Scottsdale Bible Church - the painting to the left is Rembrandt's "Haman sets forth to honor Mordecai" from c1665.
This is the third installment of my notes from Jamie Rasmussen's message on the book of Esther.
This particular message covers Esther 2:21 - 3:15.
We pick up the story from last week with Mordecai making his daily trip to the king's gate to check up on Esther to make sure she is alright.
While sitting at the king's gate Mordecai overhears a plot to assassinate the king and he relay's this message to Esther. Esther informs the king of the plot and the would be assassins are hung.
Next we find that a man named Haman (he was a Agagite which was a tribe that had for many centuries but at odds/war with the Hebrews) had found favor and friendship with the king and was elevated to a position of high honor. As such, it was custom to bow down before him (as though he were a god) however Mordecai refused to do so. Haman becomes infuriated and makes a deal with the king to have every Jewish person in the kingdom killed (estimated to be 1-3 million people).
In bringing this story to a modern application, Jamie put forth the following points:
#1 - Righteousness turns heads and God's people should never stop doing it.
- In the story, Mordecai did what was right regardless of the cost or even benefit. He was not willing to bow down before Haman as though he were a god.
- Mordecai did what was right because of God's revelation to him, from the Hebrew Canon (Old Testament). Exodus 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before me".
Jamie points out that the world has this backwards:
- The world does what is right, many times, when it is convenient or benefits the self. Certainly the whole abortion issue would fall into this camp.
- The world does not have an absolute moral compass (the Bible), rather it will discern what is right based on personal preferences. (situational ethics)
The world is full of stories of lives being changes because of someone doing what was right.
#2 - Righteousness, sometimes, will be met with injustice and persecution.
I can't say that my life has been met with injustice and/or persecution. I can however relate this to our business. We owned a mortgage company for over 15 years and were able to help multiple thousands of people over that time frame.
When someone is making a decision to finance a real estate purchase it is not uncommon for them to shop around and talk to a number of people. Hundreds and hundreds of times, over the years, we lost business to unscrupulous people who would simply tell people what they wanted to hear. Quite often this would even result in out right fraud.
When we would lose a potential client, knowing full well that they were lied to, it was clearly an injustice. It didn't feel good and often times made me angry.
#3 - In the end, God will always prevail and His people will be vindicated.
When I look back at the deceitful people we ran across over the years, this statement helps me to understand God's hand in rewarding our faithful behavior. If you fast forward 15 years, my wife and I are now "semi-retired" in Arizona. All our years of hard work and honest dealings were richly rewarded. I suspect that some of the evil doers, that we crossed paths with, are still plotting and scheming.
There were lots of lessons learned in this exciting chapter of Esther. I would highly encourage you to take 30 minutes out of your life and listen to Jamie share his thoughts on this text. Here is the link.
