Esther 1:10-22

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Intro and Review

• Last week we reviewed the history and overview of this book
• A historical book about Persian rulers
• God’s not even mentioned
• Last time we saw the greatest splendor of the greatest King
• A six month feast and seven day party of extravagance as the King demonstrated his power, his wealth, his authority.
• What’s the one thing the King desires more than anything right now?
• To impress His subjects, to secure authority, to ensure their obedience and loyalty
• What’s the one thing that would ruin the King’s plan right now?
• If He made the wrong command to the wrong person and his authority was undermined
• You may already know where this story is going, but there is a lot to learn left in chapter 1

Section 1 - A King’s Regal Request (V10-11)

V10-11: 

10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown,[b] in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.

After seven days of this party, the King is fully living it up with the wine. He’s been entertaining important. Guests for months, preparing for war and now on this last day of the feast he’s cutting loose.

This is where it’s important to remember that drinking was not by compulsion.

Typically, the compulsion to drink would be out of honor to the king celebrating, when he drinks everybody else does too. But if the king decides it’s time to go wild, then everyone gets as drunk as the king. Because drinking was not by compulsion at this party, it means that the king’s drunkenness isn’t necessarily reflected in the other guests

The king decides to send his seven eunuchs to the queen’s estates where she’s hosting her separate gathering as messengers requesting her presence

If we were sitting across the hall in the Flex Room and this was a student ministry lesson then this would be the exact time a middle schooler’s hand would raise somewhere in the back row and I’d hear “what’s a eunuch?”

There goes their attention spans for the rest of the night. I thought it was bad after we mentioned circumcision, imagine if they heard this!

All joking aside, if you haven’t heard of a eunuch before, it’s a male person, usually some sort of servant, whose been castrated, whose had their testicles removed.

This was a type of servant that rulers sought after because they couldn’t have any children, therefore they’re less motivated to plot against the king as they have no heirs or dynasty to put on the throne. It also means they were trusted to care after a king’s harem of wives or concubines because there was no danger that any of the babies born to the harem didn’t belong to the king. Eunuchs come up several times in this book, especially in positions involving the king’s harems. These seven eunuchs are described as the seven that served in the presence of the King. This tells us they weren’t just common servants; these men were trusted and were often privileged with serving the king directly. If you saw all seven of them going somewhere, it wasn’t going to be because they were taking care of a simple little chore. You knew something big was going on, the king wanted something immediately.

He wants to show off his queen’s beauty and royal crown to the princes gathered with him at this feast. This fits with the purpose of the rest of the feast, it is yet another way to demonstrate his majestic authority and splendor to his subjects. To impress in order to secure loyalty

There is a temptation for us these thousands of years later to think about this request either as more light hearted or more lude than it really is. Maybe we think of it like a drunk husband demanding his wife fetch him a beer. A flippant and rude demand. Or maybe we try and read additional, scandalous details into the demand, like the king wanted her to appear undressed

In truth this command is not flippant and there is nothing to suggest any amount of degrading dress.

The king’s command here holds the authority of the crown of Persia. Later in this very same book it becomes extremely important that anyone, including the queen, coming into the king’s presence without an invitation could be killed on the spot. How much more serious would it be to receive a requested invitation brought by seven of the king’s personal eunuchs. As to any sort of shame for her appearance, nothing is stated directly about this so any ideas about this are purely theoretical, but I don’t think it’s a stretch.

It was not uncommon in this day, as it is still today, for any public appearance of a woman’s beauty to be seen as shaming. Women of high status, like a king’s harem, were protected from the public eye. Even traveling in covered transport Perhaps Persian culture followed similar etiquette 

The truth of the matter is that this command, while made under the influence of alcohol, may or may not have been shaming but was certainly not seen as flippant.

Section 2 - A King’s Response to Refusal (V12-15)

V12

12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.

Here, after six months and seven days of extravagant displays of authority and power, the calamitous truth comes crashing down on King Ahasuerus: The queen as refused his command to appear.

The interesting things is that the Bible gives almost no time at all to Queen Vashti or her actions. In this English translation only 10 words are dedicated to her actions “But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command.” Your Bible’s might head this paragraph titled “Queen Vashti’s Refusal” but most of the rest of the passage has more to do with the King’s response than the Queen’s actions. We’re given no details about how she refuses or why

Did she make a public statement to the eunuchs? Did she simply choose not to travel to the king? We might theorize why she would refuse, even putting her life on the line. Perhaps like we said earlier, it was a great shame to be looked upon publicly and she was willing to risk her life by denying the King’s command rather than shaming herself. Perhaps wearing her crown carried significance

If she carried any political authority before her marriage to Ahasuerus, perhaps this appearance would have been viewed as support for his war and she was making a statement against him by refusing to appear

Whether it was for one of these reasons or for another reason entirely, the Bible decides not to focus on this detail and so we mustn’t either.

