The Feast of Purim 21-03-19

The feast of Purim recalls the time when a beautiful young orphan queen known as Esther saved her people from annihilation in ancient Persia.

Her identity as a Jew was a secret at the time of her accession to the throne as the potential for anti-Semitism was so great that the Bible’s account of her heroics only mentions God in code.

But when her guardian, Morcedai, alerted her to Haman’s genocidal plot against all the Jews in an empire stretching from India to Egypt, he challenged her with these words: “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4.14)

She knew it would be dangerous to approach the king without being summoned but, just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego risked the fiery furnace rather than compromise their faith, Esther too bit the bullet, defiantly declaring: “If I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4.16)

Is it not time for the church to stand up for the Jews as Esther did? The church in Germany were, for the most part, silent as they watched Hitler’s anti-Semitic cancer spread.

Thankfully, para-church organisations like Christian Friends of Israel, representing thousands of individual Christians, have until now played the part of Mordecai in their attempt to alert the church to the dangers.

Tabernacles 2015: a kairos time to visit Israel

Sukkot 2015

If you are a believer whose faith stands on the steadfastness of the Word of God, explore this: Tabernacles is a Biblical and historical feast with a profound prophetic purpose. The Feast plays a major part in the outworking of God’s End-Time purposes and so carries considerable ramifications for the Church.

Consider its timing – and specifically the international Christian observance of the Feast in Jerusalem since 1979. Israel’s God is mightily at work in the midst of the earth today. As they so often do, His acts defy complete comprehension. Yet it is clear He wants us to be aware and to participate in what He is doing.

Foretold repeatedly through the prophets of old is God’s intention to gather His dispersed Chosen People from the four corners of the globe and bring them back into their own land. We are living in the middle of the realization of this pledge. To the mortification of the God-rejecting nations, the Jews are being brought back to – and planted in – the land determined by Divine decree to be exclusively theirs.

According to the Bible, hard on the heels of their phenomenal physical reconstitution will come her spiritual rebirth. And it will change the world. God has determined to pour out upon this nation – but only once they are back in the land – the spirit of grace and supplication that will result in the circumcision of their hearts. And so all Israel will be brought into the New Covenant relationship with the Almighty promised in Jeremiah 31:31. Then – and only then – will God set up the Messianic Kingdom on earth.

As His plan unfolds precisely according to the age-old blueprint, Islamic nations, communist nations, secular humanist nations and once Judeo-Christian nations – OUR nations – are rallying against it. The international community has long been working to reverse the physical restoration of the Jews to the biblical heartland of Israel by conjuring up in that very place an Arab state called Palestine. Thereby (whether they believe it or not and realize it or not), the nations are out to forestall and, were it possible, thwart the glorious purposes of God.

When – as Christians from these increasingly hostile and determined nations – we come to Israel to celebrate the Feast, we come to worship the Lord, to proclaim His promises to the people and land of Israel and in faith, with conviction, to do exploits that spiritually support the restoration of Israel.

If you don’t get it, if this strikes you as error – then go, I urge you, into your prayer closet with the One you call Lord. Ask your heavenly Father to reveal His truth on this vital matter. And ask how He would have you respond.

You do NOT want to miss out on something as vital and as exhilarating as coming on tour with us in September – October; visit ww.cmj.org.au for the details