Carmelo Caparros
Jul 28, 2019
INTRODUCTION
There are certain key phrases in this passage which are quite similar, but I would just like to quote a couple of them to you and they are both found in verse 28:
1. “So these days were to be remembered . . .”
2. “. . . these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants.
These phrases clearly tell us the THEME of this passage. It has to do with remembering God’s GOODNESS and DELIVERANCE’S in the face of the THREAT of TOTAL ANNIHILATION of their NATION. Certain steps were taken here to ensure that Israel’s GOD MOMENTS would not be forgotten.
REMEMBERING God’s goodness and deliverances is a key part of WALKING in FAITHFULNESS! This is one of the key thoughts in the Book of Deuteronomy:
BODY SERMON
I. STEPS to REMEMBER vv. 20 – 23
II.REMEMBERING the CRISIS v. 24
III. REMEMBERING GOD’S DELIVERANCE v. 25
IV. MAKING PERMANENT the REMEMBRANCE vv. 26 – 32
CONCLUSION
Intentionally remembering God’s goodness INCREASES our FAITH in God and brings HONOR to God and that is why we have to always WORK on REMINDING ourselves of God’s DELIVERANCE’S!
SAD STORY of this FEAST: “What it has since degenerated to, which is much worse. Their own writers acknowledge that this feast is commonly celebrated among them with gluttony, and drunkenness, and excess of riot. Their Talmud says expressly that, in the feast of Purim, a man should drink till he knows not the difference between Cursed be Haman, and Blessed be Mordecai. See what the corrupt and wicked nature of man often brings that to which was at first well intended: here is a religious feast turned into a carnival, a perfect revel, as wakes are among us. Nothing more purifies the heart and adorns religion than holy joy; nothing more pollutes the heart and reproaches religion than carnal mirth and sensual pleasure. Corruptio optimi est pessima: What is best becomes when corrupted the worst.”
-Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 653). Peabody: Hendrickson.