Today we
get to finish the book of Esther. There
are a few points of interest that I would like to bring out. The first is on moral purity. The second is on Purim. The third is on the validity of the book of
Esther.
Moral Purity
Starting
with the moral purity angle, let’s look at what the Jews did to those people
who rose against them. It is important
to note that the Jews were given permission to defend themselves against men,
women, and children. Yet, the Bible
records only the number of men who were killed.
This could very well be an indication of the moral purity of the
Jews. They had permission to do one
thing, but they held themselves to a higher standard than what would have been
allowed.
I should
also remind people here, though, that in ancient cultures it is not uncommon
for only the number of men to be recorded.
For example, when the Hebrew people are being counted in the wilderness
during the Exodus, it often records only the number of men. Whenever there was a census of population in
the Promised Land it usually only records the men. Certainly there were women involved in those
situations. They just aren’t
recorded. So while it is possible that
the Jews did not kill any women or children, it is also possible that any women
or children killed were simply not counted.
In either
case, the Bible is clear that the Jews did not plunder the people that attacked
them even though they had the right to do so.
This does tell me that regardless of the women/children issue that the
Jews did hold themselves to a higher moral standard than was necessary
according to the Persian culture. The
Jews did not act according to “what was permissible” but rather according to
“what was right.”
I think
this is a great lesson to stop and learn today.
What is permissible is not always right.
What is allowed is not always good for me. What is accepted will not always lead me into
a good place. We cannot get our moral
compass from the world around us and its expectations or values. We must hold ourselves to God’s standard at
all times.
Purim
My second
point in this blog is about Purim, and it will be quick. Purim is a festival celebrating God’s aid to the
Jews. Therefore, Purim is a festival
remembering those who are unable to help themselves. It was a holiday of giving gifts of food to
one another – especially to the poor.
This is ministry in action. This
is remembering the poor and downtrodden in life. This is true religion right there.
Validity of Esther
Finally,
let me move onto my third point for this blog.
I started the blog on Esther many days ago by being upfront about the
historicity of Esther and how many have questioned whether or not the book of
Esther is true based on the lack of evidence outside of the Bible that Esther
ever lived. However, I completely ignored
the historicity of the book based on the validity of Mordecai. I did that because I wanted to save it for
when we discussed Esther 10.
Here we
hear about the fact that Mordecai is elevated up to the second in command
(directly underneath the king) within Persia.
This fact may well be substantiated with extra-Biblical sources. A Cuneiform tablet found in Borsippa (about
10 miles south of ancient Babylon) speaks of a person called “Marduka” as being
an official in the court of Xerxes (or Ahasuerus in Hebrew). While Marduka may not look like the name
Mordecai, remember that both names are transliterated from their original
languages into English. Thus, we should
not judge them so much on appearance but rather on how they sound. If you sound them out slowly, you will find
that both names sound quite similar (in spite of not looking much like one
another). I find it highly conceivable
that the person known as Mordecai to the Jews could be known as Marduka to
people who spoke a different language and who lived in an ancient Babylonia
city. For me, this adds some credibility
to the historicity of the book of Esther.
I don’t
say this third point above to make a spiritual point. Believing the Hebrew Scriptures and the New
Testament as being the sole authority on my life is an act of faith, not an act
of science or history. So regardless of
the credibility or historicity of Esther, I believe its message to be true and
an authority over my life. That being
said, I still find it neat to hear about historical sources that match up with
what the Bible portrays.
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