The Story of Purim is a Story of Redemption

The Jewish people’s deliverance from certain death in Persia mirrors our own story of redemption and
deliverance and points us to Jesus. Paul said:
For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of
His dear Son in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. (Col 1:13-14) 

THE FESTIVAL

Purim is a Jewish festival that celebrates the power of God to redeem and deliver His people from
certain death when Haman, the Agagite, determines to annihilate the Jewish people. God puts a plan in
motion which will deliver them from death. It’s a story that reminds us to rejoice in the deliverance that
God has made available to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

According to the Jewish calendar, the life and story of Esther are celebrated by Jewish people every year
on the 14th of Adar. The Megillah (scroll) of Esther is read every year on this festival, and a humorous
play is performed with people in fancy dress. There is much booing, hissing, and shaking of rattles called
groggers at the mention of Haman, the villain, and cheering every time Mordecai’s name is mentioned.

THE HEROINE

The heroine of this biblical account is Esther. Her real name is Hadassah, meaning ‘myrtle’. While she
was in the royal harem, her name was changed to Esther, which means star. This young Jewish woman
will become Queen of Persia. Hers is an unusual and remarkable story. She has had a sheltered life, and
as the story shows, Mordecai has taught her to know and love the God of Israel. She must, as we all do,
learn to serve Him. Mordecai raised her as his daughter when her parents died.

When Vashti, the Queen, refuses to come at the King’s bidding, he is afraid that she will create a
precedent that could lead to wives across the nation refusing to obey their husbands. As a result, she is
cast aside, and King Ahasuerus demands that all the young women be paraded in front of him so that he
can choose a new Queen. Esther is among them and is chosen to become his Queen, and she will
become a favourite of the King.

When Mordecai informs her of the genocidal plan he has heard of for the Jewish people, he warns
Esther. He tells her she must intervene or Haman, the King’s evil vizier, will succeed. However, Esther
knows she cannot approach the King without being invited, even though she is a queen. So, at first, she
refused to follow Mordecai’s instructions. She had also hidden her Jewish identity, and this would have
required that she reveal it.

Esther and Mordecai are still in Persia despite the 70 years of captivity being over. Many Jewish families
chose to remain in Persia despite being free. King Cyrus freed them, and the majority returned to Israel
to rebuild the Temple, but many chose to stay. Why? Legally, they were no longer enslaved, but their
minds remained in chains.

Let me ask a question. How often do we talk about freedom in Christ yet behave as though we are still
bound in sin? Jesus said he came to bring us freedom, and Paul teaches in the Book of Romans (6:16-
18) that we are no longer slaves to sin. We all agree and believe it, yet like the Israelites who remained
behind, we too often remain slaves to sin. We do not walk in the freedom that Jesus has won for us on
the Cross – we all have a secret sin that we struggle with that we feel we cannot get the victory in, but
this is a lie. We can have victory!

Ultimately, this is the account of how God saves His people once again from their old enemy, and
amazingly, God is not mentioned even once! The Jewish people call this “Hester panim,” the hidden face
of God. But if we look closer at the story, we find that God was working behind the scenes through
Esther and Mordechai to bring about the deliverance of His people. We can see Mordecai’s and Esther’s
faith and trust in God.

THE VILLAN

The villain is Haman, the King’s advisor, one of the most powerful men in the land. When the King
promotes him, he writes an edict, a decree saying everyone must kneel and bow before Haman. Now,
Haman was a man full of pride, and that meant that he was easily offended; so, when Mordecai did not
bow and show him respect when he passed by, Haman got so angry that Mordecai’s death could not
satisfy him. Haman wanted the Jewish people annihilated. He even paid a vast sum for this to happen.
Unfortunately, the King gave Haman the Agagite, his prime minister, the power and authority to kill all the
Jews throughout the Persian empire.

MORDECAI THE VOICE OF TRUTH

Meanwhile, Mordecai, her wise cousin, sits at the city gate listening to all the news and gossip about
Haman’s plot and asks Esther to intercede before the King. For a moment, Esther is afraid – she knows
that not even the Queen can enter the King’s presence unless invited without risking her life. However,
she is told by Mordecai that she has been placed in a royal position for such a time as this, and if Esther
is silent, she will not escape just because she is in the palace, and more than that, deliverance will arise
from another place. She would miss out on doing the will of God and being used to fulfil His Plan.

Initially, her response is fear. She knows the rules of the King’s court and she hasn’t thought through the
request. But importantly, she hasn’t yet brought God into the situation. We all do this at times when the
reality of a situation dawns on us, and we play out the scenarios in our minds and forget to bring God
into it.

THE CHALLENGE

Mordecai’s challenge. She hasn’t comprehended the enormity of what Haman will do, so Mordecai’s
words to her are both a rebuke and a warning. He tells her what’s what! She will die if Haman succeeds
– her position as Queen will not protect her. Mordecai wants her to act, and he doesn’t take her first
answer but instead gives her the real challenge. God, too, when He asks us to do something, is patient
with us when we are afraid or unsure if we have heard Him, so He asks again or even allows us to ask
for a sign so that we can know it’s God who is speaking. Gideon is a clear example of God’s loving
patience with his fears.

Mordecai believes that Esther has been made Queen not so much by the King’s hand but by the Lord’s.
He also believes in who God is – a God of Redemption. His challenge to Esther is whether she wants to
be part of what God is about to do because He can deliver the people with or without her, but she has
been raised up ‘for such a time as this.’. Esther must choose to step up!
There are many lessons for us in this story.

