Join God Honest Truth as we dive into the biblical feast of Purim—a celebration of deliverance, faith, and divine providence! This teaching explores the origins of Purim in the Book of Esther, its significance in biblical history, and how it is observed today.
Discover how this feast reminds us of Yahweh’s protection over His people and the triumph of righteousness over evil. Whether you are new to Purim or looking to deepen your understanding, this study will provide historical context, scriptural insights, and practical ways to celebrate.
So join us for this teaching as we learn the God Honest Truth about Purim!
#Purim #BibleStudy #GodHonestTruth #FeastsOfTheLord #BookOfEsther
Transcript
Did you know there’s a feast celebrating Yahweh’s miraculous deliverance of his people from utter destruction? In this video, we’re diving into the Feast of Purim. It’s the powerful story behind Purim, the spiritual significance, and why it’s still relevant today. So stay tuned to discover the God honest truth behind this incredible celebration. So this teaching is going to be all about Purim, where it comes from, what it’s all about, how to celebrate it, all that good stuff, all coming up right here in this teaching.
So definitely make sure to stay tuned. Have your notes out. Have your notebook ready with your pen or your pencil, whatever it is you’re writing with. But if you happen to miss something or you like even more notes than the information that we present here, make sure to check out the notes file that we took for this particular episode and have provided to you over on our website at godhonesttruth.com. Simply click on the post for this episode or Purim, and you’ll be taken to a page where you will have the on demand video.
You have the slides that you see here on your screen. You’ll have the notes that we took for this particular subject and episode, and you’ll also have the transcript if that’s something that happens to be of any particular use to you. But it’s all right there on godhonesttruth.com and we have also provided a convenient link for you down below in the description and it should be down there in the description whether you are watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. It should be down there all the same. So go ahead and click on it or go directly to godhonesttruth.com.
So our objectives for this teaching are going to be, number one, we’re going to explore the essential elements that make up the story of Purim so that you’ll be able to better understand what it is we’re talking about, the particular point in time, all that good stuff when we get to the actual story of Purim. But some of the essential elements that we’re going to cover and learn about is the timeline leading up to the story of Purim. We’re gonna learn about the essential characters that are in the Purim story. Number one is going to be Mordecai and then his cousin Esther, the king, Ahashtar, Ahashwarosh and Haman. Those are the four main people we’re gonna be learning about as we go through the story of Urim.
We’re also gonna be learning about the concept of loss because that’s something that doesn’t really get a lot of attention in mainstream churches. So we’re gonna give it a little more light so that you can understand better exactly what Lot is about the casting of lots and all that. We’re gonna go over the story of Purim so that you’ll know what Purim is all about, what it’s celebrating, where it came from. We’re gonna make the connection between our Messiah Yeshua and Purim, how all how all that fits together. We’re gonna go over some tips and observances for how you can celebrate Purim today.
And then we’re gonna go over some interesting insights about the feast day of Purim. And finally, we’re gonna wrap it all up and just recap everything that we’ve learned during the course of this teaching. So let’s start out with our essential elements that build up on to the story of Purim. And starting out with the historical timeline and where we are in history when Purim comes on the scene. So after King Solomon y’all remember King Solomon.
Right? David’s son. But after King Solomon, the country of Israel was divided into two different kingdoms, a Northern kingdom, which is a lot of times referred to as Israel, and then a Southern kingdom, which is referred to as Judea. Here you can see in first Kings chapter 12 verse 16, and all Israel saw that the Sovereign did not listen to them. Then the people answered the Sovereign saying, what portion do we have in Dawid?
And there is no inheritance in the son of Yeshay. To your mighty ones, oh, Israel. Now see to your own house, oh, Dawid. So Israel went to their tents. And this is really the point where the split happened and, essentially the whole nation of Israel became two different kingdoms at that point.
And we read also in one Kings chapter 12 verse 20, And it came to be when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation and set him up to reign over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of Dawid except the tribe of Yehuda only. Now we’re going to be getting into exactly who was left in the Southern Kingdom, but basically it boils down to three different tribes. There was the tribe of, Yehuda, tribe of Judah, tribe of Benjamin, and the tribe of Levi or Levites. Because the temple was in the Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem was in the Southern Kingdom, then accordingly, the Levites went along with the Southern Kingdom.
Now the tribe of Judah or Yehuda and Benjamin, they were just living down there anyways, so it made sense. But that’s the three tribes. Yehuda or Judah, Benjamin or Benjamin, and Levi or the Levites. The Northern Kingdom, after they were split, the Northern Kingdom was eventually defeated by the Assyrians, and they were dispersed among the nations. Now this happened, and so far, the Northern Kingdom has not returned to the land of Israel.
They’re still dispersed, and a lot of them have lost their understanding of their identity. And it’s rather sad because a lot of you out there, you very well may be part of those lost 10 tribes, but they were dispersed amongst the Nations after they were defeated by the Assyrians. We read in two Kings chapter 17 verse six. In the ninth year of Hosheaab, the sovereign of Asshur captured Shomeron and exiled Yisrael to Asshur and settled them in Halah and Haror at the River Of Gozan and in the city of the Medes. We also read in second Kings chapter 17 verse 18.
So Yahweh was very enraged with Israel and removed them from his presence. None was left but the tribe of Yehudah alone, meaning the Southern Kingdom. Now there’s also more than just the tribe of Yehuda, but that’s neither here nor there for the moment. Then going on in our timeline, Judea was eventually conquered by Babylon or Persia, whichever way you wanna say it, because Avalon was eventually conquered by Persia too. But, anyways, Judea, the Southern kingdom, was conquered by Babylon or Persia.
