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February 24, 2013 |
| Purim / Esther | ||
Purim, pronounced Poor-eem, is a Jewish holy day (holiday). On this day the Jews celebrate God's protection of his people from a plot to exterminate them. The word Purim comes from casting lots, which was a way in that time of randomly making a decision. In this case a date was randomly chosen when the Jews would be exterminated.
Today is Purim. One of the things that the Jews do to celebrate this day is to read the Book of Esther. We don't have time to read the whole book but we will read parts of it as we go through the story in this lesson.
The story of Esther is a story about great evil and evil men, and about great courage to stand against that evil, and about God positioning his people so they can be used by him. And finally Esther is a story about the evil plans of the evil people falling on them.
The story of Esther occurs in the city of Susa, which is in the country we now call Iran. At the time of this story it was the capital city of the Medo-Persian Empire which controlled almost the entire known world at that time, having conquered the Babylonian empire. The king was Xerxes.
When they conquered the Babylonian empire they also got the Israelites who had been conquered and captured by the Babylonians. This included Daniel and his friends from the Book of Daniel. Most of the Israelites in existence at that time lived in the Medo-Persian Empire but outside of Israel. Only a few had been left in Israel to farm the land for the benefit of the king.
The story of Esther begins with God opening a position so he can fill it with the right person.
1: 5 […] the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king's palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa. […] 9 Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.
10 On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him […] 11 to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. 12 But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.
15 "According to law, […] Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. […] Issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also […] give her royal position to someone else who is better than she."
King Xerxes was having a big party and Queen Vashti was having a big party. This had all been agreed to. But during the king's big party he drinks too much wine and decides he wants her to get dressed up and come over to his party so he can show off her beauty to all his friends. Queen Vashti is busy with her own party and probably doesn't want to be stared at by a bunch of drunken men. So she refuses to obey the king. But he is the king and it is his right to order her to come to his party.
The result is that Vashti loses her title as Queen and loses access to her husband, the king. Thus her royal position is now vacant … and God has plans to fill it.
2: 5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai […], 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with [the] king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
8 When the king's order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. […]
17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
So God has now moved an Israelite, whom he created to have great beauty, into the position as queen. But God's plan also requires that Esther's father, Mordecai, be positioned in the proper place. God is positioning these people long before anyone has an idea that there will be a problem where they will be needed.
21 [While] Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 22 But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. 23 And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
Now Mordecai is positioned so that the king owes him a favor. With Esther and Mordecai now positioned by God as the right people in the right places, the story begins to unfold.
3 1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. […]
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, "There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents1 of silver to the king's administrators for the royal treasury."
10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 "Keep the money," the king said to Haman, "and do with the people as you please." […]
13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews - young and old, women and children - on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
So Haman, who hates the Jews, has hatched a plan and gotten the king's permission to go ahead with it. On a particular day, this day now called Purim, all the Jews throughout the kingdom, which included the entire known world, would be destroyed. This would have included those who still lived in Israel. And whoever killed them could take their property.
Mordecai hears that the king has authorized Haman to do this and he gets a message to Esther saying that she must go in to the king "to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people". The king does not know that his queen is a Jew and that Haman's order to kill all the Jews will include her. Until this time Esther has not told him because Mordecai had requested that she not tell him.
10 Then she instructed [the messenger] to say to Mordecai, 11 "All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives […]"
12 When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?"
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 "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 attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."
17 So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.
This conversation via messenger is almost like texting today, but much slower. Mordecai cannot go into the Harem so he has to get messengers to deliver messages to her.
This is a life and death conversation. Mordecai has asked her to do something that would normally cost a person their life. The only exception to this would be if the king, in an act of grace, held out his golden scepter to her. But there was no guarantee that he would do that. You remember how quickly he got rid of Vashti, his former queen. He could do the same with Esther.
Mordecai says three very important things. First he says that she should not think that she would be spared because she is queen. The Persians took their laws very seriously and applied them equally to everyone covered by the law. Secondly Mordecai makes the important point, although he doesn't give the details, that God knows the future and he knows whether she will go into the king and what the outcome will be of that. Therefore God may have someone else waiting who will be the one to save the Jews if Esther doesn't. But if Esther does not act when the Israelites are saved by someone else people will hear that she did not try to save them and she will be destroyed. Thirdly, Mordecai wonders, perhaps God has put you in this position just for this purpose.
Notice what Esther requests of Mordecai and the Jews of Susa - 3 days of fasting.
After the three days Esther goes in to see the king and he holds out the golden scepter to her. She says that she has a banquet already prepared for the king and for Haman. At the banquet she invites them to another banquet the next day. At that banquet the king promises her that he will give her anything up to half his kingdom and she reveals her petition to the king with all humility.
7: 3 Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life - this is my petition. And spare my people - this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king."
The king is so angry with Haman that he storms out for a walk in the garden. Then other things that Haman has done come to light and the king becomes furious. He orders that Haman be impaled on a very long pole on which Haman had planned to impale Mordecai.
The problem is that the order to annihilate the Jews cannot be revoked. So instead an order is sent out ordering the Jews to defend themselves on that day and to kill anyone who tries to kill them and to take their property.
8: 17 In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.
The day came for the two edicts to come into force. Only those who really hated the Jews made an attempt to kill and plunder the Jews and they were easily overpowered by the Jews and killed. But the Jews did not plunder them. Haman's 10 sons were also killed and they were impaled.
There are parallels to World War 2. After the Nuremburg war crime trials "in 1946, ten of Hitler's top associates were put to death by hanging for their war crimes (including the crime of murdering 6 million Jews). […] One of the men seems to have been aware of the parallel: on the way to the gallows, Julius Streicher shouted "Purim Fest 1946!"" - http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm
1 375 tons of silver