Purim is an Israelite feast which commemorates the event of Esther and Mordecai's repulsing Haman who plotted to kill every Jew in Persia [Media-Persia]. The word Purim comes from the verb "pur,' which means "to cast the lot."
In the Bible there are 7 feasts of 3 times which God appointed through Moses. And there are two civil feasts, 'Purim,' and the 'Feast of Dedication,' which do not belong to the law of Moses. Among them, let's study the origin of 'Purim.'
1. Historical background
The Jews were taken captive to Babylon. However, Babylon was destroyed by Persia [Media-Persia], and the Jews began to be ruled by Persia. The Jews were a minority race, but they were trying to follow the will of God in the pride in being God's people.
When the God's planned 70-year-captive in Babylon finished, they returned to Jerusalem twice: first return and the second return to Jerusalem. This is a story which happened between the first and the second return when King Xerxes ruled Persia.
2. Esther became the queen
Once Xerxes, King of Persia, gathered all the civil and military officials and had a banquet. He invited Queen Vashti in order to display her beauty. The queen, who was having a banquet with the women, ignored the king's command and refused to come before the king.
King Xerxes became furious and dethroned the queen. He decided to select a new queen, and 'Esther,' a niece of Mordecai, who was a Jew in Susa, the capital city of Persia, was selected and became the queen of Persia.
3. Mordecai saves the king's life
One day, Mordecai overheard two of the king's officers conspiring to assassinate King Xerxes. He saved King Xerxes' life by letting Queen Esther know it, and the two officers were hanged on the gallows.
4. Haman and Mordecai
Afterwards King Xerxes honored Haman, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. Haman was enraged at Mordecai, and began to plan to kill him. Finally Haman decided to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews. He made the royal officials cast the lot to select a day and month to kill the Jews, and the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
5. Haman's slander
Wicked Haman falsely accused the Jews to King Xerxes as follows.
"There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king's laws; it is not in the king's best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them. … "
6. The Jews came to a crisis
The king took his signet ring and gave it to Haman, saying, "Do as you please." The royal secretaries were summoned by Haman, the Jews' enemy. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman's orders to the king's satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring.
"Destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews-young and old, women and little children-on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month and to plunder their goods!"
In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. They lay in sackcloth and ashes, and asked God to save them.
7. If I perish, I perish
Mordecai, a Jew, sent a man to Esther and asked her to help the Jews get through the crisis, saying, "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
Esther fasted for 3 days. She knew that in a Persian law, if anyone comes before the king without the king's call, she is to be killed unless the king extends the gold scepter to her. However she went to the king, thinking, "If I perish, I perish."
Esther asked the king, who extended the gold scepter, to come with Haman to a banquet she had prepared. Haman didn't know the inside story. He felt happy for the fact that he alone had been invited with the king by the queen.
8. Mordecai is honored
King Xerxes read the record of his reign at night and found that Mordecai didn't receive any honor or recognition even though he had exposed the two of the king's officers. Meanwhile Haman had built the gallows, seventy-five feet high, to kill Mordecai and he came to ask the king for an allowance. However, he was given a command from the king to honor Mordecai.
Haman had to robe Mordecai and put a royal crest on his head, and lead him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, "'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!"
9. Haman's death
At the banquet Queen Esther told the king about herself and her people, "For I and my people have been sold for destruction. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet."
"Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?" King Xerxes became so furious when he heard that someone was trying to kill the queen and her people.
"The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman!"
Finally Haman, the enemy who tried to kill the Jews, was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and a way to live was opened to the Jews who were to die.
10. Dispatches for the Jews
In a Persian law, no one could revoke any document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring. Even the king was not an exception The king had to give new dispatches.
"The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies. The day appointed for the Jews to do this was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar."
For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. "The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them. They hanged Haman's ten sons on gallows, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder"(Est 9:5-16).
11. Purim
On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month the Jews made it a day of feasting and joy. They observed the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the twelfth month as days of joy and feasting, and called the days Purim, from the word pur which has a meaning of 'casting the lot.'
Purim is only a civil feast of the physical Jews, which has no relationship with salvation God gives us. It's like that Korean people celebrate their National Liberation Day and March 1 Korean Independence Movement Day.
12. Lesson for the spiritual Jews
What happened to Esther has a close relationship with us, the spiritual Jews in these last days.
(1) Vile Haman who falsely accused the Jews to the king represents the vile enemy devil who accused us before God (Rev 12:10).
"For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."
(2) Just as the Jews came to a crisis by Haman's plot to kill the Jews, the spiritual Jews will come to a great crisis in the last days.
(3) The Jews who were in a crisis could save their life for Queen Esther's help. This represents that the spiritual Jews will escape from a crisis and be given life by the help of the Holy Spirit and the Bride in the last days.
(4) Like Haman who was hanged on the gallows he had prepared to hang Mordecai, the devil will be locked in the place he had prepared to lock the spiritual Jews in.
(5) Just as the physical Jews were united and won the fight against the enemy, the spiritual Jews will be united and win the fight against the devil the enemy.
Now the day will come soon when the spiritual Jews will need a beautiful unity and a strong faith to depend on the power of God.
It is written, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us"(Ro 15:4), and "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun"(Ecc 1:9-10). Amen.
♡ Christ Ahnsahnghong & Jerusalem Mother ♡
World Mission Society Church of God(WMS COG)
Christ Ahnsahnghong came to Korea, at the ends of the earth in the east, and restored the new covenant.
The truth of the new covenant has been spreading rapidly throughout the country. As a result, over 400 branch Churches have been established nationwide in the past half century.
All the Churches celebrate the feasts of God including the Passover of the new covenant, and speedily carry out the gospel work according to the prophecy of the Bible.