We read in second Kings chapter 24 verses fourteen and sixteen. And Nebuchadnezzar exiled all Jerusalem and all the officers and all the mighty brave men, 10,000 exiles, and all the craftsmen and smiths, none remained except the poorest people of the land. And all the mighty brave men, 7,000, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for battle, these the Sovereign of Babel brought to Babel into exile. So the Southern Kingdom eventually gets taken over and taken captive by the Babylonians. And we read in two Kings chapter 25 verses 11 through 12, And Nebuchadnezzaradan, the chief of the guard, took into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who deserted to the Sovereign of Babel, with the rest of the multitude.
But the chief of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. So not completely every single person taken into exile, but there were still a few that were left in Israel as, like you see here, vine dressers and farmers to kinda tend the land, take care of it. I’m not sure if the Babylonians understood that the Judeans were gonna be coming back, but they left some there anyways. But for all intents and purposes, the Southern Kingdom was taken captive into Persia. That’s very important to remember because it’s gonna set up where our protagonists are coming from.
Then after seventy years in Babylonian captivity, a lot of the Judeans returned to the land of Israel. We see in Ezra chapter one verse five, and the heads of the fathers houses of Yehudah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirits Elohim had stirred, rose up to go up and build the house of Yahweh, which is in Jerusalem. So the king at this point of Persia had given permission for them to go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, get it all back up and going, and we pretty much return to their land. And that’s what they did. And the king of Persia is actually or actually the king of the Purim story is mentioned by Ezra in the book of Ezra.
Ezra chapter four verse six. And in the reign of Ahasuerosh, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Yehuda and Yerushalayim. And even though there was a lot of the Judeans who went back to the Promised Land or the Southern Kingdom, rather, there’s a lot of them that returned, but not all of the Judeans chose to return to Judea. There were still some who chose to remain back in Persia. Now here, if you look on your screen, here is a map of the Persian Empire somewhere around May, and that’s pretty close to the timeline where we are or at least where we are with the story of Purim.
And here on the left, you can see where Jerusalem and Israel is still a part of that Babylonian empire. And over in the center of the map, you can see a little place that got circled that says Susa or in Shushan, some people call it. But Susa or Shushan is where the story of Purim is going to be taking place. So that’s the historical lead up to the story of Purim and also a little bit about the geography. You can see here where in the world, Purim is actually taking place.
Then moving on to another essential element, the protagonist of our story, Mordecai or one of our protagonists anyways. But Mordecai is a name that comes from Strong’s h four seven eight two. Mordecai. Mordecai. But Mordechai literally means like little man or worshiper of Mars.
I’m really sure how I get all that, but I have no reason to disbelieve it. I have no evidence anyways. But, anyways, Mordechai was an Israelite. He was a Benjamite or a Benjamite of the tribe of Benjamin. Some people have also said that Mordechai comes from the Babylonian name for Marduk, but haven’t really found any evidence for that.
So it’s very sparse to people who actually say that. But here is your Brown Driver Briggs. You’ve seen this as Hebrew lexicon and Jastrow’s Dictionary of the Targum’s entries for the word Mordecai. But some things to know about Mordecai. He was a Judean of the tribe of Benjamin or Benjamin.
So he’s a member of the Southern Kingdom Of Judea. He was at odds with Haman, which we will get to in a moment, learn about, and also you’ll be able to hear about in the story of Horeb. He had compassion for others. He was very righteous and generous during his life, especially in his dealings with his first cousin, which we will get to in just a moment. He eventually became the second most powerful official in all of Persia, and this was due to his integrity and his faith in doing the right thing even for people who weren’t of his ethnicity or a part of his people.
Someone completely different, but he saved their life because it was the right thing to do. And because he lived by doing the right thing, he was eventually raised up. He was exalted and became the second most powerful person in all of Persia. He was the first cousin of Esther and raised the orphan, Esther, who was orphan, from what we can tell, fairly early on in her life. And this is another aspect of Mordechai that really makes him a righteous guy, a good guy, someone to look to.
He’s taking care of an orphan. And this is something that is reiterated all throughout scripture, not just in the Tanakh, but in the Brit Chadashah as well, to take care of the orphans, the fatherless, the widows, things like that. And Mordechai is upholding and doing the right thing by taking care of his first cousin, Esther. He is fulfilling the command. So moving on, we look at his first cousin and another protagonist of our story, the lady Esther.
I guess she’d rather actually be a girl, but you get my drift. Anyways, Esther comes from the Strong’s number H 6 3 5, Esther Esther, and Esther means star. She was the queen of Persia, heroine of the book of Esther, cousin of Mordecai, and Ester means star. But Ester is not a Hebrew name. Ester is actually a Babylonian or Persian name.
And here you can see the Strong’s definition and Brown Driver Briggs entry for Ester. Then going on, we see the Jacenesis Hebrew Lexicon entry for Ester and the Jastreel’s Dictionary of the Targums entry for Esther. Now the Targum on Esther is actually very interesting. I did not have time to put all that together into part of the presentation, but it’s very interesting. And there is a link to the Targum on Esther in our notes.
If you go check that out, you can go actually read it for yourself. But just keep in mind, the Targums are not scripture. The Targums are a commentary on scripture, but nonetheless, the Targum on Esther is actually very interesting. So go check it out in the notes that we provided there. Now, like I said, Esther is not a Hebrew name.
Esther is a Persian name. And like we covered in our teaching on Esther herself in the scriptural dossier, people having two different names is not uncommon in scripture. In fact, you can see it here with Esther and her Hebrew name, which we’ll get to in a minute. We also see it with in the Brehadashah or the AKA New Testament. You see it with Simon who also goes by the name Peter.
You see it with Shaul or Saul who also goes by the name Paul, etcetera, etcetera. So it’s not uncommon when Hebrews like Esther were living amongst a foreign people to take on a name that was more common in that foreign culture. So it looks like here that Esther, she took on this name Esther as part of that culture that she was currently living in. But her Hebrew name was Hadassah, and that is Strong’s h one nine one nine. Hadassah.
