Mordecai

Reading through Esther, there seems to be four main characters - Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and King Xerxes. It's easy to focus on Queen Esther while reading through Esther because well, the book is called Esther. However, I want to focus on Mordecai today.

I believe that Mordecai was a righteous man; he was right with God. He lived to please God and God alone. We can see that Mordecai obeyed God from the actions he took. He took care of God's orphans - "Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother" (Esther 2:7). He raised his cousin, Esther (Hadassah) as his own daughter. When she was taken to the king's palace, Mordecai was her adviser. Because he was close to God, he was able to advise her to go to the King to beg for her people, the Jews when Haman issued a decree for to death of Jewish people.

I admire how Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman because he lived to please God. "All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not knell down or pay him honor" (Esther 3:2). Day after day when people urged him to bow down to Haman, he refused. That takes strength not to cave in to peer pressure!

"During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, because angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows" (Esther 2:21-23). Mordecai honored God by honoring the King by doing the right thing. Even when no one was watching, he did the right thing. Even when his deed went unnoticed by others, Mordecai's intentions were not to be honored and glorified, but to do the right thing before God. In the same way we should not do the "right things" to be noticed or praised by others. Therefore even when I am being unnoticed and no one is watching, I should do the right things before God. At the same time it doesn't mean we can't be honored for doing the right things, but our motives should not be to be gain praise from others. Although Mordecai's actions went unnoticed in the beginning he was later honored for saving the King's life (Esther 6). I think this passage is really encouraging - even when no one recognizes or notices what I am doing, I should keep doing what is right before God because he knows. (:

We can see that Mordecai's reputation began to increase. "Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful" (Esther 9:4). It's amazing considering how just a few moments ago, Mordecai was simply a poor man standing by the King's gates everyday.

"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 10:2-3). I love how Mordecai, with this new found power, used it to help people. He continued to honor God. Whether he had power of not, he lived to bring justice to people. He lived to honor God with everything he did and I think that's so cool! We can see that he truly loved God through the bold actions he took for his people and for God.

Mordecai. He was a godly man.