Esther 7

Esther 7:20-32

10. 20. ¶ And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahafuerus, both nigh and far, 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: 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. 23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them. 24. Because Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and ‘had call for (that is, the toe) to ‘continue them, and to destroy them: 25. But ‘when Either came before the king, he commanded by letters, that his wicked device which he devised against the Jews, ‘should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26. Wherefore they called these days, Purim, after the name of 2. Pent; therefore he all the hands of ’this letter, and of that which they had been concerning this matter, and which had come unto them. 27. The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their feed; and upon all fuchs as leaned 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: 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 memporial of them perish from their feed. 29. Then Either the queen, the daughter of Abhazi, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahafuerus, ‘with words of peace and truth: 31. To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew, and Either the queen had emphied them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their feed, the matters of the fallings and their cry. 32. And the decree of Either confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book. Deliverances so great, deserve to be had in everlasting remembrance. We have here the method taken to perpetuate the memorial of this signal mercy. 1. Mordecai wrote the transactions of those days, or probably this whole billings, wherein the various steps of Divine interposition so evidently appeared, and dispersed copies of it far and near throughout the provinces. Note, The written word is a mercy for which we can never enough be thankful. 2. He commanded the anniversary of this great transaction to be kept as a feast throughout their generations; to which the Jews gladly confessed, as a means to perpetuate to the latest pollerity, a feast of God’s mercies towards their forefathers, to awaken their thankfulness, encourage their dependance upon the same gracious protection, and to declare the mighty efficacy of prayer in time of need. They called the feast Purim, in remembrance of the loss which Haman call: two days it continued, or as a Jewish writer says, the villages observed in on the 14th, the walled towns on the 15th, according to the days on which they rested from the slaughter of their enemies. Proselyses, as well as natural Jews, were bound to the observance of it, which was kept with great joy, mutual entertainments, congratulations, and liberal distributions to the poor. The feast hath not yet ceased, but the celebration of it hath degenerated from sacred joy and thankfulness, into cereal excess and indulgence; as must be the cafe with the most holy fedivals, where the professors of religion preserve the shadow, which they have left the substance. Note, (1.) Full interpositions of God’s providence in behalf of his people, should be an encouragement to his people in every present district. (2.) A holy feast must be kept in a holy manner. It is the scandal and repreach of every religion, to see excess consecrated as devotion; and what a shame to the name of Chuffian, to have the birth of the holy Jews, the sufferings of the immaculate Lamb of God, and the defense of the Holy Ghost, celebrated by batchnalian entertainments; and those sacred seasons, when most peculiarly we are called to thankful adoration and holy joy, most peculiarly marked with lawless revelry, thoughtless dislifipation, gaming, drunkenness, lewdness, and every abomination. Is this the feast that God hath chosen? point but apprebrie.