This week is Purim, a celebration that honors YHWH, the living God of the Bible and a young Jewish maiden who changed the course of history. The maiden’s Hebrew name was Hadassah which means myrtle, but most of us know her by her Persian name of Esther or star.
It’s the story of a young girl with a courageous heart who answered the call when others would or could not, a story of one who was willing to sacrifice her place amongst the people she loved in order to protect them. You know, we often focus on Hadassah’s bravery as queen when approaching the king unannounced, but seldom do we appreciate the sacrifice she made for her people long before that day arrived.
You see, Hadassah, in order to be considered a potential future queen of Persia, had to be willing to sacrifice her virtue and her place amongst her own people. This was not just a beauty pageant where the losers got to go home with a consolation prize. The best she could hope for in a second place finish was concubine to the king, forever an outcast without respect and place amongst her own people.
But that is not how it turned out. Hadassah’s bravery and her love for her people changed the history of the Jewish people and those efforts even reached across the ages to touch the lives of you and me. Can you imagine what the history of the Jewish people might have been had Hadassah not acted? To be sure, YHWH could have raised up another brave soul to take her place in order to fulfill His redemptive plan for mankind, but surely the historical landscape would have changed.
Today I’d like to give you a unique glimpse of how YHWH used Hadassah to change the history of the Jewish and Persian people. The history we will explore in this article is a little known aspect of that Jewish / Persian history which finds roots in the superstitions surrounding the number 13 and the celebration of April Fool’s day. Continue reading