Moral Discernment: for A Time for Honor, A Time Dishonor (Esther 2:21–3:3) — Esther: The Invisible Hand of Providence

Now, there are not many people who do well with ambiguity. And in particular,

I think we struggle, not only Christians, but all people, struggle with moral ambiguity, wherein the right thing to do in a given situation is not determined, but it has to be discerned.

We much prefer a rule for every circumstance, right? A hard and fast, this is what you do over the principle of a thing.

To illustrate this, I think you could look no further than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which has a general law code that fills 111 volumes compared to the

God of creation, whose law is found in 613 general commandments, which are actually all just outflows and applications of the 10 commandments.

And even those 10 are actually all summarized by our Lord in two commandments, love the

Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and to love thy neighbor as thyself.

Now, I don't mind the laws of government as much as some might. I'm certainly not an anarchist, and more directly,

I agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith that the general equity, the general intent of the law of God should be enacted within civil government and be suited to a given people and a given time and a given place.

And so that being said, I don't necessarily mind that a state government like ours has its own laws, obviously, to the degree that they agree with the word of God, but 111 volumes does seem a bit excessive.

But the reason I think that things get to this point is our impulse towards slavery. People who live in slavery to sin and their flesh are slaves to law.

They need a rule for everything, every possible nuance and scenario, all to remove the ambiguity because they'd rather be a slave to the letter than a slave to righteousness.

But the Bible doesn't give us a rule for every possibility, right? It gives us something far more challenging and yet far more useful, that being wisdom, the capacity for moral discernment.

And I think that the book of Esther provides us a great example in applying moral discernment in difficult situations in particular.

Esther is less about queens and beauty pageants and more about the proper Christian interface with the civil sphere, spanning times of neutrality, oppression, and power for the people of God.

And to do that well, to interface faithfully and righteously in times that are constantly changing, you can't expect to be able to rely on instructions for every situation, but you need to be able to discern what is good, wise, righteous, and faithful in the ambiguity.

And I think this is why Esther is a difficult story to study and to understand for many, right?

There are hard truths contained in its pages. Life isn't as simple and formulaic as if X happens and do

Y, right? The book of Esther acknowledges this. Last week, we considered how the faithful have used deception throughout redemptive history in righteous ways.

And that can be a difficult truth to acknowledge when our preference is a hard and fast rule of, you know, never lie under any circumstance.

And today, as we're gonna consider Mordecai's interaction with the civil sphere at the end of chapter two and beginning of chapter three,

I think that we see again that the right way to subject yourself to the powers of government is not determined, but it is discerned.

The righteous way for the Christian is not as easy as looking up the answer in the back of the book. It's open -ended and righteousness is spiritually appraised.

Mordecai's story is one of the clearest examples of this, I think, in all of scripture. Here we have a man who saves the king's life in chapter two and then he defies the king's command in chapter three.

He honors authority and then he refuses it. And so which is it, Mordecai? Is it loyalty or is it rebellion?

What should we be like as Christians interacting with the civil sphere today? And I think the answer to the question is both, right?

He knew when to honor authority and when to refuse it. That's moral discernment, right?

Not rule following. That's what we need today, not slogans, not one -size -fits -every -circumstance rules, but wisdom applied.

And so with that, let's read our text for this Lord's Day from Esther chapter two, starting at verse 21 and through verse four of chapter three.

Hear the word of the Lord this morning. In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains,

Bigtan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth and sought to lay hand on the king

Ahasuerus. And a thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name.

And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore, they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.

After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman, the son of Hamadatho the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.

And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed in reverence Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him.

But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto

Mordecai, why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Now it came to pass when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told

Haman to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word.

May he write it on our hearts by faith. Let's pray. Father, again, we do thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you this day that we are able to consider here at the end of Esther chapter two and the beginning of chapter three, these weighty matters, where we pray that you would grant to us in this time, or by your kind mercy to us, that you would grant to us to learn the things that you'd have for us to learn, to take what it is you'd have for us this day, or that we would be able to cast aside the things that you don't have for us, your people today.

