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Based on Esther 2:19-3:6
Newscaster Paul Harvey, some years ago, told his radio listeners this remarkable story from World War II. From the Island of Guam one of our mighty B-29 bombers took off for Kokura, Japan. It was carrying deadly cargo as it circled high above the city. A cloud covered the city, so the plane kept circling for half an hour, and then for three quarters of an hour, and finally after 55 minutes the gas supply was reaching the danger zone. The plane had to leave its primary target, and go to a secondary target where the sky was clear. Then the command could be given, "Bombs away!"
Only weeks later did the military receive information that chilled many a heart. Thousands of allied prisoners of war, the largest concentration of Americans in enemy hands, had been moved to Kokura a week before the bombing mission. Had it not been for that cloud, thousands of Americans now alive would have been killed, for that B-29 was carrying the world's second atomic bomb. It was taken instead to the secondary target-Nagasaki.
The direction history takes, so often is determined by such minor things. Small things play a big role in life. The illustrations of this are numerous, yet it is a truth that demands balance, or it leads to folly. God's providence is constantly working through little things, but not every little thing is of significance. To think so can lead to becoming neurotic, for you will search for meaning in every trivial event of life. The danger of this is illustrated by the little girl who came running into her house sobbing. She threw herself into her mothers arms, and cried out, "God doesn't love me anymore!" The mother was shocked and puzzled at what could produce such a crisis. "Why do you say that?" she asked, assuring her that God does love her. "No mother!" she wailed. "I know He doesn't love me. I tried Him with a daisy." In case you have never tried that less than fool proof method of predicting love, by pulling off petals to, "He loves me, he loves me not," let me recommend that you never start, if you are going to take it seriously.
The fact is, there are little things that are just little things. They are minor and insignificant. They are not subtle and hidden methods by which great things are accomplished. I don't think it is a healthy exercise to go through life trying to figure out if God is trying to say something through every minor event. When God does work through such events, it is only known as we look back and see the minor event as a link in the chain that leads to the fulfillment of His purpose.
This is what we see in the life of Mordecai. As a cloud saved many Americans, so a conversation saved many Jews. Mordecai over heard a couple of the kings servants plotting to assassinate him. This was very common in the ancient world, because the only way to get rid of an absolute monarch was by assassination. They never quit, and could not be voted out, and so violence was the only method open for change. Many of kings of Persians were assassinated, including Xerxes. He was saved by Mordecai, but fourteen years later one of his servants succeeded in his plot to kill him.
Assassination was common even in Israel. In I Kings 15 we read of how Baasha conspired to kill Nadab, the king of Israel, after he had reigned only two years. Baasha became king then, and reigned 24 years, but he was also a evil king, so nothing was gained by the people in this politics of violence. His son Elah became king, and 2 years later his servant Zimri assassinated him, and became king. Once you killed the king, you had to kill the whole family, and many of his friends, so the violence of the ancient world was terrible. There are other gruesome assassinations in the Old Testament. I point this out so that we can see clearly the nature of Mordecai's political decision, when he chose to become an informer, and revealed the conspiracy against Xerxes.
We see in Mordecai's experience good reason for why political decisions are so paradoxical, and why it is that politicians are often so variable. We see it in Mordecai's patriotism. In the last paragraph of chapter 2 we see Mordecai as a defender of the state, and then in the first paragraph of chapter 3 we him as a defier of the state. He first saved Xerxes life, and then he turns around and refuses to obey his orders of bowing to Haman, his highest representative. In the one place Mordecai is a conservative, and in the next he is a liberal. In the one he is a loyal citizen, and in the next he is a rebel.
We need to study both sides of the patriotism of Mordecai, for the Bible and history make it clear that the Christian who cannot be paradoxical in his politics and patriotism will not be able to live a life of wisdom in relation to the state. The paradox is, inconsistency in relationship to man is the only way you can be consistent in your relationship to God. Let's focus first on the positive side.
I. MORDECAI AS DEFENDER OF THE STATE.
By defender, I mean Mordecai risked his life in order to a loyal citizen, and to maintain the order of the state by reporting the conspiracy to kill the king. Mordecai was a foreigner, and he could have had the attitude that this is not my country, so what do I care? The believer is one who knows God is the God of order, and unless the leaders of a state are so corrupt that a revolution is demanded, those leaders should be honored. Many Christians have, and do now, live under tyrants, and forms of government that we could not tolerate as Americans. They live with far less freedom than us, but they still love their country, and are patriotic.
