Jerusalem Dateline

MArch 13, 2006

Persia, Purim, and Prayer

In Jerusalem the past few days, you could see an assortment of people in costumes: little kids as Spiderman, girls dressed up as brides, or your waitress might even come to your table wearing rabbit ears. If you were in the U.S., you’d think it was the time of year for Halloween but here in Israel, it’s the time of year for Purim.

This week Jews around the world celebrate Purim. Purim commemorates the events in the Book of Esther. The Book of Esther revolves around four main characters: the wicked Haman, the beautiful Queen Esther, her uncle Mordachai, and King Ahasuerus. It’s a drama worthy of any Hollywood script. By the way, Esther carries the distinction as being the only book in the Bible that doesn’t contain the name of God but make no mistake; His Hand is seen clearly through this powerful story of deliverance.

Esther 3:8 contains the main theme of the story. Haman, the Grand Vizier of the Persian Empire, tells Persian King Ahasuerus that: “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among all the peoples... in your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every people; neither do they keep the king's laws. Therefore, it does the king no profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed...”
The “certain people” targeted for destruction are the Jews.

If this sounds familiar, it is. A few months ago on October 26, 2005, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made this declaration: “Our dear Imam ordered that the occupying regime in Jerusalem be wiped off the face of the earth. This was a very wise statement.” In case you didn’t know, the “occupying regime” to be “wiped off the face of the earth” is the state of Israel.

Different time. Different leaders. Same story: destroy the Jews.

But in the book of Esther, the Queen learns of Haman’s evil plot and tells her uncle Mordecai to ask the people to fast for three days before she attempts to save her people. She bravely approaches King Ahasuerus without being summoned – an act that could result in her death – and deftly exposes the plot to the king. The wicked Haman is exposed, executed and instead of being destroyed, the Jewish people are vindicated.

Today the danger of genocide is just as real as it was during Esther’s time. Iran races to build a nuclear bomb and from some estimates it might be just a matter of months before it acquires the necessary know how. Its first target could be Israel. Iran paraded Shahab-3 missiles in Teheran recently. The missiles – capable of reaching Israel and carrying a nuclear device – carried the slogan “Israel Should be Wiped Off the Map.”

The Biblical parallels between Haman of the Book of Esther and Ahmadinejad of the Iranian regime are uncanny. Like Haman of old there is another genocidal threat coming from Persia. Some explain this similarity using another book in the Bible, the book of Daniel. Daniel fasted and prayed for 21 days but a heavenly messenger told him a spiritual being opposed his prayers: “the prince of the Persian kingdom.” Daniel 10:12 – 14 says;

“Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

Some believe it is this same spiritual being – the prince of Persia - operating today through the nation of Iran, ancient Persia. That’s why many Christian believers here in Israel and around the world are praying and fasting this Purim as Esther did thousands of years ago for the deliverance of the Jewish people. Prayer and fasting are the kind of weapons that Paul talked about in the book of First Corinthians 2:3-5: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Like during the time of Haman, God vindicated the Jewish people. He used a brave Queen, a wise uncle, and a praying and fasting people. It’s likely He will use the same praying and fasting people for “such a time as this.”