THE JEWISH FEAST OF PURIM AND HOW IT
RELATES TO THE PROPHETIC TIMES IN WHICH WE LIVE
Today we’ll examine the Feast of Purim and some interesting recent
events relating to the Feast. We’ll also examine some Jewish beliefs about the
second coming of Messiah that point to Yeshua.
While researching the Feast of Purim I discovered some
interesting facts that relate Purim to the times in which we live and the
second coming of Yeshua. First, let’s review the Feast of Purim.
Purim is one of the
most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time
when the Jewish people living in Persia were
saved from extermination. Purim
is celebrated on the 14th day of Adar, which is usually in March on the Roman
calendar. On the Jewish and Biblical calendar Adar is the last month of the
year.
According to Jewish
tradition the 13th of Adar is the day that Haman
chose for the extermination of the Jews, and the day that the Jews
battled their enemies for their lives. Interestingly the number 13 is the
number of rebellion in the Bible (Genesis 14.4). Haman was rebelling against
the Jewish community.
On the day
afterwards, the 14th, the Jews celebrated their survival from this ordeal.
The word
"Purim" means "lots" and refers to the lottery that Haman
used to choose the date for the massacre to “blot out the Jews.”
The Purim holiday is
preceded by a minor fast, the Fast of Esther,
which commemorates Esther's three days of fasting in preparation for her
important meeting with the king. Fasting is an important spiritual weapon.
The book of Esther
is commonly known as the Megillah, which means scroll. Although there are five
books of Jewish scripture
that are properly referred to as megillahs (Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of
Songs, and Lamentations), this is the one people usually mean when they speak
of The Megillah. It is customary to boo, hiss, stamp feet and rattle gragers
(noisemakers) whenever the name of Haman is mentioned in the service. The
purpose of this custom is to "blot out the name of Haman."
The story of Purim
is told in the Book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful
young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as
if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of
Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his
other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a
Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.
The villain of the
story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated
Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to
destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman
told the king, "There is a certain people
scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your
realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people's, and they do
not observe the king's laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate
them." Esther 3:8. The king
gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman
planned to exterminate all of the Jews.
Mordecai persuaded
Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a
dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king's
presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been
summoned. Esther fasted for three days to
prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later,
she told him of Haman's plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved,
and Haman and his ten sons were hanged on the
gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
The book of Esther
is unusual in that it is the only book of the Bible that does not contain the
name of God.
In fact, it includes virtually no reference to God. Mordecai makes a vague
reference to the fact that the Jews will be saved by someone else, if not by
Esther, but that is the closest the book comes to mentioning God. Thus, one
important message that can be gained from the story is that God often works in
ways that are not apparent, in ways that appear to be chance, coincidence or
ordinary good luck.
Purim Parallels in Modern
Times - Purim Fest 1946: The tale of Julius Streicher
During
the Holocaust years, Purim celebrations were forbidden to the Jews. Christians
and Jews could not even own the book of Esther. Such decrees did not stop the
Nazis from poking fun at the Jews on this Jewish holiday. With diabolical glee,
the Nazis frequently orchestrated special killings to coincide with the Jewish
festivals. On Purim in 1942, the
Nazis hanged ten Jews in Zdunka Wola to avenge the hanging of Haman’s sons. Similar
incidents occurred in the Piotrkow ghetto and in Czestochowa and Radom all in
Poland.
One of Hitler’s
leading Nazis was a man named Julius Streicher. The day following the
Kristallnacht attack on November 10th, 1938, Streicher gave a speech and proclaimed,
“Just as the Jews butchered 75,000 Persians in one night, the same fate would
have befallen the German people had the Jews succeeded in inciting a war
against Germany--the Jews would have instituted a new Purim festival in
Germany.”
Nearly eight years
later, at the Nuremberg Trials, Streicher never forgot the words he uttered
about Purim. For him and his associates, Purim came early that
year. Although Streicher’s execution did not occur on the Purim holiday
itself, he perceived an irony here that nobody else noticed at the time. Ten Nazi leaders had been condemned and executed for
their crimes against the Jewish people and humanity; their mode of execution
was hanging, much like the ten sons of Haman were executed by hanging in the
Purim story.
Streicher and his
fellow Nazis’ hangings took place on October 16, 1946. On the Jewish calendar,
October 16, 1946, corresponded to 21 Tishri, 5707. This date was the seventh
day of the Jewish feast of Sukkot, the day called Hoshana Rabba. The Jews believe that this day represents the coming time
when God’s verdicts of judgment upon mortals is sealed. This is a type of
Yeshua the Messiah ruling in the MK (Millennial Kingdom) after His second
coming.
