“Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.” – Esther 10:3
This book was not named Mordecai. Yet his effort and faithfulness was not only noticed, it was credited. We like getting credit. Our nature is to desire our name to be on the title line. Especially when we do something notable. Yet that rarely happens. There is always someone doing more, a seemingly greater task, a more noteworthy effort, and on a larger scale. That can easily become discouraging. But I’m reminded today that while some of the greatest things we do, we may do in secret and may remain unnoticed, that there is a King far greater than Xerxes who is most certainly taking note.
Our greatest battle may be to realign our pursuits to please only the King. Not ourselves. Not our contemporaries. Not our adversaries. But God alone. And trust that all else will fall in line. We don't have the ability to do this on our own. It is only possible through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Just one more reason to abide in Christ.
God, give us this passion. Amen
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Esther 10 – Why Mordecai?
ReplyDeleteV 3 Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.
Why did Mordecai matter? Why was he preeminent? Why was he held in high esteem? Is this the book of Esther or the book of Mordecai?
I find it interesting that the book of Esther ends with a statement about Mordecai; a Jew lifted up in the court of Xerxes the powerful leader – for those that watched the comic book reenactment of Thermopylae called “The 300” it is not possible to imagine a Jew who will not bow down being welcome in Xerxes' court. Remember Xerxes’ statement in the movie? "But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet if you will but kneel at mine". Mordecai would not bow down and the entire lesson of Mordecai is captured in the words in verse 3. Because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews. Mordecai was willing to take a stand. For this action he became preeminent and was held in high esteem.
There will be moments where you are publicly presented with a situation where you have to either take a stand or please people. Until people see you take a stand they will never know your values or be in a position to choose to accept your values or reject you.
We do people a favor when we take a stand; we let them know our value systems and ourselves. We are no longer anonymous. Old Chinese proverb - “A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion”
Show your values, don’t just talk about them; have a Mordecai moment - take a stand.
Talk about going against the grain. It seems like from an early age, I was taught to be proud of who I am. To take pride in my accomplishments. Playing football in college and coaching at that level and high school I seemed to just sort of keep these thoughts going. I feel a little prideful now typing this. "The first shall be last and the last shall be first," that is what our battle cry should be. We can get so sucked into the enemy's trap with pride and ego. The simple truth is God is the creator or EVERYTHING!! How could we for a second pretend that we could do something more noteworthy? - Michael
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