We may bless the preaching of your word to each of our hearts and our minds and our souls this day.

May it help us to love you more, or to love each other more, or to glorify you in all that we do.

We ask in Jesus' name, and amen. Amen. So again, we look at verses 21 through 23 out of the gate.

Two royal officials, Big Tan and Toresh, conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus. Mordecai discovers the plot and reports it through Esther, and the traitors are executed, right?

The deed was recorded then in the Royal Chronicles. Simple enough at the outset. But we notice what this reveals about Mordecai's character and his understanding of biblical authority.

First, we should note that Mordecai is no religious zealot looking for a fight. He's a faithful Jew in exile who respected the office of king, even when it's held by a pagan, right?

He understands that governing authorities are established by God and deserve honor. This is precisely what the apostle

Paul would later articulate in Romans chapter 13. And listen to verses one through four here. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.

The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

Paul goes on in verse four. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will thou then not be afraid of the power?

Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same, for he is the minister of God to thee for good.

So we notice that word minister in Romans chapter 13. The civil magistrate is God's minister, his servant, his deacon.

Even a pagan king like Ahasuerus functions within God's providential ordering of human society.

Mordecai understood this, right? He didn't view the Persian government as illegitimate simply because it wasn't

Jewish. He recognized that God had placed these authorities over him for a purpose.

Matthew Henry in his commentary on this passage writes that Mordecai, though he would not bow to Haman, was yet no enemy to the government, nor had any disaffection to the king.

Here he discovered a plot against the king's life and was instrumental in defeating it. And Henry continues that good subjects will not fail to do their duty to their prince, though they may be denied the liberty of their consciences in some things.

And this matters immensely, not only to the story of Esther and Mordecai, but it should to us as well.

Because when we get to chapter three and see Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, we might think that, yeah, he's just one of those perpetually contentious types.

Perhaps you've been accused of being one of those. Yeah, always finding something to object to, always looking for a fight.

That's not at all what we see here in Mordecai. His refusal to bow doesn't prove anything about him being anti -authority.

In fact, it proves that he could distinguish between rightful and wrongful claims to honor because of what we see him do here at the end of chapter two.

Peter and the apostles gave us this principle in Acts chapter five at verse 29 as well, when they say to the Jewish council that we ought to obey

God rather than men. But we notice that statement presupposes that there is a proper sphere for obeying men, right?

There is a time to do that. Again, this is what Mordecai is doing here. The question is not whether we should honor authority, we should, but which authority takes precedence when they conflict, right?

When the authority of man conflicts with the authority of God. Mordecai honored the king's legitimate authority over Persian civil affairs, but he would not honor a demand that violated

God's word. So the principle is that if you refuse to honor anyone, you're not exercising this discernment, you're just being a fool.

But if you can honor legitimate authority while refusing illegitimate demands, you're exercising wisdom.

You're following the pattern of Daniel. Who served Babylonian kings faithfully while refusing to compromise his worship.

Or the pattern of the Hebrew midwives like we talked about last week who feared God and therefore refused Pharaoh's command to murder infants.

You're following the pattern of Peter and John who preached Christ despite being commanded to stop.

This is moral discernment in action. It's not reflexive rebellion, it's not slavish compliance and rule following, but it's wisdom knowing when to submit and when to stand.

And some will accuse you of being contentious if they haven't already, of being a zealot. And so be it, right?

Let them. Other Christians even will deride your conviction as foolishness just because you're willing to stand in faith for what is right.

Let them. Who cares? Honor God, not man when it comes to these things.

So that's the first thing that we notice here as far as Mordecai here honoring the king is that he's not a zealot outright.

The second thing that we notice is what happens after Mordecai's good deed is very important. Namely nothing, right?

