonderful kind
treatment of those that bestowed it, are not only injurious to their inferiors,
(274) but do not scruple to do evil to those that have been their benefactors,
as if they would take away gratitude from among men, and by their insolent
abuse of such benefits as they never expected, they turn the abundance they
have against those that are the authors of it, and suppose that they shall lie
concealed from God in that case, and avoid that vengeance which comes from him.
(275) Some of these men, when they have had the management of affairs committed
to them by their friends, and bearing private malice of their own against some
others, by deceiving those that have the power, persuade them to be angry at
such as have done them no harm, till they are in danger of perishing, and this
by laying accusations and calumnies: (276) nor is this state of things to be
discovered by ancient examples, or such as we have learned by report only, but
by some examples of such impudent attempts under our own eyes, so that it is
not fit to attend any longer to calumnies and accusations, nor to the
persuasion of others, but to determine what anyone knows of himself to have
been really done, and to punish what justly deserves it, and to grant favors to
such as are innocent. (277) This hath been the case of Haman, the son of
Ammedatha, by birth an Amalekite, and alien from the blood of the Persians,
who, when he was hospitably entertained by us, and partook of that kindness
which we bear to all men to so great a degree, as to be called my father, and
to be all along worshipped, and to have honor paid him by all in the second
rank after the royal honor due to ourselves, he could not bear his good
fortune, nor govern the magnitude of his prosperity with sound reason; (278)
nay, he made a conspiracy against me and my life, who gave him his authority,
by endeavoring to take away Mordecai, my benefactor, and my savior and by
basely and treacherously requiring to have Esther, the partner of my life, and
of my dominion, brought to destruction; for he contrived by this means to
deprive me of my faithful friends, and transfer the government to others: —
(279) but since I perceived that these Jews, that were by this pernicious fellow
devoted to destruction, were not wicked men, but conducted their lives after
the best manner, and were men dedicated to the worship of that God who hath
preserved the kingdom to me and to my ancestors, I do not only free them from
the punishment which the former epistle, which was sent by Haman, ordered to be
inflicted on them,—to which if you refuse obedience you shall dwell; (280) but
I will that they have all honor paid them. Accordingly, I have hanged up the
man that contrived such things against them, with his family, before the gates
of Shushan; that punishment being sent upon him by God, who seeth all things.
(281) And I give you in charge, that you publicly propose a copy of this
epistle through all my kingdom, that the Jews may be permitted peaceably to use
their own laws, and that you assist them, that at the same season whereto their
miserable estate did belong, they may defend themselves the very same day from
unjust violence, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar,— (282)
for God hath made that day a day of salvation, instead of a day of destruction
to them; and may it be a good day to those that wish us well, and a memorial of
the punishment of the conspirators against us: (283) and I will that you take
notice that every city, and every nation that shall disobey anything that is
contained in this epistle, shall be destroyed by fire and sword. However, let
this epistle be published through all the country that is under our obedience,
and let all the Jews, by all means be ready against the day before mentioned,
that they may avenge themselves upon their enemies.” [1]
:13 to avenge themselves
This is how they will get around Haman’s original decree.
On the same day that Haman’s law allowed people to kill Jews, Mordecai’s
law gives the Jews permission to defend themselves and
kill their enemies without repercussions.
:14 The couriers who rode on royal horses went
out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s command. And
the decree was issued in Shushan the citadel.
:15 So Mordecai went out from the presence of the
king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a
garment of fine linen and purple; and the city of Shushan
rejoiced and was glad.
:16 The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor.
:16 light and gladness, joy and honor
They had been under a death sentence, and now they have hope.
light – ‘owrah
– light; light of joy and happiness (fig.)
gladness – simchah
– mirth, gladness, joy, gaiety, pleasure
joy – sasown
– gladness, joy, exultation, rejoicing
honor – y@qar
– price, value, preciousness, honor, splendor, pomp
If we were to really understand what our salvation
is all about, we too would experience these things.
We were under an order of death.
Our own sins are correctly deserving of death.
Jesus paid for our sins and died in our place.
We are no longer facing eternal separation from God.
:17 And in every province and city, wherever the
king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a
holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews, because fear of the
Jews fell upon them.
:17 many of the people … became Jews
Not exactly like a Harvest Crusade…
These people are becoming Jews out of fear of being killed.
How do you become a Jew?
Josephus writes,
insomuch that many of other nations circumcised
their foreskin for fear of the Jews, that they might procure safety to
themselves thereby
Lesson
Witness through crisis
What has happened here?
