Courage to Stand Alone | Mordecai's Defiance | Esther 3:1-15

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Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Bible guys.

We are smack in the middle of a story, an

epic story of Esther.

And today there's a bad guy named Hayman.

Yes, and he's plattin ham Haman's don't don't don't yep.

Yes.

But before that, Yes, we have a strong commitment on

this show, yes, to bring the most important news and

special interest information to our listeners all today. This one

is specifically for the men in particular.

And uh, well it's a warning to the men.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And there's a new trend and we just want to

caution you about it.

Right here we go.

Babylon b is where we get our news from. It's

the most trustworthy news we can find out on the internet.

It's a satire website, it says, wife beginning to suspect

husband's thoughtful relevant responses to her texts might be AI generated.

It's so good they're catching on, guys.

Yes.

According to sources, local wife Sue Page is beginning to

suspect that her husband's thoughtful and relevant responses to her

text might be AI generated quote. I first became suspicious

when I asked him what movie he wanted to see

for date night, and he replied back with an entire

list of movies, their ratings, and a brief synopsis of each.

Page said, no one talks like that. What confronted Her

husband reportedly said he would need a minute to think.

He then came back several minutes later with a prepared response.

He claimed to have typed out so that he could

organize his thoughts. He read, sweetheart, I'm sorry you feel

somethings off. I've just been trying to be more thoughtful

than my replies, maybe overthinking it a bit. I'm just

trying to say the right thing because I care so

much about you. How can I make you feel more connected?

Would you like some ideas to help us grow in

our relational closeness?

Would you like would you like some ideas? That is funny?

She s said the husband totally genuine. When Page continued

to suspect AI had generated the statement, her husband again

excused himself, saying he needed time to think and put

his thoughts together. At publishing time, Sue Paige had decided

to outsource dinner to AI.

That's funny, that's great. Yea.

So so hey, if you've never used AI, I have

to tell you.

For those people who haven't jumped on the bandwagon.

Uh, there, it's pretty It's pretty useful at times, isn't it.

It's pretty amazing.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I use it a lot, not

not to generate ideas ideas, but I like to use

it like as a research assistant, and then to help

correct grammar, yes, and shorten up what I type.

Yeah, and oftentimes, So my brother works for Creation Magazine

to say this, and uh, in fact, one of your

old time colleagues came in and he gets the Creation magazine,

you know, the pub and he had he had.

Said, hey, does your brother work at this place?

Oh? He said why and he goes Because he goes

there's a photo of them, and he goes and that's

aw zar bon And I thought.

It has to be how are the right right?

Right?

Well, they're not very many and uh and so anyway,

so I said, yeah, that's my brother. Anyway.

So the point is is that.

He called me and said that they're writers because it's

a science magazine, so their writers are very sophisticated, and

so they're but they're trying to reach a younger audience.

And so he says, he goes, he goes. The problem is,

he is, you know, I'm.

Trying to make videos that are more captivating and have

humor and everything else. He goes, But that's not just

the problem. The problem is the writings and so and

so I said, so what are you going to do?

And he goes. Honestly, he goes, I.

Took the entire article, and these articles are very long,

he goes, And I just copied and pasted it, threw

it in AI and said, hey, make this article that

has written for fifty year olds, make it more relevant for.

Twenty year olds.

And he said And within three seconds, this you know,

fifteen page article, right, he's comes out and it's like

this long, you know, this is Tate whatever, this big

paper and he said, uh, it's amazing, right, And so

AI is pretty darn wonderful.

It's pretty powerful, but I'll get you in trouble if

you're trying to use it.

And communicating with your wife.

That's that's the danger there. So we thought, since we're

talking about this the dynamics a husband and wife over

the last couple of days.

Yes, right, King getting mad at this queen.

Is that the transition?

Then we thought that we would, you know, warn our people,

because there's other warnings that need to be happening.

In today's there.

It is in today's passage there it is right because.

Haman is plotting.

Hayman is plotting that that is that is good. And

by the way, uh, this is Can I read.

