Chapter 10

Purim

פּוּרִים

Purim · poo-REEM

Key 10: God at Work When He Seems Silent

At a Glance

Meaning: Lots; named for the lots Haman cast
When: 14 Adar (in a leap year, 14 Adar II); in Jerusalem, 15 Adar (Shushan Purim)
Duration: One day; preceded by the Fast of Esther
Key Scriptures: Esther 3-9; Esther 9:20-32

Preparing live dates...

Dates follow Israel observance, with times at Jerusalem astronomical sunset.

What Scripture Says

Esther 3:7 (NKJV)

"they cast Pur (that is, the lot), before Haman"

Haman, the king's highest official, cast lots to choose the day to destroy every Jew in the Persian Empire. The feast takes its name from those lots.

Esther 4:14 (NKJV)

"Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Mordecai urged Queen Esther, who had kept her Jewish identity hidden, to go before the king uninvited, at the risk of her life.

Esther 4:16 (NKJV)

"and if I perish, I perish!"

Esther asked all the Jews of Susa to fast for three days, and then she went to the king.

Esther 9:1 (NKJV)

"the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them."

On the very day appointed for their destruction, everything was reversed.

Esther 9:20-22 (NKJV)

"as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday"

Mordecai and Esther established Purim as days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.

In the Tabernacle and Temple

Purim is not one of the appointed times of Leviticus 23. It was established in the Persian period, after the exile, by Mordecai and Queen Esther, and the Jewish community accepted it for all generations (Esther 9:27-28). No Temple sacrifices were commanded for it.

The Jews of the capital, Susa, fought on both the thirteenth and fourteenth of Adar and rested on the fifteenth, while those in the provinces rested on the fourteenth (Esther 9:17-19). For this reason, cities that were walled in the days of Joshua, such as Jerusalem, keep Purim on the fifteenth, called Shushan Purim.

In the Days of Jesus of Nazareth

Purim was kept in the first century, and the historian Josephus retells the story of Esther. John 5:1 mentions "a feast of the Jews" without naming it. Some scholars have suggested it was Purim, though most consider it uncertain.

Haman is called an Agagite (Esther 3:1), linking him to Agag, king of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:8), the ancient enemy of Israel. The story continues a long conflict in Scripture between those who would destroy God's people and the God who preserves them.

Jewish Observance Today

Purim is the most festive day of the Jewish year. It is preceded by the Fast of Esther on 13 Adar.

Reading the Megillah
The scroll of Esther is read aloud in the evening and again in the morning. Whenever Haman's name is read, the congregation drowns it out with noisemakers called groggers.
Gifts of food
Friends send each other packages of ready-to-eat food (Esther 9:22).
Gifts to the poor
Everyone gives to at least two people in need (Esther 9:22).
The Purim feast
A festive meal is held in the afternoon.
Costumes and hamantaschen
Children and adults dress in costume, a reminder that God's hand was hidden in the story, and eat triangular pastries called hamantaschen.

Fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth

Each connection is labeled: what the New Testament states directly, and what Christians interpret from the patterns of Scripture.

God's Hidden Providence

Theological interpretation

God's name never appears in Esther, yet every turn of the story, from a sleepless king (Esther 6:1) to the gallows that became Haman's own (Esther 7:10), shows a hand behind events. Many Christians read Esther alongside Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

The Intercessor Who Risked Everything

Theological interpretation

Esther went before the king at the risk of her life to plead for her people. Many Christians see in her a picture of Christ, who "always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). The comparison is an interpretation.

Preserving the Promise

Theological interpretation

God promised Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Haman's plot threatened the very people through whom the Messiah would come. Christians see Purim as one chapter in God's faithfulness to that promise. This is an interpretation of the story's place in the larger biblical narrative.

The Key to Humanity

God at Work When He Seems Silent

Esther is one of only two books of the Bible, with the Song of Solomon, in which God is never clearly named. There are no miracles, no prophets, and no voice from heaven. There is a royal contest, a sleepless king, a proud official, and a young woman who chooses courage. Yet by the end, the day appointed for destruction has become a day of deliverance. Purim is the key that tells humanity God is still at work when He seems absent, and that He places ordinary people in the right place "for such a time as this." His silence is not His absence.

Hebrew Words to Know

פּוּר

Pur

A lot, as in casting lots (Esther 3:7).

מְגִלָּה

Megillah

A scroll; here, the scroll of Esther.

מִשְׁלוֹחַ מָנוֹת

Mishloach Manot

Sending portions; gifts of food to friends.

מַתָּנוֹת לָאֶבְיוֹנִים

Matanot La'evyonim

Gifts to the poor.

הֶסְתֵּר פָּנִים

Hester Panim

The hiding of God's face (Deuteronomy 31:18); a phrase Jewish tradition links to the hidden God of Esther.

Questions for Reflection

1.
God is never named in Esther, yet He is everywhere in the story. Where might God be at work in your life right now, even if you cannot see Him?
2.
Mordecai told Esther she may have been placed where she was "for such a time as this." Where has God placed you, and why might He have put you there?
3.
Purim makes gifts to the poor part of the celebration. How could your own joy overflow into generosity?

See Jesus in all the feasts