Hadassah. And Hadassah means myrtle, and that’s Esther’s actual Hebrew name, probably the one she was born with when she was born. But Hadassah means myrtle, and like I said, there’s some very interesting stuff in the Targum if you go read that. And here’s your Jacenesis Hebrew lexicon and Jastreel’s dictionary of the Targum’s entry for Hadassah. But some more facts about Hadassah or Esther.
She was a Judean like Mordecai of the tribe of Benjamin. So she was a Benjamite of the Southern Kingdom Of Judea. She was first cousin of Mordecai. She was one of the population of the Judeans who remained behind after the return to Israel. So keep that in mind, at this point, a lot of the Judeans had already returned to the Southern Kingdom, but some had chosen to remain behind.
Mardukai and Esther or Hadassah, who’s part of those people who had stayed behind in Persia instead of going back to the Southern Kingdom Of Judea. She was orphaned early in life. Don’t know exactly how early, but it seems like all her life, or at least the vast majority of her life, she was being raised by her cousin, Mordechai. There’s no record that we have in scripture of her having any siblings, and we actually don’t learn her mother’s name in scripture because it’s never mentioned. Her father’s name was actually Avihael or Avihael or Aminadab.
Avi HaEl is the name that’s presented to us in the Hebrew text, and Aminadab, for whatever reason, is the name that’s given to us in the Greek Septuagint. But, anyways, that’s her father’s name. But, like I said, she was orphaned early on in life, so both her father and her mother died while she was still a fairly young girl, and she was raised by her cousin, Marta Hai, who guided her very well. Her traits and what she learned and how she was brought up really shine through as you look at her role and what she does in the story of Purim. Now we go on to the well, I don’t really call him an antagonist, but he might be.
He might be more on the antagonist side. But, anyways, I will say he’s neutral. Anyways, moving on to Ahasuerosh. And this is the king of Persia at the time of the story of Purim. But Ahasuerosh comes from Strong’s h three two five.
Ahasueros. Ahasueros. But Ahasueros is actually a title of the king of Persia. It’s not actually a name, or at least that’s according to the blue letter bible outline of biblical usage and Strong’s definition and some others too. But a Hashwerosh is actually a title, and during the story of Urim, we’re actually thinking that the king’s name was Xerxes the first.
And here’s your Strong’s definition, here’s your Brown Driver Briggs definition, and Jacinis’ Hebrew Lexicon entry for Ahasueros. With some interesting statistics about King Ahasueros, He was also known, like we said earlier, as probably going by the name Xerxes the first. He was the son of Darius the Great. He conducted lots of great building projects during his reign, but he’s also best known for invading Greece. Now this is very, very interesting because if you’ve ever seen that movie 300, that Xerxes in the movie, this is who we’re talking about.
This is the Xerxes, the the king of Persia at the time who tried to invade Greece, but he ended up having to turn back and then it’s a whole mess. But he started something that would continue on down through the centuries. He really made the Greeks mad when he attacked them, took over a lot of their territories, whatnot. But then later on, because of this hatred the Greeks had for the Persians due to what Xerxes or Ahasuerus had done, a little guy named Alexander the Great came to power and sought to get his revenge on behalf of the Greeks over the Persians, and he did just that. He went and he put his foot in her rear end, as it were.
But it’s all started way back when with Xerxes the first or Ahasueros, who is the king that we’re talking about here in the story of Purim. Now, another interesting thing I found out is that when he came to power, there was a province known as Babylon. They were already part of the Persian Empire at that point. But Xerxes or Ahasueros came to power, and one of the first things he did was go to the province of Babylon, take their golden statue of Marduk, and melt it down. Now I’m all happy about getting rid of false gods like that, but, hey, that’s never expected a non follower of Yahweh to actually do something like that, but, apparently, he did.
So good for him on at least that one particular point. Now moving on to the actual protagonist and I’m sorry, antagonist. And he is definitely an antagonist, which you will learn about here in just a moment. But his name is Haman, and Haman comes from the strong number h two zero zero one. Haman.
Haman. And the word Haman means magnificent. He was the chief minister or the prime minister of Ahasuerus, which we’ll get to in just a moment. He actually rises to power. Here’s your Strong’s definition and Brown Driver Briggs entry for Haman.
Here’s your Jacenius’ Hebrew Lexicon entry and Jastrow’s Dictionary of the Targums entry for Haman. Some interesting things about Haman is that he was during the story of Purim, he was at odds with Mordechai. He rises to second in power. Like we said, this the prime minister of all of Persia. And he was an Agagite of the Amalekites.
Now, for those of you who don’t know what an Agagite or Amalekite is, we look at Genesis chapter 36 verse 12. And Thine was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. Here is the beginning of the Amalekites, from a child that was born and named Amalek. Of course, he grew up and founded an entire lineage known as the Amalekites, but that’s where this whole lineage and stuff comes from.
And we read in Exodus chapter 17 verse eight, and Amalek or the Amalekites came out and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Now this part of Exodus, the Hebrews are coming out of Egypt. They’re going towards the promised land. They have to go through the wilderness first, but they’ve just come out of Egypt, and the Amalekites come up come up behind them and start attacking them for absolutely no reason. This does not play well in history for the Amalekites.
They attack the wrong people. And we look at Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 19. Therefore, it shall be, when Yahweh your Elohim has given you rest from your enemies all around in the land which Yahweh your Elohim has given you to possess as an inheritance, that you blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget. So this made Yahweh so mad that he wanted to blot them all out, and he actually gives orders to the Israelites, to the Hebrews, that when they come into the promised land, they are to wipe them out, blot out the remembrance of Amalek, just completely destroy them.
