the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mordecai
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or A name rendered memorable in Scripture history, from the person so called being made an instrument in the Lord's hand for the deliverance of his people, and the destruction of his enemies. (See Esther 3:1-15 and following.)The name of Mordecai seems to be derived from Marar, bitter: or, as some have supposed, from Mur, myrrh; and Duc, to bruise. We ought not to dismiss our record of Mordecai with his name only, since the Holy Ghost hath thought proper to give the church so large an account of his history, in the book of Esther, which is principally, if not wholly, recorded for this purpose, No doubt, that the almighty Spirit intended the relation of it for much usefulness to his people in all ages; and therefore it becomes both our duty and our wisdom to attend to it.
The faithfulness of Mordecai exposed him to the anger and resentment of Haman the Hagagite. This poor despised Jew could not in conscience bow down and do homage to one of the spawn of Agag. Mordecai knew well that Haman was of that spawn; and what was yet infinitely higher and more important; he knew well, that the Lord had sworn to have war with Amalek, (now changed in name, but not in principle, to the Agagite) from generation to generation. Let the reader, for his information of the cause, consult Exodus 17:3-16, compared with 1 Samuel 15:1-35. Hence, therefore, the faithful Mordecai, zealous, like another Phineas, for God's cause and his people's welfare, would not, for he dared not, bow down to the sworn foe of the Lord and Israel. (See Numbers 15:1-13.) Oh, for grace to be found faithful amidst all the Hamans and Agagites of the present day! Oh, that the Lord would raise up, in this sense, many faithful Mordecais from the midst of our British Israel!
Reader, let us not turn away from this history of Mordecai and Haman, until that we have taken one instruction more. Look at Haman. What, Haman! could not all the glory, all the riches, all the multitude of children, that you boasted, satisfy you? (See Esther 5:9-14.) What I had you your harem full of women for the riot of your lustful hours, concubines upon concubines, and the king's favour so great that none of the princes stood so high as yourself, and shall the sight of one poor miserable Jew, because he pays you no reverence, be enough to throw down all the props of this boasted grandeur? Must the blood of this man be shed before that Haman will acknowledge himself to be happy? yea, not this one poor. Jew only, but every Jew shall, die. for it, because Mordecai sat in he king's gate, and would not rise to give you reverence! (See Esther 3:8-9.) Is it indeed so, and is this the case? Ah, wretched, wretched Haman! what a representation you afford of the state of a heart of malignity! what a portrait of human life in all its highest characters void of grace! One baleful passion is enough, like the dye of crimson, or of scarlet, to tinge and give a colouring to the whole heart. Nothing can make the prosperous sinner truly happy so long as this spectre, like the Jew at the gate, riseth up and haunts the imagination. Precious Jesus! what everlasting blessedness hast thou introduced into the circumstances of our fallen state, when by thy visit to our world, and redemption of our nature in it, thou hast raised thy people from the ruins of the fall, and cleansed our hearts by thy blood from all those evil passions of our fallen nature.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Mordecai'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/m/mordecai.html. London. 1828.
