Scripture Daily

Context No. 1941 of 4322 · Esther (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Esther (Greek) 9:12-17: in context

12Then the king said to Esther, “The Jews have slain five hundred men in the city Susa. What do you think they have done in the rest of the country? What more do you ask, that it may be done for you?” 13Esther said to the king, “Let it be granted to the Jews to do the same to them tomorrow. Also, hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman.” 14He permitted it to be done; and he gave up to the Jews of the city the bodies of the sons of Haman to hang. 15The Jews assembled in Susa on the fourteenth day of Adar and killed three hundred men, but plundered no property. 16The rest of the Jews who were in the kingdom assembled, and helped one another, and obtained rest from their enemies; for they destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth day of Adar, but took no spoil. 17They rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.

After the Jews are delivered from the destruction Haman had plotted, defending themselves against those who rose to attack them, they gather and, the text notes, take no plunder for themselves. And then, their enemies overcome and their lives preserved, they rest, and keep the day as a day of joy and gladness, feasting and celebrating their deliverance. This day of rest and rejoicing became the annual feast of Purim, a lasting commemoration of how God had turned their peril into deliverance.

What the Jews did after their deliverance is worth noticing: they set apart a day to rest and rejoice, and made it an annual commemoration. They did not simply survive the danger and move on, forgetting; they marked the deliverance with celebration, and established a recurring feast so that it would be remembered and rejoiced over year after year. They understood the value of commemorating what God had done, of setting apart time to celebrate and give thanks for deliverance, rather than letting the memory fade. There is wisdom in this that we can lose. When God delivers us, from danger, from illness, from trouble, from some peril that threatened us, the temptation is to feel relief, move on, and quickly forget, so that the deliverance that once amazed us is soon out of mind. The Jews did better: they stopped to rejoice, and built in a lasting remembrance, so that the deliverance would continue to be celebrated and give rise to thanksgiving for generations. This is worth imitating. To mark God's deliverances, to set apart time to rejoice and give thanks for them, to remember and even commemorate the ways God has rescued and provided, keeps alive a gratitude that forgetting would let die, and steadies us in future troubles by reminding us of past deliverances. The LORD has done great things for us, the psalm says, and we are glad; and the remembering of his great things is what keeps the gladness alive. When God delivers us, let us not merely move on and forget, but stop to rejoice, to give thanks, to remember, and even to build in ways of commemorating his deliverance, so that our gratitude endures. The Jews turned their deliverance into a lasting feast of joy; and the deliverances God works for us, too, are worth marking, celebrating, and remembering, lest we forget the great things he has done.

When God delivers me from danger, trouble, or peril, do I feel relief and quickly move on, letting the deliverance that once amazed me fade from mind, or can I do as the Jews did after their rescue, setting apart time to rejoice and give thanks, and building in ways of remembering and commemorating God's deliverance, so that my gratitude endures?

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