“Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of the Jews.”
– Esther 10:3
Hi James and Ellen,
What are your feelings towards Jews? Do you know a kid who is a Jew? Why do you think that Jews generally keep to themselves? Your grandmaa when she was a student at P.S. DuPont High School in Wilmington, Delaware had classmates who were Jews. During the time when your grandmaa was a student at P.S. DuPont High School, P.S. DuPont High School was purportedly one of the best high schools in the United States. There were 286 guys and gals in your grandmaa’s high school graduating class. What ethnic people group on planet Earth would you say has been the most maligned over the past forty or so centuries? Your grandpaa believes that the Jew people group is at the very top of the list of being the most besmirched ethnic people group on planet Earth. How do you think that the Jew people group has been able to maintain for so long a heritage that is exclusively unique to them? Jew family trees are all rooted in Abraham. Abraham’s life story is central to what is taking place throughout the Middle East. When Abram and Sarai reached an age when they should no longer be able to have a kid, God – as God the Father, promised Abram and Sarai that He would make it happen that they would one day have a kid born to them. After giving God plenty of time to fulfill His promise, Sarai got tired of waiting. Sarai decided that her husband should have a kid with Hagar. Hagar was Sarai’s handmaiden. When the day arrived when Sarai and Abram had a kid of their own – which was fourteen years after Ishmael was born, Sarai essentially told Hagar that she wanted her to take her kid and get lost. After Hagar took Ishmael into the Arabian Peninsula, Ishmael became the patriarch of a people group of guys and gals who became known as Arabs. This happened about 4,000 years ago. A 40 years old Arab by the name of Mohammad Ibn Abdallah had his first vision about 1,400 years ago. A new belief paradigm emerged because of Mohammad’s ‘dreams’ and writings. Even though Mohammad taught or advocated God as being a Supreme Being or Allah and Abraham as being the Arab people group patriarch, Mohammad’s teachings has Jesus as being a good guy who . . . Mohammad’s teachings attracted guys and gals who called themselves Muslims who in turn called what they believed Islam. The basic Islamic credo is to be submissive to Allah’s ways.
After Isaac was born to Abram and Sarai – who would have their names changed by God – as God the Father, to Abraham – which means being the ‘exalted’ father of a multitude, and Sarah – which means ‘princess’, the family that was promised to them by God began to take root in a land area that was called Canaan. About 200 years later and because of a famine, Abraham’s grandkid Jacob, Jacob’s kids and their families moved to the country of Egypt. During the 430 years that they lived on Goshen, Egypt, the nuclear families of the twelve boys who were born to Jacob – or Israel, increased dramatically. Through God’s divine insistence and assistance, God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who became known as Israelites, returned to the land area where Abraham had lived. After pushing back for around 800 years against God’s mandate to worship only Him and not to worship their neighboring people group’s inanimate gods, the Israelite – or Jew, people group were exiled by God to the land of Babylonia as His punishment for their disobedience and rejection of the life and worship mores that He gave them through Moses that He had expected them to heed. When a Persian king – Ahasuerus or King Xerxes, conquered the Babylonian people group army who God had used to carry off His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem, as exiles in the country of Babylonia, a Persian guy by the name of Haman took it upon himself – because of having been set up by God to really dislike the Israelite – or Jew, people group guys and gals, to purge them by killing them from the countries that the Medes and the Persians had conquered. God thwarted Haman’s plans by having an Israelite – or Jew, people group guy by the name of Mordecai overhear what Haman was scheming. Esther 10 wraps up a seminal moment in Jewish history. Verse 3 says “Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of the Jews.”
The key phrases that describe Mordecai are that ‘he worked for the good of his people’ and that he ‘spoke up for the welfare of the Jews’. Your grandpaa believes that God over the next years, gave the Israelite – or Jew, people group guys and gals – His specially chosen guys and gals, a sense of peace and hope and that God gave King Xerxes and his Persian people group a place in history as a world power. If you are wondering why your grandpaa has been giving you a meandering history lesson, what is now happening to the Israelite – or Jew, people group of guys and gals is entirely antithetical to how King Xerxes empowered them. Because the Israelite – or Jew, people group guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, were accepted and respected by King Xerxes, your grandpaa thinks that that was the reason for a period of tranquility on planet Earth. Because of a family history that goes back over 4,000 years that has a people group of guys and gals violently pitting themselves against God’s specially chosen guys and gals, what may take place today if no one stands with Jews should disquiet Christ-follower guys and gals.
Esther 10 (1136)