Purim to Passover

Last month the Jewish nation celebrated the feast of Purim, a commemoration of a significant time in Jewish history, when an attempt was made to annihilate the Jews in Persia, modern Iran. This month the Passover feast is celebrated, while the Christian celebration is of Easter, when the crucifixion is recognised as the price paid for our redemption.

I’m not sure what sparked my interest, unless it was my previous writing on living under the circumstances, when I continued in my notes about the circumstances under which two women lived: Vashti and Esther.  Here were two women living under heavy circumstances who made choices that not only affected their own lives but those of countless others.  Laws were changed because of their refusal to stay under the circumstances.

Vashti, as the Queen of Persia, wife of Ahasuerus, or Xerxes ,in the Greek chronicles, was summoned by the king to parade her beauty before his drunken guests at an ongoing party. Now here was a king who ruled over 127 provinces, from India to Sudan. Rich, powerful, proud, and to be feared, he had spent 100 days showing his military power, general wealth and the abundance of his kingdom to hundreds of officials and visiting gentry. Now, after 7 days of heavy drinking, when the general rule was to drink as much as you like, when and where you like, the king decided to show off his wife’s beauty.

Imagine being married to the most powerful man in the empire, and feeling secure in such a position of opulence and influence. Then to be summoned, like a girl off the streets to appear before a crowd of drunken revellers; it was more than her pride would tolerate. The refusal to comply though, cost her her crown and her comfort. Never again would she enjoy the intimacy of her husbands company, and her banishment was to be an example to other wives who refused to submit to their husband’s commands.

Circumstance upon circumstance, but Queen Vashti’s decision paved the way for another queen with another choice to make. Esther, living in a humble home under the care of her cousin, Mordecai, was selected for a Beauty Pageant, the prize being the king! That circumstance involved a year of beauty treatments, but they paid off – she won!

Wonderful, until the crisis came. Her people would be killed, unless she intervened. Intervention would necessitate an interview with the king, but entering his presence without being called for could be tantamount to suicide. Knowing what we know of what happened when the previous queen crossed the line of convention and displeased the king, under Esther’s circumstances, what would we do? She chose to enlist the help of the people. She asked that Mordecai would request a fast to be undertaken by all the Jews of Susa.

(Because the book of Esther in the Bible does not include the Name of God, I take the liberty of presuming that a fast must have been for a purpose of prayer, and to whom would those prayers be directed if not to Elohim, Creator and Judge of the universe.)

Then, risking her life, Esther sought audience with the king. She climbed out from under, and won the lives of her people.

Now, what excites me, is the relationship between Purim and Passover, which I discovered in my digging deeper time. The date that Pur, meaning the lot, was cast to Haman, when he presented his plan for the extermination of the Jews to the king, was the 13th day of Nisan. Nisan is the first month of the Hebrew calendar, dating from the time of the Passover, when the firstborn of the Israelites were protected from the plague prior to the Exodus from Egypt.

The day when Esther went in to see the king would have been Nisan 15, which meant that the Jews of Susa fasted during Passover that year.

I found this information in the web site of derek4messiah and I quote another gem from the Jewish readings over the feast.

Passover Haggadah: “Not just one Pharaoh rose against us to exterminate us, but in every generation did they rise up to exterminate us, and each time the Holy One Blessed Be He has rescued us from their hands.”

Both Passover and Purim occurred outside the land, in Egypt and Persia. Both involved the near extermination of the people of Israel. Moses and Esther both appeared before kings to rescue their people. Pharaoh’s army and Haman both perished.

Just another encouragement to us all not to live under a burden of circumstance, but celebrate that in Jesus there is no circumstance so heavy that He cannot help you out from under!

Be blessed this Easter time, and remember the relationship between what we celebrate as Easter, and what the Jewish nation celebrate as the Passover. Keep in prayer the nation of Israel as they continue the battle with those who wish to destroy them.