The Festival of Purim - The Book of Esther (Adar 14/15 - March 6th-7th, 2023)

The Festival of Purim — The Book of Esther

A Faithful Performance Teaching

March 7, 2023 — Adar 14-15

Thank you for joining us. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance. Tonight we celebrate the festival of Purim — Adar 14 and 15 — by reading through the Book of Esther together. Purim is not one of the Leviticus 23 major appointed times in the way that Passover, Shavuot, Yom Kippur, or Tabernacles are. It is a minor festival in that sense. But it is far from minor in its implications. We are going to read the Book of Esther together — essentially verbatim — and look at it from three angles: historical, personal, and prophetic. And what we will discover is that this book, which does not mention the name of God a single time, is saturated with the fingerprints of the God who never breaks His covenant.

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WHY CHRISTIANS MUST UNDERSTAND PURIM

Before we open the text, let us establish why Purim matters for every believer in Yeshua, Jew and Gentile alike. The Book of Esther is not merely a story of Jewish deliverance from one particular enemy in one particular century. It is the story of the preservation of the pure royal seed line to Messiah. If Esther and Mordecai had not acted — if Haman's decree had been carried out and the Jewish people in Persia had been annihilated — the lineage of Yeshua would have been broken. The same is true of Hanukkah: if the Maccabees had not prevailed over Antiochus Epiphanes approximately 165 years before Yeshua's birth, the seed line would have been in jeopardy again. God had to raise up Esther. He had to raise up Mordecai. There was no Plan B.

This matters because the validity of the entire biblical covenant structure rests on the unbroken seed line from Abraham through Isaac through Jacob through David through Yeshua. If you believe that Yeshua is the Messiah — and if you believe that the covenants God made with Abraham, with David, and through Yeshua are irrevocable — then you must believe that God was going to protect that seed line by any means necessary. The Book of Esther is the record of one of those moments. We celebrate it not only for what it meant to the Jewish people of that generation, but for what it means for every one of us who owes his salvation to the One who was born of that seed.

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SETTING THE STAGE: THE TIMELINE

The Book of Esther takes place within the Persian Empire, approximately in 480 BC. To understand where we are in the biblical story, we need the timeline. The Babylonian exile began around 609 BC. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. Jeremiah had prophesied seventy years of judgment — and in 539 BC, exactly as that seventy-year period was drawing to its close, Medo-Persia overthrew Babylon. That is the famous night of Daniel 5, when the hand wrote on the wall during Belshazzar's feast and Darius the Mede took the kingdom. Cyrus of Persia issued the decree allowing the Jewish people to return and rebuild the Temple. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah pick up that story.

But not all the Jewish people returned immediately. Many remained scattered throughout the Persian Empire. The Book of Esther takes place during the reign of King Ahasuerus — also called Xerxes — who ruled a vast empire from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces. Mordecai had been carried into exile from Jerusalem with the Babylonian captivity. By the time of the events in the Book of Esther, he was likely in his sixties or seventies. Esther was his younger cousin, whom he had raised as his own daughter after the death of her parents.

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THE FIRST SAMUEL 15 BACKGROUND: THE ANCIENT ENEMY PATTERN

Before we read the Book of Esther, we need to read First Samuel 15, because the two texts are inseparable. When Saul was anointed king, the Lord commanded him through Samuel: go and completely destroy Amalek. Kill men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys — everything. This is a commandment that strikes modern ears as harsh. But God is not looking at these people as they are in that moment. He is looking at who their descendants will become, because he sees the end from the beginning. Exodus 17:16 had already established the principle: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. This is not finished until Yeshua returns. That is the clear statement of scripture.

Saul went to battle and defeated Amalek. But he spared King Agag. He kept the best of the sheep and cattle. He disobeyed. And Samuel confronted him: does the Lord take as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying what He says? Surely obeying is better than sacrifice. Rebellion is like the sin of sorcery — stubbornness like the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king. Samuel himself executed King Agag — cut him into pieces before the Lord. But the damage was done. Agag's lineage survived.

Five hundred years later, that lineage produced Haman the Agagite. The man Saul should have killed became the ancestor of the man who would attempt to destroy every Jewish person in the Persian Empire. This is why God said what He said. This is why the Commandment was what it was. Saul thought he knew better than God. He thought he could keep the best of the animals for sacrifice and spare the king for political reasons. And the result was Purim — a near-genocide of God's people that would not have happened if Saul had obeyed. When God says something, He means it. When He says completely destroy, He means completely destroy. The consequences of partial obedience ripple down through generations.

