Today, I am reading and commenting on  Esther 1-3.

The Book of Esther can be tricky to interpret because at no point does the writer make mention of God, or indicate that any of the individuals act out concern for Him.  Nevertheless, I choose to believe that Mordecai was a deeply religious man whose actions were motivated bu his faith.  On the basis of that, I see an interesting lesson about our interaction with government from Mordecai’s actions as recorded in today’s passage.  First, while waiting at the king’s gate to gain news of his cousin Esther, Mordecai overheard a plot to assassinate King Xerxes.  He chose to report the plot to Esther to pass on to the king, and the king took action to thwart the plot.  Perhaps he did so in order to protect Esther from what might happen to her after such an assassination, but I believe he did so out of loyalty to an authority, the king, he felt had been established by God.  Somewhat later, Mordecai refused to bow down before Haman in defiance of an order given by that same authority.  So, while Mordecai respected and supported the authority of the government, he held that there were limits to that authority.  The passage does not tell us why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, but I believe because he felt that he should only bow before God.  In that view, bowing represents a form of worship.  In the same way, we should respect and support the authority of government, as an institution established by God, but we must resist its efforts to put itself in the place of God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.