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 this Feast. We’ll also examine some Jewish beliefs about the second coming of Messiah that point to the return of 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 Hebrew/Biblical calendar Adar is the last month of the year. This year Purim begins on the evening/sunset of February 26^th to sunset on the 27^th.

According to Jewish tradition the 13th of Adar is the day that Haman chose for the extermination of the Jews. This was also the day the Jews were allowed to fight back against their enemies. Interestingly the number 13 is the number of rebellion in the Bible (Genesis 14.4). Haman was rebelling against the God’s Jewish community.

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 noisemakers whenever the name of Haman is mentioned in the service. The purpose of this custom is to "blot out the name of Haman."

In Strong’s Biblical Concordance the word “haman” is defined as meaning “to rage, be turbulent.” The terrorist group, Hamas, is based on the word “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 wives 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 Mordecai and 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 King then passed a law that the Jewish people could defend themselves. 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). This 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, rage, turbulence.”

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 10^th 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 unfolds, 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, The Millennial Kingdom. He will rule and reign with His saints. It will be a great and happy ending—Very Good News!

Sources for this article:

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm

https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2013/02/22/purim-fest-1946-the-tale-of-julius-streicher/

http://www.betemunah.org/ten.html