And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
For further study - Esther 9:20-32
Our reading today is the record of the institution of the Jewish feast of Purim. This is a Jewish "holyday" when Jews around the world stop to remember how God continued His protection of His "chosen people", the Jewish people, some twenty-five hundred years ago.
The book of Esther records the events that led up to what could have been the complete annihilation of the Jewish people. As you may already know, Esther had come into the "kingdom" for such a time as the time the Lord would use her to save her people, the Jews.
Haman was killed on the gallows that he prepared for Mordecai and this brought an end to the wicked ways of the number two in the kingdom. But remember, the word had gone out across the world to have all the Jews killed.
Then King Ahasuerus had a letter sent throughout the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of his kingdom to save the Jews from death. This is recorded in Esther 8. The King's letter was followed by a letter from Mordecai, verse 20 of our extended reading, where the Jewish leader would call for all the Jews to celebrate the Jewish "feast of Purim".
In fact, this would be a two-day feast that the Jews were told to observe on an annual bases. It would be a time to remember how God had intervened to protect His people and it would be, as such, a prophecy of how He would do so in the future.
There are men in history that have followed the lead of Haman and tried to destroy the Jews. During World War II Hitler and his Nazi Army killed one third of the then living Jews, six million of them.
Today the wicked leader of Iran, President Ahmadinejad, has called a number of times for the nation of Israel to be "wiped off the face of the earth". This is an end times scenario that fits the prophetic passages that reveal a coalition of nations will move to destroy the Jews and Israel during the Tribulation Period, Ezekiel 38, and verse 5 where the Biblical name "Persia" is the nation of Iran today.
Each year as the Jews celebrate Purim they recall the days of Esther, but they also look to the future and realize that as their enemies come to destroy them the Lord will once again intervene to protect His people, the Jews.
This scenario for the future, found in Bible Prophecy, also tells us that the next event on God's calendar of events prophetically is the Rapture, which could happen at any moment. There is not one prophecy to be fulfilled before the Rapture. We must keep looking up for this "any moment" event.
PRAYER THOT: Thank you Lord for the record of your protection of the Jews and the reality that you will do so in the future. This is confirmation that you keep your promises, not only to the Jews but to me as a Christian as well.
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