Ps 119:89-91 Forever, O Yehovah, Your Word is settled in the heavens. Your faithfulness is to all generations; You have founded the earth, and it remains. They stand to this day according to Your ordinances; for all are Your servants.
Our faith and hope are in the living God – the Creator and the Redeemer whom we have come to know and love personally as our Father through Jesus Christ – who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The Jewish holiday of Purim is in a few days. Sadly, much of the celebration has degenerated to being more like Halloween or Carnival, rather than a time to remember and to thank and praise our faithful God and Savior who reigns over all peoples and nations, working out all things to serve His great purposes.
This very fact of leaving God out demonstrates the abiding Word of God which we have in the Scroll of Esther, in which the name of Yehovah is not mentioned, nor even the word God. Isn’t it interesting that the Hebrew name Esther means hidden?!
But now, as then, it is clear for those who believe to see that the Lord is overseeing to protect and preserve the lost sheep of the House of Israel: “He who keeps Israelneither slumber nor sleeps.” (Ps 121:4)
Jesus and His apostles inform and warn us that the last days will be similar to former times. The history and lessons of the Flood in Noah’s days; Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot are written for us living at the end of the age because GOD TODAY IS THE SAME AS THEN, and so are human beings. When the same things that incurred God’s righteous anger and judgments 4000, 5000 years ago are happening on a much larger global scale today, then we will also see the Lord Jesus Christ, who has received all authority in Heaven and Earth, act in righteous judgment against those who oppose the Holy God, His righteousness, and His people.
Purim is not only for the Jewish people, but was established also for those who would join them. (Es 9:27) There are Gentiles who have joined themselves with the Jewish people, and the New Testament teaches that the Gentile Christians have been brought into theCommonwealth ofIsrael by the love and grace of the God of Israel. It is for us to celebrate YEHOVAH GOD for His faithfulness, and His sovereign power and wisdom, in watching over us when the enemy rises up in hope of destroying us.
Persiaof Daniel’s day, and of Mordecai and Esther, isIrantoday. The Iranian language is Parsi (Persian). The Iranian Muslim spiritual leader who led the revolution in 1979 was the Ayatollah Khomeni. The religious leader today is Khameni. Both these names are the same as Haman, the famous enemy of the Jews, who was a descendant of Agag,Amalek,Edom/Esau. What we see developing in the world today brings us back to the similar events described in the Scroll of Esther. And as then, so now many Iranians respect the Jewish Israeli people, even as their leaders are willing to allow their annihilation.
Any Persian law written in the name of the king and signed with his signet ring can not be altered. (Dan 6:8,12,15) Praise the Lord that this is also true about HIS laws and covenants! Who do you think has the final word and victory?! Jesus is seated far above the creation that He made; the Earth is His footstool! (Eph 1:17-23)
Let us look at three decrees that were made around 2400 years ago in Persia/Iran:
Es 1:19 If it please the king, let there be a royal command from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it may not be changed, that Vashti come no more before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal state to another who is better than she is.
Es 3:8-13 And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people, in all the provinces of your kingdom. And their laws are different from all people, neither do they keep the king’s laws. And it is not for the king’s gain to allow them to live. If it pleases the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those who have charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries. And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. And the king said to Haman, The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as seems good to you. Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded to the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, according to the writing of it, and to every people according to their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring. And the letters were sent by postal riders into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take what they owned for a prize.
Es 8:7-8,1112 And King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and have hanged him on the wooden gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. And you write for the Jews as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring. For the writing which is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring, no man may turn back. . . In them the king granted the Jews in every city to gather themselves, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province who desired to attack them, little ones and women, and to take what they owned for a prize, Esther 8:12 on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
As we saw last week, the spirit of Islam was already operating long before the religion of Islam was founded, and, too, the spirit of rabbinic Judaism and of the Christian faith long before their establishment. The two decrees by the Persians against women and the Jewish people are still in force today. Iran, with her allies, is once again seeking to attack and to destroy the Jewish people andIsrael. Israel, according to the law written by Mordecai the Jew and by Queen Esther in the King’s name, and signed with his ring, is preparing to defend herself.
God will act for His own holy name’s sake, and that all the peoples and nations would fear Him, the Most High God, who alone forgives sins. (Ps 83:16-18 [17-19 Heb]; Ps 130:4; Phlp 2:9-11)
The Holy Spirit is working among the Gentile believers and the nations to bring them to praise Him for His lovingkindness to Israel. The shortest Psalm bears witness to this: O praise Yehovah, all nations; praise Him, all peoples. For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of Yehovah endures forever. Hallelu-Yah! (Ps 117)