Nothing happens really after Mordecai does this. It gets written down in the book of the

Chronicles. It's recorded in the book of the Chronicles. And we obviously, for those familiar with the story, we know it's gonna have very significant bearing later on, but there's no immediate reward for what

Mordecai does. No promotion, no public recognition. It's actually the opposite. The text seems to make fun of this, that he does this great thing and then

Haman gets promoted, right? No promotion, no public recognition, just a bureaucratic notation in a ledger that most people will never read.

And frankly, again, the text moves on so quickly from this that it almost makes you feel uncomfortable, right? That's such a heroic thing covered in three verses and moved on from immediately.

It's like, did they forget the end of chapter two here? We're moving right into Haman. It seems like something's missing.

I think a big part of that is because we live in an instant gratification culture, right? We want our good deeds acknowledged immediately, preferably with a plaque like they have up front here for the member of the year, or at least social media recognition, right?

We want credit where credit is due and we want it now. And when it's not, like in this situation, it bothers our sensibility.

Something is wrong with it in our minds, but we have to remember that God doesn't work in the same way that we do.

God keeps perfect records. Malachi 3 .16 tells us that a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the

Lord and that thought upon his name. In Revelation 20 .12, we read of books being opened at the final judgment, books that contain the deeds of men.

And at Hebrews 6 .10 assures us, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work in labor of love, which you have showed toward his name in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.

So what does this tell us? That God sees, that God records,

God will reward, but often God delays. And the delay is purposeful.

Again, in Mordecai's case, it was essential, right? If the king had rewarded him immediately, there would be no chapter six, no sleepless nights, no dramatic reading of the

Chronicles, no elevation of Mordecai, just as Haman arrives to request his execution. The delay wasn't neglect in this case, but it was providence.

Matthew Henry again observes, it was a great neglect that Mordecai had not been rewarded for this service before, right?

That would have been good and right for that to happen. But God's time is the best time, and his way is the best way.

Honors deferred are not honors lost. He continues that providence so ordered it that this good service of Mordecai should not be rewarded till it might be done more to his honor and the greater mortification of his enemy.

Notice that, right? Providence so ordered this, right? This reward for Mordecai, that this good service should not be rewarded till it might be done more to his honor and the greater mortification of his enemy.

That's the wisdom of God's timing here, right? If Mordecai had been promoted immediately after saving the king's life, he might've been in a position where bowing to Haman seems politically necessary.

His elevation might've compromised his conscience, but God kept him in obscurity just long enough for him to make his stand as a nobody, as just another gate official with nothing to lose but his life.

Only after his faithfulness was tested in obscurity did God elevate him in honor.

This is how God works. He tests in small things before entrusting large things.

He allows his servants to prove faithful when no one is watching before vindicating them publicly.

As the Lord says in Luke 16, verse 10, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.

This is important for us to remember. Again, honor deferred is not honor forgotten or lost.

The Lord is working these things. He knows these things. He remembers these things and all things will come to bear in time.

So again, this is where we need to pay attention because many of us are living this in some way or another right now, right?

You're faithful at work and no one notices. You serve in your church and no one thanks you. You're doing good and the only reward is silence.

You're starting to wonder, right? Does it matter? Is anyone keeping track? Does she even notice?

Does he even care? But we listen to God's word and we remember that he sees all of these things and he is faithful and just in meeting out what is right in these situations.

Galatians chapter six and verse nine, remind yourselves of these things. Let us not be weary in well -doing for in due season, we shall reap if we say not.

First Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. In Hebrews six and verse 10, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work in the labor of love, which he have showed toward his name.

Notice the pattern. Present faithfulness, delayed reward, certain recompense.

It is certain that God will reward those who labor faithfully.

This is God's normal way of working with his people. He calls us to persevere in well -doing precisely because the reward is not immediate.

If we were paid instantly for every good deed, where would faith come in, right? Right, where would perseverance be tested?

Again, the writer to the Hebrews makes this explicit in chapter 11, the great faith chapter, that after listing example after example of the faithful,

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, he concludes in verses 39 and 40. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise,

God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect. They died in faith, not having received the promises.