This real quick please?

Before chapter three? It says Mordecai Esther's uncle. Oh look,

see he is his uncle. You said he was his cousin,

said cousin.

Yeah, it said uncle, and yesterday okay, Mordecai had adopted

his younger cousin, Esther.

Oh so maybe he was both. Maybe she was technically

a cousin and then he became an uncle. Huh.

But anyway, it says Mordecai, Esther's uncle, refused to bow

down to Haman. With everyone else, Mordecai would only bow

to God.

Haman was infuriated.

Oh, I'm sorry, you're telling the story.

I am, but that's I'm so sorry.

I thought this was going to summarize some backstory, but

it's actually skipping ahead.

Okay, Sorry, go ahead, okay.

So in Ester chapter three, well, now I'm excited to

hear how this is going to turn out right. Sometime later,

King Xerxes promoted Haman, son of Hamadatha the Agagite, but

whatever over all the other nobles, making him the most

powerful official in the empire. All the officials, all the

king's officials would bow down before Hayman to show him

respect whenever he passed by, or so the king had commanded,

but Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.

Then the palace officials that the king's gate asked Mordecai,

why are you disobeying the king's command? They spoke to

him day after day, but still he refused to comply

with the order. So they spoke to Haman about this

to see if he would tolerate Mordechai's conduct, since Mordechai

had told them he was a Jew. When Haman saw

that Mordechai would not bow down or show him respect,

he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordechai's nationality,

so he decided it was not enough to lay hands

on Mordechai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to

destroy all the Jews throughout the entire Empire of Xerxes.

So in the month of April, during the twelfth year

of King xerxes reign, lots were cast in Haman's presence.

The lots were called piram to determine the best day

and month to take action, and the day selected was

March seventh.

Nearly a year.

Later, then Haman approached King Xerxes and said, there is

a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces

of the empire. Keep themselves separate from everyone else. The

laws are different from those of any other people, and

they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So

it's not the king's It's not in the king's interest

to let them live. If it pleased, the King issue

decreed that they'd be destroyed, and I will give ten

thousand large sacks of silver to the government administrators to

be deposited in the royal treasury. The king agreed, confirming

his decision by removing his signet ring from his finger

and giving it to Haman, son of Hamadatha.

The Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

The king said, the money and the people are both

yours to do with as you see fit. So on

April seventeenth, the king's secretaries were summoned and the decree

was written exactly as Haman dictated. It was sent to

the king's highest officers, the governors of the respective provinces,

and the nobles of each province in their own scripts

and languages. The decree was written in the name of

King's Exerxes and sealed the King's signet ring. Dispatches were

sent by swift messengers into all the provinces of the Empire,

giving all ordered that all Jews young and old, including

women and children, must be killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on

a single day. This was scheduled to happen on March

seventh of the next year. The property of the Jews

would be given to those who killed them. A copy

of this decree was to be issued as law in

every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that they

would be ready to do their duty on the appointed day.

At the King's command, the decree went out by swift messengers.

It is also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa, and

the King and Haman sat down to drink, But the

city of Susa fell into confusion.

M HM that's terrible.

Yeah, it is actually like this is this ring's up

there with one of the worst. You know. It reminds

me of Herod when he ordered all the children, male

children two years and younger to be slaughtered.

This is this is even worse.

This is a genocide, genocide, full on genocide every Jew

in the kingdom.

Right and uh and by the way, what a guy

Haman is?

Haman's worse than Xerxes.

Right, So Xerxes is, uh, you know, obviously the most

responsible because he decides to say, hey, whatever you want.

That's what it feels like to me. It takes off

his ring. It's like, I'm not.

Even gonna bother to read the uh, you know, the

signet stamping laws that I should, you know, be responsible for.

I'm sure to give it to you. Here's my just

use it as a seal for whatever you come up with.

