And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate
Humility
A proud, ambitious man would have said to himself, “No more of the king’s gate for me! I shall direct my steps now to the king’s palace, and hold myself ready for honour, office, emolument, which surely must now be at hand.
” Mordecai seems to have said within himself, “If these things are designed for me in God’s good providence, they will find me. But they must seek me, for I shall not seek them. Those who confer them know my address. ‘Mordecai, at the king’s gate,’ will still find me.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Honours modestly borne
Few can bear honours and dignities with equanimity, even when they come upon them gradually; but such sudden and high advancement was enough to make any ordinary person giddy, to cause him to forget himself, and behave unseemly. What fatal effects upon the head and heart do we often witness in persons who have all at once been raised from poverty to riches and rank. Even good men are not always proof against the intoxicating influence of such transitions. But Mordecai kept his place; like a gallant ship, firmly moored in a bay, which during a flood-tide heaves and seems for a time borne along with the lighter craft, but, obeying its anchor, comes round and resumes its former position. The pageantry of an hour could not unsettle his mind; he regarded it in its true light--a vain show. (T. McCrie, D. D.)