Our theme for this month: “Being a virtuous person”
Our Bible verse for today: “Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassh (that is, Esther), because she had no father or mother.” Esther 2:7 (CSB)
Our thought for today: “A virtuous person does what needs to be done.”
I’m often inspired by the examples of others. When I observe or read about other people behaving in admirable ways it inspires me to want to live like that too. That’s one of the reasons I love to read biographies. I have about 150 of them on my bookshelves right now and I’ve read them all (some of the twice). It’s also why I love to conduct character studies of important people in the Bible. There’s so much we can learn from them!
Mordecai, in the Old Testament book of Esther, is one of those people in the Bible from whom we can learn a lot – especially with respect to being a virtuous person. Early in the story we find that he had a young female cousin whose parents died (Esther), and so Mordecai stepped right up and assumed responsibility for raising her as his own daughter. (Of course he did, that’s the kind of man he was).
A little later in the story the beautiful young Esther is taken into the king’s harem as a potential bride. She had no choice in the matter and Mordecai could not have stopped it if he wanted to. But every day he paced back and forth outside the palace gathering what news he could about how Esther was doing. He was deeply concerned for her and went to great lengths to watch over her.
At another point in the story he discovered a plot to assassinate the king. Mordecai revealed the plot, thereby saving the king’s life. As the story continues to unfold we read that he had the courage to refuse to bow down to an evil authority figure (Haman). Then he discovered that Haman intended to massacre all the Jews and so Mordecai took bold action of his own, and he counseled and guided Esther in taking action as well, so together they saved the entire Jewish race.
There’s more to Mordecai’s story but the point is that he was a bold and virtuous man of great integrity. He certainly meets our earlier definition of a virtuous person as being someone who strives to live a life of moral excellence, even when doing so is not easy.
Does that describe you too? Do you make a good effort to live with the utmost integrity and with moral excellence? Do you go to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of impropriety? Do you take the action that needs to be taken, and do what needs to be done, simply because it’s the right thing to do?
Consider the example of Mordecai and other great men and women like him, and use their examples to motive you to be that kind of a person too.
Oak Hill Baptist Church