Right, gives him the ring and says, you stamp it's

a blank check. Yes, it's a blank check. Yeah, and

he says, yeah, I agree, I agree. And all he

really is listening to is a sales pitch, and the

sales pitches is, hey, there's a group of rebellious people

that don't want to listen to you at all. Shouldn't

we kill him? That sounds right to me? Ye, kill him?

And uh and so yeah, it's it's a pretty horrible thing,

this Hayman.

And uh, you know, so it's pretty clear here, even

though it doesn't say, it's pretty clear.

Here that what I started to read.

Remember that summary that almost gave everything away if you

go back and read it now, it says Mordecai, Esther's uncle,

refused to bow down to Hayman with everybody else, he

would only bow to God.

What does that sound like? Sounds like shadrack me shaking

a bend again? Same thing, right, he was a Jew?

Yeah, and so there's a reason why the verse actually

says and verse number h four where it says, uh,

Mordecai's conduct since Mordecai told them he was a Jew.

So the only reason why Mordecai would have ever told

them he was a Jew is because he's defending why

he's not bowing down to Haman, right, and so yeah,

it doesn't say so specifically, but we are left to

believe that that's exactly the reason why, which, by the way,

also connects to Hayman's explanation that says their rules are

different than everybody else's rules. Right, they refuse to bow down.

So it's very obvious that Mordecai is a man of

faith and that he refuses to bow down to anybody

who isn't God.

So I think it's interesting. I just looked up. I thought, hey,

there's a connection here that Agagite. Right, Remember Hayman is

an Agagite.

So remember king a gag.

It sounds like popeyegg.

Yeah, remember King a gag of the Amalekites. Saul was

supposed to wipe them out. Oh wow, that's the same thing.

Come on, stop it.

Yes, I was just sit there.

Thinking a gag egga guites a g So I looked

it up. Yeah, that's that's that's true. So think about

that for a minute.

So Saul would have done what he was supposed to do,

and Esther wouldn't have in this prediction.

So so the Amalekites hated the Jews in general. This

is why it escalated from I hate that guy to

oh he's a Jew. I hate all of them. And

now it dawns and I've got all the power. I'm

number two in the kingdom, the most part kingdom in

the world. Let's just exterminate all of them. So it

elevated from that, think about what would have happened.

There's so many things.

We look at politics, We look at powerful people and

events in history as just being one off events, things

that happened. But do you understand Saul should have wiped

them out, That's what God said, and he didn't. Samuel

comes and and and kills a gag, but he doesn't.

They didn't wipe out the Amalekites. So now here we

are all this time later, and Haman hates the Jews

because of what they had done, a gag being a

member of his family. If now, if Haman if his

plan to exterminate all the Jews, you understand, this is

all the Jews in the entire kingdom of Serxes. That

means all the Jews that were in Israel too, in Palestine,

all of them.

If that had happened, because in the entire kingdom is

what he said, then.

God's plan for the Messiah coming from the Jewish people

could not have happened. Right, So we look at him

as all one off events in history, and it's the

forces of good and evil always manipulating and moving and

moving towards the cross.

That's that's what's happening here.

Again, if Saul had done what he was supposed to do,

then it wouldn't you know. Saul lost his kingdom over

this one. Remember he's said, oh, I thought I'd bring

all the sheep back, then, all the goats back his

big sacrifices for God. And we talked about this, I

don't know months ago, and I thought I'd bring King

Agaga and some of the others back in where we're

going to embarrass him in front of the kingdom. And

Samuel was like, God told you to wipe them out,

don't leave anything, don't even leave the donkeys, right, that's

what God said.

And and you didn't do it.

And so now the kingdom is going to leave your

kingdom and it's going to become the kingdom of David. Right,

That's that's what happens. It's going to leave your family

no more. You're gonna is your son will not be

the king. There'll be a new king in Israel. He

lost his kingdom over the fact that he didn't defeat

the aggag and the Malakites. Now it's the the tide

has turned. Now instead of God wiping out the Meleekites,

it's the Malakites want to wipe out Agagites want to

wipe out the Jews, and if they did, they would

have destroyed the Son of David becoming the Messiah.