Ultimately why she refused isn’t as important as what that refusal means. What it means not only for her but for the King, for his royal court and ultimately for every man’s authority in the kingdom.

The king, though drunk, immediately recognizes that the queen’s refusal undermines his authority at exactly the wrong time in front of exactly the wrong group of people.

This feast was open to all, even down to the lowly.

Like Adam described last week, this would have been a little slice of heaven for the palace staff, and the drama of this moment would be remembered by all. The news would spread like fire through the kingdom.

Where the King wanted to leave an impression of unmatchable might, absolute authority and great splendor, he’s now had his own wife refuse his public command in front of the world.

This is also the final day of the feast and this is going to be all that anyone talks about.

No longer will the gossip and stories be about mighty King Ahasuerus’s grand palace or gorgeous gardens or extravagant food or never-ending wine. Instead, the story that will be remembered is one of a king that can’t handle his wine, makes foolish demands and whose authority isn’t even effective in his own household

Both for the refusal of his authority and for the public shame of it, the king is furious.

I want to stop a moment and address how we might be accidentally taking our cultural views and our feelings about authority and reading them in to the story.

For most modern, western cultures outside of the church the idea of male headship in the home has long history including a lot of oppression and abuse the naturally comes when you give sinful men power over someone else. We at VBVF recently finished a series on a biblical view of marriage including the idea of a husband’s leadership role in the home, not as a king, dictator or abuser but as loving leader like Christ himself. Those hearing me in this room encounter these topics all the time, this worldly perspective resisting evil men’s oppression of women on the one hand and a Biblical perspective. Encouraging godly authority and submission authority on the other hand, and that makes it easy to jump straight to moralizing what we’re studying about Ahasuerus and Vashti.

It’s easy in our western mindset to make the mistake of painting the king in your mind as “the bad guy” and the queen as “the good guy.”

Him shaming his wife and expecting obedience like a rotten member of the patriarchy while she stands as beacon of feminism, standing up for her dignity in the face of cruelty

It’s equally easy in a church that teaches Biblical family values to make the opposite mistake, moralizing the story the opposite way

We can view Vashti’s rebellion here as disobedience to God’s command for wives to submit to their husbands when in reality this is just as much an overeager application of the text as the other form of moralizing. 

The truth is that apart from our modern culture and apart from the ideals of Christian marriage, the authority of the King of Persia is more than that of a husband and the point of the book of Esther is more than a commentary on patriarchy and feminism. Whether or not you and I agree socially with male headship, with monarchy as a form of government or with the absolute power of a king the truth is that in the time and country that this book takes place, King Ahasuerus did have absolute authority to command any of his subjects and Vashti’s refusal here is not just a matter of husband and wife but a matter of Kings and rulers

It’s important to recognize this up front because as we go further in the text, you’ll see that Vashti’s actions cause the topic of male headship in the home to come up and cascade down to even the common man’s household, yet we want to be careful to make sure that we don’t let this hot-button issue in our culture distract from the real lessons that the book of Esther is trying to teach us about. Don’t get me wrong, the book of Esther has a lot to say morally about authority, there will be plenty of ways to apply this book to our lives, but this is not one of those ways.

What is the consequence of Vashti’s refusal here? What does the king do now that he’s seething mad?

V13-15

13 Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment, 14 the men next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom) 15 “According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?”

The king makes what appears to be a wise move and calls together a council of his legal advisors to help him determine what is to be done about Vashti. It appears to be a wise move because rather than acting rashly in his anger he seeks advice and counsel.

- Slide with samples from Proverbs -

Like we’ve studied so recently about wisdom in Proverbs 15:22 “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Yet even as he approaches wisdom he falls into many mistakes

Like is spoken earlier in Proverbs 15, verse 18 “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”

Or even before that in Proverbs 14:29 “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.”

This is the first time in a reoccurring pattern throughout the book of Esther that you’ll see over and over again

The king gets advice on a matter, but he’s surrounded himself with counselors that are no wiser than he is. These counselors either give him bad advice or manipulate him for their own gain and he never once, never a single time weighs or questions their advice but goes ahead with whatever they suggest. Only to lead later to his own regret when he realizes how the advice was unwise too late.

