Modern Day Esthers

Yael Eckstein  |  March 16, 2022

This evening at sundown, Jewish people around the world will begin the celebration of Purim, one of the most joyful holidays on the Jewish calendar. But in the midst of this joy, we are witnessing such suffering in Ukraine. Writing at The Christian Post, Yael says this holiday — and the biblical story of Esther which it commemorates — reminds us that God acts through each of us to protect His children:

This week Jews in Israel and around the world will begin celebrating Purim. Some Jews, who just fled the war in Ukraine, will be celebrating it in Israel for the very first time. It is perhaps the most festive holiday in the Jewish calendar, and though Christians do not usually celebrate it, many know the story behind it, just like Jewish children who grow up hearing it every year.

Purim recalls the deliverance of the Jewish people from their enemies nearly 2,400 years ago. The king of Persia chose a beautiful young woman named Esther to be his queen, unaware that she was Jewish. Esther heard from Mordecai, her uncle, that the king had entrusted the fate of Persian Jews to Haman, the King’s top adviser. Haman may have been one of history’s earliest anti-Semites: he hated the Jews, and issued an order to kill them all.

At great risk to her own life, Esther revealed to the king that she was Jewish and pleaded with him to save her people. He agreed to do so, and, in a fitting twist, handed down to Haman the death sentence Haman himself had planned to give the Jews.

Esther’s story, though thousands of years old, teaches us several lessons that are relevant today…

Read the rest of Yael’s message on this Bible story and its meaning for us today at The Christian Post.