They were faithful and they waited. Some waited years, some waited a lifetimes, but they were faithful and their reward was reserved for the resurrection.

God sees it, he sees all. God records it and he will reward at the proper time.

And so when you do good and receive nothing, right, no recognition or no thanks, no advancement, remember

Mordecai. A book of remembrance is written not just in Persian chronicles that can be lost or destroyed, but in the eternal records of heaven that cannot fade.

As Jesus said in Matthew chapter six and verse four, speaking of good deeds done in secret, thy father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly.

The resurrection of the just is coming. Every faithful act will be brought to light. Every sacrifice will be acknowledged.

Every moment of unnoticed obedience will receive its reward. And so we wait for it with confidence, right?

Not with the anxious waiting of uncertainty, but with the patient waiting of assured hope. So here's a phrase that I think we should do our best to take with us today.

It's for those moments that when you've been faithful and everything still looks bleak, you know, when you've done what's right and the wheels seem to be coming off anyway, when you've saved the king and got nothing, when you've served faithfully and been overlooked, when you've raised children and had difficulty as they got older, when you've worked for years for a boss and they'd ever acknowledge what you've done, when you've done good and evil seems to be winning, repeat this refrain to yourself.

It appears that all is lost. Glory. Because appearance is deceived.

God is working behind the scenes. Because what looks like defeat is often, just as it is here, it's a setup for deliverance.

Because the same God who had Joseph wrought in prison for years was positioning him to save nations. Same God who had

David run from Saul was preparing him to be king. The same God who let his own son hang on a cross was accomplishing the salvation of the world.

Mordecai saved the king's life and got nothing. And as the story develops, it appears that all is lost.

Glory. Because God was working behind the scenes, setting up a deliverance that would save a nation.

That notation in the Chronicles, right? That bureaucratic footnote that seemed so insignificant would become the hinge on which the fate of the

Jewish people would turn. So we need to learn to say these things. Because the

Christian life is full of these moments. Moments when faithfulness seems futile. Moments when the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper.

Moments when you've done everything right and still everything goes wrong. In those moments, we remember Mordecai here.

Remember the delay. Remember the book of remembrance. And we say with confidence that it appears that all is lost.

Glory. Amen. Let's continue. Now, as we come to chapter three, we pivot from Mordecai honoring the king and saving his life to his refusal of illegitimate authority.

Again, here, the narrative takes a dramatic turn. King Ahasuerus promotes not Mordecai who saved his life, but Haman, the

Agagite, above all the other nobles and commands that everyone at the king's gate bow down, pay homage to him.

And the text is emphatic here, right? All the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed in reverence

Haman, who the king had so commanded concerning him. And we note that it seems that everyone complies except for Mordecai.

And his colleagues notice this immediately and question him. It says daily in verse four, why do you transgress the king's command?

And this is a penetrating question in that moment. You just saved the king's life in chapter two, Mordecai. Why are you defying his command now in chapter three?

What happened, excuse me, to honoring those in authority? Where's your submission to the powers that be?

And people will do this to you. They'll always try to find your inconsistency when they become uncomfortable by your defiance.

Trust me, it happens all the time. They'll do it to you, but stay resolute just as Mordecai does.

But I get ahead of myself here. Again, Mordecai's answer is brief, but it's sufficient in verse four.

And that is that he was a Jew. That's it, right? It's all that the text offers to us.

No lengthy theological treatise, no elaborate defense, just four words, I am a Jew. Now, we have to be careful here, right?

Because it's not just a simple case of civil disobedience. It requires us to be thoughtful in our theology here, in our reasoning.

Let's understand the ambiguity of the situation and the wisdom that's being applied by Mordecai in this one.

Right, we can't just reason from this, so well, I'm a Christian, so I can disregard whatever government commands I want, just like Mordecai did.

