Esther 9:31
To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry. To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
Esther 9:31 confirms the appointed dates of Purim after Haman's plot to destroy all the Jews under Medo-Persian rule was frustrated and overthrown by a counter decree that preserved God's people and utterly defeated their enemies. Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen enjoined those dates in their appointed times, as the Jews had decreed for themselves and their seed, together with the fastings and the cry belonging to their deliverance. The decree was made by their souls, meaning themselves as whole persons for themselves and their descendants, and the times were appointed occasions fixed by appointment, whether by man or by God. The times here are definite appointed times, establishing that the times the little horn thinks to change are appointed times of God's law, so that to change them is to change the law itself and defy His authority. That deliverance from a decree of death foreshadows God's future rescue of those who refuse to obey a human command against the Sabbath, and those who held the prophetic reckoning taught that its fasting and crying mark two thousand years of tearing to 1842 and the third day from 1843 of raising up to reign with Christ.
History and Setting of Purim
Esther 9:31 belongs to the account of Haman's plot to destroy all the Jewish people under Medo-Persian rule under King Ahasuerus. That plot to destroy God's people through Haman was frustrated, and by God's overruling power they were saved from their enemies and preserved. It is part of the account of the counter decree that saved God's people in captivity from destruction and overthrew their enemies. That counter working preserved the godly line in a triumphant vindication.
The verse belongs to the utter and absolute defeat of wicked Haman as the devil's agent. It gives the origin of the feast of Purim, begun when God saved the Jewish people from Haman's plot. Purim takes its name from Pur, meaning lot or the casting of lots. It stands in a book where the name of God does not occur in English and is found in the original only five times in the form of an acrostic.
Wording and Appointed Observance
The term rendered as themselves can also be rendered as their souls, showing that soul here denotes the people themselves as whole persons. It was these persons in their entirety who decreed the observance for themselves and for their descendants.
The word rendered time comes from the Hebrew word zeman, pronounced zem-awn, meaning an appointed occasion, season, or time fixed by appointment. It derives from a root meaning to fix or appoint, and it carries in itself no definite reference to a feast but denotes a definite time appointed by man or by God. In this place it denotes the appointed times of Purim confirmed by human decree.
Mordecai and Esther confirmed the appointed dates for Purim in their appointed times, as the Jews had decreed for themselves and for their seed. Together with that confirmation went the matters of the fastings and the cry associated with their deliverance. That deliverance stands as an example of God rescuing His people from a threat of death, applied to the future effort to kill those who refuse to obey a human command about the Sabbath.
Prophecy Doctrine and Application
The Hebrew word for times denotes an appointed occasion, season, and definite time fixed by appointment, and here it means a definite appointed time set by human authority, namely the appointed times for Purim enjoined by Mordecai and Esther for themselves and their seed. Taken with all its other uses, it proves that the word always means definite appointed times of God or of man. It therefore establishes that the times the little horn thinks to change are appointed times connected with the law, so that to change them is to change the law itself and to defy the authority of God.
The establishment of Purim as an appointed observance, including the fastings and cries associated with the Jews' deliverance, belongs to a wider account in which God rescued His people from a threat of death. That deliverance provides an example of divine rescue from a death decree. It applies to the future effort to kill those who refuse to obey a human command about the Sabbath.
Appointed times confirmed by decree after fasting and crying mark prophetic time. The tearing and smiting followed by healing and binding up are the two days of the Roman kingdom in imperial, kingly, and papal form tearing the people of God. That period began with the league of the Jews with the Romans when Grecian rule ceased in B.C. 158 and lasted 2000 years to 1842, since one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. The third day beginning in 1843 is the raising up to live in His sight and to reign with Christ a thousand years.