Today we will continue reading the Reverend Louis DeBoer's commentary on the Book of Esther, Chapter 17, A Perpetual Memorial, and Chapter 18, Extrascriptural Holy Days. Chapter 17, A Perpetual Memorial. Reading Esther, Chapter 9, verses 20 through 22. 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, to establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 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." The Babylonian captivity is over. The seventy years ended with the decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem. but much more has been accomplished in Jerusalem. Under Ahasuerus' successor, Artaxerxes, Nehemiah is in tears because the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 3. Jerusalem is still in ruins in Esther's time, and those that have returned from the exile are dispirited. There is no thought of rebuilding the temple as authorized by Cyrus' decree. Without a viable city and a temple, Jerusalem is not functioning as the heart of the nation and the religious center of the theocracy. So by default, Mordecai, the most prominent and powerful Jew in the dispersion, in faraway Shushan, is functioning as the head of the nation. In the decree that brought about their deliverance, he is acting as the prime minister of Ahasuerus. Now he is acting as the acknowledged leader of the dispersed Jewish nation, and as such he gives them another decree. They are to establish the 14th and 15th day of Adar as annual feast days to commemorate their deliverance from the conspiracy of Haman the Agagite. These are the days on which they had rested and rejoiced in their victories of the previous day. Even as they commemorated God's creation on the 7th day when God rested, So they commemorate their deliverance, not on the day that it occurred, but on the day that they rested from it and rejoiced in it. This resting was spread out over two days, because in Shushan there was an additional day of fighting before they rested. This commemorative feast day, or holiday as we would term it, is to be observed annually. The means of its observance is that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. Gifts to the poor does not mean gifts to poor Egyptians, Babylonians, or Persians. It refers to the poor of their people as provided for by the laws of Moses. Reading Esther chapter 9, verses 23 through 28. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them, because Haman, the son of Hamadathah the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast purr, that is the lot, to consume them and to destroy them. But when Esther 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 son should be hanged on the gallows. Wherefore they call 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, 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, 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 Jews acceded to Mordecai's decree, and covenanted that they, their seed, and all proselytes to their nation would observe these memorial days from generation to generation in every family throughout all the provinces of the empire. These days were named Purim after the lot that Haman had cast for their destruction, but which God overruled as appointing the day for their deliverance. Reading Esther chapter 9 verses 29 through 32. Then Esther the Queen, the daughter of Abahel and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm the second letter of Purim, and he sent the letters unto all the Jews to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus with words of peace and truth to confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the Queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed the matters of the fastings and their crying. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, as it was written in the book. This is undoubtedly the most difficult passage in this chapter. It engenders numerous questions. When was the second letter written? Why was it written? Why was a second letter necessary? And what does the second letter require that the first did not? The text does not explicitly answer any of these questions. That leaves us with reasonable deductions and logical suppositions. but these are no substitute for inspired statements from the text itself. To answer the first question of when this second letter was written, the Jewish chronologers say a year later. This answer seems reasonable. If it was written almost a year later, it could have been used to remind the Jews of their commitment to keep the festival of Purim and to ensure its faithful observance. If it was written slightly over a year later, it could have been used to follow up whatever observance took place and to exhort to a more comprehensive or more correct observance the next time. If the latter was the case, it would explain the change in tone of the letter. The original letter, as sent out by Mordecai, may only have exhorted and recommended that they institute the festival of Purim. But of this letter we are told that it was sent out in the name of both Esther the Queen and Mordecai the Prime Minister, and that they wrote with all authority. This letter addresses the Jews as subjects of the Persian Empire and commands them with respect to its contents. If this be so, then that answers the second question of why it was written. It was written to legally strengthen the requirement of its observance and to define exactly what the requirements of that observance were. That brings us to the third question. What did this letter require that the first one did not? The answer may be nothing. It may only have been a reminder. It may only have been to establish the festival of Purim on a more solid footing. It all depends on one's interpretation of the phrase, and as they decreed for themselves and for their seed the matters of the fastings and their cry. This can be taken as a simple affirmation of the requirements of the first letter. The Jews had already vowed to keep the 14th and 15th day of Adar as feast days. This simply reaffirms their vows to feast on those days. concerning their deliverance from the national catastrophe about which they had