Our wisdom, again, is more nuanced than that. There's no hard and fast rule in one direction or the other for these types of situations.

But in this case, I'm gonna give a few reasons, grounded in scripture, and I think plain reason here why

Mordecai's refusal was the righteous decision and not rebellious at all.

First, Mordecai was not refusing all civil authority, as we've already discussed, right? He just demonstrated exemplary loyalty to the king by exposing the assassination plot, right?

He wasn't an anarchist or a rebel. He did not refuse to give civil respect to Haman as a prime minister of the state, but divine honor really is what he refused, according to Matthew Henry in his interpretation, which he thought was implied in that prostration.

This was not about rejecting legitimate government. It was about refusing to render to man what belongs to God alone.

Again, we've already read Romans 13 and understand that we're required to subject to the rules that God has established, but we must also understand that the same principle has limits, right?

When Peter and the apostles were commanded to stop preaching Christ, they replied, we ought to obey God rather than men. There is a hierarchy of authority, and God stands at the top.

When human commands contradict divine law, we cause you to sin, our duty is clear, right?

Not just what's inconvenient, or maybe we'd rather not do, but if it causes you to sin, your duty is clear. Second, the homage demanded for Haman was improper for a

Jew to give, and this is actually a very interesting thing that we're gonna look at more closely in a few weeks, but it's a very important point from the text of Esther chapter three.

The king's command was clear that they should bow down to Haman, but Mordecai knew that Haman was a descendant of Agag, an

Amalekite, and that the Lord had declared perpetual war against Amalek. So again, we're gonna cover this more fully in future weeks, but it's a really crucial point here.

Haman was an Agagite, a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites. God had commanded Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 25, remember that Amalek, remember, excuse me, what

Amalek did unto thee, how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, therefore thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it.

The Amalekites were under divine judgment, and to honor Haman extravagantly, as had been commanded here, would be to dishonor

God's declared enemy, and the Jews were commanded not to forget it. Now, again, let's cover this more in two weeks, but this is an important element to what's happening here.

The Jews and Mordecai with them were commanded to not forget God's enmity with the

Amalekites. To honor Haman would be to dishonor God, dishonor his command, which is why Mordecai reasoning for not bowing is so simple.

I'm a Jew, I cannot bow to an Amalekite. I will not forget, just as God commanded, who these people are.

Third reason is that immoral conflicts against truth and falsehood do not operate under the same rules.

This is a vital principle that I think our age desperately needs to recover. We've been so conditioned to think that fairness means treating all parties identically, applying the same standards regardless of moral content.

That's not how righteousness works, right? It's not egalitarian, it's hierarchical. Righteousness and goodness are better than wickedness and evil.

And we don't need to deal fairly with wickedness by granting it a seat at the table to be reasoned with and debated against.

We deal fairly with it by rejecting it and destroying it. It's not another worldview that we should welcome to the conversation and see who's right.

It is wrong, and you should reject it. Again, Psalm 15.

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? The answer includes this.

In whose eyes a vile person is condemned, that he honoreth them that fear the Lord. The righteous person holds a wicked person in contempt while honoring those who fear

God. That's not hypocrisy. Again, it's discernment, it's moral clarity.

Proverbs 17, 15. He that justifies the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the

Lord. God does not demand neutrality toward wickedness. He demands that we identify it, refuse it, and oppose it.

Mordecai could rightfully refuse honor to a wicked man precisely because the man was wicked and the demand was unjust.

But Haman, by contrast, has no parallel right to demand honor from Mordecai. Right, this asymmetry, this hierarchy is built into the moral fabric of the universe and God's law defines the playing field.

Again, it's not egalitarian that all ideas are created equal. Righteousness and wickedness are not morally equivalent positions that deserve equal treatment.

Charles Spurgeon wrote this, Christians are to be harmless as dogs with regard to evil, but they are not to be stupid as dogs with regard to detecting evil.

And there's proof of this, I would say even from the text itself. This isn't about the honor being given necessarily, but the evil that is expecting the honor.

