A Feast Worth Celebrating!
In these final chapters of Esther, the Jews defeat their enemies and Queen Esther establishes the feast of Purim as commemoration of the Jews’ salvation. Here’s a feast worth celebrating!
D: So we’re now on to the last chapters of Esther chapters 9 and 10. we’re going to do them together because chapter 10 is very short. Well, maybe Declan you can take us away with the things that are key in these 2 chapters.
d: Well, the main two important things in this chapter is that the Jews defeat their enemies and the feast of Purim was established because that feast is very important for many Jewish people, because this was the day when they were saved.
D: Maybe we’ll start with the 1st part. How were the enemies of the Jews defeated?
d: So they were given a day… and I’m pretty sure that was the day that Haman had planned to exterminate them? So that day, they grouped together and they killed all their enemies and everybody was very scared of them. Their enemies were scared because they had lots of support from the king and even the officials in the king’s palace supported them, because Mordecai was gaining power.
D: Right, up to 500 people in the king’s palace, it says in Chapter 9 verse 6, were killed and destroyed, including 10 of Haman’s sons.
d: And not only that, the king asked Esther what she would like, and then she asked for the Jews to be able to fight again, and Haman’s sons, even though they were already dead, but their bodies were hanged.
D: Why do you think she requested that to be done?
d: Well, I think it’s sort of a sign that they had ultimate victory over their enemies.
D: Yeah, a lot of the times these sort of things are done as a public demonstration and it was also quite symbolic. I think we were talking about this before – that after the sons of Haman were killed it says in verse 10 the Jews did not take their belongings, they did not plunder them and this is closing off the chapter of the conquest against the Amalekites… all the way back in the earlier chapters of the Old Testament, where the king of the Amalekites were killed but the Jews, the Israelites of the day… they
d: …stole some of the cattle and sheep … but they refused to take everything.
D: So it’s almost as if that old mission was now completed. So now, tell me a bit more about what we know about the feast of Purim from these two chapters.
d: Well these 2 chapters say that this day was made by Queen Esther and it was to celebrate the Jews defeating their enemies… sort of like how we can celebrate Jesus defeating Satan.
D: So, in verse 22, it says it was to celebrate a time when the Jews got rid of their enemies. They were to celebrate it as the month their sadness was turned to joy, the month when their crying for the dead was turned into celebration. This is one of the books – Esther is one of the books that is read in Jewish places of worship – in synagogues.
d: When they read it on the feast of Purim, people would cheer for Mordecai and boo for Haman.
D: Yes, it’s like a dramatic reading and everyone would know the story and they would be really involved – they would really feel that this was part of their story, especially throughout the ages. I do believe that they still celebrate this and they still read the book of Esther and I’m sure that this is a big commemoration to remind them of the way that their people was preserved, through bad times. So, the last part is to talk about Mordecai and how he became a great man in the kingdom of Xerxes which is a Persian king, and he was also respected by the Jews around him. So in the end, it’s a funny thing because even though the book is about Esther, it ends on Mordecai.
d: Yeah so what happened to Mordecai is he gained a high position. And so he’s sort of does what Haman does except he uses his power to protect the Jews.
D: So someone has said I think that Mordecai is like the 2nd king’s Saul in the sense having defeated the age old enemy and now being elevated. so instead being, you know deposed by God, this new kingly person who is a leader is able to finish the mission, as I said before, and he’s elevated to a high position.
So are there any final reflections on the book for you, Declan?
d: The Jews conquered their enemies.
D: So are there any other final reflections for you or applications from the book of Esther?
d: Well, I think that we can know and we can trust that God will be with us and he blesses us even though we might not realize it immediately. God is helping us.
D: Yes, also the movement is reversing all of the bad things that are about to happen. God is working through Esther and through Mordecai to bring about a reversal of all the fear and all the mourning and all the crying and all the threat of being killed and turn it into rejoicing, laughing and ultimately life.
d: Yep!
The Percolated Life 
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