Esther 9:19, commentary and pictures

The Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting and a good day, and of sending portions of food to one another. This belongs to the account under Ahasuerus in which Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews, but a counter decree reversing the decree against them saved them and overthrew their enemies. Their rescue was the result of God's overruling power frustrating Haman's attempt to destroy them.

The frustrated attempt was Satan working through Haman in the reign of Ahasuerus to destroy all God's people in Medo-Persia, the second head of the beast system of church-state government, perverting it to his own ends to destroy the woman through whom the Man Child should come. God defeated that purpose and so preserved the godly line. The chapter is an account of God delivering His people from a threat of death imposed through human religious demands.

The verse marks the origin of Purim, the feast named from Pur meaning lot, celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from the plot to destroy them. Great trouble and danger were followed by gladness, and united prayer and the efforts of Mordecai, Esther, and the people were associated with the deliverance. The verse gives an instance of the Jewish mode of computation of time by which it can be known that Christ will come sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844 to revive and raise up His people to live in His sight and to reward every man as his work shall be.