fasted and wept. This can also be taken to mean that the Jews, at Esther's and Mordecai's direction, had vowed to also fast and weep as part of the festival of Purim. This is Kyle's view. We are not told when this fasting and weeping was to take place. But logically it would take place on the 13th of Adar, the anniversary of their proposed day of execution. This fasting and weeping would then be followed by two days of feasting to commemorate their deliverance. But this would seem to be a strange requirement. Why would one fast and weep over a calamity that did not occur? How can one sincerely fast and weep over an event that God providentially turned into a day of deliverance and the destruction of their enemies? I can think of no other example in the Scripture where the children of Israel observed a commemorative day of fasting or of weeping over a national event, not even over calamities that did occur. There was no annual fast in remembrance of the decree of Pharaoh to kill all the male babies of the Hebrews and thus to blot out the race. There was no annual fast to commemorate the decree of God that condemned an entire generation to wander in the desert until they had all died without seeing the land of promise. The only commemorative fasting and weeping that comes to mind is over the daughter of Jephthah. The scriptures relate that when he told his daughter of his vow, this was her response. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth. Forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me. Let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months. And she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. And that was read from Judges chapter 11 verses 36 through 40. Jephthah's vow was to offer her up to the Lord. The authorized version uses the phrase, burnt offering, is inaccurate and misleading. Jephthah's daughter was offered up to the Lord not by some gross device of a human sacrifice on the altar. but was dedicated to God's service in the tabernacle exactly the same way as Hannah later offered up Samuel. This vow therefore required that she remain a perpetual virgin and never marry. In such a society this was indeed a great sacrifice and she therefore asked for two months to go and weep over the fact that she would never have a husband or bear children. And as the Scriptures record it, the effect of the vow was that she remained a virgin and that she knew no man. Now this was personal, not a national tragedy. But it resulted from a prayer and a vow for national deliverance. And therefore it became a custom that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. But they were lamenting an event that actually occurred. Actually the only significant argument in favor of this view is historical. The Jews still observe the fast on the 13th of Adar known as Esther's fast. Reverend DeBoer has a note on this. And I quote, the origin of this fast is hard to determine. Josephus does not mention it. In the Apocrypha in 2nd Maccabees chapter 15 verse 36, the victory of Judas over Nicanor is celebrated on the 13th of Adar. It is hard to imagine instituting an annual celebration on a day that was already set aside for commemorative fasting. If it was instituted later, then it has nothing to do with our understanding of the verse in question. Kyle says that a diversity of opinions prevailed among the rabbis concerning the time of this fast of Esther. I contacted a local rabbi. He stated that only the Orthodox Jews still celebrate it as a fast. In the Reform branch of Judaism, it is a minor children's feast. They dress up as the characters of the book and read it, using noisemakers to drown out the name of Haman whenever it is read. In Israel, it is celebrated like a type of Mardi Gras carnival. with costumes and public parades. Chapter 18 Extra Scriptural Holy Days One issue that is raised by the institution of the Festival of Purim in Esther's day is the entire question of extra scriptural holy days. Do we have the authority to institute special holy days? In the laws that God gave to Moses, Israel was given three feasts to celebrate annually. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto thee in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded thee in the time appointed of the month of Abib. For in it thou camest out from Egypt and none shall appear before me empty. and the feast of harvest, the first fruit of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God." Exodus 23 verses 14 through 17. not only the three annual festivals, but all the holy days of the Old Testament Hebrew calendar were also instituted by God. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be an holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God." Leviticus chapter 23 verses 26 through 28. And this of course raises the question of whether the Hebrews had the authority to add to this religious calendar holy days of their own choosing. It seems pretty clear that they did not. Not only did God indirectly teach this by example, in himself instituting all their holy days and establishing an annual religious calendar of divine legislation, but it was also specifically prohibited by the laws and the precepts that God gave unto Moses. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. and again in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 32. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. The children of Israel were commanded to rigidly and faithfully observe all these divinely decreed festivals and holy days. They were also commanded not to tamper with this religious calendar by either adding to it or deleting from it. Such was God's clearly revealed will on the matter. This of course also raises the question of whether the church in our day has the authority to institute extra-scriptural religious holy days such as Good Friday, Christmas, and Easter that the church has added to her calendar come to mind. the Reformers thought not, and eliminated all these extra-scriptural holy days from the observances of the Church. This was based on a number of reasons, which can be enumerated as follows. 