Esther 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
All of us probably know or remember someone who became more and more like themselves the older they got. Maybe you know a grandpa who is gruffer than he used to be, or you have a grandma who is sweeter than she was twenty years ago. Well, it may very well be that they are just being more of themselves than they ever were and there is just no reason to pretend otherwise. I think perhaps all of us become more like ourselves apart from the books we read, the people we meet, and the grace of God. I do know people who were one thing before they met Christ, and when they accepted Christ, it changed their lives. But generally speaking, the way you live is the way you leave.
When you read a biography you can see the connections between when the person was ten years old and when he was ninety. I have a biography on Winston Churchill. It is a three-volume biography, and I read somewhere that this is one of the greatest biographies of Winston Churchill. I have another single- volume biography of Winston Churchill that is almost a thousand pages and is supposed to be one of the best one-volume biographies around. Well, a one-volume biography? Good night! How many books does it take to write about someone’s life?
Yet, in Esther 10 we have a three-verse biography about Mordecai the Jew. Verse 3 says, “For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.” It is not surprising that the last verse describing Mordecai’s life is a result of the very first verses of Mordecai’s life.
Now the power and favor Mordecai possessed had increased greatly, and though he had been under a death sentence in the beginning of the book, he now seems to be helping to rule. Mordecai’s wealth had changed, but his character had not. We find him seeking and speaking. He was “seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.” “All his seed” means the people that were to come. He was passing onto the next generations the things that were important to him.
It is interesting that he scaled what he had done for Queen Esther to the entire nation. Before she was queen, Esther was just an unknown, obscure, Jewish girl without parents, and Mordecai, who was actually her cousin, became a father to her. He cared, not regarding that one day she could spare his life, make him rich, or do anything for him. He was doing it because it was the right thing to do. Is it any wonder then in the last verse of this book he is giving the same care to the nation that he gave to one single person in that nation at the beginning of the book? He scaled Esther to the entire nation. He grew what he was already doing.
Also, he had what he had lived, scaled to him in the kingdom. He had been generous, and now he was living a gracious life. The bottom line is give what you want to receive. You don’t get what you want; you get what you give. I’ve often said to parents that your kids don’t do what you think you are doing, they do what they see you are doing. There is a very real sense that the way you live is the way you leave.
How do you want to leave this life? Well, begin by living that right now.