All because of what they did after the Hebrews came out of Egypt. Looking at first Samuel chapter 15 verses two through three. Thus said Yahweh of hosts, I shall punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up from Mizraim. Now go, and you shall strike Amalek and put under the ban all that he has, and you shall not spare them, and put them to death from man to woman, from infant to nursing child, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey. So here, this is the time of King Saul, and he’s getting the exact same instructions that they got back then when they were going into the promised land.
He’s been given the command to wipe out Amalek, all of them. It doesn’t really matter who it is, what age they are, what gender they are, because there’s only two genders, remember. It doesn’t matter any of that. Wipe them out. But does King Saul listen?
We look in first Samuel chapter 15 verses eight through nine. And he caught Agag, sovereign of the Amalekites, alive and put under the ban all the people with the edge of the sword. But Shaul and the people spared a gag and the best of the sheep and the cattle and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good and would not put them under the ban, but all goods despised and worthless that they put under the ban. So here, once King Saul has defeated the Amalekites, he’s supposed to wipe them all out, kill them all, even the livestock, but he doesn’t do it. He keeps the best livestock for himself and his guys, and he actually spares the king of the Amalekites at that time whose name was Agag.
And this is not set well with Yahweh because that’s not what Saul was commanded to do. And because of this, Saul falls out of favor in a haste. And if you’ll actually remember the story, it was Samuel, the prophet Samuel, who actually ended up having to go and finish a gag because Saul didn’t do it. But anyways, that’s where the Amalekites come from and where the Agagites come from, their lineage and their descendants. And since they were not put to death and wiped out like they had been committed to, going down through history, and then we have Ammon.
And because they didn’t wipe them out and because there was the lineage that continued and because we had Ammon, there was that continued evil, and the events of Purim would not have happened if they had wiped out the Amalekites because there would have been no Haman. Another thing from Megillah 13 a, the Talmud, talking about this whole lineage of the Amalekites and Agag. It says here, quote, David did not kill Shammai, although he was liable to the death penalty. The great consequences of this failure included that Mordecai was born from him, and it was he against whom Haman was jealous, leading Haman to issue a decree against all the Jewish people. And how a Benjamite has repaid me is referring to the fact that Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin, did not kill the Amalekite, king Agag immediately from whom Haman was later born, and he caused suffering to the Jewish people, end quote.
And that’s another interesting connection because like we said, when we went over Esther and Mordecai, they were both Benjamites from the tribe of Benjamin. Well, so was king Saul. King Saul was a Benjamite. So it’s rather interesting that the Benjamite King Saul did not take care of the Amalekites like he was supposed to, but as you’ll see in the story, the Benjamites, Mordecai and Esther, they come through and they really stick it to this particular Amalekite in the Purim story. But, anyways, moving on from Haman and moving on to another essential element of understanding the story of Purim is the concept of lots.
So here with lots with lots, there are actually two different words. The Hebrew word for lots is the Strong’s entry h one four eight six, and that is Goral. Goral. And that literally means a lot, a portion, something like a pebble or a small stone or a piece of wood, smooth wood, something like that. Now, since the Hebrew word is Goral, why don’t we call it the East Of Goral?
Well, it happened in Persia, and Purim is actually a borrowed word from Persian. The Persian word for lot is per, and make that plural. Instead of lot being lots, you make por plural in Hebrew, you just add the I’m ending on the end, at least for masculine nouns. So you got Purim. So Purim is actually of Persian origination, but Purim or Pur means lot or piece, same as Goral.
It means something like some stone, small rock, wood, or whatnot. And Purim, obviously, is also the name of the feast of Purim. Alright. So here is your Brown Driver Briggs entry for both Goral and Purim. And, by the way, Porin, the Strong’s number is 86332.
And here is your Justinius’ Hebrew lexicon entry for Porin and Goral. Then we read in the Holman illustrated bible dictionary, quote, we do not or I’m sorry. We do know that people of the Old Testament and New Testament believed God or gods in the case of non Israelites or non Christians influenced the fall or outcome of the lots. Thus, casting lots was a way of determining God’s will. And another entry from the Holman illustrated bible dictionary quote, God commanded that the promised land be divided by lots end quote.
And that’s so true. You see this use of lots throughout scripture. They used it when they went into the promised land. Now we read in Numbers chapter 26 verses 52 through 56, quote, and Yahweh spoke to Moshe saying, the land is to be divided to these as an inheritance according to the number of names. To the large one, you give a larger inheritance, and to the small one, you give a smaller inheritance.
Each shall be given in its inheritance according to their registered ones, but the land is divided by lot. They inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. According to the lot, their inheritance is divided between the larger and the smaller. When they go on and get into the promised land and we read in Joshua chapter 14 verse two, their inheritance was by lot as Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moshe for the nine tribes and the half tribe. So lots was actually a very common thing and had a very early appearance even back in scriptural times.
We go on and we look in Leviticus chapter 16 verses seven through 10. This is something that you may be familiar with already, but this bears repeating that this was something that lots were used to decide on. Anyways, lots chapter 16 verses seven I’m sorry. Leviticus chapter 16 verses seven through 10. And he shall take the two goats and let them stand before Yahweh at the door of the tent of appointment.
And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for Yahweh and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the lot for Yahweh fell and shall prepare it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for Azazel fell is caused to stand alive before Yahweh to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness to Azazel. So the scapegoat and the sacrificial goat on Yom Kippurim was chosen by casting lots, and the people even believed that it was Yahweh who was deciding and guiding the casting of the lots. We read in Proverbs chapter 16 verse 33, but the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision by it is from Yahweh.
