And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews near and far that were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus,
The fighting is over, the enemies have fallen, and the Jews have rested — and now Mordecai takes up a pen. What he writes, and where he sends it, turns one rescue into a feast a whole people would keep for generations.
Mordecai's letters reached Jews near and far. One writer follows the letters and what came of them.
And Mordecai writes and sends letters to all the provinces, and so the joy is spread throughout the whole earth. Not only that, but the Jews, as we are told, founded a feast upon this remarkable intervention of the providence of God.
Mordecai fixed two days in the year. The names he gave them describe a reversal.
Verse 22 uses language full of meaning. The Jews were to celebrate the 14th and the 15th day "as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies" and "the month that was turned to them from sorrow to joy", and "from mourning into a good day".
(The ESV renders verse 22 as the days the Jews "got relief from their enemies," and the month "turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday.")
The king has slipped into the background. Mordecai writes, and the people do what the writing says.
The king of the nations now appears only as one who depends on Esther and Mordecai. From here to the end of the chapter, only they are in question. It is Mordecai who, like the future Messiah, orders joy and rest. "The Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them." They submit to the written word of a man who had been unknown and ignored by everyone, including themselves. God had now raised him high in the sight of all.
The letter that founded the feast never names God. One writer sets that silence beside what the feast later became.
Here again the book keeps the character stamped on it. Even now He is not named — the One whom it would normally and naturally be the highest duty to proclaim. Yet man's own word shows the full difference: the Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink until he does not know the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai" and "Cursed be Haman." Judaism, and Christendom where Christ is ignored, each sink into the driest ditch of heathenism. Both dare to approve a drunken carnival where there had been a holy feast.
A feast can carry the Lord's name or the people's. One writer asks whose feast this is.
So the history here speaks of Purim as a feast of the Jews, not a "feast of the Lord." Leviticus 23:1 speaks of "The Feasts of the Lord." But John 2:13 calls the Passover "the Passover of the Jews," and John 7:2 calls another feast of the Lord "the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles." Why? Because it was not primarily the Lord's honour the Jews sought, but their own enjoyment. What sad disrespect for the Lord's feasts!
What Mordecai wrote did not fade with the generation that lived it. One writer follows the feast forward, past its own history.
The memory of these days is carried on from age to age. This book mentions only one feast, the feast of Purim. It is a new feast, and it will last forever in memory of the deliverance of God's earthly people. There is perfect harmony between Esther and Mordecai and the people. What Esther and Mordecai establish, the people establish for themselves. So ends this account. It brings us to the dawn of the glorious time that follows deliverance, and leads us, as a prophecy, to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.
- Written. Mordecai writes the rescue down. The whole nation then submits to what he wrote.
- Sent. The letters go out to Jews near and far in every province. Joy felt in one city spreads through them all.
- Named. The days carry the name of the change itself: rest from enemies, sorrow turned to joy, mourning turned into a good day.
- Unnamed. One name is missing from the letter: God's. The holy feast later sank into a drunken carnival.
- Kept. What one man wrote became a memorial no generation dropped. Writers see in it the dawn of the rest and joy that follow deliverance.
to establish [this] among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned to 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.
Mordecai's letter sets aside two days for a scattered people. The reason he gives is the reversal itself: enemies gone, the month changed, mourning turned into a holiday. He tells the Jews to do more than feast. They are to send food to one another and gifts to the poor.
The days take their name from the relief the Jews got when the fighting stopped. Older translations call this relief rest, and one writer sees in it a picture of a rest still ahead for Israel:
At last the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) will be over. The Jews, long scattered and persecuted, will "rest from their enemies." Israel will enter its sabbath rest.
This was a reversal at the point where hope had run out:
The Jews had the sentence of death in themselves; but there is One who raises the dead, and turns the shadow of death into the morning.
One writer notes that such giving already had a long history:
The sending of presents or gifts on occasions of public joy is an old and widespread custom (Proverbs 19:6; Esther 2:18; Esther 9:19-22).
Another writer traces the giving back to what joy does to a person:
Many scriptures show that the more joy we have in God, the more large-hearted we will be toward one another. It is the very nature of joy to enlarge the heart… A happy man can afford to look around and make others happy with him.
The feast took its name from Haman's lot. Notice also what the record leaves unsaid:
The Jews set up a two-day feast at this time and called it Purim, after Pur, the lot Haman cast with the aim of destroying the Jews. Very likely the Jews knew Solomon's proverb, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33). Haman had expected demon power to back him up. But no doubt the Jews recognised that the Lord had stepped in with His own clear decision. The Jews certainly did recognise the Lord's hand in this. Yet God still did not allow His name to be mentioned publicly at all.
The book of Esther never names God. Later Jewish teaching turned the day into something Mordecai's letter never described:
Yet man's own word makes the whole difference plain. The Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink until he cannot tell the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai" and "Cursed be Haman."… Judaism, and Christendom where Christ is ignored, both sink into the driest ditch of heathenism. Both dare to approve a drunken carnival where there had been a holy feast.
This is the only feast the book records, and the account closes by looking forward:
The memory of these days carries on from age to age. This book mentions only one feast, the feast of Purim. It is a new feast which will last forever in memory of the deliverance of the earthly people of God… So this account ends. It leads us to the dawn of the glorious time that follows deliverance, and it brings us in prophecy to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.
- Rest first. The verse dates these days from the moment the fighting stopped. One writer links that rest to Israel's coming sabbath rest, after the time of Jacob's trouble ends.
- Reversal, not repair. They had the sentence of death in themselves. Then they met the One who raises the dead and turns the shadow of death into morning.
- Joy that spreads. Sending gifts on a day of public joy was an old and widespread custom. Joy in God enlarges the heart, and a happy person can afford to make others happy too.
- Named by the enemy's lot. The feast carries the name of the lot Haman threw — a silent confession that every decision of the lot is from the Lord, even while God keeps His own name out of the public record.
- Guarded or wasted. The same feast later became a drinking carnival. A holy memory decays wherever people ignore God. Yet its true horizon is the reign of Christ.