Lesson 21: A secret overheard

Read Esther 4

One day Mordecai, Esther’s uncle who had become like a father to her, was sitting at the gate of the palace and overheard a plot to assassinate the king. Mordecai sent a message to Esther so she could warn the king. She did, and when the king investigated the charge, he found it to be true and the two men who were plotting were punished. Mordecai’s name was written into the king’s records of deeds to be rewarded. But then the deed was forgotten.

After this, the king promoted another man to be what we would call his chief of staff. This man’s name was Haman, a proud man who wanted power for himself. The king issued an order that everyone around the palace was to bow to Haman whenever he passed by.

But Mordecai would not bow to Haman. This made Haman angry and he determined to destroy Mordecai.

Sometimes we hear things, as Mordecai did. What do we do with such information? Most often we just want to tell someone else, and it becomes gossip. If we have not made sure that what we have heard is the truth, but pass it on anyway, we are “bearing false witness” – as the Bible tells us NOT to do. Even if we know it is true, we are hurting someone by passing it on; we are told in 1 Corinthians 13 that true love covers sins rather than telling those sins to others.


About this same time Haman went to the king and told him a lie about a group of people living in the country who he said were determined to do evil to the king, and asked the king to allow him (Haman) to destroy them all. The king gave his permission, and Haman set a date for all the Jews in the land to be executed – just because he hated Mordecai.

Mordecai told Esther what he had heard, because she was the person in his life most able to do something good with the information. In both cases, Mordecai’s information affected more people than just himself, and he passed it on to save those in danger. He did so without giving thought to either his own honor or his own danger. From the situation which should have brought him honor, he was ignored. From the situation which brought him danger, he looked for refuge from God and found it there.

*What do you do with information you hear about someone else?