1. The regulative principle of worship. They carried over the argument that bound the Hebrew Church. They stated that Christ is the only and sovereign head of His Church. and that man has no authority to institute holy days in God's church without a divine mandate, without biblical warrant. 2. The New Testament argument. They quoted Paul's opposition to the Galatian Christians observing extra-scriptural holy days. Galatians 4, 9-11. But now, after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn away to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have labored for you in vain." Galatians 4 9-11 They noted that Paul treated the Gentiles submission to the ceremonial law as another gospel. They particularly noted that he treated the observance of an ecclesiastical calendar with special holy days that was now suspended with the ceremonial law and thus without biblical warrant as a threat to justification by faith. Three, the logical argument. The Reformers argued that we know neither the dates of the crucifixion, of the resurrection, or of the birth of Christ. From this they logically concluded that if God had wanted us to celebrate these days, he would have providentially revealed the correct dates for these observances. They also noted that the birth of Christ was certainly not in the winter, but that all the scriptural clues pointed to a birth in the early fall, in other words late September or early October. They also pointed out that there are scriptural and divinely mandated means to observe the death, resurrection, and birth of Christ. Christ's birth is celebrated every time we observe the Lord's Supper and set forth the blood and the wine. the consecrated symbols of his incarnation. Similarly, they believe that the celebration of the Lord's Supper was the prescribed way to observe his death as Paul taught. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 1st Corinthians 11 verse 26. And finally, that the observance of the Christian Sabbath on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, the day on which Christ rose from the dead, is the scriptural way to observe his resurrection. Fourth, the historical argument. The Reformers considered all these unscriptural holidays to have their origin in pagan practices and to be corrupted by Romish idolatry. As such, they uniformly rejected them and purged them from the church at the time of the Reformation. All of this now brings us back to the question before us. Was Mordecai justified in establishing a new holy day in the Jewish calendar? It is not an idle question. Moses was more than explicit on this point. that the Jews were forbidden to add to the ecclesiastical calendar as instituted by God is beyond dispute. Therefore, it is not surprising that Kyle states in his commentary that many Jewish elders oppose the institution of the Feast of Pur as an innovation in the law. Kyle's source indicates that the opposition was considerable, amounting to 80 elders and including 30 prophets. Only the silence of Scripture and the unblemished Scripture testimony to Mordecai's greatness and goodness seem to mitigate against the conclusion that he may have sinned in this matter. Ultimately I believe that this entire issue rests on how these extra holy days of Purim are regarded. If they are ecclesiastical holy days that are being added to the church's calendar, then their institution has to be regarded as definitely wrong, as an unauthorized intrusion into God's prerogatives. However, they can be regarded another way. They can be regarded as simply civil holidays, holy days, to commemorate great and providential historic occurrences in the nation are altogether appropriate and have commonly been observed by nations. These may be civic in nature, but they are, in a sense, holy days. They are days of giving thanks unto Almighty God for His providential care for and preservation of the nation, specifically in some great historical trial that the nation experienced. There are many examples that can be brought to mind. In the American Republic, the chief civil holiday is July 4th. This is a civil holiday, but it has religious aspects. The Declaration of Independence, that it is dated from, recognized that all our rights come from the Creator. Traditionally, this day involved not only civic parades and other functions, but also prayer and public thanksgiving for our nation and church services to thank God for his gracious providence toward the American Republic. But it is not an ecclesiastical holiday. It is not part of a church calendar. Ecclesiastic Holy Days are instituted by God for his church and are obligatory on all Christians of whatever nation. A civil holiday is by nature national and is only to be observed by the citizens of a particular nation. There is a civil holy day that closely parallels the festival of Purim. It is Verbon's Dog, Covenant Day, celebrated by the Afrikaners in South Africa. The Dutch had settled Cape Colony at the southern end of Africa, but during the Napoleonic Wars the British seized it. By the 1830s the Dutch settlers, the Boers, were fed up with British rule and trekked north into what is now Natal. They were traveling into Zulu territory, and an advanced expedition under Piet Rediff went to make a peace treaty with Dingan, the Zulu king. They were well received and a treaty was worked out, which among other things established clear borders between Zulu territory and Boer territory. On the final day of the conference, Dingan had scheduled a great feast and had his warriors dance for relief and his men. The warriors danced in a circle around them, which kept narrowing until the warriors fell on the unsuspecting and unarmed Boers and slaughtered all seventy of them. Dingon then sent out his warriors to massacre the scattered Boer wagon trains trekking north. About six hundred Boers, mostly old men, women, and children, were thus treacherously massacred. After several desperate skirmishes with the Zulus in which the Boers hung on against tremendous odds, Andries Pretorius, the second in command at Retief, raised a militia commando of 500 Boers to attack the Zulus. This was an act of great courage