Because if we look later in the story of Esther, Mordecai accepts honors that he would not render to Haman.

In chapter six, when Haman's forced to lead Mordecai through the streets, proclaiming his honor, Mordecai accepts it without objection.

Right, in chapter eight, Mordecai receives Haman's signet ring. In chapter 10, he becomes second in command of the empire.

If these things, you know, Mordecai objected to, if he was objecting to these things because of the honor that's being bestowed to an individual, to a man, with a recognition that's going to a mere man, then he would have refused all these to himself, but he didn't.

Because this was never about rejecting honor as such. It was about refusing to honor wickedness in Haman, regardless of what the civil authority had commanded, because his first allegiance is to God alone.

And finally, again, when it comes to vindicating Mordecai here, as far as him doing the righteous thing in this situation, the text itself, of course, vindicates him.

The inspired narrative gives no hints of condemnation for Mordecai doing this. There's no prophetic rebuke, no authorial aside suggesting that Mordecai overstepped.

Instead, everything that follows proves that Mordecai was right. Haman's wickedness is fully exposed.

His genocidal plans, his murderous scheming, a gallows built to execute the man who saved the king. The story itself ends up declaring to us that this is what happens when evil men are given the kind of honor that they demand.

They use it to destroy the righteous. Providence, though, again, wonderfully pleads

Mordecai's cause and makes his enemies to be at peace with him. God himself vindicates

Mordecai's stand by orchestrating a deliverance that exalts Mordecai and destroys Haman.

Now, as we come to an end here, it's important for us not to romanticize this or make it sound easy, right?

Mordecai's stand cost him dearly and we need to reckon with that. Verse four tells us that his colleagues, again, questioned him daily.

Why transgressest thou the king's commandment? Every single day, it's the same pressure. Every day, the same explanations.

Every day, standing alone while everyone around him bowed. And we think about what that means practically, right?

The day after day, social pressure. Day after day, being called out. Day after day, having to defend a position that looked foolish and stubborn to everyone else.

So a few short years ago, you can probably recall a time where you were in that position. Everyone thought you were crazy.

Get the jab. Wear a mask. All these things. People think that you're crazy because the world's way is conformity.

Might fit in, get along, don't make waves. But faithful obedience to God requires exactly the opposite, especially at points like this, where someone would seek to be tyrannical over the people of God.

The labels will come quickly. You know, stubborn, rebellious, fanatical, divisive, self -righteous.

Why can't you just go along to get along, Mordecai? It's just a gesture. It doesn't mean anything. You're making this harder than it needs to be.

You're putting everyone at risk with your rigidity. You're drawing too much attention to yourself. Why can't you just submit?

But Mordecai hearkened not unto them, the text says. In verse four, he didn't listen to them.

He told them plainly, I'm a Jew. No apology, no compromise, no hand -wringing.

He knew who he was and to whom he belonged. He was willing to face whatever consequences came from that stand.

And the consequences, obviously, again, if you're familiar, they're severe. You know, what

Haman learns of Mordecai's refusal, he doesn't just seek revenge on one man, he plots genocide. Looking ahead at verse six, it says that, he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone.

Right, he thought it would be a bad thing to lay hands on Mordecai alone. But they had shown him the people of Mordecai.

Wherefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

One man's faithfulness triggers a genocidal edict. Mordecai's stand didn't just put himself at risk, it endangered every

Jew in the empire. Some in his own community probably blamed him, if you had just bowed,

Mordecai, none of this would be happening. People will tell you, settle down, don't talk like that.

You have children, you have a wife. All those things are true. Be wise about those things.

But we need to understand that Haman's wickedness is not Mordecai's fault. Right, the sin belongs to the sinner.

Mordecai did what was right. And Haman chose genocide. And so we don't compromise with evil to avoid the consequence of evil man's choices.

As Edmund Burke famously said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

And yet, and this is crucial, the narrative, again, vindicates Mordecai completely.