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THE BOOK OF ESTHER

**Chapter One: The King and Vashti**

The King of Persia reigned over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet — a display of his kingdom's wealth that lasted 180 days. A half-year feast. And then he gave a seven-day banquet in the courtyard of his palace garden for all the people of Susa. On the seventh day, the king ordered his officers to bring Queen Vashti before him with her royal crown — to display her beauty. But Vashti refused.

This was extraordinary. In the ancient Persian court, to refuse the king's command was to invite death. But God hardened Vashti's heart so that she refused. If she had come, there is no story of Esther. God had to remove her. The king's counselors urged him to issue a decree deposing Vashti and giving her royal position to someone better than she, so that all the women throughout the kingdom would honor their husbands. The king agreed. Vashti was deposed.

**Chapter Two: Esther Becomes Queen**

The king's servants proposed a search for young beautiful virgins from all the provinces. The girl who pleased the king most would become queen. In Susa there was a Jewish man named Mordecai, a Benjaminite — of the same tribe as Saul, and as the Apostle Paul. He had raised his cousin Esther as his own daughter after the death of her parents. Esther was beautiful and had the favor of God. When she was brought into the palace, she won favor with everyone who saw her. Mordecai had instructed her not to reveal her Jewish identity.

Esther spent twelve months in preparation — six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women. When her turn came to go before the king, she asked for nothing except what the king's officer advised. Yet she was admired by all who saw her, and the king loved Esther more than any of the other women. He set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in the tenth month — the month of Tevet, the month of the Perfection of divine order. On his seventh year — the number of spiritual perfection. God embedded these numbers into the story. They are not coincidences.

Mordecai sat daily at the king's gate. On one occasion he learned that two of the king's officers had conspired to assassinate the king. He told Esther, Esther told the king, crediting Mordecai. The matter was investigated, the conspirators were hanged, and everything was recorded in the king's daily journal. This fact will matter greatly later in the story.

**Chapters Three and Four: Haman's Plot and Esther's Challenge**

The king elevated Haman the Agagite above all the other officials. All the servants at the king's gate were commanded to bow down before Haman. Mordecai refused. When the servants asked him why, his explanation — that he was a Jew — sufficed. Mordecai knew who Haman was. He knew the lineage. He would not bow to the ancient enemy of his people. When Haman learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided it was insufficient to kill just Mordecai. He would destroy all the Jews throughout the entire kingdom.

In the first month — Nissan, the first month of the biblical calendar — in the twelfth year of the king's reign, Haman cast lots — purr — to determine the most favorable date for the destruction of the Jewish people. The lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar. The month of joy. The month of double Jubilee. Haman went to the king and said: there is a particular people scattered throughout your kingdom whose laws are different from every other people — they do not obey the king's laws. It does not benefit the king to tolerate them. Let a decree be issued for their destruction, and I will deposit three hundred thirty tons of silver into the royal treasury.

The king took his signet ring and gave it to Haman, the enemy of the Jews, and said: the money is given to you, and the people too — do whatever seems good to you. On the thirteenth day of Nissan — the day before Passover — the scribes wrote out Haman's orders to every province in every language, sealed with the king's signet ring. The decree commanded the destruction, killing, and extermination of all Jews — young and old, children and women — on Adar 13, and the seizure of their goods as plunder. The runners went out quickly. The king and Haman sat down together to drink. But the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.

The connection between Purim and Passover is written directly into the Book of Esther. The decree went out on Nissan 13 — the day before Passover. God did not allow the decree to fall on Nissan 14, the day of Passover itself. He kept the two separate. Purim begins the season of deliverance and Passover is thirty days later. These are not coincidental. The anointing of deliverance is upon these months.

When Mordecai learned what had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city crying out. Esther sent clothes for him but he would not accept them. When Esther learned what had happened she was deeply distressed. She sent a servant to Mordecai, who gave the servant a copy of the decree and instructed him to tell Esther what was happening — and to instruct her to go to the king and beg for mercy for her people.

Esther's response was practical and honest: if anyone goes to the king in the inner courtyard without being summoned, there is one law — they will be put to death, unless the king extends his golden scepter. She had not been summoned in thirty days. Going uninvited was a potential death sentence.

