Trinity Free Church Huntingdon

This is one of the less well known feasts to those outside the Jewish community but it is one with which Jesus would have been familiar. It features the story told in the Old Testament book of Esther and is a thanksgiving for deliverance from a threat of extermination in a fifth century BC orgy of ethnic cleansing. Although God is not mentioned in the book it is the story of God’s over-ruling in the affairs of men.

It is set in Persia in the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) more than half a century after the Persians over-ran Babylon and Cyrus allowed the captive Jews to return home. Many had done so but many more stayed on and were spread throughout the Persian empire. Esther, a Jewish orphan, caught the king’s eye and he made her his queen. Her guardian was her older cousin Mordecai and he is the hero of the story. A power hungry politician named Haman, the king’s anti-Semitic majordomo, is the villain. As the story is read during the feast there is a pantomime-like atmosphere. Every time Mordecai’s name is mentioned people cheer and applaud but when Haman’s name occurs there is booing, jeering, stamping of feet and raucous din from rattles. Esther bravely reveals her nationality to warn the king how Haman intends to abuse his powerful position as the king’s representative. Right prevails, Mordecai is honoured and Haman is hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

But it is, of course, not all pantomime. There is a much deeper thread running through the story. Mordecai is a descendant of king Saul who disobeyed God in not exterminating the tribe of Amalek, and Haman is a descendant of Amalek. Now, half a millennium later, the result of Saul’s disobedience becomes a threat to wipe out God’s chosen people. But God uses Saul’s descendants, Mordecai and Esther, to reverse the outcome of Saul’s sin and save His people. He is the God of history and Lord of all. Disobeying Him has inevitable consequences affecting not only the sinner but others too, and it is not difficult to follow this out into the Gospel of the New Testament.

Purim means Lots, in the sense of drawing or casting lots to discover destiny or determine action. The superstitious Haman had cast lots to determine the most auspicious date on which to wipe out his enemies. It proved to be the date of his own execution! God is in control.