Some more Proverbs that the king could have used to escape this pattern

Seeking counsel is only as valuable as the counselors you seek it from

Prov 13:20 “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm”

Ultimately, wisdom comes from God alone

Proverbs 2:6 “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Now we know the pattern of this king getting advice, but who are these seven princes mentioned?

This isn’t just Ahasuerus calling up his seven drinking buddies to get relationship advice, these are the rulers who sit first in the kingdom under the king and provide legal counsel when the king needs to make decisions. This is a presidential cabinet meeting, a supreme court meeting and a session of congress all rolled into one. They’re here to make a formal, legal decision about what Vashti’s refusal means.

We can see this form of ruling through a council of princes continues even after the book of Esther and is actually referenced again many years later in the book of Ezra in chapter 13 when King Ahasuerus’s son Artaxerxes sends a legal decree from “the king and his seven counselors.”

Now that this meeting is in session, they begin to discuss the cascading affects that Vashti’s refusal will have on the rest of the kingdom. Notice the question the king asks is specifically about what legal action is required in response to the queen’s refusal. The king’s command is law and she has broken that law.

Section 3 - A King’s Ruling and Restriction (V16-22)

V16-18 

16 Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17 For the queen's behavior will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt,[c] since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’ 18 This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.

The king’s counselors point out that Vashti’s actions will have wide ranging influence, beyond just her disobedience to the king.

News travels fast in a royal court, and whether or not this refusal was made public, all the women who were being entertained by Vashti and all the men with the king, including palace staff, would be spreading that gossip we described earlier. The counselors state that Vashti’s rebellion reflects not only on the king’s authority but with the king’s authority in question it will cause all of their own wives and the women all throughout the kingdom to show contempt to their own husbands. 

But they offer a solution

V19-22

19 If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. 20 So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.” 21 This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did as Memucan proposed. 22 He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, that every man be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people.

This council of seven suggest the king put out a permanent law that Vashti is to never come before the king again. 

Strangely enough, their solution doesn’t involve the standard punishment for disobedience and rebellion: death. Being sent out from the presence of the king may have looked like banishment but it may also have simply been a demotion.

King Ahasuerus did not have multiple wives at one time throughout his life, he was monogamous in that way, but that didn’t stop him from having a harem of concubines. These women were taken care of in the king’s harem but were only brought to the king on his request. By having her position as queen filled by another and by forever restricting her from the king’s presence, she is now sentenced to a life amidst the other harem women, never to be seen by or called by the king again.

Just like we don’t get any explanation as to why the queen refused the king’s command, we also don’t get any explanation into why the king decides to spare Vashti’s life.

Queen Vashti’s name doesn’t appear in historical records outside of the Bible, though some historians have tried to link her to one of King Ahasuerus’s wives Amestris. Amestris was the mother of the king’s successor Artaxerxes, and thus became queen mother once Ahasuerus died and her son took the throne.

There is no evidence confirming that Amestris and Vashti are the same queen, but Amestris gave birth to Artaxerxes in the same year as Ahasuerus’s feasts that we’ve been studying.

If this connection is correct then it may be that the queen was pregnant with the king’s heir at this time, which would help explain yet another reason she refused to appear publicly and also explain why the king chose not to kill her and to demote her instead. But just like before, the author of the book chooses not to dwell on this topic and so we won’t either.

The council suggests this decree should not only be made immediately, but to be sent out throughout the entire Persian empire and declared immediately.

These men know how fast rumor and gossip can spread, they want to control the story. Rather than news getting out about the foolish, drunken king failing to hold authority over his queen, they want the first news on people’s lips to be about how the mighty and authoritative king didn’t tolerate the queen’s rebellion and removed her from his presence forever.

Regardless of where you stand on male headship in the home, this plan is actually a sound political strategy

The Persian empire had a famous messenger system that could spread news across the vast lands of the empire in record time, with fresh messengers and horses stationed strategically along the roads. An official decree of the king translated and delivered through this advanced messaging system was perhaps the only thing that travels faster than gossip

Yet the king and his seven princes are so concerned and desperate over the possibility of men losing their authority in the home that they go even a step further.

Besides making an example out of Queen Vashti, the decree includes something else, each man is legally declared master over his home and also each household is commanded to speak in the language of the husband’s people, not the wife’s. This last detail might seem a bit odd, why would a household’s language one way or another reflect on the authority and headship in the home? It’s important to remember here that the empire of Persia was vast and spanned many different nations and people groups inside of it.

