Oh Happy Daze: Purim

Purim

March 19, 2011

Purim is the celebration that is spoken of in the Book of Esther in the Bible. Although it is not a “GOD commanded” feast, it was established by Mordecai to observe this victory.

Est 9:20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
Est 9:21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
Est 9:22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day:

that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

Many will tell you that it is a “Jewish celebration”, I beg to differ.

Est 9:26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
Est 9:27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
Est 9:28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

The scripture says “all such as joined themselves unto them”. We joined ourselves unto them when we accepted JESUS as our Lord and Savior.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

We became “joined” to them when we were grafted in among them.

Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Now, you can say, “But GOD didn’t say we had to!” You are completely right, you do not HAVE to… but why wouldn’t you want to??? I want to celebrate things that are pleasing to GOD, so in a month that doesn't give us a holiday except St. Patrick's Day with all it’s silly leprechaun traditions and such, why not set aside a day to talk about the story of Esther and show how GOD worked “hidden” behind the scenes, much like HE does every day in our lives!

A tradition of Purim is to have a costume party representing the “hidden things” in the Book of Esther. There was several things “hidden” so be sure and take a look at the link above.

I didn’t want it to be just any costume because that could lead to all sorts of ungodliness, instead I told my family I wanted them to dress as a Bible character and have some scriptures ready to read or act out so the other people can guess who they are.

My family showed up and I was so happy that my daddy came also, and dressed up too! For anyone who doesn’t know my daddy, he has never had much respect for “religion,” mainly do to the fact that preachers in the past had never been able to answer his questions about the Bible with answers that made since. So for him to come to my “religious” party is a huge thing. I was so very happy.

We all sat down and started guessing who everyone was.

Can anyone guess who Adam was right off hand?

Yep, he was “David, the Shepherd boy” and yes folks, Stewart was “Goliath”!

Adam yells, “You come to me with a spear and a sword, I come to you in the name of the LORD!”

Stewart took one of Adam’s Styrofoam “stones” and put putty on it so it would stick to his head once he was “hit”.

The dramatic death of “Goliath”!

Adam follows through with “cutting off” his head!

“Rebekah” (my niece “L”)

Gen 24:19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
Gen 24:20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.

She made a beautiful Rebekah, here she is acting out giving water to the camels"

“Moses” (my nephew Brandon)

He lifted up his tablets and began:

“Number one, Thou shall have no other gods before me”

I Loved that he cut out his “tablets” in the tablet shape and his cotton beard, so cool!

“Pharaoh’s daughter” (Anna)

“This is a Hebrew child”

I loved Anna in dreadlocks, I was surprised they looked so good on her, she was such an awesome princess.

“Ruth” (Brenda)

Rth 1:16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Brenda acting out gleaning of the fields in her beautiful peasant dress.

“David” (my brother-in-law David)

1Sa 21:5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
1Sa 21:6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

On their way to my house, they said a DPS officer hit his break lights when he passed David driving in this get-up, I guess they thought they done spotted Osama Bin Laden in shades!

“Jonathan” (my nephew Jonathan)

“ I was a son of a king and a best friend of a king”

I was surprise that my nephew was excited about having a costume party, he is usually reserved about stuff like this. But I suppose since he came as “himself” he was ok with it. He makes a very good Jonathan.

“Lot’s Wife as a pillar of salt” (My mom Diane)

Gen 19:17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

I think mom’s was one of the most creative outfits. We all was thinking she was an angel, so when she started reading about Lot, I was lost. To dress in all white to “be” the pillar of salt was genius!

“Job” (My sister Barbie)

Job 27:2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Barbie put tiny band aids all over her face to be Job’s sores, which I thought was very creative! She said she liked him because he never turned his back on GOD.

“Job” (Austin)

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

Poor Austin was feeling Job-ish too, a few days ago he broke out with poison ivy all over his arms and face. He was going to be Moses at first then after the poison ivy he said, “Mom, I am going to be Job” He told Barbie his costume was better because his was real!

“John 3:16’s whosoever ” (My daddy William)

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

When I asked my daddy to come to my party I told him he can dress however he liked I just wanted him to come, I told him that I had the perfect person he could be, he could be the “whosoever” in John 3:16. I am not sure what everyone else thought about this being the scripture for him, but GOD laid it on my heart to tell him, he could use that scripture. I feel it is because GOD wanted my daddy to know: GOD loves him too.

I was so happy he came and actually joined in by wearing the headdress. I love my daddy so much.

Deborah (Me)

the only woman judge in the Bible

Jdg 4:4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
Jdg 4:5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment

Jdg 4:8 And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.
Jdg 4:9 And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

I liked Deborah above the other ladies of the Bible because she stepped up when the men would not.

As soon as we could, we took off the costumes.They were very hot and uncomfortable.

We had fixed brisket (thank you very much Brenda) and peas, potatoes, rolls, salad (that we forgot to serve), deviled eggs, my layered pudding dessert and Hamantaschen.

Hamantaschen, a filled cookie pouch, is a tradition for Purim. We filled ours with Hershey’s kisses or pear pecan filling.

While the food was being served I told the quick version of the Story of Esther.

I had planned to watch the movie “One Night with the King” with everyone but we ended up chatting the rest of the evening. My daddy and I had a nice little discussion about scripture which meant more to me than the movie.

After the guests went home my family of five sat down to watch the movie so the kids would get a general idea of what went on during Purim, of course I try to catch all the flaws that are not scriptural so the kids will know the difference.

We had a wonderful party will my family I am so happy it went well and very thankful GOD blessed it.