Purim - The Fast Of Esther

Empires and Kingdoms.

A moment to contextualize the moment we find ourselves in, what’s happening in our world today. The stage is being set. The actors are taking their place. The classic battle between allegiance to empire or kingdom is being waged. As we have gone through history, we have seen the Pharaohs building their empire demanding total commitment through oppression against the backdrop of a God leading His people through the wilderness, like a shepherd leads His sheep. We have seen empire rear its ugly head: Nebuchadnezzar and the empire of Babylon, Herod and the empire of Rome, Hitler and the Third Reich.

This week we’ve seen Vladimir Putin demand allegiance to the Russian empire.

 

“Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

By their wit and wile – though behind the scenes orchestrated by God – Esther and Mordecai foiled Haman’s plot. Following Haman’s execution and the deliverance of the Jews, Esther and Mordecai established a feast for future generations to celebrate their people’s survival for “their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration” (Esther 9:22).

And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews… obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies… that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. (Esther 9:20-22)

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Outro music by Joshua Royal (@joshuaroyalwathen). 

Audio mixing and mastering by Noah Davis (@noahdavisproductions)