Not immediately, not without suffering, but ultimately and definitively. Because sometimes faithfulness means suffering now and being vindicated later.

Sometimes it means standing alone and trusting that God sees, that God records, and God will act in his perfect timing.

This is where we need to remember, what I mentioned earlier at the end of chapter two, that when good is done and goes unrewarded, when evil rises and seems to triumph, it appears that all is lost.

Glory. Haman's edict goes out. Destruction is decreed. The date is set for the annihilation of God's people.

And Mordecai's stand has apparently brought disaster on his entire nation. To every observer, it looks like catastrophe.

It looks like all is lost. Glory. Because God is about to turn the entire thing on its head.

Haman will hang on his own gallows. The Jews will be delivered. Mordecai will be exalted to second in command.

And the very enemies who sought their destruction will be destroyed. And Esther chapter nine and verse one records that stunning reversal, that in the 12th month, on the day that the enemies of the

Jews hoped to have power over them, though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them, yet hated them.

God can make the enemies of his church to be at peace with them and even to be made serviceable to them, whether they will or not.

He that rules in the kingdoms of men can, when he pleases, turn the hearts of the greatest men to favor

God's people. But in the moment, again, before chapter six, before the reversal, before the deliverance, it looks like absolute disaster.

Right, Mordecai's stand seems to be the destruction of God's people forever. But faith looks at that apparent catastrophe and says glory, not because we're naive or foolish, but because we know that God is working behind the scenes.

We know that God keeps records. We know that he vindicates the righteous in his time.

We know as Romans 8 .28 promises that all things work together for the good of them that love God, that are called according to his purpose.

Mordecai stood on principle. He faced terrible consequences and he trusted

God with the results. That's the pattern of biblical faithfulness. That's what it means to fear

God rather than man. He didn't look at the situation and say, well, let somebody else deal with this later on.

Let's just bide our time. He looked it dead on and he decided to do what was right and hold fast to it.

That's what allows you to resist your government overreach and tyranny. That's what allows you to stand up to those in authority over you who would seek to use it to harm you.

Not because you're denying them for the sake of denying them, but for the sake of obedience to your

God. Live with the conviction that as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord and nothing will stop you from doing so.

No power, no ruler of the air will stop you if you live with that conviction in the power of God to serve him and him alone.

So now again, as we do come to a close, how do we apply this? I'm gonna give you five really brief principles hopefully. First is, we need to learn to distinguish legitimate authority from illegitimate demands, right?

Not all claims to authority are rightful. Just because someone demands your submission doesn't mean that they have a right to it.

We can be model citizens and conscientious objectors at the same time. That's not a contradiction.

Again, it's discernment. Mordecai models both for us and he saved the king's life and he defied the king's command.

Both actions were righteous. When you face a difficult situation, when you're told to comply with something that violates your conscience, don't ask, well, what's the rule when this happens?

Where's the playbook for this one? What's the exact thing I'm supposed to do? Because those answers aren't out there.

You will not find them. It is search for the wisdom of God and apply it well, whether that's in the scriptures and wise counsel, whatever it may be.

But don't look for a single answer and it's gonna be the answer for all things for all time. Ask, is this a legitimate exercise of authority or a demand that exceeds rightful bounds?

Is this honoring what's good or enabling what's evil? Second, biblical literacy will equip you for moral discernment.

Mordecai knows God's word, right? That knowledge equipped him for this moment. If he hadn't known scripture, he might've thought, well, let's see, it's just a pow, what's the harm?

But we know that he knows it because later when he talks to Esther, he says, whether it's from you or somebody else,

God will raise up a deliverer. You can't exercise wisdom if you don't know God's word. You can't recognize evil if you don't know what goodness looks like and you can't stand firm if you don't know what you're standing on.

So read your Bible, right? Study it, memorize it, teach it to your children because when the moment of decision comes, you won't have time to research.

