God Rewards At The Perfect Time

Esther 2:21-23

In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.

Here, Mordecai uncovers a plot against the king Ahasuerus by the two doorkeepers. The good deed was written in the book of the chronicles. However, he receives no reward from the king for saving his life. It appears that the King and even the Lord had forgotten his good deed. The king may have overlooked Mordecai’s good deed, God never forgets.

However, the Lord purposefully saved the reward for the right time. God delays a reward not because He forgets and then suddenly remembers but rather he chooses to bless us in the moments when it would do us the greatest good and bring Him the greatest glory.

Gal 6:9 - And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

God has an eye on each and every one of us. So, we must not tire of doing the good deeds. God has a reward to be given at the right time.

Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Let us imagine that the king wanted to immediately reward Mordecai.

He would have called Mordecai and asked him what he wanted. What would have Mordecai asked? I am sure he would not have asked what Haman said, “Give me your robe, and your horse, and your ring, and proclaim throughout the city what I’ve done!” Mordecai would have probably asked the king the well-being of Esther and himself or his people at the most. Nothing much! Since the Jews had no trouble at that moment.

But God had preserved the reward for a greater good. God does not think or act the way we do.

Isaiah 55:8-9 - “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Sometime after his incident of forgotten reward, the king promoted an official named Haman and set him above the princes. This Haman hated Mordecai since he did not bow down or pay homage to Haman and the Jews in general (because that was the custom of the Jews) and got permission from the king to annihilate the Jews. The king took his signet ring and gave it to Haman strongly establishing the decree.

Esther 3:10-11 - So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.”

Queen Esther, Mordecai, and every Jew in the Empire prayed and fasted for three days for God to intervene. Esther approached the king risking her life but received favour from him. She was however wise in how she went about making her request. She invited the King and Haman for the banquet of wine that she had prepared. In the banquet, the queen requested the king that he and Haman should also come to the second banquet she had prepared the following day. The king readily agreed. Haman was very glad that the queen had invited him and the king alone for the banquet. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate who did not stand or tremble before him, he was angered. Then, his wife and his friends counselled him to prepare a gallows and suggest the king in the morning to hang Mordecai.

That particular night, the king couldn’t sleep (Esther 6:1). Strange enough! After a huge feast, a banquet of wine, one would have expected the king to have a sound sleep. It was God who took the sleep from the king. God was working behind the scenes to honor Mordecai and answer the prayers of the Jews.

To help him sleep, the king ordered to have the record of the chronicles read (Esther 6:1). It so happened by God’s divine intervention that the passage concerning Mordecai rescuing the king’s life from the assassination attempt by the gate keepers was read. The king inquired about the reward given to Mordecai for his good deed for which the servants replied that no reward was given. The king now decided to reward Mordecai for his deed done long ago (years had passed by).