Esther (12)—The Feast of Purim - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Queen Esther … with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus with words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as … prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting.
Esther 9:29–31 NKJV

Esther (12)—The Feast of Purim
After the death of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, King Ahasuerus gave Mordecai his signet ring which he had taken from Haman, and promoted Mordecai to be second highest in the kingdom. Later, on the day Haman had planned the Jews would be annihilated, they safeguarded their lives, had rest from their enemies, and slew many thousands of their enemies throughout the kingdom instead.

On the fourteenth day of Adar they rested. This was a great day of feasting and gladness, a holiday, and a day for sending presents one to another and gifts to the poor. Mordecai wrote to all the Jews near and far in the kingdom to command them to keep this day and the next one every year in every family, and in every city, and every province, that the memory of them should not perish among their generations. This feast was called Purim. Jews today still keep this joyful feast marking their great deliverance.

John 10:22 mentions another feast, the Feast of Dedication—now called Hanukkah—that the Jews instituted after a later joyful event in their history. It is certainly right to commemorate the mercies and deliverances of the Lord with hearts thankful to Him for His mercies. Many of the psalms praise God for rescuing His people from their oppressors.

Let us never forget that our Lord Jesus established the breaking of bread for us to remember Him in His suffering and death. May we worship, thank, and praise Him as we remember Him every Lord’s Day with loving adoring hearts.

-- Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.