You'll need wisdom already written on your heart. Third, we need to trust

God's timeline. Again, Mordecai waited years for a reward for his good deed. He faced immediate persecution for his refusal, but the story vindicates both his loyalty and his resistance for his people.

This is hard. Again, we want justice now. We want our good deeds acknowledged now. We want our enemies defeated now, but God's timeline is different, right?

He's working on a scale that we can't see. He's orchestrating deliverances that require delays that we don't understand or want, but we have to be patient, right?

Do good, resist evil, and trust that God sees, God records, and God will act at the proper time.

Again, all accounts will be settled. Every faithful act will be rewarded. Every righteous stand will be vindicated, but we have to wait for it, be patient and persevere.

Fourth, you can expect in all these things to stand alone sometimes, right? Everyone else bowed.

The pressure was daily and intense. Mordecai's stand looked like foolish stubbornness to his contemporaries, but faithful people are, and again,

I kind of like this word quite a bit there, indigestible to unbelief. The world can't absorb them, right?

Faithful people, they can't assimilate them. They can't make us fit in, and faithful people need to know that about themselves, or they won't be able to pull you into their schemes.

So don't be surprised in that, when you don't fit into them, that you are alone. Don't be surprised when your faithfulness looks like stubbornness to others.

Don't be surprised when you're called divisive for refusing to compromise. Don't be surprised when you stand alone.

That's what faithfulness sometimes requires, but you're not really alone, right?

That's important for us to remember here. Be prepared to stand alone, but you're not alone. God sees,

God records, and God will vindicate. And what's more, God willing, we'll all be there with you.

And the fifth, we need to stop thinking moral neutrality exists. When truth confronts falsehood, we don't play by the same rules.

Again, the righteous can call out wickedness. The wicked have no parallel right. We have to believe and live like we know we have the truth.

They are not people that we are reasoning with and working with to try to find a compromise.

We know the truth, they do not. We can treat them like that. God's law defines the rules, not our customs or our culture's expectations.

I don't care how many letters somebody has after their name, right? They don't have a right to the table of what is morally good and what is morally wrong just because of those things.

They don't get to define those things. There's a fundamental hierarchy built into the universe, and it's based on the character of God.

So we don't want anybody guilt us into thinking that we're being unfair by refusing to honor evil.

You're not being hypocritical by calling out wickedness while refusing the wicked the same privilege to be able to call us out for something.

You're being righteous, right? You're exercising discernment. You're doing what Mordecai did. So again, as we wrap up here,

I think that's the third time I've said that, but this is actually gonna be it. Mordecai's story teaches us to trust God in two difficult moments.

First, when we do good and receive no reward, when you're faithful and no one notices, when you do what's right and get nothing for it, when you serve quietly and seem forgotten.

Remember, Mordecai, wait. Trust that God keeps records. A book of remembrance is written.

Your labor is not in vain. The resurrection is coming, and with it rewards for all who have been faithful.

It appears all is lost. Glory. And second, we refuse evil and face persecution.

When you take a stand and suffer for it, when you resist wickedness and everyone thinks you're the problem, when you're called stubborn, rebellious, and divisive, remember

Mordecai, stand firm. Moral discernment sometimes requires suffering now and vindications later.

But the same God who recorded Mordecai's loyalty will vindicate Mordecai's refusal. Again, both situations require faith that God is working behind the scenes, orchestrating deliverance that we can't see.

Both require doing what's right and leaving results to God. Both require trusting his timing, his wisdom, and his justice.

Question is not, will I be honored, but am I honoring God? The question is not, is this safe, but is this right?

The question is not, will this work out for me, but is this what God requires? When you've answered those questions rightly, when you've done what

God requires, when you've honored him, whether anyone notices or not, and when you've refused evil, even at a great cost, then you learn to say with confidence, with joy and unshakable faith that it appears that all is lost, glory, because God is working,

God sees, God records, and God will act. So be faithful, be discerning, be patient, and trust the