It’s not readily obvious for someone like me who grew up in a single-language home, but you have to remember that language of a home determines a whole lot more than the words we speak, but it determines the culture of the home.

When a husband and wife come from two different backgrounds, it creates a mixture of religions, of family traditions, of foods, of stories or legends told to children, and more. 

If a household is run primarily by the authority of the wife and mother, it means the children will adopt her culture’s values, worship, language and ideas

-Cross-reference Slide for Nehemiah-

If you turn back a page or two in your Bible you can see an example of this exact same thing happening with the Jews in Nehemiah 13:23-25

The Jews had been commanded by God to remain culturally distinct from the nations around them, to remain true and pure to God. Yet by marrying women from the cultures around them they had disobeyed God and traded away the Jewish identity of their children.

23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourself.

We in San Antonio have a somewhat rare perspective because of how common mixed culture and mixed language families are here.

Imagine this same decree made in our city. No longer would families mix in culture, but in every marriage the family would be forced, by law, to follow the language and traditions of the husband.

No more disagreements about education or holidays or even something as simple as what food or music the family prefers, it would always be the preference of the husband.

If the goal of the king was to demonstrate his authority, this decree certainly does so

Yet it doesn’t paint a picture of a self-confident, mighty king leading his people through courage. Instead, we see this group of eight men rattled to the core by one woman’s refusal to submit to a foolish, drunken command.

We see them lashing out in fear of losing their authority with large sweeping commands that would permanently change life for many families throughout the kingdom

This is one of many absolutely delicious ironies throughout the book of Esther, a King who has spent over six months and untold riches to impress and entertain and convince the world of his might and authority, to convince the world the “he is in charge.”

Meanwhile a single woman’s decision reveals just how little the king has control over anything. By the end of the chapter the king is lashing out at both Vashti and at all women in the kingdom to desperately protect his fragile authority. 

The author of the book doesn’t attempt to provide commentary and he doesn’t need to, the irony of the king’s insufficient authority speaks volumes on its own. In a similar way, remember that last week Adam pointed out that this book of the Bible, Esther, this passage of Holy Scripture, doesn’t mention God a single time.

He is the true King of the universe, the ultimate authority, yet no commentary is necessary to demonstrate his true authority in comparison to Ahasuerus’s fragile imitation of authority. Take a look with me at some of the ways in scripture that God contrasts what we’ve seen from Ahasuerus today. You can write these down or follow along on screen.

-Cross-reference slides comparing Ahasuerus to God as King-

This king is beside himself with wine, making one decision one day and regretting it the next

Yet The Lord is unchanging. - Numbers 23:19

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

The king needs support to win his battles

Yet the Lord fights His own battles, and ours too. - Deuteronomy 20:1-4

When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

This king seeks advice from many counselors

Yet the Lord needs no counsel from anyone - Isaiah 40:13-14

Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand?  Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

The king shames and dishonors his bride

Yet the Lord sacrifices Himself to purify and lift up His bride - Ephesians 5:25-28

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

This king demonstrated his authority by adding restriction on his people

Yet the Lord demonstrates authority by granting His people mercy and freedom - John 8:31-36

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave[b] to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Where does all of this leave you and me? It leaves us with a choice. When human rulers are in charge, they lead by the power of their wealth, by anger, by harsh punishment and consequence, but we stand at the feet of a true and better king, King Jesus.

-Cross-reference slide on Romans 14-

His majesty, His authority, His splendor are truly infinite, yet He also stands in righteous judgment over us – Romans 14:10-12

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

 and every tongue shall confess[b] to God.”

12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

We all stand before the king, guilty of sin before His perfect presence

Yet He offers us a chance for forgiveness, for salvation through faith in His sacrifice. By willing submitting to Him as our Lord we are extended His mercy and given His favor. Those who reject His supreme authority must face the consequence for their rebellion, an eternal separation from God in hell.

For those hearing me who have already put their faith in Jesus as Lord, we now must live in obedience to that authority

When we hear the commands of King Jesus do we bend our wills to His? Do we change our lives to match His word? Do we try and add Jesus to our life as a sacrificial savior but then still keep ourselves as Lord? Do we try and bow to Jesus on Sunday and then bow to our favorite politician the next day? There are a hundred thousand men and women in this world that want to hold authority over you through wealth, power and fame, but there’s only one true king who deserves all authority yet chose to die on your behalf.

Choose to obey King Jesus.

Taught by Daniel Armstrong

Student Ministry Director - Verse By Verse Fellowship

Esther