So you go all the way throughout the Tanakh, and you see the use of the casting of lots, and it’s not just with the righteous, with the followers of Yahweh. We see it also with the unrighteous, the pagans and the nations that surround the righteous. But this doesn’t just happen in the Tanakh. It goes on into the Brit Chadashah or the Messianic scriptures or the AKA New Testament, whatever you wanna put it. And people, the righteous even, are still using lots and the unrighteous as well.
But we see examples here in Matthew chapter 27 verse 35. And having impaled him, they divided his garments, casting lots that it might be filled. What was spoken by the prophet, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. So when Yeshua was crucified upon the stake, they cast lots to see which of his garments or which of his pieces of clothing they would be able to take for themselves. But it wasn’t just the Roman soldiers who cast lots to determine something.
After Yeshua was crucified and buried and resurrected and ascended, the 11 remaining disciples because at this point, Judas had already killed himself, but the 11 remaining disciples decided they needed someone to fill in the spot that Judas had occupied. So, in order to decide who it was that was going to be that 12 apostle, they cast lots. Acts chapter one verse 26. And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matayahu, and he was numbered with the 11 emissaries. So the 11 that were remaining cast lots to determine who the twelfth would be, and it turned out to be Matthew.
And so, by the casting of lots, they had their number 12 or 12 apostles back once again. So that gets us on into the story of Purim. We’ve learned about Mordechai, Esther. We’ve learned about Ahasueros, Haman. We’ve learned about the casting of lots.
And we’ve learned about the timeline leading up to the story of Purim. We have a great and a solid foundation for understanding what happens now when we get into the story of Purim. But starting off, if you read the book of Eschar, very short book, only 10 chapters. It doesn’t take long to get through, but there’s so much in it, and it’s such a captivating story or at least it is for me every single time I read it. So sure, you’ll read it for yourself, but we’ll go over the story here in summary for you.
But like I said, I highly advise you and I recommend you go read it for yourself, but starting out in Esther and the story of Purim because the entire book of Esther is about the story of Purim. So starting out, we have King Ahasueros, who is throwing a six month party for just about all the mucky mucks in Persia, all the to dos, the well-to-do’s, and the anybody who’s anybody would be at this festival, but went on for six months. That’s a party now. And you think that was good? Once the six month party was done, he went ahead and he threw another party that lasted for seven days on top of that.
So these guys really knew how to do a party. But, anyways, they’re having a good time. They’re living it up. He’s wining and dining all the nobles and the princes and the governors and all the officials of Persia, the various provinces, whatnot. They’re having a good time.
They’re living it up. And at some point during this party, he actually sends and he tells his queen, whose name is Vashti, he tells her to come and present herself for all the guests. Well, queen does not do that. Queen is Vashti is a feminist. She is gonna do her own thing, and she’s not gonna be told by any man what she has to do.
And she refuses the king’s orders. She says she will not come and present herself before the guest. Now when you read a story and you try to do some research into it, some people will say that the order was actually for Vashti to come and appear naked in front of all the people, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense because you read later on the story when Hashirosh is taking all these young maidens, he puts them in what’s called a harem. And a harem is not just some sex buffet that rich people had back in the day. No.
The harem was for a man to put away or put out of sight his women and young children so that they would not be exposed to the world and the world cannot see them or get to them, almost like a protection thing. So he didn’t want their culture back in time didn’t want their family, especially their women to be exposed. So that makes no sense why the king would want Vashti to come naked. Highly unlikely. As we continue on with the story and take it into context, more than likely, Vashti was just being one of these hard headed opposing feminists like you see today.
She’s just saying, no, she’s gonna do her own thing and she doesn’t care what the king says. She is going to run her own life, not take orders from anybody. So she sends back and says she’s not doing it. This enrages the king. In fact, it makes him so mad that he deposes her.
So she is no longer queen. She is kicked out. She is done. She is gone because of her feminism. Story for people nowadays.
But, anyways, so he does not have a queen anymore. So what he does is he actually sends out and does a search for a new queen. So they go out into all the land. They bring in all the young maidens, and they prepare themselves before they present themselves to the king, which is not a very good process. I mean, as far as they get all the perfumes and the baths and stuff like that, so the world is taken care of.
But going into the king, this is pretty much the opportunity for the king to test drive these various maidens that were brought into his harem. But, anyways, once he had this test drive with each of these ladies, he would determine who it was that was going to be his next queen. And the lady who found the most favored was the young maiden, Esther. So she found favor in the eyes of the King. She became Queen.
She was very well liked by the King. So rather quickly, Esther becomes queen of all Persia. So then a little bit of time passes and Mordechai is still out there in the city. He’s worried about Esther, but she’s doing okay. But during his time out there in the city, Mordechai overhears a plot by two conspirators to kill the king.
So once Mordechai overhears this, he contacts Esther, and Esther brings this information to the king. The conspirators are found out. The conspiracy is proven, and these guys are hanged. And what does Mordechai get for it? Not a thing.
He just saved the king’s life, and only thing he got was his name written down in the annals or the chronicles of what’s going on in Persia. And that’s it. He wasn’t given a reward, a new house, new clothing, nothing. His name was just written down. But, hey, at least he’s still alive and, you know, his cousin, his adopted daughter is queen of all Persia, so not too too bad.
After Mordechai saves the king’s life through a stair, his name is written down, and then we get into the antagonist of our story, Haman. Don’t really have too much about his backstory, but Haman, we’re told, rises to prominence rather quickly. He is promoted to the prime minister or grand vizier, second in command, anyways, of all Persia. As a result, when he’s put into this position, he’s telling everybody when he comes on the scene, when he walks to the streets, everyone is supposed to bow down and show him honor and respect. But not everyone does that.
In fact, the man Mordechai refuses to bow down and show honor to Haman. He just doesn’t do it, and this infuriates Haman. And he’s a very powerful person. This point is second most powerful in all of Persia. And he doesn’t just get mad at Mordecai.
