Not Moedim – Purim & Hanukkah

Two more festivals to consider, but they are not Feasts of the Lord (moedim). Interestingly, John, in his gospel refers to Moedim, which he calls “festivals of the Jews”, including Passover (John 2:13; 11:55) and Sukkot (John 7:2). He also refers to the ‘feast of dedication’ in John 10:22. He comments that it was winter, so this would refer to Hanukkah, one of two non-Moedim still celebrated to this day by Jews and Messianic believers, now known as the Festival of Lights, but which originated in Maccabean times to celebrate the rededication of the Temple in 188BC after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes 3 years earlier. John also references an unnamed feast in ch. 5, which some scholars believe is the other non-Moed, Purim.

Here are some background notes that I have collated from various sources if you want to study these festivals further.

Purim

The origins of Purim are described in the book of Esther. It is best known for the phrase, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14). It is a story of amazing coincidences, cunning plotting, beautiful courage and an astounding end. Like a detective story, the plot twists and folds and you have to keep reading to find out how it will all work out! A stunning story of courage and coincidences!

Historical background

Esther comes between chs. 6 & 7 of Ezra. Ezra 6:15 tells us that the rebuilt Temple was rededicated in the 6^th year of Darius, the King of Persia who preceded Xerxes. Some work on the city obviously continued after that, because when Xerxes comes to the throne some 30 years later in 486BC, immediately the adversaries of Judah write to him to get the work of rebuilding Jerusalem stopped (Ezra 4:6), and it remained halted until Nehemiah’s time some 40 years later.

Early in his reign, Xerxes held a great 6 month long feast (during which his queen, Vashti, is deposed Est. 1) to raise funds for his disastrous campaign against the Greeks in a war lasting 4 years, which ended in his defeat at the Battle of Salamis (480BC).

The rounding up of all the beautiful young ladies and their preparation (Est. 2) takes place while he is away fighting, and when he comes back, tail between his legs no doubt, the selection process begins, ending with the choice of Esther in 479BC.

The events of the rest of Esther take place some 5 years later and end up with Mordecai as the King’s right hand man in 473BC. Xerxes was murdered in 465 (making Esther a young widow) and was succeeded by his son, Artaxerxes (465-424BC), the king of Persia in Ezra and Nehemiah’s time – making Esther possibly his mother, or more likely his stepmother, which may explain his favourable attitude to Nehemiah’s request, although early in his reign, in response to another letter from the Jews opponents, he had commanded the work on the walls of Jerusalem to stop. (Nehemiah’s story starts some 20 years later.)

The main characters

Esther

Esther is the orphaned niece of a Jew named Mordecai, living in Susa, Persia sometime after the first return from Babylon under Zerubbabel. She is described as beautiful, and obviously had a delightful character. We see bravery, wisdom and spirituality in her too.

Mordecai

We note that there were Jews in positions of authority in the Persian empire from Daniel, thru Mordecai to Nehemiah. Mordecai seems to hold some sort of judicial position as we find him sitting in the King’s gate in Est. 2:19. By the end of the story, he will be sitting at the King’s right hand with his signet ring on! (Archaeologists have found evidence of a senior official called Marduka at Persepolis, which may be Mordecai.)

He is characterised by faithfulness – to Esther’s parents in bringing up their daughter, and in his role as part of Xerxes court reporting an assassination plot against Xerxes (who was not a nice man!).

Ahasuerus/Xerxes 1

In contrast to Esther and Mordecai, Xerxes, history tells us, was a dangerously impulsive, cruel and vindictive man. When a bridge he had ordered built was destroyed in a storm, he commanded that the sea receive 300 lashes and the then had the bridge builder’s beheaded. When one of his loyal subjects contributed a huge sum towards a military expedition, Xerxes was so enraptured that he returned the money along with a handsome gift of his own. But when that same man asked Xerxes to let just one of his sons go free from the military draft, Xerxes, enraged, ordered the son cut in two and the army to march between the pieces!

