Today we celebrate the festival of Purim here in Israel, remembering the story of Esther in the Bible, when the obedience of she and Mordechai saved the Jewish people from the genocide planned by Haman in Persia. If they had not stood courageously, the anti-Semitic plan would have succeeded and Jesus would not have been born, and I would not be here to write this letter to you. Therefore we take this festival with some seriousness. Even so, we celebrate with great joy as we read the scroll of Esther in our synagogues, dressing up in various costumes- both children and adults wearing costumes of Queen Esther and Mordechai, to Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter- even as those that hate us still openly declare their intent to destroy us.
Today in Persia- today's Iran- the modern-day Haman is named Ahmadinajad, who has openly declared his intention to "wipe Israel off the map", and is hoping to obtain atomic weapons. He is currently supporting proxies such as the Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank to work toward that end. I recommend all, especially those who are naively uncertain about their evil intent, to go to the internet and read for yourselves the Hamas charter, which makes their purposes perfectly clear.They state that destruction and their own "martyrdom" is their goal, and they are not at all interested in peace agreements. And that destruction of which they write includes you, dear Christian and American.
There is really "nothing new under the sun", as we have seen these faces before in Amalek in Moses' day (Haman is a descendant of Amelek, as we read in Esther that he is an Agagite, Agag being the king of the Amalekites in the days of King Saul), and as Haman and the ten sons of Haman were hanged on the gallows intended by Haman for Mordechai the Jew, so were the ten Nazi leaders convicted of war crimes against the Jews hanged together after the Nuremburg trials. Interestingly, three of the letters in the list of Haman's sons' names in the Hebrew text are written in smaller letters, drawing attention to themselves: and those three letters spell out the Hebrew date corresponding to 1946 when those Nazis were hanged. It was in all seriousness that Jesus said that "not one jot or tittle will disappear from the Law until all things are fulfilled". There is still much to be fulfilled before He returns.
Meanwhile, remember that "the joy of the LORD is your strength", words spoken to those who were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in those challenging days of Nehemiah, not dissimilar to our own. And as you read Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 36 and other passages, we realize that the Word of God is well aware of the scenarios of men's hearts, and that YHVH is one big step ahead of all.
Blessings from Jerusalem,
Elhanan