One of the reasons the Jews have been able to become leaders in nations all over the world is because they have practiced the principle of honoring and defending the state they are in. Paul in Rom. 13 lays this down as a principle for Christians in any state. "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God..." They are to receive our respect and honor. By practicing this Christianity has been able to thrive under all sorts of governments.
Mordecai was a great example of this principle, and thus a great asset to the Persian Empire. By becoming an informer he took a great risk for the sake of Xerxes, for informers tend to get their names added to the hit list. Vincent Teresa was the number 3 man in the New England Mafia. He had stolen 10 million for himself in crime, and 150 million for his bosses and confederates. When he turned informer, back in the early 70's, dozens of big times mobsters ended up in prison. It took the FBI's most brilliant minds working constantly just to keep him alive. Assassination squads were everywhere. Doctors, lawyers, and even policeman were paid by Mafia to get him. It may have not have been this hot for Mordecai, but had the assassins found out he was the informer, he would have been their first target. He took risks to be a defender of the state.
He was a hero of the state, and he was later greatly rewarded for his loyalty. Patriotism played a major role in God's providence in his life, and all of Israel. Patriotism is a virtue, but we must see that it also has its limitations. When the state is exalted to the level of God, then defense of the state is idolatry. Patriotism can have many motives, and this is why it is only a relative, and not an absolute, virtue. Even the Mafia are patriotic towards America, for its freedoms make it the greatest place on earth for crime. Vincent Teresa closes his book, My Life In The Mafia, with this paragraph. Let me tell you something: I'm the proudest guy in the world to be an American. Before I went to jail I had plenty of chances to take off and go live in a villa on the Italian coast, but I wouldn't leave this country. I'd rather spend 20 years in the can in America than 20 years free in Italy. The reason is, I love this country, and that's the way it is with most mob guys. The mob will not stand for anything against this country. They'll rob from government arsenals and rob government stock and sell it; but if they could discover that anyone's trying to overthrow the country or anything like that, they'll fight him. Most mob guys that I know of vote. We vote whatever is the best way to make money. If its going to be one of these guys who is going to be on the reform kick all the time, we'll all band together and vote against him.
There is a higher percentage of the Mafia who vote, then of born again Christians. So what I am saying is that patriotism is good, but not an absolute good. If not modified by a higher loyalty to God, it can become an evil. Thus, we turn to the other side of Mordecai and see.
II. MORDECAI AS THE DEFIER OF THE STATE.
Verse 2 of chapter 3 makes it clear that bowing to Haman was not a mere matter of courtesy, it was the law of the land, for the king had commanded it. Not to bow was an act of defiance against the state. Mordecai refused to bow. He had just risked his life for Xerxes, but now when there is no risk at all involved, he will not join the others and bow. What has happened to his patriotism as a loyal citizen? Mordecai seems to be inconsistent. After all, he let his daughter marry the king, so he is related to him, and yet he will not pay him the respect of bowing to his highest representative.
The result of this stubborn refusal is that Haman becomes hateful, and determines the entire Jewish race will pay for this insubordination. Either Mordecai is a stubborn fool, or he is standing for a principle more precious than life itself. The only clue we have is in verse 4 where Mordecai's only defense for his action is that he was a Jew. In other words, we are dealing here with an issue of religious liberty, or the multifaceted and complex issue of the separation of church and state. What Mordecai is saying is that as a Jew there is a limit as to how far he can go in conforming to the state. He could risk his life for the state, but he could not give up his religious liberty by bowing to Haman, for he would be giving to the state the allegiance he owed only to God. The issue here is really a matter of idolatry. Do we obey God or man?
The whole thing would be sheer folly if it was a matter of personal pride. If Mordecai just didn't like Haman, his action would be disgraceful. He risks the lives of his people out of stubborn pride. If we see it as a battle for religious liberty, however, then we can see what has been a pattern of God's providence all through history. Mordecai had his priorities straight. God is number one, and the state can never be obeyed if it attempts to usurp that place in our lives. The defenders of the state must become defiers of the state when the state threatens to crush religious liberty. The state has a right to our loyalty as long as it recognizes its place in God's providence. When it begins to encroach on God's domain, then our loyalty to God demands that we defy the state. The state becomes Satanic when it demands of us allegiance due only to God. We must chose then either to deify the state, or defy the state.
We know the issue of bowing to Haman was an attempt to deify the state, for we have the record of Herodotus the ancient historian. He tells us of others who came to Xerxes, and who refused to acknowledge him as god. He tells of the Lacedoemonians whom the guards forced to their knees before Xerxes, yet, they refused to bow their heads, for they said they had not come to Persia for the purpose of worshipping a man. Xerxes excused them from bowing, for he had respect for their religious liberty. Haman, you will note, never told Xerxes that his hatred of the Jews and Mordecai stemmed from Mordecai's refusal to bow to him. This was never reported to Xerxes at all, for if it had been, he would have nipped it in the bud right there, for he allowed for religious liberty.