So the sermon Manyman's probably in there, but one of

the sermons could be that we don't have to understand

everything that God understands.

Right, So when God asked.

Playing checkers, God's playing like four D chess right right.

Right, star trek chess. Yeah, yeah, so, uh wow, I

can't believe I pulled that one out.

That was awesome.

It was yeah, it was amazing.

The uh what I was going to say is is

that many times we want to understand the why, and

so God will ask us to do something, and sometimes

we're just like, I don't really quite understand. What's not

necessarily our job to understand. It's our job to just

determine whether or not the Holy Spirit is asking us

to do something. Right, like it reminds me of every

day that time when we pulled off the freeway, my

wife wanted to give a bunch of money to the

guy on the edge of the freeway. Everyday that I

don't think so my wife. So we're in Atlanta. We

pull off and we see a guy with a cardboard

sign and he says he's got you know, he's got

you know, he's wanting to help. And so I take

a left hand turn to go home and my wife says,

turn the car around and give me all the money

you have in your wallet.

And this is back in the nineties. I had like

eighty dollars in my wallet, so that might have been

like four.

Hundred bucks today, right, And I said, I said, I'm

not going to give you all the money I have

my wallet.

So I turned around.

I gave her twenty dollars and she goes, that's not

what I said. She goes, I said, give me all

the money in your wallet, please, And you know, she

was very kind about it, right, she was, but this

is this is what I feel like God wants us

to do. And I said, okay, everybody calmed down, Okay,

there's no way I'm giving you all this money. And

she's like, I really believe that we're supposed to give

this to this person. And listen, my wife has the

gift of giving, which is her number one gift. So

she gives away everything and she loves it, and that

to her is better than anything.

But at the same time, I.

Mean, I give but that's not my gift, right, But

at the same time, the more important thing is she says,

this is what I feel like God wants me to do.

That's the important thing, right. So she feel like that's

what God wants her to do. I can't question that.

So I'm like, I don't want to do this, but

I'm like, so I just reluctantly give her all eighty

dollars and she gets out and she prays with this

person and gives them this money and you know, and

all this kind of stuff. And I'm thinking to myself,

like I can't believe that just happened. So I pulled away,

and she's like, that's the right thing to do. God

told us to do that. And I'm like, no, God

told you to do it, right, Like, you better speak

louder next time for me to hear it.

YEA, yeah, right, Liz, Yes, give away everything that Chris has.

Right, right?

Yes, yes, how about.

Next time, God just say Liz, give away everything you

have that that's say.

It the Lord.

So anyway, the point.

Is there's my shoes, here's my jacket.

Yeah, well, that wasn't her struggle.

It's my sandwich.

Right, that wasn't her struggle that day. It was my struggle.

And I wanted to know, like, come on, like, is

this person really going to use this, you know, for

the right reasons?

Is this person going to you.

Know, is there a need here that costs eighty dollars

that I'm unaware of? Is there a medical need? But

it's not my job to understand. The only job I

have is to determine is this from God?

Or is it not?

And if it is, then I better do it. And

such as the case was sold, right, So I had

no idea was at stake. He had no idea that,

you know, years later this was gonna.

He knew the clear word of God.

Right, that's all.

That's a word of God. There's a note in here.

As I was as you were talking, I realized that

it was in here the clear word of God was

destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven.

And it was because they hunted down and killed the

weak and the poor and the sickly on the backside

of the people of Israel. As they were leaving Egypt.

Remember they were leaving Egypt, they were going out into

the wilderness. Yes, And the Amalekites just swooped down and

they didn't square off of fight against the fighting men.

They came and they killed all the sick and the elderly.

And God said, that's a particularly wicked idea, and I

want them all gone because they as a people, they

will never get better. And here we are a thousand

years later, and they're calling for the extermination of all Jews.

Right, because Hayman clearly is an awful human being. Right,

he wants to keep it genocide because he has animosity

against the Jews.

Right.