God’s people have survived a crisis.
As a result, people came to the Lord.
How you respond to tough times impacts the lives of people around you.
Illustration
Judy Anderson, whose husband is the West Africa Director of the World
Relief Corporation, grew up as the daughter of missionaries in Zaire. As a
little girl, she went to a day-long rally celebrating
the one-hundredth anniversary of Christian missionaries coming to that part of Zaire. After a
full day of long speeches and music, an old man came before the crowd and
insisted that he be allowed to speak. He said he soon
would die, and that he alone had some important information. If he did not
speak, that information would go with him to his grave.
He explained that when Christian missionaries came a hundred years before,
his people thought the missionaries were strange and their message unusual. The
tribal leaders decided to test the missionaries by slowly poisoning them to
death. Over a period of months and years, missionary children died one by one.
Then the old man said, “It was as we watched how they died that we decided we
wanted to live as Christians.”
(2 Co 4:7–12 NLT)
—7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are
like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that
our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by
troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are
hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not
destroyed. 10 Through
suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life
of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live
in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
People are watching you. They aren’t
just watching to see how you are “blessed”.
They are watching to see how you handle difficult times.
People are affected when we continue to cling to the Lord despite going
through great difficulty.
9:1-17 Destroying the enemy
:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the
thirteenth day, the time came for the king’s command and his decree to
be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower
them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who
hated them.
:2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces
of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought
their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all
people.
:3 And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and
all those doing the king’s work, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai
fell upon them.
Not only did the Jews defend themselves, but they had the government forces
backing them as well. It would seem that these government officials and
officers could have obeyed either Haman’s or Mordecai’s decrees, but they all
chose to follow Mordecai’s decree (after all, he’s alive and Haman is dead).
:4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and his fame spread
throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai became increasingly
prominent.
:5 Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword,
with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated
them.
:5 did what they pleased with those who hated them
Not so with us.
Jesus taught us how to treat our enemies:
(Mt 5:43–45 NKJV) —43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say
to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you
may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and
on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
:6 And in Shushan the citadel the Jews killed and
destroyed five hundred men.
Apparently Mordecai kept track of
the number killed in his city of Shushan.
:7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon,
Aspatha,
:8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
:9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha—
:10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha,
the enemy of the Jews—they killed; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.
:10 they did not lay a hand on the plunder
Though they had the legal right to take the plunder, they showed that they
weren’t doing this for greed. They were doing this for self-preservation.
:11 On that day the number of those who were killed in Shushan
the citadel was brought to the king.
:12 And the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed
five hundred men in Shushan the citadel, and the ten
sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now
what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is
your further request? It shall be done.”
:12 the king said to Queen Esther
Apparently Esther had been invited to be with her husband. No golden
scepter needed this time.
:13 Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the
Jews who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow
according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the
gallows.”
Esther asks for one more day of the Jews being able to defend
themselves. Perhaps she learned that
there were further plots against the Jews.
:14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
:14 they hanged Haman’s ten sons
Again, “hanged” doesn’t mean hanging in the sense of a rope and
gallows. These men were already
dead. Their bodies were attached to tall
poles to be displayed.
:15 And the Jews who were in Shushan
gathered together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed
three hundred men at Shushan; but they did not lay a
hand on the plunder.
:15 killed three hundred men
This is in addition to the 500 killed the day before.
:16 The remainder of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered together and
protected their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies; but they did not lay a hand on
the plunder.
:16 killed seventy-five thousand of their
enemies
Throughout the Persian empire, the Jews had a LOT of enemies.
There is nothing new about anti-Semitism.
Some have suggested that these 75,000 were all Amalekites, of the same race
as Haman, a people that God had commanded the Jews to wipe out (Ex. 17:14-16)
(Ex 17:14–16 NKJV) —14 Then the
Lord said to Moses, “Write this for
a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I
will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” 15
And Moses built an altar and called its
name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner; 16
for he said, “Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation.”
:17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the
fourteenth of the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and
gladness.
9:18-32 Purim
:18 But the Jews who were at Shushan
assembled together on the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth;
and on the fifteenth of the month they rested, and made it a day of
feasting and gladness.
:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled
towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with gladness
and feasting, as a holiday, and for sending presents to one another.
:19 sending presents to one
another
And thus began the greeting card
industry … J
:20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near
and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus,
:21 to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the
fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar,
:22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month
which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday;
that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one
another and gifts to the poor.
:22 from sorrow to joy
When we are in the trial, we can lose sight of what God can do.
