Mordecai - Champion of The Oppressed

Esther 3 & 4

Haman told King Xerxes, "There is one ethnic group, scattered throughout the peoples in every province of your kingdom, yet living in isolation. Their laws are different from everyone else's, so they defy the king's laws. It's not in the king's best interest to guarantee their security. If the king approves, let an order be drawn up authorizing their destruction. That being done, I will weigh out 375 tons of silver in the hands of the accountants to be deposited in the royal treasury."... When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried aloud bitterly.

If you want to find Mordecai in the story of Esther, look for him out in the street - with one ear on his people's concerns and the other on the rumors streaming from the palace - rumors of a plot to destroy them. With Mordecai, the Jewish people had a fighting chance.

Isaiah 58 is one of the Bible's most pinteresting elooks into the believer's heart. Speaking God's words, the prophet takes on the proud proponents of religious observance - those who are sure that God couldn't be more pleased with their rituals and righteousness. Isaiah reveals that going without food means little while the oppressed go hungry, that wearing sackcloth only makes you itchy if the naked remain unclothed. God's heart is for the helpless, and his people don't really know him if they aren't actively helping them.

Praying that we all remember the ones who need us,
Pastor Mike