Mordecai's answer reveals the depth of his faith. He said: do not suppose that merely because you happen to be in the royal palace you will escape any more than the other Jews. If you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another direction. But you and your family will perish. Who knows whether you didn't come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this?

Mordecai understood the Everlasting Covenant. He could say with confidence that deliverance would come whether Esther acted or not — because he knew God was not going to break His sworn oath to Abraham. But God had positioned Esther for this moment. His faith in the covenant did not produce passivity. It produced the courage to challenge his adopted daughter to lay down her life.

**Chapters Five and Six: Favor and the Tables Begin to Turn**

On the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner courtyard. The king saw her and extended his golden scepter. Balaam had prophesied in Numbers 24:17 — a scepter will arise from Israel, a star will step forth from Jacob. Without the king of Persia extending his scepter toward Queen Esther, the scepter of Israel would not have been preserved. God's promise to Abraham that the seed would come through Israel was being fulfilled through this act of a pagan king who did not know he was serving the purposes of YHWH.

Esther touched the tip of the scepter. The king asked what she wanted — even up to half the kingdom. She invited the king and Haman to a banquet that day. At the banquet, the king again asked her request — again offering up to half the kingdom. Esther asked that the king and Haman come to a second banquet the next day. She was positioning Haman for his destruction.

Haman left the banquet in high spirits. When he saw Mordecai at the king's gate — still refusing to rise or bow — Haman was furious. But he restrained himself. At home he told his wife and friends of his great wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him. But all of this means nothing, he said, as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. His wife and friends advised him to build a gallows fifty cubits high and ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it in the morning. The advice pleased Haman. He had the gallows built.

That night the king could not sleep. He ordered the book of records read to him. They read about Mordecai — how he had reported the assassination plot that had saved the king's life. The king asked what honor had been given to Mordecai for this. Nothing, came the answer. The next morning Haman arrived early at the palace — to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had built. The king summoned him in. What should be done for a man the king delights to honor, the king asked? Haman thought the king meant to honor him, so he proposed a magnificent public display — royal robes, a royal horse, a royal proclamation through the city square. The king told him: go quickly and do exactly that for Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave nothing out.

Haman led Mordecai on horseback through the city square proclaiming his honor. Then Haman went home humiliated and told his wife and friends what had happened. His wise men and his wife said to him: if Mordecai is of Jewish origin, you will not overcome him — you will surely fall before him. While they were still speaking to him, the king's officers arrived to escort Haman to the second banquet.

**Chapters Seven through Ten: The Tables Turn**

At the second banquet the king asked Esther what her petition was. Esther said: if I have won your favor, let my life be given to me as my petition and my people as my request. For my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and exterminated. The king demanded to know who had done this. Esther pointed to Haman. An adversary and enemy — this wicked Haman.

The king went out to the palace garden in a rage. Haman, seeing that his doom was sealed, threw himself onto the couch where Esther was reclining to beg for his life. When the king returned from the garden and saw Haman on Esther's couch, he said: will he even assault the queen in my own palace? The word left his mouth and the attendants covered Haman's face. One of the officers told the king that Haman had prepared a gallows fifty cubits high for Mordecai, the man who had saved the king's life. Hang him on it, the king ordered. Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai. The verdict was turned.

That same day Esther received Haman's estate and the king's signet ring, which had been taken from Haman and given to Mordecai. But the original decree — sealed with the king's ring — was still in effect. Under the law of the Medes and Persians, no decree sealed by the king could be rescinded. Esther wept before the king and begged him to revoke the decree. The king could not revoke it — but he authorized Esther and Mordecai to issue a counter-decree in his name and sealed with his ring. What the first ring had sealed, the second ring now answered.

The counter-decree authorized the Jews in every province to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy any armed force that attacked them, and to plunder their attackers' goods. This reversal went out to all 127 provinces. In Susa, the Jews killed five hundred men including Haman's ten sons. Throughout the provinces, the Jews killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them. In both cases they did not touch the plunder — honoring the principle God had established with Saul and Agag. They would not take the spoil of the ancient enemy. On Adar 14 they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. Those in Susa, who fought for two days, rested on Adar 15. These became the two days of Purim.

