Date of message: 06 April 2003
Subject: The Sign Of The Times - Feast of Purim

Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
The Gulf War I in 1991 ended on the Feast of Purim which fell in February that year and it is interesting that the same Feast of Purim marked the beginning of the current Gulf War II (Feast of Purim fell on March 19 & 20, 2003). What is the Feast of Purim and why is it so significant?

The nation of Judah (southern kingdom) fell to the Babylonians in the year 586 BC and they were held in captivity for 70 years in Babylonia (present day Iraq). During those years, the Babylonians tried to assimilate the Jews into their society but they did not seem to be able to succeed and hence the Jews were able to keep some of their customs and continued to practice their own form of worship although diluted in most cases except for a few faithful ones like the prophet Daniel and his three friends - Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abednego).

In 539 BC the Babylonian Empire fell to the Persians under Cyrus their King and it was during his reign that the Jews were given permission to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple both of which lay in ruins after the Babylonian onslaught almost fifty years prior. Some of the Jews returned to Jerusalem in 538 BC and began the arduous work of reconstruction and for the next twenty two years, they labored day and night to complete the walls of Jerusalem and they also rebuilt the temple.
It was during these twenty two years that a new Persian king came on the throne. King Ahasuerus (also known as King Xerxes in some history books), the fifth Persian king after Cyrus, exiled his queen for disobedience to his edict and decided to find a new queen. A beauty contest was held and prize for the winner of the contest would be the king and she would share his kingdom.

A beautiful Jewish maiden was finally chosen over the rest of the candidates because of the favour of the LORD on her. Esther was made queen and she was well loved by the king. One day, her uncle, Mordecai, discovered that the evil prime minister, Haman, had devised an evil plan to exterminate all the Jews in the land - Haman even had a special gallows made to hang Mordecai.
Mordecai decided to enroll Queen Esther's help in blocking Haman's evil plan and stop him at his own game. And so we read in Esther chapters 4 to 8 how Esther cleverly reversed Haman's plans and even had Haman hanging from the same gallows built for Mordecai.

Esther 8: 11 tells us that Queen Esther wrote letters (sealed with the king's signet ring) to all the Jews giving instructions for them to rise up and protect themselves by destroying, killing and annihilating all the forces of any people or province that would assault them. They were to do this on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar (the twelfth month of the Jewish calendar).
As soon as the Jews received that decree from their queen, they gathered together on the appointed day and went through the city to seek out those who had evil intentions of killing them and at the end of the first day, five hundred men were killed together with the ten sons of Haman (Esther 9: 1 - 10). Again on the next day, the Jews were given permission to go through the capital city and cleanse the city of all the evil plotters and this time only three hundred were killed (Esther 9: 11 - 15).

At the end of the second day, Queen Esther issued a decree (Esther 9: 29) that two days of celebration would be observed by all the Jews to commemorate the annihilation of the enemies of the Jews and this has been celebrated even till the present age. On March 19 and 20, 2003 great celebrations were seen on the streets of Jerusalem and through Israel. The Feast of Purim symbolizes to the Jews the reversal of evil by the mighty hand of God - evil intentions of Israel's enemies will fall on their own heads.
And it is interesting that it is exactly on the Feast of Purim that the Gulf War I in 1991 ended very abruptly. For two weeks, Israel was bombarded with 39 Scud missiles but none of them killed anyone. There were only two recorded deaths but they were not killed by the Scuds; rather they died out of fear and panic - one died of a heart failure and the other from suffocation when she panicked and choked herself from her gas mask.

I am very sure that President George Bush Senior did not check the dates when he sent in the first cruise missile and he did not confer with President Saddam Hussein to end the war on the day it ended (on the Feast of Purim). That would have been the last thought on their minds.
I am also convinced that President George W Bush did not check the Jewish calendar when he gave the 48-hour deadline for President Saddam to destroy all his weapons of mass destruction and he launched his first cruise missile on 20 March at around 05:15 AM Baghdad time. To coincide the start of the current Iraqi War with the Feast of Purim would have been the furthest from his mind, I am sure.
An interesting observation I have made is that many of the victorious moments in the life of Israel as a nation had taken place on important Jewish feast days.

" The Yom Kippur War in 1973 started on the feast day of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew).
" President Hafez Assad of Syria died on 10 June 2000 on the Day of Pentecost. The late president was a sworn enemy of the State of Israel.
" Gulf War I ended on 28 February 1991 on the Feast of Purim, just four days after the allied forces stormed into Kuwait and liberated the country from the Iraqis.
When will this Gulf War II end? Will it end in two weeks during the Feast of Passover on 14 Nisan in the Jewish calendar (05 April is 02 Nisan) or Good Friday? The end could also come during the Feast of First Fruits on 17 Nisan and this will happen on Easter Sunday 20 April. Will the war end on Pentecost Sunday 08 June? Only time will tell.

The important thing to note is that our Lord God is sovereign and in full control of everything including world events. The Lord will have His final say and the outcome is certain. He will always emerge the Victor, the Head and not the tail. He will be above and never below. Everything will finally fall into His overall Master-Plan. Jesus had promised that He will come and take His own back with Him to heaven first and then He will return physically to Earth, to judge and to rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years. You can read all about the judgment and His millennial rule in the Book of Revelations.
I implore you; please do not be left behind at the Rapture when He comes back for us Believers. The invitation to join in with the celebration of the Wedding Feast of the Bride (the Church) to the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, has been extended to everyone. All that is needed is for you to believe in Jesus, the One Who had died for you and taken away your sin and He will come into your heart and give you eternal life. By believing in Jesus and receiving His Holy Spirit into our lives, God confers on us the position of sons and daughters in His Family, special positions reserved for those whom He loves dearly. (John 1: 12)

The Lord cannot lie. For Him, whatever He speaks come to pass and He had promised us in the Bible that those who have put their trust in Him will not be condemned but have passed from death into life (Romans 8: 1).

Pray this simple prayer of faith and invite Him into your heart and immediately you will experience the peace coming your way.
Our Heavenly Father, thank you that You are sovereign, and in full control over everything that is happening around us. Right now, it does not seem so. But I want to thank you that You love us so much You sent Your only Beloved Son Jesus into this world to take our place and to die for all our sins.
Lord Jesus, thank you that You came, You obeyed the Father, You died for all on the cross, You conquered death and You rose again on the third day. And now, because of Your death and resurrection, we, who believe in You as our Lord and Savior, will no longer have to die but we receive Your eternal life. Thank you for coming into my heart and making my heart Your home.
Thank you that what You have accomplished for us on the cross has qualified me to become a child of God the Father. Thank you that I am now eternally forgiven, greatly blessed, highly favored, deeply loved and completely protected in the Lord and in Your most precious Name, Yeshua Ha' Meshiah, I pray. Amen.
If you have prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important that you are not alone facing your personal trials but that you can obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith. It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these blessings right now and there is more from where they come from.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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