The festival of Purim gets its origin from Esther. Pur means the "casting of the lots." They were casting the lots to determine the day that the enemy would jump on the Jews and kill them in Persia. Many of the Persian people, under the leadership of Haman, wanted to kill all the Jews in the land. But Esther and her cousin Mordecai were used of the Lord to save the Jewish people.
In the study I marked all the passages that would sound familiar to us as to what is happening with the Jews now in the Middle East. Here are some of the most important verses:
"The Jews were to be destroyed, killed, annihilated, both young and old, women and children, in one day, and their possessions were to be plundered" (3:13).
When Mordecai heard that the Persians under the influence of Haman were to kill all the Jews, he "went into the city and wailed loudly and bitterly" (4:1). "There was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; ..." (v. 3). Had not Esther obtained "royalty for such a time as this?" (v. 14). "If I perish, I perish" she said (v. 16b).
Esther said, "we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed and to be annihilated" (7:4).
Haman wrote "to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces" (8:5b).
Haman was hanged "on the gallows because he had stretched out his hands against the Jews" (v. 7).
"The king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil" (v. 11).
"Many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them" (v. 17).
"The enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over [the enemies], it was turned to the contrary so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them" (9:1).
"Many of the princes of the provinces … assisted the Jews, because the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them" (v. 3).
"The Jews had killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in Susa the capital" (v. 12).
"Haman had schemed against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (the lot), that is the lot to disturb them and destroyed them" (v. 24b).
"These days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, and these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews or their memory fade from their descendants" (v. 28).
"So the Jews established themselves and for their descendants with instructions for their times of fasting and their lamentations" (v. 31).
Finally, "Mordecai the Jew was second only to king Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and in favor with the multitude of his kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation" (10:3).
—Dr. Mal Couch
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