T H E M O S T R E A L T H I N G A B O U T Y O U I S W H A T G O D S A Y S G O D E E P E R G E T R E A L
Blog - Home      For such a time as this (Purim)
FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS - PURIM 
Posted 23 Feb 2010
 
When I made our family Christmas card back in 2008 I found it too hard to write about the year we’d had without being epic, glib or depressing so I put a calendar of events on the back of our photos instead of my usual catch-up note.  I scoped a heap of websites and filled as many days of the year as possible with those “international day of something” days – from the sublime to the ridiculous.  (Read it here if you like). It proved to be alot of fun and was undoubtedly a better read than any note I’ve ever written!  People invariably had the same idea of looking to see what day fell on their birthday.  We had a bit of fun with some of them at home too – sometimes having a food from a special day (who can resist ‘Chocolate Covered Peanut Day”?) and one time delivering the a giftwrapped celebratory item as mentioned below to a friend whose birthday fell on “Sneak a Zucchini Onto Your Neighbour’s Porch Day”!!!
 

 
However – my point is that when I was filling out the calendar out a little over 12 months ago I had to look a few of them up to see if they were OK (not New Agey or Occult or from some other religion) and I didn’t know at that time what PURIM was – so after sussing out that it came from Biblical tradition I left it in.  Just a few months later I smiled at myself as I became so very interested in the Jewish feast days and studied them right throughout the year – from not even having known what Purim was such a short time ago to working it into our families traditions!

“For such a time as this” is a phrase becoming well known… we often ascribe them to those living in troubled times upholding good or‘uphill’ causes .  The full quote comes from the ancient record of Queen Esther – over two and a half thousand years ago.  Through God at work in her actions she proved she was indeed in her position for “such a time as this” and from those events came the feast of Purim which has been celebrated by the Jewish people ever since.

ESTHER 4:12 When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai,13 he sent back this answer: "Do not thinkthat because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape.14 For if you remain silent at this time, reliefand deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and yourfather's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royalposition for such a time as this?"

Both Purim and Hanukah (and Christmas for that matter) are celebrations of great events set by humans for remembrance rather than by God as instruction.

This coming Sunday and Monday are Purim… the 28thFeb 2010 and the 1 March 2010.  (14thand 15th of Adar – as recorded in the Bible. (Esther 9:21)

Esther is quite a short read and a truly fascinating one… I’m not going to tell you any more about Purim itself because I think you should read Esther and allow the immensity of the story grip you and teach you for itself.  Full of tension, intrigue, suspense, faithfulness, deliverance, and justice - you can read the whole thing online here (just click the arrows at the top of the page to go to each next chapter).

Do we have to mark Purim? No; no-one said we had no mark Christmas either.  It’s not a 'have-to' thing, it’s an opportunity to enter into a living biblical object lesson – taking the opportunity to learn and grow and remember the great deeds of the Lord. 

For us – I plan to take a break from our current morning readings of Deuteronomy, and read through Esther for the next several days instead.  Perhaps on Sunday or Monday we might have some hamentashen - a YUMMY biscuit we made at Purim last year… they were so good I’m not tempted to even, try anything else yet!  (Google it for recipes).

And we will play the little You Tube PURIM dance we found last year too – little Miss 15 months LOVED it then and loves it still – we all have to dance and twirl and play it over and over!

Why not make a few new family traditions as you mark an ancient one that showed God’s might hand at work?

P.S.  For a great fictionalised account of Esther get hold of the books by Tommy Tenney and Mark Olsen “Hadassah: One Night with the King” and “The Hadassah Covenant” (for those in Oz at Koorong here)