2009 Initiative - "365 Holy Days": This week we focus on Purim, which begins at sundown on Tuesday, March 10, and ends Wednesday, March 11, at sundown.
WELLness
Warm-up: Create Devotional Time Cards
Check out Proverbs 16:33. After this, create devotional time cards. Draw down exactly in this sequence, a hexagon, a colon(:), a square, a rhombus and a triangle. Draw this sequence twice. This is your devotional time card.Exercise: Casting Lots To Determine Devotional Times
Each person takes a turn rolling four dice corresponding to the four shapes on their devotional time cards. the dodecahedron, which is the twelve-sided die, the decahedron (10-sided), and the hexahedron (6-sided) will all represent exactly the numbers they show; for the tetrahedron (4-sided), odd numbers (1 and 3) will represent AM, and evens (2 and 4) will represent PM. (note for standard hexahedrons numbered 1-6, subtract 1 from the face, so the numbers available are 0-5.) Each role represents a time of the day for devotional time. Anyone in the group with open shapes may take the role as their own. The game is over when everyone has roled once. If anyone has open shapes after the last role, then the last role becomes their time.Lesson: LOTS of Divine Evidence
The Book of Esther describes the origins and establishment of the Jewish Feast of Purim (Hebrew pur, or lot; purim is plural, so, lots.) When the Canon of Sacred Scripture was being assembled, Esther was a book of controversy, because not one word in it is said to be uttered by God! The power that is in this book, however, is found when we take in all 10 chapters, then reflect and ruminate on them; it becomes awe-striking when we see God working at every twist and turn in the seeming "soap opera" that is Esther.
There are four main players to keep up with in this narrative: Xerxes the King of the Medo-Persian Empire, Esther the Jewish virgin that vies with many other to be his new queen, Mordecai, Esther's cousin, who raised her as his own daughter upon the death of her parents, and Haman, who, like Hitler, sought to wipe out the Jews completely and utterly. There is a fifth player in this drama, but of course, God is not seen in this story, yet He is providing for every detail that is necessary for the satisfying climax and salvation of His chosen people.
- Following Xerxes
- Following Haman
- Following Mordecai
- Following Esther
- Following God(!)
Bible References: Proverbs 16:33, Esther 1-10 (special focus on key verse ES4.14)Life application: Purim is a remembrance of Yahweh's deliverance from destruction. As Christians, we should remember Purim as an example of how God turns death into life, and a day of death into a day of life. He doesn't have to speak for His presence to be felt. Remember He is giving the decisions that the dice make to the dice!
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