Purim

This weekend Jewish families all over the world celebrated Purim. Even Madonna and her family, who practice Kabbalah got in the action. For those of you who don't know Purim is a celebration based on the defeat of Haman which prevented the total destruction of the Jews in the book of Esther. I had the privilege of studying this book with my Wed. morning bible study and it would take me a few days to be able to share all I learned. What stands out the most is how many "coincidences" there are. Like a king without a queen because he gets drunk and makes a rash decision to get rid of his current queen. Or I love the fact that the king had insomnia so he had the chronicles read to him and he just happened to hear about Mordecai. There are quite a few more and I would encourage you to read the whole book. I want to point out though that we see the hand of God at work in these details that are spelled out in the book but lets not forget that His hand was working early on. Lets not forget that Esther was taken captive with all the other Jews and they were living in exile in a foreign country. Lets not forget that Esther lost her parents at a young age and was being raised by her Uncle. I don't know about you but I would find it hard to see the hand of God in my own life if I was taken from my home to become a slave in foreign country and both of my parents had died. Yet, if we believe the hand of God was on Esther we need to believe that His hand was on her from the very beginning. We have two choices. We can believe that everything we go through is part of God's plan, even if what we are going through is painful. Or we can believe it is all random and all the pain and hurts of our past are in vain.

I have to make a correction. I was reading the commentary in my Bible and read that Esther and her generation had the opportunity to return home, like many of the exiles did, but for some reason, she and her family stayed. So, she was probably not a slave although they were heavily taxed by the king and did have to work. However all of that does not negate my point but instead makes an even stronger argument that God was in control. Why did Mordecai and his family choose to stay when they could have left? Most of the Israelites that were diligent in their obedience to God and the law of Moses, which it seems Mordecai was, returned home. So, the sovereignty of God is seen again. If they had gone back, Esther would not have become queen and the Jews would have perished.