Today, in episode 520, we continue Esther’s cycle: looking at the prominent characters in the book of Esther.
The book of Esther ends with these words:
“For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (Esther 10:3)
As with Boaz, who we talked about in Episode 518, I believe Mordecai gets overlooked when a list of good examples for young men to follow gets compiled.
To put him in a timeline -
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jehoiakim as a prisoner to Babylon in 597 BC
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jehoiachin as a prisoner to Babylon in 597 BC
Nebuchadnezzar then goes to war against Zedekiah which ends in those who were not killed in the war being taken to Babylon (2 Chron. 36:20) in 586 BC, the temple is destroyed. This would include the carrying away that impacted Daniel and his friends in Daniel 1.
They remained captives in Babylon until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC with King Cyrus
In 537 BC, Cyrus sends Zerubbabel to Jerusalem to build the temple.
516 BC second Temple is completed (end of “captivity”) under Darius the Great
In 486 BC Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) comes into power - Esther takes place during his reign
In 458 BC Ezra returns with a second group
In 445 BC the third, led by Nehemiah, and final group of Jews return to Israel under King Artaxerxes
So, the book of Esther takes place during a time when the people are not in active slavery, but aren’t all returned back home to Israel either. Mordecai and Esther both seem to have been born during the captivity. Morecai’s father (or great grandfather depending on how you read Esther 2:5-6) seems to have been taken into captivity with those exiled when Jeconiah (Jeremiah 24:1; aka Jehoiachin 2 Kings 24:6; aka Coniah Jeremiah 22:24) was taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. This would have been the first carrying away in around 597 BC. Mordecai’s uncle was also carried away or born into captivity, but had already died by the time of the events of the book. It is 114 years after the first carrying away when King Ahasuerus comes into power and the events of the book begin.
What stands out to you from Mordecai’s story?
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OK - back to our story.
Good people in a sticky situation
In the city of Susa, Persia a royal problem had arisen. The King was without a Queen. Early in his reign, King Ahasuerus spent six months celebrating the “riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty” (Esther 1:4). The end of the celebration led to his pride and anger bringing him to remove Queen Vashti from her position and banning her from ever seeing him again.
When the King’s anger subsided, he remembered his behavior, but the law could not be undone. His servants propose a search be done in all the provinces (there were 127 of those!) for beautiful young virgins to be brought for the King to choose from them a new Queen. The king agrees to this.
So, as young women are being found and brought to Susa for their year of beauty treatments, a young Jewish woman, named Esther was also taken to the king’s palace.
Esther was being cared for by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai’s uncle was Esther’s father. When he and his wife both died, Mordecai took Esther as his own daughter.
When Esther is taken into the king’s palace, Mordecai spent every day pacing in the harem courtyard in order to get updates about Esther and how she was doing.
We learn that Mordecai had commanded her to not tell people about her family or her heritage. Esther respected Mordecai, and obeyed him in this just as she had obeyed him while he was bringing her up. Long story short, Esther pleases the king and he chooses her to be his new Queen.
After this, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate when two of the king’s guards started getting angry and planning to kill the King. Mordecai took the details of the plot to Esther and then Esther told the King in Mordecai’s name. The king’s men investigated the claim, found it to be true and hanged both conspirators on the gallows. Then the events, and the part Mordecai played, were written into the Book of the Chronicles.
Bad people create bad situations
Mordecai seems to work at the king’s gate on a regular occurrence. A man named Haman, who the king had promoted to be in authority over all of the princes who reported to the king, walked through the king’s gate often. Normally, all of the king’s servants would bow to him, and it says this was something the “king had commanded concerning him” (Esther 3:2). Well, Mordecai would not bow and he would not pay homage to Haman! The king’s servants tried to talk to him about this, and still Mordecai refused, stating that he was a Jew (Esther 3:4).
I don’t know if the command from the king was to respect Haman’s authority and the servants chose to express that through bowing (respect for authority) and paying homage (worship) or if the command was for people to worship Haman because of his promoted position. Either way, Mordecai making the claim to being a Jew as his reason for refusing makes it seem that he, at least, saw the act of bowing and worshiping this man as something contrary to Mordecai’s allegiance to God. He has already shown respect for the King’s authority, so he doesn’t seem to be a belligerent man who refuses to submit. Whatever the exact wording of the command from the king, Haman is most certainly offended by Mordecai’s refusal to bow and pay homage. More than just offended, Haman becomes “filled with rage” and starts to form a plan for not just revenge, but annihilation.
Mordecai learns about Haman’s plans when the rest of Persia does, by the decree that is sent out making it lawful to destroy all of the Jews and plunder their possessions on the 13th day of the 12th month of that year. This information rightly causes the Jews to be upset.
Esther learns about the distress of her people. She sends clothes to Mordecai, in hopes that he would put off his mourning. Mordecai refuses to accept the clothes.
Esther then sends one of the king’s eunuchs to go to Mordecai to find out what is going on and why.
