Esther 9:3-4 – “Greatness”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

 ³And the all of the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and the ones doing the royal business which [was] to the king [were] ones lifting up the Jews because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them, ⁴because great [was] Mordecai in the house of the king and his name one going [out] in the all of the provinces because the man Mordecai [was] one going and great,…

Once again, I want to pause here and consider the man Mordecai. We find him here having become what the world (and the Biblical text itself) calls a “great” man. He has risen to the position of prime minister of perhaps the wealthiest nation in history. The position itself no doubt brought him enormous wealth, but it also gave him great power. He is a great man.

What I want to observe is what made him “great.” There was a day when a much younger Mordecai stood at a funeral and said, “I’ll take care of her,” and he became the adoptive father of his little cousin Hadassah, whom the Persians came to call Esther. We don’t know what his financial resources were at that time, but, regardless, he was taking on the expenses of feeding and clothing and doctoring this little girl who wasn’t actually his daughter. Not only was he willing to give up a portion of his finances, it also cost him his time. As we read earlier, he didn’t just give her a bed to sleep in, the text says literally he “took her to daughter.” He was a man who, having adopted her, gave her all the fatherly love and attention he’d have given a girl who really was his daughter. We saw him in 2:11 pacing back and forth outside Esther’s door worrying over “her peace.”

Then we saw him faithfully tending to his job “sitting at the king’s gate.” We don’t know what his responsibilities were, but when he overheard Bigthan and Teresh plotting against the king, he risked his own life to expose the plot and protect his sovereign’s life. Then we saw him go on faithfully doing his job even though he received no reward or even recognition for the great service he had done for his boss, the king.

What is my point? My point is to note that Mordecai’s “greatness” wasn’t first of all a position he had attained. He became the prime minister because he was great. He was a great man in the quiet of his own home where a little orphaned girl lacked for nothing. He was a great man at his job, where others could count on him to do “the right thing” even at great risk to himself. Let us stop and ask, “How would you describe a man whom you personally knew to be a very dedicated father at home and a man you can count on at his job?” I think we would all agree that, regardless of whatever position he had attained in this world, he would be a great man. Even if he was poor as a pauper, we would observe him with a very deep respect.

My point is to note that Mordecai’s greatness came not from the position he attained but rather from the man he was. He was “great” in the privacy of his own home and that was the source of his “greatness” in public. Whether or not he had ever become “great” publicly, he still would have been a great man.

Our world today would do well to note this lesson before us. All around us people attain to “greatness” while they themselves are nothing of the kind. Haman was an extreme example, but he was still an example. He was a bad man who manipulated his way into a position of greatness. In his case, he lost that position (and his life) specifically because of the poverty of his character. Whether he’d lost his position or not, the fact would have remained he was a bad man. As you and I would look around today, it is a rare thing to see a good person who’s attained to “greatness.” In government, in the business world, even in our own workplaces, it would seem the Haman's of this world are almost always the ones in charge.

That hasn’t always been the case. I believe men like George Washington and Samuel Adams (and many of the fathers of our nation) were truly good men. It is not at all surprising that what they forged was a great nation! I believe Abraham Lincoln was truly a good man who became great. More recently, Ronald Reagan was such a man. He won the hearts of the American people because they could see he really was a good man. He did a great job because he was a great man.

That is rarely true today. Unfortunately, you and I can’t change the world we live in. Regardless of what you or I do, this world will go on being run by corrupt, evil people (like Haman). What we can change is us. Like Mordecai, we can hear the Lord say, “My son, give Me your heart…” We can strive to be, in the privacy of our homes and in the quiet of our own lives, people of genuine character. That, of course, is integrity, to be who I am because I’m determined to be, to be who I am regardless of whether or not it ever gets me “greatness” in this world. Is that not exactly what believers should always be?

It’s not really surprising that the OT ends with the Lord saying that when He comes, He’ll “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and children to their fathers.” What is He saying? He’s saying the result of His kind of working is to make people who are great at home.

May that be true of you and me, and may the Lord raise up among us more Mordecai’s, people who show the world what “greatness” is really all about!