The book of Esther, we read about a remarkable deliverance

that God brought to the Israelites from the hands of the Persians. But as we'll

hear from Alistair Begg today on Truth for Life, that doesn't compare to the

ultimate deliverance God has promised to his people. We're wrapping up our

study in the book of Esther looking today at chapter 10.

The king was in his counting house. The queen wasn't mentioned. Mordekai was

honored. He said, well of course he was honored. No, there's no of course in it. Why

was he honored? The reason that he was honored is presumably because of his

absolute integrity and his moral consistency. He was so clearly a Jew and

lived as a Jew. He wasn't a Persian. He honored another God. He lived in a

different way. He kept different traditions. He was an absolute obvious standout

from the Persian community and yet he was the one that was eventually chosen to

fulfill this position. It's not dissimilar to the story of Joseph in the book

of Genesis or to the story of Daniel. Again these men came to positions of

significant influence not on account of their ability to be political

animals but on account of their willingness just to tell the truth. I quoted

Churchill so that gives me liberty to quote Margaret Thatcher. Says Thatcher, if

you just set out to be liked, if you just set out to be liked you would be

prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing.

If you just set out to be liked I have to be liked. Well then I'm going to have

to compromise here and compromise there and you'll achieve nothing. Mordekin

didn't set out to be liked. He set out to do what God had put him in the place

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