Good Morning Friends!
I hope everyone has been doing well! I am doing well, I have been very busy and then I came down with covid a couple of weeks ago. I have a new blog post for you today and it's just in time for the feast of Purim. This will be my first time celebrating the feast of Purim and I am looking forward to it! Purim is centered around the story of Esther. Esther is one of my favorite books in the Bible. In this blog post, I will explain what Purim means and why should we celebrate it. I will also tell you how I am going to celebrate Purim this year. Before we jump in, I hope you have your favorite cup of coffee or tea with you. I am drinking my french vanilla latte this morning. Let's get started!
What is Purim? Purim is a joyous feast about the victory over the evil Haman who plotted to kill the Jews. In the story of Esther, we are introduced to a young woman named Hadassah that lived with her cousin Mordecai because her mother and father died when she was younger. The king of Persia was fed up with Queen Vashti and wanted her out and signed a new edict that they were to bring every beautiful girl to the palace to groom them for queen. Well Hadassah was picked, but she had to change her name to Esther to hide her Jewish identity. She became queen and Haman the Agagite was killing more and more Jews every day. Finally, she had to take a stand for what was right and not be silent anymore. She went before the king without an invitation and she knew if you did that, you could be killed. Her famous words were, "If I perish, I perish."
She came before the king and proposed the idea of having a dinner for the king and tell him of her true identity. Meanwhile, Haman had built a gallows for Mordecai because he did not bow down to him. Haman had tried to assault Queen Esther when the king went away and the King Xerxes came back in and saw what Haman was doing, he threw him out and he was hung on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. After that, there was no more killing of the jews anymore because Esther took a brave stand for her people in the face of adversity. I love the book of Esther, it one of my favorites! Now let's talk about the things that happen on the feast of Purim.
First, everyone will read the story of Esther and every time they hear the name Haman, they make noise either with noise makers or with their hands or mouths or my favorite, they shout boo!!! They do this because they don't want to remember Haman. They also stomp their feet and when you stomp, you use the heels of your feet and I like this because this is what Jesus did on the cross when He defeated satan, He crushed him with the heels of his feet! How wonderful is this! They also celebrated with eating different foods such as eating Hamantaschen which is a delicious jelly filled cookie that looks like Haman's pointed hat. Also they dress up in costumes and the reason for this is they are copying Esther when she hid her Jewish identity.
It is customary to say, "L'chaim." This simply means "to life." Haman wanted to kill off every Jew and that didn't happen so instead of death, God flipped it around and spared the lives of the Jews as He always does. Also God is the God of life not the god of death, that would be satan. So, with all that being said, how am I going to celebrated Purim this year? I am going to read the book of Esther, I am also going to try to make hamantaschen cookies. I am also going to watch one of my favorite movies which is, "One Night With The King." If you haven't watched, I encourage you to do so, it's all about the story of Esther. I plan on eating some popcorn while I watch this movie!
So, friends, with that being said, I hope you have a deeper understanding of the feast of Purim. Maybe you would like to celebrate this joyous feast. As always, pray to God and ask Him how He wants to celebrate it. Do unto the Lord because it's one of His feasts. I pray that you all were blessed and enlightened by this blog post. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom, until next time!
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