A resounding victory for the Jewish people with historical significance on more than one level. As we shall see, it was important concerning past events and would become important in the future.

When the Jews killed their enemies, they actually tended to unfinished business going back to the beginning of their existence as a nation. Right after the Exodus the Amalekites attacked them, but Joshua and his army overcame them in partnership with the praying Moses (Exodus 17). This shows that it was very much a spiritual as well as a physical attack, which is the same in the book of Esther. It was yet another attempt by the devil to exterminate God’s chosen people aiming to prevent God from carrying out His Redemption Plan for mankind (and the whole cosmos!). God emphatically declared after Joshua won the victory: “I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Interestingly, when Moses gave his final instructions to the nation of Israel shortly before they were about to enter the Promised Land, he linked the destruction of the Amalekites to the rest that they were going to enjoy in the land after defeating all their enemies (Deuteronomy 25:19).

However, when the first king of the Israelite nation, Saul, finally had the chance to completely destroy the Amalekites, he disobeyed God, leaving king Agag alive and helping himself to some plunder, which he’d been expressly told not to do (1 Samuel 15). Agag did meet his end, but it seems that some Amalekites still survived throughout history and were now resurfacing again in opposition to the Jews. Somehow, they represented “the epitome of all the powers of the world arrayed against God’s people. And now that the Israelites have been released from captivity, Haman’s edict is the final major effort in the OT period to destroy them.” (NIV Study Bible)

But here in Esther 9, hundreds of years later, the Jews finally defeated the Amalekites in the person of Haman and his family. No wonder there is such exuberant celebration and even the establishment of a new festival to commemorate this significant victory!

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Question:

Do you feel under spiritual attack? Ephesians 6: 10 -20 reminds us that when we seek to live as God’s ambassadors we will get attacked by the devil, but in Jesus Christ, empowered by His Holy Spirit, we have complete victory (God still works in partnership with us, though!).

Prayer/Action:

Why not read the Ephesians passage mentioned above and prayerfully put on the armour of God bit by bit as you come across it. Worship is another great way to deal with spiritual attacks, reminding us that God is able to fight our battles as we pray, trust and obey. (Again, YouTube can be helpful here in finding songs with the line: ‘The Battle belongs to the Lord’ or ‘He is fighting for us’ ...)