Purim

Today is Purim. It is a holiday that was created to commemorate the acts of Esther and Haman after they allegedly happened in the period during the destruction of the Temple and the return of the nobles to the land. There are certain very important lessons to be learned from this whole story.

The first lesson is centered on Hadassah, Esther as she is called in Persian. She is the descendant of Saul, the first king of Israel, and is therefore old aristocracy. Her family was taken as captives by Nebuchadnezzar's army after the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. According to the story, her parents were dead and her Uncle Mordechai raised her. She became the wife of the Persian King whom the story calls Ahasuerus, but whom history knows as Artaxerxes II. In this story, Esther represents King Saul in an age old battle to deal with the archenemies of the Jewish people, the Amalekites. Her predecessor, King Saul, who was king more than 500 years before, failed to destroy King Agag of the Amalekites. Because of his refusal to commit final genocide, Agag had relations with two women on the night between his capture and Samuel's execution of him. Haman is now going to destroy the Jews in reparation for the almost complete annihilation of his people some 500 years before. It is left to Esther to act for Saul.

According to the story, Esther succeeds. Haman and his sons are killed. But the story is not finished for some of his children must have lived and some of the Amalekites continued. History tells us that the Amalekites are the children of Esau, brother of Jabob, and that they hated the Jews from the beginning. They lived in Petra and they sought to hurt the Jews throughout history. The people who call themselves Palestinians are descendants of these people. So the Amalekites plague the Jews still after 3,000 and as they have said, they wish still to destroy their cousins and drive them into the sea.

The story of Esther is an incomplete one. Mordechai warns Esther that failure to save her people will finally cost the full destruction of the House of Saul. She saves her people that time. However, they continue even today to plague the Chosen. And the spirit of the Amalekites, with their bloodlust, their insensible desire to have the Land given to Jacob, their desire to wipe out Judah has never changed and can only end in the final destruction of one people or another.

There are those who ignore G-d in dealing with the political situations of the current day. They do it foolishly and at great cost. There will be no peace in Israel until the Amalekites are gone and that will not happen until the son of David comes to finish the deed.

Another lesson can be found in the story of the Purim or lots that were drawn to decide the day of the Jews destruction. The lot was chosen on Nisan 13. Now Scripture says that the Passover lamb is to be set aside on Nisan 10, but killed on Nisan 14. After the Nobility was removed from the land by Nebuchadnezzar, they had no way to determine the calendar and it began to drift due to the inability to determine when the year began. By the time of Yeshua ben Yotsef, the drift was significant. The Qumran Covenanters celebrated a different day from the Pharisee day. For them Nisan 14 was one day earlier in the year of Yeshua's death than the Pharisees and John leads us to believe that Yeshua celebrated the feast one day earlier. So Yeshua was killed not on Nisan 14, but on Nisan 13 in Pharisee calendar. The Lot was chosen on the day that Yeshua was killed. Yeshua then becomes the sacrificial Jew, the one to be killed by Pur and thus avoid the annihilation of his people. As Yeshua claimed to be the son of David, he acted for David in this matter for it was David who replaced Saul on the Throne and Yeshua became Priest-King of David's Kingdom, Jerusalem, after his anointed by G-d at the Jordan River during his baptism.

This story continues. How it will end is beyond are understanding. What appears to be happening as the whole world turns against Israel is an illusion. No one can know how G-d will work it out, but He will work it out and we will see his Glory.