Purim is the celebration of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from the Persian anti-Semite Haman. The account Purim celebrates is found in the Book of Esther. A series of providential events leads to the banishment of Persian Queen Vashti, and the exaltation of the young Jewess, Esther, to the throne.
Haman, King Ahasuerus’ right-hand man, became angered at Esther’s uncle Mordecai, who would not pay homage to him. Haman’s cronies told him that the reason Mordecai would not pay homage was that he was Jewish. Haman became enraged, and sought to kill not only Mordecai, but all the Jewish people of Persia.Mordecai tells his niece of the impending holocaust, and urges her to use her position of power to save her people. In one of the most compelling parts of Esther, Mordecai says to Esther, “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:13-14).
Esther gives the command for the Jews of Shushan to fast for her for three days. The brave young queen decides to go before the king without his sending for her, an action that could very well cost her her life, according to Persian law. Despite her fears, she goes to the king saying, “If I perish, I perish!”
In the end, Esther informs King Ahasuerus of Haman’s plan for holocaust, which results in Haman being hanged on the very gallows he constructed to hang Mordecai on. Because Persian law is irrevocable, even by the king, Ahasuerus is unable to take legal action against the planned slaughter of the Jewish people; but he does allow the Jews of Persia “to gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them…”
The book closes with the exaltation of Mordecai to Haman’s former position, and a celebration for the Jews’ victory over their enemies. “…the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants” (Est. 9:27-28).
Although God’s name is not mentioned once in the Book of Esther, the movement of His hand “behind the curtain” is very evident. He raised up a young woman to defend her people against anti-Semites, and proved His faithfulness to His word, that the seed of Abraham would never depart from before Him (Jer. 31).
While we would hope that the world would have learned its lesson about touching the apple of God’s eye, it has been proven that they have not. The Holocaust of the 1930s and ‘40s resulted in the destruction of more than 6 million Jewish lives.The anti-Semitism of Esther’s day and that of 1930s Germany has never fully gone away. It has always lurked just beneath the surface, ready to rear its ugly head whenever a conspiracy or scapegoat is sought out by the world for calamitous events.
Now, the anti-Semitism that has been brewing for over 70 years is coming to a rapid boil. Take France, for example. According to one report, “In 2014, the number of anti-Semitic acts recorded on French territory has doubled. It is 851 against 423 in 2013. This represents an increase of 101%. 51% of racist acts in France in 2014 were directed against the Jews. The Jews are a little less than 1% of the French population. Less than 1% of the citizens of the country is the target of half of racist acts in France.” Jews are fleeing France en masse—about 7,000 in 2014 alone.
What will the Church do about this?
During the Holocaust of the 20th century, the world was silent. As horrible as that is, however, the worst thing is that true Christians, the Church, were largely silent. Sure, there were some, like the Ten Boom family, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, of which I am proud to be associated, who stood up. But there was no unified outcry from the Church.
Today, many of those who claim to be followers of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, are anything but supportive of His Chosen People and their right to the Land God gave them in Genesis 12. In June 2014, for example, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted to divest from three corporations that are reported to do business in Israel. Although PCUSA leadership denies that their actions are anti-Jewish, the Jewish community thinks otherwise.
Renowned pastor and author John Piper, in a message entitled “Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East”, stated, “… the secular state of Israel today may not claim a present divine right to the Land, but they and we should seek a peaceful settlement not based on present divine rights, but on international principles of justice, mercy, and practical feasibility.”
The apostle Paul, a very learned Jewish man, warned against such statements in Romans 11: 18, “…do not boast against the branches [the Jewish people]. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you”.
Today, perhaps more than ever before, believers in Jesus the Messiah of Israel must stand with the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
"But doesn't God love Arab people?" Absolutely, He does. "Is God happy with everything the modern State of Israel has done?" Of course not. But the fact remains the same: God has stated that Israel will never cease from being a nation before Him (Jer. 31:35-36); and that “he who touches [Israel] touches the apple of His eye”.
Christians, as our Jewish friends prepare to celebrate God’s faithfulness to them, and as the age old curse of Jew-hatred marches on, perhaps the Body of Christ as a whole should reconsider how we view and treat them. And may the words of God to Abram, found in Genesis 12:3, be forever etched in our minds, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you…”
" For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place...Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
--Esther 4:14