Haman

Haman was obviously well suited to be Xerxes’ right hand man! He comes across as cunning and vindictive. He was an Agagite – descended from King Agag of the Amalekites, Israel’s ancient enemies – the fruit of Saul’s disobedience the word of the Lord (1 Sam. 15). They had a history of violent persecution of the Israelites, going back to soon after they came out of Egypt (Ex. 17:8-13; Deut. 25:17-19).

The Amalekites

From Got Questions:

The Amalekites later joined with the Canaanites and attacked the Israelites at Hormah (Numbers 14:45). In Judges they banded with the Moabites (Judges 3:13) and the Midianites (Judges 6:3) to wage war on the Israelites. They were responsible for the repeated destruction of the Israelites’ land and food supply.

In 1 Samuel 15:2–3, God tells King Saul, “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.” But Saul spares their king, Agag, although Samuel soon despatches him!

Some must have escaped as they continued to harass and plunder the Israelites in successive generations that spanned hundreds of years. First Samuel 30 reports an Amalekite raid on Ziklag, which David avenges but 400 men escape. Much later, during the reign of King Hezekiah, a group of Simeonites “killed the remaining Amalekites” who had been living in the hill country of Seir (1 Chronicles 4:42–43).

God – not mentioned?

Of course, we understand that the main actor in the story is the Lord God of Israel, but His name is not mentioned, even once, in the whole book. But there are so many ‘coincidences’ in the story! Esther just happened to be beautiful and seemingly randomly selected to be Queen. Mordecai just happens to overhear of a plot to assassinate the king. The king just happens to have a sleepless night just as Haman is plotting revenge against Mordecai. The records just happen to be opened at the place that recorded Mordecai’s action to save the king’s life. Haman just happened to be in the outer court when the king was looking for advice as to how to reward Mordecai. And so on!

But maybe the Name of God is there somehow? David Pawson points out that the J-H-V-H acrostic is found 4 times in the book, in rather interesting combinations:

What’s it all about?

In brief, the story is that Haman, prime minister to the Persian King Ahasuerus (known to history as Xerxes 1), is insulted by Mordecai, a Jew in Xerxes court, who refused to bow to Haman. Haman convinces the king that all Jews are rebellious and must be destroyed. To set the date of the genocide, Haman uses lots, or purim. Unknown to Haman, Xerxes’ queen, Esther, is a Jew and Mordecai’s niece. Esther appeals to Xerxes for her people’s lives. The king cannot revoke the decree to attack the Jews, but, at Mordecai’s suggestion, he issues a new decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves. As a result, Haman and his sons are executed, and the Jews kill 75,000 would-be attackers. To memorialize the victory, Mordecai institutes the Feast of Purim to be celebrated every year (Esther 9:26-32).

Outline of the book

Esther 1	The king of Persia and Media (Xerxes I) is showing off!	483 BC
	Xerxes goes off to fight the Greeks and is finally defeated at the Battle of Salamis	483-480BC
Esther 2:1-11	The king wants a wife! So while he is away the girls are rounded up and given spa treatment to see who would eventually please the king enough to be his wife	483-479 BC
Esther 2:12-23	Esther wins the king’s favour; Mordecai uncovers a plot against the king	479 BC
Esther 3	Mordecai refuses to bow before the newly promoted Haman the Agagite; Haman’s revenge announced	474 BC
Esther 4	Mordecai hears of the decree, mourns and has a plan. Has Esther become Xerxes wife for such a time as this?
Esther 5	Esther’s banquets for the King and Haman, and Haman’s gallows for Mordecai
Esther 6	What a time for the King to have a sleepless night! The start of Haman’s downfall
Esther 7	The second banquet; Haman seals his own fate
Esther 8	Mordecai promoted to Haman’s place; Haman’s decree reversed
Esther 9	The appointed day, and destruction comes on the Jews’ enemies; the feast of Purim initiated	473 BC
Esther 10	The greatness of Mordecai

Key lessons

• The oldest hatred cannot destroy God’s people or thwart His plans for them – Messiah was to come through them and this latest attempt by the enemy of men to wipe out God’s people was futile and turned for their good.
• God had His woman and His man in place to exalted at just the right time
• The integrity and wisdom of Mordecai
• The courage of Esther
• The place of prayer and fasting in spiritual warfare
• The knowledge that God is at work even when His hand can’t be directly observed
• The enemy was active behind the scenes too, but God knows his every move!