Haman is the culprit in the book of Esther, for his personal hatred, based on his desire to be treated like deity, is the cause for all the evil in the book. He plotted to get all the Jews killed so Xerxes would never even know why. What we are dealing with here is a corrupt politician in an otherwise reasonably just government. Haman had let power go to his head, and he will not tolerate being treated as secondary to God. He will get revenge on those who dare to put God first. The lesson of Esther is that the believer can never do anything other than defy those who presume to take God's place. The history of America revolves around this basic principle.
A hundred years before the revolutionary war, king Charles II of England demanded that the Mass. colony relinquished its religious liberty, and let the Church of England control things, with only church members having the right to vote. The Puritans were enraged, and went into their pulpits preaching that they must defy the kings orders. Better that they die free than submit to such tyranny. The king heard of their rebellion, and ordered 5,000 troops to sail to Mass. to crush the rebellion. Increase Mather called for a day of prayer and fasting, and later they learned that king Charles had died on that very day of 1685. The result was the army never set sail. The Puritans were convinced that defiance to a state which threatens religious liberty is obedience to God. This principle became the foundation for the American Revolution.
The result is we are a nation where the right to defy the government is guaranteed. If the state tries to interfere with our religious liberty, we can take the state to the supreme court, and fight for our rights. We have a Constitution which gives us a right to protest and demonstrate against our governments policies. Thank God for freedom that most of the world has never known. What we have is based on the basic truth that man has the right to put God first, and to defy any authority that tries to take that first place in our lives.
Most of us have never lived through a period where the state is deified, and demanded absolute allegiance. Hopefully we will never have to, but the Christians under Hitler had to. I never realized until recently that Hitler established his own church in Germany. It was called The German Church Of Positive Christianity. Its design was to counter-act all Christian opposition, and destroy Christianity. It was extremely effective, and won most of the youth of Germany. Julius Leuthenses wrote, "Adolf Hitler is own living witness of the present era, who confirms the good work of the eternal Divine Spirit in history, and who, through his activity, enables us to understand in a new way the teachings of Christ and His mission. Our watchword is not that Hitler is equal to Christ, but: Through Hitler to Jesus Christ."
That is just the beginning. Soon the preaching of the cross was forbidden in church. The picture of Hitler was hung in front of all churches, and he was referred to in official statements as the way, the truth, and the light. All Germans were urged to die for him, and make their dying words heil Hitler. Hitler was so clever, only the devil himself could have been guiding him, for he completely revised Christianity, and made Nazism a perverted Christianity. He declared mount Hesselberg his sacred mountain, and Julius Streicher his high priest. Standing before the bonfire he said, "When we look into the flames of this holy fire, and throw our sins into them, we can descend from this mountain with clean souls. We do not need priests and ministers. We have become our own priests."
Hitler actually became a god to millions of people who could not see their folly until it was to late. I share this because Hitler and Haman were two of a kind. There pride, racial hatred, and abuse of power make them brothers of the pit. Both sought to wipe out the Jewish race. But there were Mordecai's in Hitler's day as well. They defied the state, and fought Hitler, and they made a difference. The tragic fact is, these Mordecai's were two few in number. The majority of Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, were deceived by Hitler's clever use of patriotism. The people were whipped into a religious frenzy of love and loyalty to the Fatherland. Hitler could do not wrong, and Germany could do no wrong. The Patriotic fervor so captivated Christians, that the voices of the church in opposition were muted. Hitler was free to do the works of Satan with little resistance. Millions of Christians cooperated in the killing of 6 million Jews.
It is the story of history repeating itself over and over again, because of idolatry. God's people bowed down to a false god, and as always, the result is tragic judgment. Had there been more Mordecai's defying the state when it began to encroach on God's territory, the tragic and demonic history of Germany could have been avoided. Many Christian leaders are writing today of the danger of an American Civil Religion. It uses Christian terminology, just as Hitler did, but it is not Christian. It is a state religion that is designed to convince Christian people that everything the state does is the will of God. It is a powerful political tool.
Because of the ever present danger of the state becoming a god, the Christian must be all the more conscious of the need to exalt the Lordship of Jesus. Nothing is Christian, no matter how good, or how American, which does not bow to Jesus Christ, and confess Him as Lord. Mordecai, as a Jew, would bow to none but Jehovah, and you and I, as Christians, can bow to none but Jesus. Because it is so, we must be ready to both defend and defy the state.
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