Year 5, Day 63: Esther 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition, Approval

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

I’m going to go out on a limb here.  I don’t think Mordecai is right in any way, sense, or manner in his action against Haman.  As I explain in my blog post from 3 years ago, I think Mordecai’s actions are full of personal pride and probably even a bit of a generational blood feud.

The truth is that our scriptures are full of strong religious leaders who walk close to God and who also submit to the worldly authority over them.  We see Jeremiah continue to live in Jerusalem even though the Hebrew leadership would not listen to him.  Daniel lives with a great relationship with Babylonian and Persian kings.  Nehemiah seems to have great respect for the Persian king he was under.  There is no reason to think that Mordecai necessarily needed to rebel against Haman.  I think his heart was rooted in personal rebellion against Haman and his ambition for his personal agenda led him astray from God’s agenda.

However, Mordecai isn’t the only one interested in ambition.  At first, Haman doesn’t even seem to notice Mordecai’s actions.  He isn’t bothered by what he doesn’t know.  But when people point it out to him, they force a confrontation.  because Haman is seeking the approval of the people around him, he has to show up Mordecai.  He has to win.  So Haman falls into the sin of seeking the approval of the people around him.

But that sin of approval also then leads to a sin of ambition.  Haman escalates his action.  Rather than just seeking punishment for Mordecai, he means to kill all of Mordecai’s people!  If that isn’t escalation, I don’t know what is!  Haman takes what should have been a small matter and because he wants to win he allows his ambition to get the best of him.

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