She knows her people’s history, which is a history of God at work. She must have recalled the Exodus
from slavery in Egypt: how God delivered them from Pharaoh. This isn’t the first time her people have
been in trouble, and she must have remembered how faithful her God is and that He has the power to
deliver them. This is the ground of her hope and faith, God’s activity in her people’s lives.

LESSONS LEARNED

This crisis transforms Esther from a girl lacking both confidence in herself and God into a bold,
courageous leader. She becomes a woman of action. She has a plan, and she uses what she has: her
love for God and it appears in her political acumen and, of course, the fact that the King finds her
beautiful. But now she must reveal who or rather what she is: a Jewish woman from one of the families
who did not return to Israel under the decree of Cyrus that allowed Zerubbabel and most of the Jewish
people to leave and return back home to Israel, releasing them from captivity.

Her story shows us that anyone can use their talent, strength, and wit to change the course of history if
they step forward as Esther did. But maybe, like her, we need a crisis and a Mordechai to challenge us.
But her greatest asset was her faith in God. Our faith, too, must see the potential of God to step into our
situation and bring about His plan for our lives. This is what Esther does, enabling her to put her life and
situation in God’s hands.
1Co 2:5 ..that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

2Co 5:7 …for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Esther is about to discover what she is made of and what faith and dependence on God can achieve.
So, she calls a fast so that whatever step she takes, she will take with God. Esther will put her life and
the lives of her people in His hands, and she will move forward with His strength. All the Jewish people
fasted together, no doubt pleading with God to save them and to empower Esther so that she might go
bravely to the King and ask for mercy on their behalf.

GOD DIRECTING

Meanwhile, God is at work behind the scenes, setting the stage for Esther. The King can’t sleep and
needs a little bedtime reading, so the history books are brought in, and there he reads of the occasion
when Mordecai passes on to the king news of a plot to assassinate him. The following day, Haman gets
a nasty shock when the King asks for advice about honouring someone who has pleased the King. In his
vanity, Haman assumes it’s about him and gives the King his wish list. But to his horror, Haman finds that
it was for Mordechai, not for him, and to add insult to injury, he must personally and publicly honour him.
Haman dresses Mordecai in a royal robe, puts him on a horse, and parades him through the city, saying
that this man is highly honoured. Poor old Haman!

Esther must now act on her faith and put her plan into action. So, she dresses and enters the King’s
court, knowing her fate and her people are in God’s hands, but God goes in with her. The King had not
called for her for over 30 days. She must have feared that his affection had cooled, and more than that,
to enter his court uninvited was to risk death, but prayer had strengthened her and given her a plan. The
prayers of the people moved God to act and caused the King’s heart to warm once again to Esther.
Having won his favour, she is asked what she would like- even as much as half his kingdom, but Esther
asks only that the King and Haman come to a banquet she will organise for them.
 Jas 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

HAMAN’S DOWNFALL

That night at Esther’s banquet, the King asked Esther what favour he might grant. She asked for the
lives of Mordecai and her people to be spared. The King demanded to know who their enemy was.
Esther named Haman, and he was put to death on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai! And
his estate was given to Esther, who put Mordechai in charge.

Haman’s plan for the destruction of the Jewish people ends up being turned on him, and not only does
he die on the gallows that he built for Mordecai, but his ten sons are also killed. The ultimate punishment
in those days was the death of your sons, meaning the end of your family line.

AND ESTHER

Through prayer and leaning on God, Esther found authority and confidence, which comes through
walking in obedience to God. She heard God’s challenge through Mordecai and stepped up. Along the
way, she learned to trust God’s ability to preserve her life, and this has changed her. She is no longer
afraid! She is a woman who has learned to walk by faith and has discovered what God can do when we
say yes to Him.
We, like Esther, need to live out our faith in our sphere of influence. We, too, can affect the lives around
us. By living His word and speaking His truth to those around you, you will have an impact and make a
difference!

A FOOTNOTE – A MORAL FROM HISTORY

Deut 25:17-19 tells us not to forget to blot out the memory of Amalek because he was the King of the
first nation to attack the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. He didn’t fear God, and so is seen as the
root of anti-Semitism. Haman was his descendant; both tried to prove that God had no special
relationship with Israel and that fate doesn’t lie in the Hands of God.

In Ex 17:16, we read that God decided to destroy the Amalekites. King Saul was commanded by God to
do this, but he spared Agag, their King, and took the best of the spoils of war. As a result, God rejected
Saul as King. (1Sam 15) Be warned! There are severe consequences for refusing to obey God.
In 2 Sam 19, we have the strange account of a man named Shimei who curses King David. Shimei is the
son of Gera and a Benjaminite. David’s response to him is that of mercy.
2 Sa 16:12 It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me and that the LORD will repay me
with good for his cursing today.”

Although David will show him mercy for a second time, Shimei is eventually put to death by Solomon.
Interestingly, Saul’s descendant Mordecai set the wheels in motion for Esther to be the means of God’s
deliverance for Israel and judgment on Haman.
Mordecai is a Benjaminite, a descendant of Saul, but even more interesting is that he is the son of Jair,
the son of Shimei, and the son of Kish, a Benjaminite. Haman is the descendant of Agag the King of the
Amalekites.

Saul sinned and did not kill King Agag, and his disobedience eventually allowed Haman to be born. But
David, who acted with mercy towards Shimei and did not put him to death, meant that Shimei’s
descendant, Mordecai, was born.

THE MORAL

And the moral: actions have consequences. When we act with justice and compassion, we choose
God’s path and allow space in our lives for God to work in us and through us; but when we sin, we may
have to live with the consequences of our actions, even though God will forgive us.