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“The Consequences of Doing Good”
Categories: Bulletin Articles
Human beings are rotten at predicting the future. Weather forecasters today have computers crammed with sophisticated mathematical models. They have access to real-time data that their predecessors could only dream about. And yet, with all this plus years or even decades of experience and training, they’re about as likely to get next week’s weather right as I am to sink a half-court three-pointer.
No matter what some might pretend, we have no idea what’s going to happen, and this extends even to predicting the consequences of our own actions. Even the most discerning of us are frequently surprised by how our lives turn out.
We can’t be shrewd, but we can be good. Though doing the right thing doesn’t always benefit us (Exhibit A: Jesus), it frequently does. A godly choice now can have consequences that bless our lives in ways that we didn’t anticipate.
We see this principle at work in the life of Mordecai, cousin and guardian of the Persian queen Esther. Mordecai is a dutiful protector, and after she is taken into the palace, he frequents the king’s gate to see how she’s doing. While there, he learns that two of the king’s doorkeepers are plotting against the king.
This is no business of Mordecai’s. Ahasuerus is not a particularly good or likeable king, and he’s a foreigner besides. It would have been easy for Mordecai to ignore the whole matter with a subway-rider’s nonchalance: “I didn’t see nothin’, man!”
However, he doesn’t. The king is the king, and it’s wrong to plot against the king. Mordecai tells Esther, Esther tells the king in Mordecai’s name, and the two doorkeepers are exposed and executed. Nothing is done for Mordecai, and he continues his sojourn at the gate.
While there, he incurs the enmity of Haman, the second most powerful man in the kingdom, by not kowtowing to him. Haman decides to get his revenge by eradicating the whole Jewish nation, but first of all, he wants to see Mordecai decorating a gallows in his front yard.
He goes to Ahasuerus, desiring permission to kill Mordecai, but the king has something else in mind. Belatedly, he has been reminded of Mordecai’s loyalty, and he has decided that he wants to honor him. Rather than dragging Mordecai to the gallows, Haman ends up praising him in public. If Mordecai hadn’t done the difficult-but-right thing, he would have been executed. As it was, though, his selfless act was the first step of his climb to prominence in the Persian government.
Today, we probably won’t be called upon to disrupt assassination plots, but we are called upon to do good in less dramatic ways. Opportunities to be gracious to others abound in all of our lives. They start with the needy of the church (and sometimes what the needy need is emotional rather than financial support) and go from there.
We should take advantage of these opportunities because it’s the right thing to do. However, we also should not forget, nor be surprised by, the persistence of the effects of doing good. When we seek the Lord first, He will often bless our righteousness in ways we could not have imagined.
