The noose had already been built. The date was set. The Perisan Empireās decree had gone out to every corner of the kingdom: the Jews would be wiped out in a single day. Men, women, children ā all marked for slaughter. The king had sealed it with his ring. There was no way out.
And then everything flipped.
The man who plotted the genocide was dead ā hanging from the very gallows he built. But the threat remained. The decree could not be revoked. The Jews were still one breath away from annihilation.
Until a second decree was issued. A counter-order. A legal reversal that turned victims into fighters and fear into fire. And that second decree was written and sealed on the 23rd day of Sivan.
That day in the Hebrew calendar – in the year 2025 falls today.
We tend to think of Purim as the holiday of victory. But the real turn in the story happened months earlier. Hamanās downfall wasnāt the end ā it was just the opening move. The noose was gone, but the sword was still raised. Thatās why the 23rd of Sivan is so important. This was the moment Mordechai stepped forward, not to plead, but to command.
The Book of Esther tells it plainly:
Mordechai didnāt request protection. He didnāt send out a petition or stage a protest. He wrote a new decree backed by royal authority, empowering the Jewish people to fight back:
It was not a miracle falling from the heavens. Godās name doesnāt appear once in the Megillah. But His fingerprints are everywhere: a sleepless king, an overheard plot, a perfectly-timed request. This is how God moves when His hand is hidden but His plan is unstoppable.
The 23rd of Sivan was the day the Jews of Persia remembered who they were. They werenāt lambs to the slaughter. They werenāt helpless victims. They were children of the covenant, armed with permission to fight and the certainty that God was still writing the story.
And now, thousands of years later, we find ourselves watching this story unfold again ā not in Shushan, but in Jerusalem, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in the skies over Israel.
Once again, Persia has taken center stage. Back then, it was Haman. Today, itās the leaders of Iran, openly calling for the destruction of the Jewish people. They arm terror proxies, fund endless waves of violence, and declare with chilling confidence that Israel will not survive.
They believed that in Shushan, too.
But thereās something the enemies of the Jewish people always fail to grasp. When Jews wake up ā when we are forced to fight ā the story doesnāt end the way they imagine. Hamanās wife Zeresh actually understood this much better than her husband. After seeing Mordechai honored in public, she warned him:
She didnāt need prophecy. Just pattern recognition. History speaks for itself.
The modern state of Israel was born out of ashes, surrounded by enemies, written off by most of the world. And yet, like in the days of Mordechai and Esther, we are still here. We have rebuilt the land. We have an army. We have sons and daughters who stand guard on the front lines every single day. And we have the same God who chose us then, who chooses us still:
Make no mistake: the battle today is not just political. It is spiritual. It always has been. When Persia rises again to declare war on Godās people, itās not just Israelās fight ā itās Godās fight. And His record speaks for itself.
The 23rd of Sivan reminds us that the turning point is never the day the threat disappears. Itās the day God authorizes His people to rise up and fight. Thatās when the story flips.
One day, not long from now, we may sit around a new table, with new wine and new songs, and add a new chapter to the long list of Jewish holidays. The theme will be familiar: they tried to kill us, we won, letās eat. But the name of the holiday? That part hasnāt been written yet.
Yet the ending has. Because every time the world tries to destroy Godās people, it ends the same way. Not with the fall of the Jews. But with the fall of Haman.
Again, and again, and again.
And now, may the days of Messiah be near.
Israel launchedĀ Operation Rising LionĀ to destroy Iranās nuclear weapons facilities before they could complete their plan for a second Holocaust. In response, Iran unleashed hell on Israeli civilians ā launching hundreds of missiles directly at homes, schools, and residential buildings, murdering 10 innocent people and wounding over 270 more. Over 700 families have been left homeless in just days. Entire apartment buildings destroyed. Children traumatized. Grandparents killed in their sleep.These suffering families are counting on you. They have nowhere else to turn. Click here to show support to our brothers and sisters in Israel.