Lesson
Hope
This is what Jesus is all about. When
Jesus began His ministry, He read in the synagogue at Capernaum from this
portion of Isaiah:
(Is 61:1–3 NKJV) —1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good
tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim
liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are
bound; 2 To proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console
those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for
mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be
called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
You may feel like it’s “Friday” in your life. But Sunday’s coming.
Jesus can take us from sorrow to joy.
(Ps 126:5–6 NKJV) —5 Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. 6 He who
continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.
:23 So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had
written to them,
:24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the
Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is,
the lot), to consume them and destroy them;
:25 but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter
that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should
return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
:23 the Jews accepted the custom
The Jews outside Shushan protected themselves on
the 13th day, and then had a feast on the 14th day. But the Jews in Shushan,
since they were given one further day to protect themselves, fought on the 13th
and the 14th, and then feasted on the 15th.
Today most places celebrate Purim on the 14th day of Adar, but
in “walled cities” (like Shushan was) it is
celebrated on the 15th.
Today, only Jerusalem celebrates on the 15th.
This is the celebration of Purim.
:26 So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur.
Therefore, because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen
concerning this matter, and what had happened to them,
:26 Pur – “lot”
This was the “lot” (like tossing dice) that Haman and his friends kept
tossing to find out the date of when they would start their plan to wipe out
the Jews (Est. 3:7),
:27 the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their
descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should
celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions
and according to the prescribed time,
:28 that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every
generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of
Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the
memory of them should not perish among their descendants.
:28 that these days should be
remembered
The Feast of Purim –
The celebration of Purim involves several things.
Reading of Esther (called the Megillah). When they read the whole book, they are
reading the “whole megillah”.
Women were supposed to be present because it was a woman (Esther) that God
used.
Booing Haman (or, “blotting out his name”)
Deut. 25:19 talks about blotting out any remembrance of Amalek.
When Haman’s name is read in the Megillah,
they use noisemakers to “blot out” his name.
His name is found 54 times. One way
is to hand out a noisy ratchet (called a ra-ash or a grager) noise maker.
Food and charity
People give food to one another (vs. 22) and gifts to the
poor. Each adult is to give two
different kinds of foods to one person and two charitable donations to two poor
people.
Traditional foods include special pastries called “Haman’s
pockets” or “Haman’s ears”. There are
also fried pastries, dumplings, and lots of other awesome delicious foods.
Costumes & music
It’s also a day that the kids (and adults) dress up in
costumes (a little like Halloween), and lots of music.
Lesson
Remembering
I think that sometimes we have pretty bad recall.
We face a crisis and think life is hopeless, yet for many of us, God has
already brought us through so many victories that it shouldn’t be too hard to
trust God again.
Remembering doesn’t have to be hard.
Sometimes it can be fun.
It’s not a bad idea every once in a while to “remember when”…
David remembered his previous
victories when he considered the possibility of facing Goliath.
(1 Sa 17:33–37 NKJV) —33 And Saul
said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with
him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 34
But David said to Saul, “Your servant
used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb
out of the flock, 35 I went
out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and
when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and
killed it. 36 Your servant has
killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one
of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37
Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of
the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this
Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
:29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail,
with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter
about Purim.
:30 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred
and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus,
with words of peace and truth,
:31 to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as
Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had
decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their
fasting and lamenting.
:32 So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was
written in the book.
:31 fasting and lamenting
Esther and Mordecai later send a second letter (9:29) to encourage the Jews
to also include a time of fasting into their celebration of Purim as a way of
reminding them of the fasting that the Jews in Shushan
had done for those three days before Esther stepped out and took action.
Before Esther took steps to stop Haman, she had asked everyone to fast for
three days.
Sometimes was we remember the past victories we’ve had, we should stop and
think about some of the practical things we did or could do in facing our
trials.
Esther fasted and prayed.
10:1-3 Mordecai’s Promotion
:1 And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land
and on the islands of the sea.
:1 imposed tribute
An odd thing to include in the book.
Perhaps Ahasuerus set up this tax to help pay for
the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Greeks.
:2 Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the
greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
:3 For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus,
and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his
brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his
countrymen.
:3 Mordecai … was great…
It would seem that Mordecai only held this office for eight years since
secular history records that another man was in that position by 465 BC.
Lesson
God cares for His people
Some people might be tempted to make a point that the people that had
remained in Babylon and Persia and had not gone back to Israel had lacked
faith.
Yet God watched over all His people, even those that stayed behind.