Mordecai and Esther sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces establishing the observance of Adar 14 and 15 every year as a time of celebrating, rejoicing, sending portions of food to one another, and giving gifts to the poor. The word purr — lots — gave its name to the festival. Haman had cast lots to determine the date of Israel's destruction. The lot landed on the month of joy and double Jubilee. God rules over the lots. Every decision belongs to Him.

Mordecai rose to become second only to the king — as Joseph had been second only to Pharaoh. He was great among the Jews, popular with all his countrymen, and sought the good of his people.

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THE PROPHETIC DIMENSION: THE SAME STORY AT THE END OF THE AGE

Everything in the Book of Esther has a prophetic dimension that extends to the second coming of Yeshua. The Antichrist will come from the same general geographic region as Haman — Daniel 11:40-43 places the king of the North in Turkey, and his conquered territories include Egypt, Libya, and Sudan, all surrounding the promised land. He will come against the Jewish people with a decree of annihilation just as Haman did. He will be given authority by the decree of the Ancient of Days — just as Haman was given authority by the king's signet ring.

But just as Haman's gallows became Haman's judgment, so the Antichrist's campaign against Jerusalem will become the occasion of his destruction. Isaiah 63 shows us the returning Yeshua coming from Bozrah — the area of Jordan and Edom, the ancient territory of Esau — with garments stained in crimson. Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with clothing stained? It is I who speaks victoriously. I have trodden the wine press alone — from the peoples no one was with me. The day of vengeance was in my heart and my year of redemption has come. Revelation 19:11-16 gives us the same scene from a different angle: heaven opened and there was a man on a white horse, wearing a robe soaked in blood, with the armies of heaven following on white horses. His name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Daniel 7:22 gives us the moment of the verdict: but the holy ones of the Most High will receive the Kingdom and possess it forever, yes forever and ever. Just as Mordecai had the signet ring to issue the counter-decree, the Ancient of Days will issue the decree that gives the Kingdom to His people. The Antichrist will be winning — it will look as though the Jewish people are about to be annihilated — and then the decree will come. The tables will turn. The gallows will be reversed. The weapons turned on the enemy. And the Jewish people will look upon the One they have pierced, just as Zechariah 12:10 declares, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son.

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THE PERSONAL DIMENSION: PRAY INTO THIS SEASON

The personal dimension of Purim is the one that Adar calls every believer into. The month of Adar carries the anointing of joy increasing and verdicts being overturned. Purim is the center of that anointing. Yom Kippuram — a name for Yom Kippur that carries the word Purim within it — shows the connection between the two days. On Yom Kippur the verdicts are sealed. At Purim the sealed verdicts begin to manifest. The same fasting and prayer that Esther, Mordecai, and the Jewish people of Susa employed for three days and three nights is available to every believer in any generation.

Mark 9:29 is the key: this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting. Yeshua said that. He did not say prayer alone. He said prayer and fasting together have a different weight, a different authority, than prayer alone. Queen Esther's three-day fast was not a ritual. It was the desperate consecration of a woman who was about to walk into the most dangerous room in the ancient world and stake her life on the favor of God. The favor came. The scepter was extended. The verdict was turned.

Whatever you are carrying into this season — whatever has felt held up or delayed or threatened — the anointing of Purim is available to you. The season of Adar into Nissan, Purim into Passover, is the most intensely deliverance-anointed season on God's calendar. It does not mean that God is constrained to move only in these months. It means that the anointings of this season are specifically calibrated for the breakthrough from persecution into freedom, from threat into victory, from Haman's gallows to Mordecai's ring.

Pray into it. Fast as the Lord leads you. And remember: relief and deliverance are coming, because God made a sworn oath to Abraham that He has never broken and never will.

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CLOSING

Purim is ultimately a story about one thing: God keeps His covenant. He keeps it when the enemy is at the gates. He keeps it when the decree has been sealed. He keeps it when there is no human way out. He kept it through a beautiful orphaned Jewish girl who had been raised by her cousin, who walked uninvited into the throne room of the most powerful king on earth and staked everything on the favor of the God whose name does not appear once in the ten chapters of her book — but whose fingerprints are on every single verse.

He kept it for Esther and Mordecai. He will keep it at the second coming. And He will keep it for you.

Happy Purim — happy Adar 14 and 15. May YHWH bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His everlasting shalom. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You are with Faithful Performance.