He gets mad at all the Judeans that are still within the borders of Persia. So he comes up with this plan to kill all of the Judeans on a particular date. And in order to determine the date for which he is going to kill all the Judeans, he cast lots, and the lots came up for about a year from the time he was doing this. And this casting of lots to determine the destruction of the Judeans is where the name Hurim actually comes from. That’s where the beast egg gets his namesake.
So Haman comes up with his plan. He sets a date to kill all the Judeans. He goes and he doesn’t tell the king that is the Judeans that are bad, need to be wiped out. No. He just says a certain people are against you and he tricks the king into making this order.
And once the king makes the order, he not even the king can rescind it or go back on it. So Haman gets his plot into place, kill all the Judeans, and about a year from that point, even gets it signed into law by the king. Now Mordechai learns about this. He learns about the plot. He contacts Esterholm, and they come up with a plan.
They go back and forth a couple of times, but they come up with a plan to try and save the Judeans. They Mordechai tells Queen Esther to go in front of the king and plead for them, try to get some kind of resolution to all this. But Aster is initially afraid because even the queen, if she goes in front of the king unannounced or uncalled for, she could be killed even though she’s the queen. But eventually, she decides that she’s going to fast and pray. All her maid servants are gonna do the same, and she advises Mordechai and the people outside the castle or the palace to fast and pray as well.
And then she will go in front of the king regardless of what happens to her life. That’s a show of bravery. So she does that. She goes in front of the king, and the king extends his golden scepter and spares her life. So she then invites or the king ask her what she wants, what she’s requesting.
And Esther, she’s smart. So she she hasn’t revealed who she is, that she’s a Judean yet. So the king doesn’t know that she’s a Judean or part of this people that Haman wants to kill off. I don’t think Haman actually knows that she’s Judean either at this point, but that’s neither here nor there. So the king asked her what she wants, what’s her request, and she says, will you and Haman come to a feast that I’m going to make for you tonight?
So the king and Haman go to Esther’s feast. They have a good time, and the king ask her, okay. What is it that you want? And Esther, once again, says, okay. Please come back tomorrow, and I will make my request known then.
I’ll make you guys another feast. And so they left. Haman goes home thinking everything is good and great. He’s second in all the land. He was just a a feast in his honor for him and the king put on by the queen.
But he goes home to his family, and the king goes back to his royal bed chambers, and he has some trouble sleeping. Sleep has left him. He can’t get sleep. So he asked someone to come in and have the royal records be read to him. A bedtime story for a king, I guess.
I don’t know. But, anyways, the Chronicles just so happened to come upon the story of Mordecai and how he saved the king’s life. The king is impressed, and he says, okay. Well, what was done for Mordechai to reward him? And the person reading the chronicle said, well, nothing was done.
He was never rewarded. The king says, okay. Well, this is not gonna stand. We’ve got to reward him. What are we gonna do?
And then he says to pull in the first person that’s outside the bedchamber and ask them to come in. Well, it just so happens that the first person that they run into is Haman. So they bring Haman in and the king asked Haman, what is it that should be done for the person that the king wishes to honor? Haman thinks that the king is referring to him. Little does he know though.
So Hamann’s got his big head. He’s got his big ego. He thinks the king is talking about him. The king wants to honor Hamann. So Hamann tells him all this wonderful and glorious stuff that they should honor the guy with the royal robe, something that the king has worn before and that the gotta be honored should be paraded around on one of the royal horses and all this.
So the king says, great. Let’s do that. In fact, you, Aman, you do that to Mordechai. And I could just imagine the look on Aman’s face when he was told that. Oh, it’s just juicy.
It’s good. Love it. This evil guy getting his just desserts, but that’s not his just desserts. He’ll get that later on. So the next day, Haman has to go and dress up Mordechai, his nemesis, and Haman has to parade Mordechai around through town, giving him all these honors and respect, which Mordechai rightly deserves.
But you can guarantee it was probably just one of the most embarrassing things for Haman to do. But that’s what happened. So that’s what happened during the day. Then at night, the feast the second feast of Esther came up. So Haman and Ahasueros go to Esther’s feast, and they have a good time.
They eat. They drink. They’re merry. And once again, King Ahasueros asked Esther, what is your request? I’ll give you anything you want up into half my kingdom.
What is it that you would like? So Ester then reveals the plot about how Haman has set out to destroy all the Judeans and that she is a Judean and that Haman is even trying to kill her along with the rest of her people. So this doesn’t sit well with the king. The king really likes Esther, and he doesn’t want anyone harming her much less killing her. So he gets really, really upset, and he does something good.
He actually steps out instead of doing something he regret. But after he steps out, Haman then falls on Ester pleading for his life because he knows what’s going to come up or what most likely is gonna come up. Now the king has found out he’s trying to kill all the Judeans including Esther. But he trips and he falls and he falls on Esther and at that exact moment, the king comes back into the scene. And what he sees is Haman on top of Esther and he is even more enraged now because he’s thinking Haman is trying to take advantage of his queen right there in the palace.
So it’s really not going good for Haman right now. King of Hashuaros has Haman taken out, has him jailed, whatever it is, and then they ask, what is it that should be done to him? Well, they actually inform the king that Haman was building gallows for Mordechai and the other Judaeans outside. So the king says, great. Take him on to those galleys he built and hang him there.
And that’s exactly what they did. They went out and they hung Haman, killed him because of what he was trying to do to all the Judeans, including Esther. Now at that point, Haman is dead. A little bit later, they kill all his 10 sons as well. But the decree, if you remember, has already went out for all the Judeans to be killed.
