In Acts II Scene I of As You Like It, Shakespeare puts these words on the lips of Duke Senior:

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

His point is that we should always be on the look-out for truth. If we pay close enough attention, we will discover that some trees have tongues, some brooks write books and some stones preach sermons. A friend of mine once said that he was so broke that he couldn’t even pay attention. LOL. To me, that is the worse poverty of all: to be so arrested by anxiety that you miss the messages that are always circling around us.

I was reminded of the power of paying attention earlier this week. As I was driving down the street en route to the dry cleaners, I saw a billboard next to a storage facility that caught my eye. The Billboard read in big, bold black letters:

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM, BUT THE SECOND MOUSE GETS THE CHEESE

I immediately laughed, and silently admired the architect of the quip for his or her brio and wit. At first, I was trying to figure out why a storage facility would have that kind of billboard displayed so prominently near its entrance. However, my thoughts soon turned in another direction as the power of the message on that billboard began to dawn on me.

The message on that billboard struck me particularly hard, because I prize, practice and preach the virtue of starting early. I even wrote a blog about the benefits of starting early, which is called….well, The Early Bird Gets the Worm! One of the benefits of starting early is dubbed the “first mover advantage.” Primarily used in business circles, the phrase “first mover advantage” refers to the edge that a company enjoys because they are first to sell a product or service. Netflix is one example. They were the first company to offer streaming video. As a result, they have enjoyed great name recognition, generated enormous profit, and changed the rules of television. When you think. of streaming, you automatically think of Netflix. Netflix has more than 220+ million global subscribers, more than any other streamer, and by a large margin. One reason is that they were early to the game. Being the first mover has advantages.

However, the message on that billboard suggests that there are not only advantages to being the first mover. There are also disadvantages! Pointing out that the second mouse gets the cheese is not celebrating being second. Rather, it is celebrating being smart. Sometimes being first comes with a cost that it may not be wise to pay. Sometimes it’s better to be the second mouse. The first mouse can be so eager to get the cheese that it doesn’t see the trap. The value of being the second mouse is that you can learn from the mistakes of the first mouse.

The experience of Esther is a great illustration of this truth. Raised as an orphan by her uncle Mordecai, she rose to become the Queen in the most powerful empire of her time. She is one of only two women who has a book of the Bible named in her honor. Her life demonstrates the providence and the wisdom of God, both of which are vividly on display in the story of she arrived at her post. Esther’s sole qualification for the queenship was her beauty. But God used her beauty to maneuver her into a position that allowed her to prevent the destruction of his chosen people.

Esther can be considered the “second mouse.” The first mouse was her predecessor on the throne, a woman named Vashti. Like Esther, Vashti was a beautiful woman. But unlike Esther, Vashti refused to use her beauty to advance her objectives. The Bible informs us that one night in a drunken stupor, the King summoned Vashti to come before his guests and parade her beauty their entertainment. But according to Esther 1:12-19, the King didn’t didn’t receive the response he anticipated:

But when they conveyed the king’s order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the king furious, and he burned with anger. He immediately consulted with his wise advisers, who knew all the Persian laws and customs, for he always asked their advice. “What must be done to Queen Vashti?” the king demanded. “What penalty does the law provide for a queen who refuses to obey the king’s orders, properly sent through his eunuchs?

His advisors replied:

…if it please the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree, a law of the Persians and Medes that cannot be revoked. It should order that Queen Vashti be forever banished from the presence of King Xerxes, and that the king should choose another queen more worthy than she.

As I heard one preacher say, Vashti was right, but Esther was wise. Vashti was right to protest being reduced to her beauty. But Esther was wise to leverage her beauty to secure the freedom and safety of her people. Without her beauty, she would have never had the opportunity to showcase the discipline, wisdom, and values that she had received from her uncle. Without her beauty, she would have never had the influence with the King that was necessary to avert the plot that a man named Haman hatched to destroy all the Jews.

I am unsure whether Esther and Vashti ever had a conversation, but I am sure that echoes of what happened to Vashti reverberated through the Kingdom. Esther would have been foolish not to learn from Vashti’s brave but foolish protest. Vashti secured the “cheese” of independence, but got caught in the deadly trap of sexism and politics, and it killed her.

Every piece of cheese you are aiming for is located on on near some trap.

In fact, cheese and traps go together.

Don’t be so excited about the cheese that you ignore the trap.

It’s great to the first. But it’s better to be smart.

Be the Second Mouse.