Celebrating Purim 2021!

Hey there and blessings! I pray you all are having a wonderful day today, because TODAAAAAYYYYY is Purim!! It’s a beautiful sunny day on my side of town which makes it all the more exciting! Preparing for this day was kind of crazy but thank God it’s smooth sailing from here.

This will be our families FIRST time celebrating Purim...I’ve always wanted to celebrate it after learning about it. It’s a great Holy feast unto the Lord to celebrate with friends and family. Great food, presents, laughs and worship to the LORD...What could be better than that!

My family isn’t Jewish but we are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. For many years I’ve been missing the celebration of Christmas ever since I’ve learned the truth about it....but to be clear.... I wasn’t missing CHRISTMAS itself...but the family gatherings,the laughter,the food, the worship of the LORD and the fun part of exchanging gifts. For the longest I’ve always imagined decorating my home and watching my kids tear into their presents with such joy and glee....but I knew in my heart that our family couldn’t participate in the celebration of Christmas even with the good intentions of Christ being the center of it all. The deep truths, layers behind and under Christmas kept us away. I don’t knock Christian families that still celebrate Christmas. I know it’s a beautiful time and their hearts and motives in celebrating it is in remembrance and thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST for coming into this world for us to die a sinners death to redeem us back to our HEAVENLY father. So there is no condemnation coming from this way to my fellow brothers and sisters in the LORD.

BUT FINALLY WHEN I CAME into the knowledge and understanding of Purim, I made it up in my mind that my family would partake in this Holy Feast...mind you, that I know that this holy feast ISNT one of the feasts GIVEN by God BUT it’s still a Holy Feast unto the LORD that is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Esther and THIS YEAR of 2021 we CELEBRATED!!

You may be wondering, well why would you celebrate it if you’re not Jewish? Because as believers in JESUS CHRIST, we have been GRAFTED IN to Gods family according to Romans 11:11-31 and if it weren’t for the Lord pressing it on Mordecai’s heart to push Esther to talk to her husband the King Of Persia, the Jews would have ALL been killed in that Region...I feel even though I’m not Jewish that Christians and Jews are ONE and ONE BIG FAMILY in the Lord Jesus Christ which gives us a reason to celebrate THEIR victory which becomes OUR victory reaching down to us Christians being able to partake in the plan of God...which IS....SALVATION to ALL who will come to God through CHRIST JESUS who IS A JEW. Purim also reminds us that God has got our back and will FIGHT our battles. He will not leave us defenseless against our enemies. And besides it gives us Christians a HOLY DAY to celebrate with the exchanging of gifts to one another and feasting on food! How great is that!

SO WHO MOSTLY RECOGNIZES AND CELEBRATES THIS HOLIDAY?

It is mostly celebrated by Jewish people

CAN OR SHOULD CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE THIS HOLIDAY? 

Personally I think it’s okay and something believers in Christ Jesus should consider celebrating!

IS PURIM APART OF GOD’s ORDAINED HOLY FEASTS?

No...BUT...this feast definitely is celebrated every year in remembrance to ABBA for allowing the Jews to be able to FIGHT BACK and get VICTORY over their enemies!

WHAT  IS PURIM?According to Google, Purim is a Jewish holiday which celebrates and brings remembrance back to the saving of the Jewish people from Haman in the Bible. He was a Persian Empire official who was planning to kill ALL the Jews in that empire. To put it in plain terms he was the next big man, SECOND to the King Ahasuerus in command to be able to make big decisions within that region.

SO WHAT IS PURIM ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE AND HOW DID PURIM COME INTO EXISTENCE?

First off, Purim is a TWO DAY Holiday. The celebration starts AT SUNDOWN on the FIRST DAY which is THAT night FROM SUNDOWN the SECOND DAY‘S SUNDOWN which makes it ( ONE FULL DAY) then SUNDOWN on the SECOND night to the THIRD DAY ending AT SUNDOWN which makes it the (SECOND FULL DAY) which COMPLETES the two days. Yeah...I know...a TAD bit confusing but with time you’ll get it and it will make sense. On this Holiday the Jews celebrate yearly their victory in defending themselves against a written decree that was set against them to annihilate the Jews with dancing, church service, feasting and the exchanging of presents.

The word Pur mentioned in the Bible isn’t a Jewish word but a Persian word (FROM MY UNDERSTANDING) and the word is used as if you’re ROLLING DICE in our terms. Another word associated with it is: LOTS. We see in several areas of the Bible the word CASTING LOTS, and it’s almost equivalent to gambling, like taking a chance. So with the word PUR it was used by Haman to see which DAY as he casted his LOT (probably before his false God) what DAY his plan of execution of the Jews would fall on.So Esther, played on the word PUR and used it as a victory word for the Jews instead of Hamans intentions of total annihilation. 

Esther was a Jew and had won the coveted seat of becoming queen to King Ahasuerus, he was unaware of her true nationality. Queen Vashti lost her place as Queen prior to Esthers reign simply because of her refusal to see the king and his men at his command. So Queen Esthers cousin Mordecai warned her NOT to reveal herself to the king, so she hadn’t all the time she reigned as Queen until one day when a certain situation came up.

When King Ahasuerus promoted Haman second in command to him, he ALSO commanded that all the people should bow down to Haman in paying homage to him but Mordecai refused to because he was a Jew and so it was reported to Haman of his act of disobedience. This made Haman very angry and upset and caused a strong disliking towards Mordecai AND all the Jews. The people that reported the news wanted to see if Mordecai would stick to his word after the incident being reported. Good ole Mordecai didn’t budge though. It was against the Jewish ways to bow down to ANY MAN but ONLY to God Almighty.

So Haman decided that he would get rid of Mordecai by building a very tall gallow to hang him on... coincidentally Mordecai got wind of Hamans plans to execute all the Jews and told his cousin Queen Esther BEFORE Haman could ever use the gallow for Mordecai. At first Queen Esther was hesitant to go to the king about this haneous plan of Haman BECAUSE of his strict orders of not entering his sight unless called upon, BUT Mordecai warned and enlightened her that she may have been blessed to her position FOR THIS VERY REASON to help save the JEWS from annihilation and that IF she stayed silent and DIDN’T go to the king, that relief and deliverance would arise for the JEWS from another place and that HER AND her HOUSEHOLD would perish!

So Queen Esther pulled up her bootstraps and decided she would see the king and if she had to die for entering his presence without being called upon then it would have been worth the sacrifice.

 So to summarize everything, Queen Esther went and saw the king, told him and revealed her true identity as being a Jew and exposed Hamans plans of executing the Jews. THANKFULLY she received FAVOR with the king. After King Ahasuerus heard Hamans plot against the Jews, he used the VERY SAME  GALLOW Haman built to hang Mordecai on  for HAMAN instead! 

The Jews were also given the authority to fight back to kill their enemies. The Jews won and defeated their enemies and Esther and Mordecai started a new tradition of having a feast called Purim every year in remembrance of this day and how the LORD is ALWAYS with US to PROTECT US!

SO WHERE CAN THIS TRUE STORY BE READ IN THE BIBLE? 

In the book of Esther 🥰