Esther 8:1 – 6 “Giving”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹In the day of the that the king Xerxes gave to Esther the queen the house of Haman, one being the enemy of the Jews, and Mordecai came in to the face of the king because Esther had told what he [was] to her. ²And the king took off his ring which he had taken from Haman and he gave it to Mordecai and Esther placed Mordecai upon the house of Haman. ³And Esther added and she spoke [intensively] to the face of the king and she fell to the face of his feet and she wept and she sought favor to him to cause to pass the evil of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he devised upon the Jews. ⁴And the king extended to Esther the scepter of the gold and Esther arose and she stood to the face of the king. ⁵And she said, “If upon the king it is pleasing and if I have found favor to his face, and the matter is proper to the face of the king and good I [am] in his eyes, let it be written to bring back the documents of the plot of Haman, son of Hamedatha the Agagite which he wrote to destroy the Jews who [are] in the all of the provinces of the king. ⁶Because how will I be able and will I see in the evil which will find my people, and how will I be able and will I see in the destruction of my family?”

Before I look closely at what we can learn from Esther, I want to record one more observation from Mordecai. As we’ve noted before, one has to respect this fellow who not only adopted his little orphaned cousin, but literally “took her to daughter” and worried over “her peace.” Any parent or teacher knows this man has given much to Esther, sacrificed much, given much time to her training and her care. He gave her a family, and this little girl named Esther, although her own parents had died, got to grow up in a world where she was deeply loved and always cared for, with a real Daddy who loved her. As with his loyalty to Xerxes, Mordecai did it all with no thought of reward for himself.

Now, all of a sudden, that little girl, now a woman, recounts his virtues to the king and brings him into his presence. There the humble Mordecai finds himself appointed to serve as the king’s prime minister. That would have meant great advantages to Mordecai, no doubt an astronomical salary and other benefits. However, as if that was not enough, once again the little orphaned cousin appoints him as her steward over what had been Haman’s vast estate and he finds himself the right-hand man not only to the king but to the queen herself!

Just think how all this honor, all this blessing comes to Mordecai on this day specifically because of that day when he said, ‘Yes, I’ll take care of her,” and then went on to be a loving father to little Esther.

Once again, “My, my. How the chickens do come home to roost!” Haman plotted cruel murders and now he’s dead. Mordecai showed kindness to one little girl and now he’s the prime minster!  I never knew my Grandpa Bixby, but my father told me he was a very generous man and that he had a favorite saying, “There was a man, they thought him mad. The more he gave, the more he had!” We see this same idea expressed in Prov. 11:24,25, “One man gives and receives only more…and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

Somewhere early in my life, I learned the truth, “You can’t out-give God!” In a world without God, I suppose it would be foolish to sacrifice your own advantages to provide for someone else’s. Without a good God ruling over our world, what guarantee would I have that my loss would not be permanent? But because God does rule, because He sees, and because He cares, because He is love itself, we find this principle put in motion, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” As we learn in II Cor. 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you…”

This is a wonderful principle to know. You never lose for loving. In the short run, love can be very costly. In fact, the more you love, the more vulnerable you become and the more deeply those you love can (and will) hurt you. People can and will take advantage of your love. Others will spurn it in ingratitude. On a purely accounting basis, when you give a dollar, you have one less in your own account. And yet, time will prove, one way or another, you’ll never lose for loving.

I cannot tell how many times Joan and I have sweat over someone else’s need and given, only to find we have more money in our account at the end of the month than we had at the beginning. That has happened so many times, we’re literally to the point where we practically expect it! As I sit here, about to turn 65 in just a few months, we aren’t anywhere near as prepared as we should have been for retirement. The plain simple fact is that we have given too much. Perhaps I’ve been foolish. Perhaps I should have given more thought to our own welfare. However, here I sit and the Lord has given me a great job where they are very generous with me. Even though I really only started saving for retirement at the age of 55 when I started working at Chamlin, yet I am actually making some pretty good progress on it. If I can just work a few more years, we’ll probably be okay. I live in a beautiful house. I have a beautiful wife, three wonderful children and four grandchildren. We love this city where we live. I have a heart full of good memories from the life I’ve lived.

It probably is true that we gave too much. I probably really should have thought more of our own needs. Yet, for all my foolishness, here we are, blessed far beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. And it all goes back to this simple principle, “You can’t out-give God!” You never lose for loving. “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”

I should insert here what I’m proposing is not that we should be reckless and irresponsible. Ps. 112:5 tells us, “Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,” but it goes on to say, “to him who manages his affairs with discretion.” Generosity and good management of one’s own affairs go hand in hand. Our entire life, Joan and I have kept a meticulous budget. We’ve kept track of every penny that came in and went out. We’ve never had a month where we couldn’t pay our bills. However, I can say without question that what that meticulous management has done for us is allowed us to give generously while still being responsible ourselves. We have paid our bills. Looking back, I seriously should have been more responsible preparing for retirement. I wish I could go back and do a better a job of that, but, on the other hand, here I sit blessed beyond my own wildest imagination, so, as always, we have to do our best, based on what we know at the time, love as much as we can the best we can, be as responsible as we can, then enjoy the security that our good God can handle all the blunders we make along the way!

I’m so glad it’s true. I’m so glad we can live in this world, be determined to love and give and, all the while know that, at least in the long run, you cannot lose. In fact, like Mordecai, what we usually will find is that our Lord is the God of the “full measure, pressed down and running over.” He is the God who does for us immeasurably more than we could have ever asked or thought. Mordecai not only did not lose for loving Esther, he also didn’t just get “reimbursed.” The Lord didn’t one day present him with a check to cover all the costs of Esther’s upbringing. He raised him to be the prime minister of what was probably the richest empire in all of human history!

That’s our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us to the end, who gave Himself for us, even all the way to the cruel death of the Cross, only to rise from that tomb and be exalted “to the highest place…” to be given “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!”

You can’t out-give God. In His world, at least in the long run, you cannot lose for loving. Mordecai’ example shines down through twenty-six centuries to teach us to love today, to love only for love’s sake, to forget ourselves in the loving, and then to rest assured somehow, some way the day will come when that love will come roaring back into our life.

Mordecai took in little Esther. Perhaps some people thought him mad. But, you see, “the more he gave, the more he had!”