Purim is often celebrated as a carnival of costumes and candy, sprinkled with crafts and games, celebrating the survival of the Jewish people from the maniacal hatred of the Agagite Haman in Ancient Persia. In all appearances, Purim can look like a “Biblical Halloween” due to the customary costumes and candy handed out everywhere, but it has one major difference— Purim highlights Light overcoming Darkness, Good overcoming Evil, God’s covenant over Satan’s hatred toward God’s covenant. Purim provides us with the perfect opportunity to teach our children about spiritual warfare and the current anti-semitic climate in a disarming and “fun” but historically and Biblically true context.
Purim is not about Esther and Mordecai and the Jews. It is about God’s faithfulness and covenant relationship to His people and the spiritual war to undermine that covenant faithfulness. Purim shows us the irrational hatred of the enemies of God toward the people of God. Our kids always declare how “silly” Haman is for taking out his offense against 1 man, Mordecai, on the entire people group of Jews. Haman displays the irrational nature of racism and prejudice and the current state of Anti-Semitism around the world.
The book of Esther is a fairytale, the orphan girl becomes princess, that opens our hearts to understand how much courage and faith is needed to overcome trials and persecution. Esther, the orphaned Benjamite is elevated to Queenship “for such a time as this” to head off the vile genocide of Haman the Agagite (aka Amalekite). Esther’s bravery to approach the king and not be held by fear of man and death redeems her tribe from Saul’s fleshly cowardice before the people of Israel that caused him to disobey God’s command (1 Samuel 15), and take for sacrifice the forbidden treasures and livestock of the Amalekites, and spare the life of the king. Biblical characters become a living parable illustrating the walk of faith and the age old battle between good and evil. While God may not be mentioned by name, He is certainly present. Esther calls all Jews to fast and pray before she goes into the King. She knows that she needs a miracle. She knows that if she hides in fear, she will perish anyway. I wonder if Yeshua’s audience had Esther in mind when He taught “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”
Matthew 16:25-27
Purim actually lands at the end of the Biblical year, on the 14th day of the 12th month now known as Adar, only 2 weeks from new year and the first month now known as Nisan where we celebrate Passover and Yeshua’s resurrection. Timing is important and when the Bible records the dates and months it is always fun to chart out the timing and how it corresponds with the Biblical Calendar and schedule of Feasts. The book of Esther chapter 3 tells how Haman, the Agagite burned with anger toward the Jews as a result of Mordecai not bowing to him in homage. Verse 7 says “In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast the Pur (that is, the lot).” It makes a “lot” more sense why Mordecai may have refused to bow the knee to Haman when we understand that the Jews were amidst preparations and celebration of God’s redemption of the Jewish People from bondage in Egypt for Passover, which includes the retelling of the story of the wanderings in the wilderness where the Amalekite nation attacked the young nation of Israel in the Wilderness. It is also interesting that Esther becomes a symbolic “sacrifice” to intercede for the salvation of the people of Israel set in the season of Passover which points to Yeshua’s own intercession and sacrifice for our salvation also on Passover. The actual celebration is 12 months later when the actual massacre was to take place but the Jews were given authority to arm and defend themselves.
We have spoken many times with our children of “the spirit of Haman” or “the spirit of the amalekites” when talking about the demonic evils done against the Jewish people. Herod was another type of Haman. We teach our children about the Holocaust, that Hitler was a type of Haman. His cold and calculating genocide of the Jews is more comprehendible that he was operating in a spirit that wanted to destroy God’s covenant and undermine his character. And the horrors of October 7, 2023 are much easier to process for tender hearts within the context that when people are given over to Satan’s rule. Satan uses them for inhumane demonic irrational acts to attack God’s covenant people. We know that it will happen in the future too when those who refuse to worship the beast will be mercilessly martyred. Our children need to understand that while many wars in our world are certainly soldier to soldier combat and there is sacrifice of life, (we have cried many, many tears for our fallen soldiers), we truly wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
As a family, we have a few activities that help us celebrate God’s redemption and communicate the spiritual war then and now.
Read through the book of Esther. The book of Esther might be 10 chapters, but they are short, captivating, and quick moving. I was age 7 when I first read through the Book of Esther start to finish in one sitting. Rather, I should say that my older sister read it to me from start to finish in a single sitting. It was my first trip to Israel, February of 1991, and we landed on a kibbutz for the feast of Purim. I was captivated by the tinsel wigs and the melodramatic recreation of the book of Esther, and loved the “Haman’s ears” cookies. We went to sleep in the adjoining hotel room to our parents at a responsible hour, but still being jet lagged, we awoke at the wee hours of the morning. In the dim lamplight of the hotel room, and inspired by the previous night’s festivities, my sister read to me the book of Esther as I re-enacted the drama with our Barbies. It is a core memory that I have never forgotten. We are intentional to read through the entire book as a family each Purim.
Re-Enact the book of Esther. We do not do this EVERY year, but several times throughout the years we have truncated the book of Esther, or paraphrased the book of Esther to play out the drama with costumes or with puppets. When our kids were younger we recruited family friends to come over and act out the story as we narrated, and as our kids have grown and are more capable, they have taken on the role of summarizing and acting out the events of Purim. A friend just wrote a Purim Musical that I am eager to get my hands on.
Discussion is the foundation of critical thinking. Our goal is not to indoctrinate. Our goal is to provide our children with the tools to think for themselves and to synthesize what THEY read in the scriptures and to relate it to world events today. We discuss the spirit of Haman, and the spirit of the Amalekites to undermine the covenant promises of God, and attack the weak and defenseless through History…. Characters like Haman, Antiochus Epiphanies, Herod of Rome, Mohammad and Islam, Hitler, and our current conflicts today as people chant worldwide “from the River to the Seas”. Enemies of God’s covenant have always sought to destroy God’s people. We don’t just talk AT our children, but we ask them good questions: What other leaders in history have had a similar hatred toward the Jews? What is God’s promise to the Jewish People? Why did God promise this? Was God’s promise a result of the merit of the Jewish People or on God’s Character and Glory? Why do you think the Jews are the target of such hatred? What is our responsibility and what should we do about it?
Dress Up in your favorite Bible character or movie character. We definitely love to dress up as a family, and the kids enjoy seeing us parents get into costume. We dress up to remember how Esther concealed her identity as a Jew, even as Queen of Persia, in submission to Mordecai’s advice, until the time was right.
Bake cookies. While I love a good Purim cookie—Haman’s ear/hamantaschen—but we’ve invented a new cookie we call the Scroll of Esther in lieu of the traditional cookie, more on that another time.
GIVE: Esther 9 speaks how the Jews sent gifts to one another to celebrate their salvation, so it is customary to give sweets and treats as gifts to neighbors and friends and especially to your Jewish friends in your community. This is an excellent opportunity to show your love and support and share the love of God in a tangible way.
Activities/Crafts:
Make and decorate a crown
Make and decorate a scepter
Make and decorate a mask
Illustrate the Book of Esther by chapter/scene
Draw and write a comic strip of the Book of Esther
Write a Purim Play and design costumes
Whatever you decide to do, I hope that you take time to at minimum read the book of Esther with your children, and allow them the opportunity to discern good and evil, and ask hard questions about God, His covenants and His people. Happy Purim!
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