Even the king can’t rescind an order. Once it’s made into law, that’s it. So what they do is they actually issue a counter order, a counter law telling or commanding all the Jew the Judeans to rise up on that day and fight back. And that’s exactly what they did. They rose up.
They fought back against their oppressors, those who were trying to kill them, and they were victorious. And because of this, because of all the events that happened and especially because of how they rose up and save their own lives, This is why we have Purim. This is the story of Purim, where it came from, why it’s celebrated. But that is the story of Purim, what it’s all about, where it came from, the words, the essential elements, all of that good stuff. Now we’ve learned about Purim, where it came from, and why it’s celebrated, Let’s go on and look at Messiah and Purim.
You know, there’s a connection between Yeshua and the story of Purim. We see here in John chapter five verse one. After this, there was a festival of the Yehudim, and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. Now, what is this festival? We don’t know.
It’s not specifically stated in the scriptures here, and some people actually allude to it being Passover. And the reason they allude to this is because in John chapter six verse four, it actually mentions Passover. And I think because it’s so close in scripture that it’s got to be the same thing. But I would disagree there because if you read from John five one through John six four, you’ll see that there’s a significant amount of time that’s passed and or at least enough time for a month to go by where it cannot be the same festival that it’s talking about. So I think this festival is different than Pesach.
So, again, what is this festival? Well, it’s not specifically named, but one of the themes of the story of Purim is secrecy. Esther, she hid who she actually was or who her people were until the right time. The plot or the reward for Mordechai was kept back, and he was not rewarded until the right appropriate time. The plot against the Judeans was not revealed.
It was kept secret until the right time by Esther. And also, if you look throughout the Hebrew text of the book of Esther, you do not find the Tetragrammaton or the name of Yahweh anywhere in the book of Esther. So this whole theme of secrecy really plays into the story of Purim, and that’s what leads me to think that here in John chapter five verse one, that the festival of the Yehudim that’s being spoken of is the festival or feast of Horim. Feel free to discreet. That’s fine.
It’s not a salvation issue, and the world will keep turning. Let’s just break bread, and we’ll move on. Plus, some more connections between Purim and Yeshua. We see in the story of Purim that Haman cast laws to determine the date to annihilate the Jews. We also see in scripture that these soldiers at Yeshua’s crucifixion, they cast lots to see which parts of his clothing they were going to get.
Esther, she spent three days and three nights fasting before she went before the king. Yeshua was three days and three nights in the tomb before he was resurrected. The Judeans during the story of Purim were on the verge of annihilation. Yeshua was a Judean from the line of Judah and if the Judeans in the story of Purim had been annihilated, that would have wiped out the lineage of Yeshua and Yeshua would not have been born. So that is a massive connection right there.
Another connection is that even though things got bad during the story of Purim, it eventually worked out to good, and this is something that we’re told in the Brit Chadashah as well. We look in Romans chapter eight verse 28, and we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to his purpose. And then second Timothy chapter three verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by Elohim and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for setting straight, for instruction in righteousness. Now here it says all scripture. And what’s something that is a part of scripture?
The book of Esther and the story of Horim. So just keep that in mind. So in celebrating Purim, one thing I’d like for everyone to understand is that Purim is not one of the Moedim that is outlined within the Torah. It’s not Passover or Pesach. It’s not Shavuot.
It’s not Yom Kippurim, Yom Teruah. None of that. Not Sukkot. It’s not outlined, ordained, and commanded in the Torah by Yahweh. So it’s not one of the Moedim.
As such, it’s not a required feast day. So if you don’t wanna keep it, that’s fine. If you do keep it, that’s great as well. But just understand that you’re not required like the feast days I’m sorry, the moadim within the Torah that are commanded by Yahweh. But if you do celebrate it, you choose to, it’s a lot of fun, especially during the story when it’s being read out in a group and the kids are involved and there’s dressing up and all that good stuff.
It can be a lot of fun. But how do you celebrate Purim? What are some things you can do to celebrate it? Well, number one, one thing you can do on this feast day is to not feast. You can fast, but that usually comes before Purim, the days leading up to Purim.
You refrain from fasting and this is in honor and in celebration of what Esther and Mordechai did before Esther went to the king. So she fasted and prayed, and in honor of that and in celebration of Purim, we can also fast and pray as well before we celebrate Purim on the day of Purim. Another thing you could do and is commonly done is to read the book of Esther. Like I said, it’s only 10 chapters. It’s not gonna take you long.
Go through it and read it. And it’s a lot of fun when you understand what some of the traditions that go on. Like, when you read the story of Esther in a group and there’s kids involved and you hand out this thing called groggers. We’ll look at those in just a moment. But every time the name of Mordechai comes up, everyone claps and cheers and goes, yay, Mordechai.
But when the name of Haman comes up, they go, boo, no, not Haman, no boo, and they take the Groggers and they make a lot of noise in order to blot out or drown out the name of Aman. Kids have a lot of fun with it during this reading of Esther, and the adults do too, to be honest. But, yeah, give it a try. Read the book of Astaire. Read it out loud.
Read it with your family and your congregation. Again, it’s only 10 chapters. Just do it. So it’s a feast day. One of the things that they commonly feast on is these little treats called hamantaschen.
What is hamantaschen? Hamantaschen, it means something like Haman’s hats. Why we wanna eat a Haman’s hat? I don’t know, but that’s what it is. Anyways, it’s a little pastry filled with things on the inside like a jelly or a cream or whatever you have.
So they’re actually pretty good, all depending on how you make them. But that is hamantash and something commonly eaten on Purim. Another thing that’s commonly eaten on Purim is seeds, nuts, green vegetables, and beans. This is traditional Purim food. And, of course, when you’re having a feast like Purim or any other feast, you can’t do it.
Most people don’t do it without challah. Yeah. Challah is awesome. If I was restricted to only one type of bread for the rest of my life, it would be challah. Love challah.