Hanukkah

This is not found in the Protestant Bible but it is recorded in the books of Maccabees found in the Apocrypha. As mentioned above, John records that Jesus went to the Temple for this Festival in John 10:22.

Background

150 years after the events of Esther, the Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great and came under Greek rule. After his death (323BC), the Greek Empire was divided up into 4 sections under Generals in his army (as predicted in Dan. 11:3-4). The Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian territories came under the control of the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, who founded the Seleucid Empire in 312BC. They were constantly at war the Ptolemaic Empire base in Egypt (founded by general Ptolemy), and invariably the battles took place in Israel, which was between the hammer and the anvil!

Outline of events (from various Wikipedia articles)

In 175BC, one of the Seleucid family, known to history as Antiochus IV Epiphanes (= God manifest; his subjects called him Epimanes – ‘the mad one’!) seized the throne. The Seleucids at that time held control over Judea but they respected Jewish culture and protected Jewish institutions. This policy was drastically reversed by Antiochus IV.

In 171 BC, Antiochus had deposed the High Priest Jason and replaced him with Menelaus, who had offered Antiochus a large bribe to secure the office. In 168 BC, when Antiochus was campaigning in Egypt, a rumour spread in Judea that he had been killed. Jason gathered a force of 1,000 soldiers and made a surprise attack on the city of Jerusalem. Menelaus was forced to flee Jerusalem during the ensuing riot.

But Antiochus was still alive, and returned from Egypt enraged by being defeated at the hands of the Romans (as foretold in Dan. 11:30 where Kittim = Rome) and by the Jews’ rejection of his chosen candidate for High Priest. He attacked Jerusalem and restored Menelaus, then executed many Jews.

After restoring Menelaus, Antiochus IV issued decrees aimed at helping the most enthusiastically pro-Greek faction of Jews (usually called “Hellenizers”) against the traditionalists. He outlawed Jewish religious rites and traditions and the Temple in Jerusalem was changed to a syncretic Greek-Jewish cult that included worship of Zeus.

The Greek historian Diodorus wrote that Antiochus “sacrificed a great swine at the image of Moses, and at the altar of God that stood in the outward court, and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded likewise that the books, by which they were taught to hate all other nations, should be sprinkled with the broth made of the swine’s flesh. And he put out the lamp (called by them immortal) which burns continually in the temple [the Menorah]. Lastly he forced the high priest and the other Jews to eat swine’s flesh.”

In the aftermath of Antiochus IV issuing his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a campaign of land confiscations paired with shrine and altar-building took place in the Judean countryside. A rural Jewish priest from Modein, Mattathias (Hebrew: Matityahu) of the Hasmonean family, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods at Modein’s new altar. Mattathias killed a Jew who had stepped forward to take Mattathias’ place in sacrificing to an idol as well as the Greek officer who was sent to enforce the sacrifice. He then destroyed the altar. Afterwards, he and his five sons fled to the nearby mountains.

They then embarked on a guerrilla warfare campaign against Seleucid rule. They defeated several attempts by the Seleucid armies to eliminate them, the final battle being the Battle of Beth Zur which the Maccabees won. That happened to coincide with Antiochus’ death in Persia and the Seleucid troops returned to Syria. The Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph in 165BC. They ritually cleansed the Second Temple, re-establishing Jewish worship there.

However, when they came to light the Temple’s Menorah, they found only a single cruse of olive oil, one day’s supply, that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

The Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication,” and is thus named because it celebrates the rededication of the Temple on 25 Kislev, the date of the cleansing in the Hebrew calendar, which would later become the date when the festival of Hanukkah begins.