Hathach, the eunuch, finds Mordecai in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai tells Hathach what the decree said, including the amount of money Haman was donating to the king’s treasuries for the purpose of destroying the Jews. He sends a copy of the decree to Esther so she is fully aware of the situation and demands that she go before the king to plead with him for the lives of her people.
Esther sends back a reply, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes to the king to the inner court who is not summoned, he has but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for these thirty days.” (Esther 4:11).
Between this decree and the king’s law, Esther is very reasonable to be concerned about inserting herself into things!
Mordecai sends a brutal, yet wise answer: “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
To Mordecai, it is very simple. The decree makes it more than possible that someone in the king’s household who knows Esther’s heritage will kill her. Her silence is not a guarantee of safety. The Jews WILL be delivered - of that Mordecai is certain. But he also sees an opportunity here that must at least be tried. Maybe, just maybe, Esther was allowed to become Queen as a means to provide that deliverance for the people of Israel. Courage is the only way to find out. Face what is coming and do what you can, no matter the results.
Esther asks Mordecai to gather all the Jews in Susa and have them fast with her for three days. She is going to prepare spiritually, emotionally, and physically before she goes before the king. Mordecai goes and does as she commanded him.
Picture that - a whole city of Jews who have been mourning the bounty on their heads will now turn their attention to fasting, and praying as those two usually went hand in hand, alongside of the Queen and her maidens. Esther knew she could count on Mordecai to do what she asked. How it must have encouraged her to know they were all fasting along with her! How it must have encouraged the people to know their Queen was going to go to battle for their lives! After three days, the Queen rises from fasting and presents herself to the King.
While Esther is doing her part, Mordecai has another run in with Haman.
Haman has had the honor of eating dinner with the King and Queen. He is very full of himself to have been honored this way - but then he comes across Mordecai at the king’s gate. Mordecai still does not acknowledge Haman - he doesn’t get up and he doesn’t cower before Haman. Haman is again filled with rage and goes home to complain about it to his friends and his wife. Little does Mordecai know that Haman is planning to kill him the very next day!
Meanwhile, the king has trouble sleeping after the dinner with the Queen and Haman. He asks that the book of records be read to him. The passage that is chosen is the one describing when Mordecai saved the king’s life by revealing the plot of the doorkeepers to kill him. The king seeks to honor Mordecai.
Through a series of events, the next morning, Mordecai finds himself being publicly honored by none other than Haman! Haman takes the king’s robe and puts it on Mordecai. He has Mordecai ride one of the king’s horses while Haman leads the horse through the city square proclaiming, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.” Afterwards, Mordecai goes back to his business in the king’s gate and Haman goes home with his head covered in shame.
Deliverance is made for the Jews
By the next day, circumstances had changed even more for Mordecai.
After the events in the city square, Haman had another dinner to attend with the King and Queen that evening. Esther presents the king with her troubles, Haman makes a fool of himself begging for his life, and the king responds to Haman’s audacity by commanding he be hanged on the gallows Haman had built for Mordecai. Then the king proceeds to give all that belonged to Haman into the hands of Queen Esther and Mordecai.
The king gave his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, to Mordecai and placed him over all that had been Haman’s. The king also declares that Queen and Esther have the authority to, “write to the Jews as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.” (Esther 8:8).
Mordecai then commands the scribes to write to all the people in all 127 provinces of Persia a decree that granted all the Jews the right to assemble and to defend themselves and to plunder - the same wording as what Haman had ordered be done against the Jews - on the 13th day of the 12th month of that year.
Mordecai no longer worked at the king’s gate. Now he goes about in royal robes of blue and white, with a large crown of gold and a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced! (Esther 8:15).
A good man had been promoted in a land that was not his own and it brought about hope and joy for the Jewish people.
When the fateful 13th day of the 12th month arrived, the Jews defeated those who came to harm them. It says in Esther 9:3, “Even all the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who were doing the king’s business assisted the Jews, because the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.”
Mordecai was great in the king’s house, his fame spread, because he became greater and greater.
The Jews won the day, two days in Susa actually, and went on to celebrate with a feast decreed by Queen Esther and Mordecai. The feast of Purim was created so they would remember what had been done for them in Persia. The command of Esther was written in the book.
Now we come back to the end of the story,
Now King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. And all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation.” (Esther 10:1-3).
What a story!
Like Joseph, Mordecai rises up from unlikely circumstances to become a means of deliverance for the people of Israel.
Daniel had a similar story, but even he only achieved being third in the land (Daniel 5:29).
Mordecai maintained his convictions and behaved honorably towards everyone. We see another godly man, who shows us godly behavior in a book that never once mentions God by name. His character shines a light on what formed his character.
Young men, be like Mordecai. There is no indication that he has a wife. He took in his cousin to raise when her parents died. He did so with honor and taught her well the ways of godliness. He built a reputation by hard work and being steadfast in his principles. He showed courage in the face of great trials and encouraged his brethren to do the same.
As we said with Boaz, God does not place expectations on you that are impossible to accomplish. You may have trials and you may have to work to put your will under submission to God’s will - but it isn’t impossible. See the hope and the encouragement in this man. In your life, in your circumstances, be a Mordecai.
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