and faith and by today's standards would have seemed suicidal. but it was typical of the Boers and their great confidence in God's deliverance. They moved deep into Zulu territory, chose a defensible position with their backs to the river and circled the wagons. They chained the wagons together and blocked up the spaces between the wagons with thorn bushes and awaited the Zulu onslaught. The results are history. There, on 16 December 1838, the Zulus found them and launched a savage, unsuccessful attack. Unable to close with their enemy, a tactic imposed on them by the short Segai, in other words a short native spear, they fell before the flintlocks of the Boers. It is said that 3,000 Zulus were killed at the cost to the Boers of three wounded. It is still remembered, for 16 December became Dingan's Day, now called Day of the Covenant, in keeping of the oath of perpetual remembrance taken by Praetorius and his men, and each year is celebrated by Afrikaners as a proud day of solemn Thanksgiving. As it was later described by Paul Kruger, President of Transvaal, who was present at the battle as a boy. I do not say that what I heard, but what I have seen with my own eyes. He went on to describe the battle in his homely way. The circle of covered wagons chained together in the logger, the gaps between the wagons closed by bundles of mimosa thorn, the attack of the Zulus, the air thick with assiges, the children melding down led for bullets, the women hacking off arms of the Zulu who tried to break through the thorn bushes. The Lord, praise the Lord, he has given his people a great victory. The battle was incredible as wave after wave of Zulus threatened to engulf the beleaguered Boers who were outnumbered 10 or 20 to 1. As the women reloaded their rifles, the men kept firing until the river ran red with Zulu blood, and it was later renamed the Blood River. The Boers remembered their vow and never forgot this day. They felt as Israel of old that they had seen the deliverance of the Lord. they felt that God's covenant promises had been fulfilled before their eyes. Leviticus 26, 7-9 notes, You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. Your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. For I will look on you favorably, and make you fruitful, multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you." Not a single boar died, and they must have exultantly sung Psalm 91. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." Psalm 91 verses 7 through 11. Over six decades later, the Boers were still remembering this day. At the height of the Boer War, when they faced national destruction from the juggernaut of British imperialism, they again celebrated it. In addressing his people on the day after Kolenzo, Kruger had no need to refer to the British dead. It was Dingon's Day, the Day of the Covenant. the day when the Lord had shown by the destruction of Dingon and the Zulus at Blood River that he had made a covenant with the Vorteckers. For the sixty-first time, Kruger celebrated the great anniversary. In the small dopper, ultra-Calvinist church, packed with women, he shuffled to the rostrum, eyes blinking painfully black soot hanging in folds, voice hoarse and frail, yet in spirit the epitome of strength and defiance. Perhaps he took his text as did a speaker elsewhere that day from Exodus 15 verse 10. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide to spoil, my lust will be satisfied upon them. they sank as lead in the mighty waters. To Kruger there was indeed a marvelous symmetry about the pattern of his long life. Blood River, Majuba, now Colenso. Three times in the green hills at Natal the Lord had delivered them from their enemies. Hence the overpowering simplicity of his call to the folk. Put your trust in the Lord. He will protect His people as He protected your forefathers at Dungan." It is hard to find fault with the conduct of the Boers in this matter. They sought God's blessing, they pleaded for His deliverance, and they promised a perpetual day of remembrance and thanksgiving if they should experience His salvation. And when they saw the salvation of the Lord, they did not forget but year after year renewed their thanksgiving to Almighty God on the day of the covenant. However, this was a national, a civic, holy day. It was not an ecclesiastical holy day added to the Christian church and obligatory on all Christians, but a day to be remembered by the Boers of Natal and of Transvaal and by their descendants. As such, I believe that its institution and observance were legitimate and within the scope of God's law as revealed in Scripture. And the parallel with Purim is inescapable. For the Jews of the captivity, for the Jewish dispersion in all the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire, its annual observance was logical and legitimate. they too had faced imminent death and national destruction, and they too had determined to annually commemorate their deliverance in thanksgiving of God's people and their descendants that had experienced a particular historic deliverance. I see no wrong in it." The Church of Jesus Christ in this world, the visible church, is meant to be one Paul likened it to an olive tree and not to a pile of branches, and any ecclesiastical holy day that is added to its calendar would be obligatory on all believers everywhere, and this can only be done by Jesus Christ its head. But godly nations can and should give God the glory and the thanksgiving for their national blessings and providential preservation. This they do not by nature of the fact that they are Christians, but because they are Christian citizens of a specific nation. Mordecai was not a priest. He was not a high priest of Israel seeking to add to the ecclesiastical calendar instituted by God at Sinai. He was a civil magistrate, and as the Prime Minister of the Persian Empire, he gave a civil command to the Jewish citizens of that empire. and of that empire only, to commemorate their deliverance annually by the observance of the Feast of Purim. Seen in this light, I believe we can acknowledge His actions to have been lawful. Amen.