By Lynette Easter
As I pick up from where I left off last month, we find out just a little bit more about the person who had the greatest impact on her life, Esther’s Uncle Mordecai. Mordecai assumed the role as Esther’s Father when her mother and father died. Mordecai took Esther into his home and raised her as if she were his very own daughter up until she left to go dwell with the other young ladies vying for King Xerxes’ hand in marriage.
Ultimately, Esther was the one who captured the King’s heart and was crowned Queen. Mordecai worked at King Xerxes’ palace guarding the King’s gate. One day Mordecai overheard a conspiracy to murder King Xerxes between two of the King’s officers that guarded King Xerxes’ doorway.
Mordecai reported the plot to Queen Esther, who in turn reported and credited Mordecai for the information to her husband, King Xerxes. The allegation was investigated and found to be accurate, which led to the hanging of both officers. The information was recorded in the Book of Annals in the presence of King Xerxes.
After the course of events transpired, King Xerxes decided to promote Haman by making him higher than all of the nobles. King Xerxes commanded every Royal Official posted at his gate to honor Haman by kneeling before him. Everyone obeyed but Mordecai; day after day the other officials would confront Mordecai about his refusal to kneel before Haman.
However, Mordecai never changed his stance and continued to refuse to obey the King’s command to kneel before Haman. Mordecai revealed to the officials that he was Jewish; the officials decided to confront Haman. The officials reported to Haman how Mordecai refused to kneel before him. They also reported that Mordecai was a Jew and wanted to know if Haman accepted Mordecai’s disrespect towards him.
PAUSE.
I must put some things out there and create some dialogue here until we pick this story back up next month. First of all, Mordecai was THE ONLY PERSON not kneeling each day yet Haman never noticed. So, I surmise that there must have been quite a number of royal officials for Haman not to notice this blatant act of disrespect directed towards him. I strongly believe that Mordecai’s religious beliefs prohibited him from kneeling before Haman, which is why he shared with the officials that he was a Jew.
Secondly, I wonder why the officials chose to continually chastise Mordecai about his behavior. I concluded that they must have believed that they could hassle Mordecai into conformity. It is possible that they did not want Mordecai to get caught disobeying King Xerxes’ orders, which would result in his untimely death. But then those sneaky officials go and pull this next stunt that destroys my benefit of the doubt I gave them!
These officials had such disdain in their hearts towards Mordecai until they felt compelled to go to Haman and point out Mordecai’s disrespect towards him. They told Haman that Mordecai was a Jew and then asked Haman if he accepted Mordecai’s disrespect.*Insert me shaking my head and saying: They Were Messy.*
To try and put things in perspective, I pose to us this first question:
What would you have done? Truth be told, if I would’ve been faced with what Mordecai faced, I really do not know what I would have done. This confession made me pose these questions to get some type of idea as to how I might have responded. On that note, I’ll leave these questions here for everyone to self-evaluate:
Have co-workers’ responses dictated how you handle conflict of interest due to your moral beliefs?
Have you ever found yourself forgoing your beliefs in order to get along and be labeled a ‘Team Player’?
Have you stood uncompromisingly firm on your beliefs opposite of everyone else’s?