But, yeah, challah for Purim. Make it ever how you want to. There’s not really one traditional way of doing it like you would with Yom Teruah, where it’s made in, like, a round shape and then sometimes with apples or raisins or honey. No. Nothing special for the challah on Purim.
Just good old fashioned tasty challah. And like I said before, when you’re reading the book of Esther in a group, you can hand out these things called groggers. And here on your screen, this is called a grogger or one of the older versions. You can get more modern ones that are made of plastic, but this grogger is made or is used to create noise every single time the name Haman comes up in the story as it’s read through the book of Esther. And like I said, the purpose of this is to drown out or blot out the name of Amman.
Another fun aspect to Purim is dressing up. A lot of people, when they celebrate Purim, they go over the story, stuff like that. They will dress up as these scriptural characters from the story of Purim. They’ll dress up as Esther, as Mordechai, as the king Ashurosh, or what have you. So it’s a lot of fun there.
So you’ve got the food, you’ve got the noise makers, the reading, the dressing up. It’s a good time. But don’t forget, one of the things that’s actually stated in Esther for the establishment of Purim and continues on down through this day is the giving of gifts to the poor, whether it be food or clothing or whatever else that you might give. Gives to the poor and charity is a major part of Purim. So if you’re celebrating and you do nothing else, this could be the number one thing that you do.
Make sure do not forget when celebrating Purim to give to the poor and the needy, not the lazy, but the needy. Keep that in mind too. And if you’re celebrating and you’re around other people, one of the greetings that you could use for the season, Mishka could call it, Av Purim is Hag Purim Sameach, and this means happy Purim holiday. So that’s hug Purim Sameach. But with all the celebration, you got all this food, you got all these things to do, give them to the poor.
There’s something that you really need to be cautious about. Actually, two things I’ll bring up real quick. Number one, there are some sects or groups within Judaism who state that one of the things you do on Purim is to get wasted on alcohol, to get absolutely plastered. So intoxicated, in fact, that you cannot tell the difference between blessed be Mordechai and cursed be Haman. That’s how drunk they tell you that you should get.
And all throughout scripture, it tells us to not partake in drunkenness. Do not be a drunkard. Now, if you heard our teaching on alcohol before, you know that scripture does not forbid the drinking of alcohol. That’s no problem. Go out, have your alcohol.
That’s fine. But the drunkenness, especially to this degree that these rabbis are talking about, that is contradicting scripture. So don’t do that. Don’t go to that point in your drinking. And if you would like to look at the reference for that, it’s in our notes that we took that you can find on the article post on godhonesttruth.com that it comes directly from the Talmud.
So go look that up in the notes. Another thing that you should be very leery about, be very wary about, especially in the area of the dressing up part, is the cross dressing aspect. There’s like I said, there are some groups out there when they celebrate Purim, they actually go so far as to dress and drag or cross dress. And this is not something we should do. This is, again, contradicting scripture, and I don’t care who you are.
There’s not a single rabbi out there that’s ever existed that has the power and authority to contradict the Torah, to contradict the commands, to contradict Yahweh himself. No one like that has ever existed. No rabbi, no priest, no pope, nobody. So don’t be cross dressing. And for your reference, here is that command from Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse five.
A woman does not wear that which pertains to a man, nor does a man put on a woman’s garment. For whoever does this is an abomination to Yahweh your Elohim. So please, please don’t become an abomination to Yahweh. Do not contradict scriptures. As we’re told, do not put on the dress or the clothing rather of the opposite gender.
So going on, looking at some interesting insights about Purim. Number one. The name of Yahweh, like we said before, is never mentioned in the book of Esther. You can look for it in the Hebrew manuscripts, and you will never find it. It’s that theme of secrecy.
Ester was actually the last book to be canonized back when the Tanakh was being canonized by whatever committee it was canonizing it. I’ll have to get more information on that. I’m sorry. But anyways, Esther or the book of Esther is actually only book of the Tanakh not found in the library at Qumran. Another interesting insight.
Purim is a feast day, but not one of the Moedim. Like we said before, it is a feast day to celebrate a great victory that happened that saved the Judeans and the awesome power of Yahweh, but it’s not one of the Moedim that is ordered and commanded by Yahweh as we see in the Torah. Purim is a Hebrew word that is derived or originally came from a Persian word, which is the word Pur. And the account of the Purim story is contained in one of only two books of the bible to be named after a woman. Those two books are Esther and Ruth, and Purim story happens in the book of Esther, obviously.
So in summary, the story of Purim takes place after the nation of Israel is split in two. The Northern Kingdom is dispersed among the nations. The Southern Kingdom is taken captive by Persia. Some of the Southern Kingdom returns to Judea. So that is the timeline, the place in history where the story of Purim takes place.
The main characters of the Purim story that we went over are Mardai, Esther, Ahasueros, and Hamad. The casting of Lot has been a well established method that has been used amongst both the righteous and the unrighteous. I misspelled that. I’m sorry. But it’s been used amongst both the righteous and the unrighteous in both the Tanakh and the Brit Hadas Shah.
We see that Esther was taken against her choice, but she quickly became queen of Persia. Mordechai, through Esther, saves the king’s life, and his name was written down, not initially rewarded, but eventually. Amon’s ego is bruised by Mordechai not bowing and showing respect. Amon then plans to execute all the Judeans. Amon is ordered by the king to honor Mordechai, thoroughly embarrassing Amon.
Haman’s plan is revealed, and he is executed along with his family, especially his 10 sons. Then the Judeans fight back, thanks to Mordechai and Esther, and they are saved. And because of all this, the feast day of Purim is instituted to remember this event, and it’s set to go and be celebrated every single year. And that’s just the God honest truth.