Streicher’s last
dying words were, ‘Purim Fest 1946.” The words seemed like the mad ranting of a
condemned man, but Streicher could not deny the poetic justice he was
witnessing. The book of Esther recorded that the ten had been hanged on a tree
(Esther 9:14).
The Hebrew word for a tree
is eitz, which is also “wood” in English. The hangman at the Nuremberg
wooden gallows was named John C. Woods, an American army officer.
The Death of Joseph Stalin
Another echo of
Purim is found in the Soviet Union a few years later. In early 1953, Stalin was planning to deport most of the
Jews in the Soviet Union to Siberia, but just before his plans came
to fruition, he suffered a stroke and died a few days later. He suffered that
stroke on the night of March 1, 1953: the night after Purim (note: Jewish days
end at sunset; you will see March 1 on the calendar as Purim). The plan to
deport Jews was not carried out.
The Islamic Resistance Movement
Hamas is an acronym for “Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya,” which is Arabic
for “The Islamic Resistance Movement.” It also has the literal meaning in
Arabic of “zeal.”
Strangely, and appropriately, "hamas" also has a literal meaning
in Hebrew – “violence.”
The word "hamas" goes
back to the Old Testament. For instance, at the time of Noah "The earth
also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence
(hamas)".
Isn’t it interesting how closely the name Haman and Hamas are related?
In our time Hamas, The Islamic Resistance Movement’s main goal is to
completely blot out the Jewish people from the face of the earth. Their map of
the Holy Land and modern day Israel is only named Palestine and has no room for
any Jewish people. This is not a coincidence. They, like Haman, desire to
destroy or “blot out” the Jewish people.
The Number Ten
In Judaism the number ten has many interesting meanings. The
number
ten is represented by the Hebrew letter
yud - י, the smallest Hebrew letter
of all. The yud is the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet and is
used to spell the name Yod He Vav He the Hebrew
name for Jehovah!
The Talmud
says that ten symbolizes perfection and completeness. Every number until ten is
viewed as incomplete. God’s presence resides among ten, and no activity of
sanctification can take place with less than ten. The
number ten symbolizes a community. The Jewish people are a
community. The number ten is used to represent a spiritual full set.
In the Synagogue a minyan of ten men is required before
prayers can be said. We learned in the Bible the body
of Mashiach/Messiah
is a body
composed of the righteous of Israel. This body is a unity
composed of parts. The body is composed of
Israel and the
head is Messiah/Yeshua. This is the ultimate expression of ten: A unity made of parts. As we explore various aspects of the number ten, notice
this constant refrain that illustrates a unity made of parts.
God the
Father gave us Ten Commandments. These were given on two stone tablets
containing five commands each. The first five relate to our relationship with
the Father and the second five our relationship with humanity.
A person has
two hands with five fingers each—a total of ten—a unity made of parts. We
cannot function properly without our two hands and ten fingers.
There are
many more interesting sets of ten in the Bible. Ten spies came back with a bad
report. Ten brothers of Joseph sold him into slavery. Ten tribes scattered and
are still missing!
Judah and
the ten tribes will be reunited in the MK (Millennial Kingdom) Ezekiel
37.15-28). We are grafted into the community of Israel (Romans 11).
Finally ten,
to Jewish people, relates to the Messiah. From the time when the Red Heifer mitzva was first given to the Jewish people until the
destruction of the Second Temple,
there were nine Red Heifers burned
altogether.
Thus the red
heifer relates to Messiah in the Temple sacrifices. The
ashes of the red heifer, offering
purification from the defilement of death, allude to the time of Messiah’s coming, the time of redemption from exile, when Jews sunder their bonds
with spiritual death, for they
then all cleave to God and are thus vitally alive—resurrection from the dead!
Yeshua is a type of the red heifer sacrificed for our sins.
The Second Coming
of Yeshua
We can plainly see the events of Purim
as types of the second coming throughout the Old Testament and the Book of
Revelation. The world wants to blot out the Jewish people and the modern state
of Israel from the face of the earth. Hamas leads the way.
Christians in many parts of the world
are also currently experiencing great tribulations and persecution. Our news
organizations never publicize these events. Many governments in this world
would like to blot out Christianity.
As the great apostasy increases, the
Jewish people, the modern state of Israel, and those grafted into Israel will
be severely persecuted. Yeshua will return to save us and establish His Kingdom
forever! He will save our community from His and our enemies.
He will establish His Royal Government
and Royal Law throughout the earth. He will rule and reign with His saints. It
will be a great and happy ending—Very Good News!
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