3.217 But Mordecai Bowed Not

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

Picture this. Everybody that you're with is doing the thing that you know you shouldn't be doing. They all turn to you expecting you to keep doing the thing you know you shouldn't be doing.

What do you do? Luckily for us, we have some examples to follow inside of our scriptures this week as we read from the book of Esther. This lesson does not come from Esther.

It comes from Uncle Mordecai, her mentor and the man who raised her to be ultimately the queen of Persia here. Let's take a look inside of the reading at what's going on. Mordecai is in front of the king's servants.

We've got a very high official here, Haman, who is coming in, and everyone's going to bow in his presence. Mordecai, in following the law given to the Jews in Exodus, remembers that he's not supposed to have any other gods before God, and he interprets that to not bow. What happens in this scenario?

Let's take a look at our verse for today in Esther chapter 3 verse 2: "And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not." An order from the king. This is a high level, almost an act of treason of sorts here.

Now, perhaps those of you that have served missions that are listening, perhaps you experienced this if you've gone to a different culture and everybody's doing the cultural thing that you shouldn't be doing. And you've got all this pressure around you to do the cultural thing, too. I certainly experienced that at times in Mongolia.

We've had these experiences. Mordecai shows us how we can respond. I think it's interesting because many times I've heard the phrase, well, we don't want to offend others.

My friends, we learned from Mordecai here that living your beliefs is not something that drives others to offense. If they are offended because of their beliefs, it is because they have taken offense, not because you have imposed it upon them. In fact, later on our reading here in verse 5, we find out that Haman literally explodes full of wrath.

But we noticed that Mordecai wasn't worried about Haman's response. He was worried about what God would think about his actions. My friends, you and I have had opportunities to stand, to be different.

We'll continue to have opportunities to stand and be different. I hope that we have the courage that Mordecai showed here in this example, this leadership moment, to be able to realize that this wasn't a moment of compromise. Thank you for watching.

Today, my friends, you and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.