And this probably goes down, goes back from generations, right

because of exactly what you just said. Yes, right, And

so that's pretty amazing.

So I love Mordechai's determination. This is that highlight moment,

I think for in Mordecai's story. He has a few

of them, but this is the one where he decides,

I'm not going to bow. And in this situation, they

had set Hayman up almost as a god.

Right, it's god like.

Well, it actually says the King's Order, which means that

the order of the king is the bow down.

Whenever you see Hayman, that's.

An act of worship.

Yeah, it's incredibly arrogant of him to demand. And then

here here he is everything the king and buying to him,

and he has one guy, one guy who doesn't do it,

and it infuriates him to where he wants to commit genocide. Right,

that's how arrogant this guy is.

Well, the Life Application Study Bible says he did not

take a poll first to determine the safest or most

popular course of action. He had the courage to stand alone.

And that is phenomenal. It's just fun. And it wasn't

one time. It was day after day after day, is

what it says, whenever he passed by. Right, But Mordecai

refused to bow down. And then they came to him

day after they spoke to him, day after day, but

still he refused. So talking about pressure, the sheer pressure

of every day.

They go, dude, you got about out do it this time.

Don't cause us trouble, right, And he just saw this

as they're not asking me to bow down out of respect.

They're asking me to worship this guy, and I'm not

going to do it, right, I only have one God.

And so even though at that point they didn't know

that Mordecai was Jewish, he finally admits it, I only

have one God.

I'm not going to.

Bow right, And there is this sense sometimes, you know,

there's the there's the diplomatic and kind thing to do,

you know, when you step in and just follow cultural norms.

And you know, I've been in.

Places before where everybody bows and they'll place their hand

over their heart, or they'll fold their.

Hands and they'll bow to each other, and that's a politeness.

But when it comes to here's a guy and he's

wearing a fancy hat and a fancy robe, and he

expects you to bow before him and kiss his ring

or whatever. I've been in multiple situations like that with

important people, powerful people who expect the bow and the

kissing of the ring, and I've never done it ever.

I just stand there, I stick my hand out, offer

to shake it. I kind of act dumb, right, like

I didn't know that that was the thing. And I

was with one powerful leader and my friends that were

with me. One of my friends he did, he bowed

and kissed the ring, and then I stuck my hand

out offered to shake his hand. He didn't shake my hand,

but then he smiled and I said, I'm sorry, I'm

just I didn't bow to kiss your kiss your ring,

and he said, well, I didn't expect you to. You're

not of my people. And he kind of let me

off the hook in the moment there. He could have

made it really difficult and the meeting could have ended

too right and that, but it was definitely a you

humble yourself before me kind of moment, right right, And

that's that's Mordecai felt that to be an act of worship.

That's what you're doing. You're worshiping me. And there's no

doubt in my mind that in the moment that I

was there, the other people who bowed and kiss the ring,

it was an act of worship. I felt like they

were in the presence of a saint. Yeah, and I'm like,

I'm not going to do that.

Do you remember when the Hulk and Roady war Machine

get off in Wakanda and they saw the king walk

up and then he says, oh, yeah, we're supposed to bow.

Do you remember that? And then he bows and he goes,

he goes, we don't do that here.

And wrote He's like, he starts laughing, he's hilarious shooting bow.

He's like, oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, and he doesn't bow.

So this is that moment that he decided he has

the courage to stand alone. And I think that idea,

whether you're talking about the three Hebrew boys in the

fight with the fire furnace or Daniel bending a knee

and praying when nobody else would This theme here at

this part this section of the Bible seems to be

a recurring thing over and over, having courage when nobody else.

Is willing to do it. You have the courage to

do the right thing anyways.

And God bless us every time that we see somebody

willing to have the courage to not cave in to

do the wrong thing, but instead they have the courage

to stand alone and do the right thing every time,

God blesses them.

That's what we're going to see happens with Mordecai.

Yeah, well that's great.

Well, hey, that is a great place to end, and

we will pick up tomorrow with chapter four and we

hope you join us on the Bible.

Gus