The Paradox Of Patriotism Series

Newscaster Paul Harvey, some years ago, told his radio listeners

this remarkable story from World War II. From the Island of

Guam one of our mighty B-29 bombers took off for

Kokura, Japan. It was carrying deadly cargo as it circled high

above the city. A cloud covered the city, so the plane kept circling

for half an hour, and then for three quarters of an hour, and finally

after 55 minutes the gas supply was reaching the danger zone. The

plane had to leave its primary target, and go to a secondary target

where the sky was clear. Then the command could be given,

"Bombs away!"

Only weeks later did the military receive information that chilled

many a heart. Thousands of allied prisoners of war, the largest

concentration of Americans in enemy hands, had been moved to

Kokura a week before the bombing mission. Had it not been for

that cloud, thousands of Americans now alive would have been

killed, for that B-29 was carrying the world's second atomic bomb.

It was taken instead to the secondary target-Nagasaki.

The direction history takes, so often is determined by such minor

things. Small things play a big role in life. The illustrations of this

are numerous, yet it is a truth that demands balance, or it leads to

folly. God's providence is constantly working through little things,

but not every little thing is of significance. To think so can lead to

becoming neurotic, for you will search for meaning in every trivial

event of life. The danger of this is illustrated by the little girl who

came running into her house sobbing. She threw herself into her

mothers arms, and cried out, "God doesn't love me anymore!" The

mother was shocked and puzzled at what could produce such a

crisis. "Why do you say that?" she asked, assuring her that God

does love her. "No mother!" she wailed. "I know He doesn't love

me. I tried Him with a daisy." In case you have never tried that less

than fool proof method of predicting love, by pulling off petals to,

"He loves me, he loves me not," let me recommend that you never

start, if you are going to take it seriously.

The fact is, there are little things that are just little things. They

are minor and insignificant. They are not subtle and hidden

methods by which great things are accomplished. I don't think it is

a healthy exercise to go through life trying to figure out if God is

trying to say something through every minor event. When God does

work through such events, it is only known as we look back and see

the minor event as a link in the chain that leads to the fulfillment of

His purpose.

This is what we see in the life of Mordecai. As a cloud saved

many Americans, so a conversation saved many Jews. Mordecai

over heard a couple of the kings servants plotting to assassinate him.

This was very common in the ancient world, because the only way to

get rid of an absolute monarch was by assassination. They never

quit, and could not be voted out, and so violence was the only

method open for change. Many of kings of Persians were

assassinated, including Xerxes. He was saved by Mordecai, but

fourteen years later one of his servants succeeded in his plot to kill

him.

Assassination was common even in Israel. In I Kings 15 we read

of how Baasha conspired to kill Nadab, the king of Israel, after he

had reigned only two years. Baasha became king then, and reigned

24 years, but he was also a evil king, so nothing was gained by the

people in this politics of violence. His son Elah became king, and 2

years later his servant Zimri assassinated him, and became king.

Once you killed the king, you had to kill the whole family, and many

of his friends, so the violence of the ancient world was terrible.

There are other gruesome assassinations in the Old Testament. I

point this out so that we can see clearly the nature of Mordecai's

political decision, when he chose to become an informer, and

revealed the conspiracy against Xerxes.

We see in Mordecai's experience good reason for why political

decisions are so paradoxical, and why it is that politicians are often

so variable. We see it in Mordecai's patriotism. In the last

paragraph of chapter 2 we see Mordecai as a defender of the state,

and then in the first paragraph of chapter 3 we him as a defier of the

state. He first saved Xerxes life, and then he turns around and

refuses to obey his orders of bowing to Haman, his highest

representative. In the one place Mordecai is a conservative, and in