May 9, 2010: “A time to say NO…”
Posted on : May 6th, 2010 | By office | Category: This Sunday's Service
A time to say NO and a time to BREAK the silence!
Insights from a sassy Queen and a Beauty queen
~ Vashti and Esther ~
You may not know this, but Esther is one of those “R” rated books in the Bible. I can still remember learning about Esther in Sunday School – of course our teacher had to tone it down a bit for us. So we learned that Vashti was this sassy Persian queen who disrespectfully refused to show up after her husband, the king, ask her to come and greet his important friends at a huge banquet that he threw for all the officials and governors of the empire. As punishment for her disobedience he took away her crown and banished her from the kingdom. So an empire-wide beauty contest was held to find a worthy and beautiful replacement for Vashti. Esther, being the most beautiful of all the girls in the Persian Empire, won the king’s heart and so became the new queen of Persia. The king threw a huge banquet to celebrate Esther’s victory and placed the crown on her head.
Well….. that’s not exactly how it’s told in Scripture. It all starts with King Ahasuerus throwing a feast that lasted for six months to show off his wealth and power. On top of that, at the end of the six months, he hosts this lavish and opulent banquet at which wine flows freely. Separate from this Queen Vashti, his wife, hosted a banquet for all the women. After six days of partying, totally wasted, he demands that Vashti to be brought to his party to put on “a show of her beauty” for those present and for the government officials. It does not take much imagination to figure out what he has in mind, but just in case you didn’t catch it; to put on “a show of her beauty” is a euphemism for a lewd sexual performance. He also instructs her to wear her crown, and many ancient historians suspected he meant for her to put on only her crown. Vashti flat out refuses. In an act of total drunken stupor and rage he dethrones her and banishes her from his court.
Of course when he sobers up he realizes what he has done, but it is too late – the imperial edict cannot be reversed. To cheer him up his attendants suggest they start an empire-wide search to find a “worthy” replacement for Vashti – meaning one who would listen and do as she is told. So the king sends out commissioners to every province in the empire to round up (yes, round up – there was no choice involved) every beautiful and young unmarried girl and bring them to the king’s palace. Esther is among these girls, probably 13-14 years of age – girls usually married shortly after they reached puberty. There, for a whole year, they were prepared with cosmetic treatments and instructed in the ways of how to “please” (if you get my drift) the king. Then they were brought one by one, night after night, to the king’s bedroom. The one he finds to be the most beautiful and pleases him the most will become the new queen and the rest will live for the rest of their lives in his harem. Your heard me correctly – no one goes home. This was surely not a beauty contest by any standards; today this would be viewed as kidnapping and sexual slavery. I did warn you from the start that Esther is an “R”- rated Bible book!
Well poor Esther, she always did what she was told – the very opposite of Vashti, probably one of the reasons the king liked her so much. She was an orphan, adopted by her uncle Mordecai whom she, according to the story, always obeyed. And when she arrived at the palace, that was her survival strategy. The eunuch in charge of the girls picked up on it fast and favored her, giving her special attention and instruction in the ways the king liked to be pleased. It worked and she became the new queen, all the while hiding her true ethnicity (on instruction of her uncle) – she was a Jewish girl. This was not going to end well.
What do Vashti and Esther’s stories have to do with our series on being raised up into new life with Christ? What is there to learn from their life experiences for us who live thousands of years later in a very different world?
To find out, you’ll have to wait till Sunday and come listen to the sermon.
Till then, blessings and peace,
Kobie
This Sunday’s Scripture
The Story of Vashti and Esther
(Esther 1:1-5, 7-13a, 15-17, 19-21; 2:1-11, 16-17; 3: 1-6, 8-10, 13; 4:3-5, 7-16)
The following events took place during the time of King Ahasuerus — the same Ahasuerus who ruled 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia — when he set up the imperial throne in the capital city of Susa.
During the third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all the government officials and members of the royal court as well as the governors of Persia and Media and all the nobles and administrators of the provinces. So Ahasuerus put all the wealth of the Empire on display for many days – 180 in all – with a great show of pomp and grandeur.
At the end of those six months, the king gave a banquet for everyone in the capital of the city of Susa, both the mighty and the lowly. The banquet lasted for seven days and was held in the courtyard of the royal gardens. Wine was served in golden goblets, each one unique in design. The wine flowed freely, as was the style at an imperial banquet. Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the court of Ahasuerus.
On the seventh day, the king was drunk after a great deal of wine. He ordered the seven eunuchs who attended to his every need, to bring Queen Vashti into his presence, wearing the royal crown, to put on “a show of her beauty” for those present and for the governmental officials – she was very beautiful. But Queen Vashti rebuffed the eunuchs and refused to obey the order.
At this the king became enraged, and his anger boiled over. So he consulted all his chief advisors, all experts in the matter of law. ”What does the law say about this?” asked Ahasuerus. “How do we deal with the matter of Vashti’s disobedience of the order I, Ahasuerus, delivered to her through the eunuchs?”
Memucan answered in the presence of the king and all the officials, “Vashti has shown disrespect not only to you, but also to all the governors and peoples in all the provinces of your empire. News of her conduct will spread to the women of the empire, and it will fan the flames of insolence among them toward their spouses.”
If it is your will, then, issue a royal degree to be fixed irreversibly into the laws of Persia and Media, which states that Vashti is never again to appear before King Ahasuerus and that her position is given to another who is more worthy. Let this degree which you issue be proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of your empire, so that all women, whether aristocrat or commoner, will from now on submit to the authority of their husbands.
After a while, when Ahasuerus’ anger abated, he thought of Vashti and her behavior and the sanctions he had brought against her. The members of the imperial court approached him and said, “Why don’t we seek out all the most beautiful women of the empire for the ruler? You can appoint a committee representing all the provinces of the empire to bring all the most beautiful women to the palace at Susa, to the harem which is supervised by Hegai, our ruler eunuch. Let Hegai give them all the finery they need to adorn themselves, and let the one who pleases our sovereign the most take Vashti’s place in the palace.” This advice pleased Ahasuerus very much, so he acted on it.
Now, in the palace of Susa there lived a Jew named Mordecai who was taken captive in Jerusalem, along with Jeconiah, ruler of Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon. Mordecai was the guardian of Hadassah, who was also known as Esther. She was extremely beautiful. Esther was the daughter of Mordecai’s cousin. After her parents died, he adopted her as his own child.
After Ahasuerus’ edict was issued, a great number of young women came to the palace at Susa and were placed under the supervision of Hegai, the chaperone. Esther was among them. It was Esther who caught the ruler’s attention; not only did he provide her with everything she wanted for her wardrobe and meals, he also gave her special attendants from his own court, and transferred her personal attendants to the best part in the harem. During this time Esther never revealed that she or her relatives were Jewish, because Mordecai warned her against doing so. When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace, the king liked her more than all the other women – none of the others found as much favor with him. So he placed the royal crown on her head and proclaimed her to be queen in place of Vashti.
At a later time King Ahasuerus selected Haman, from the land of Agag, for promotion in rank and status above all the other members of the court and officers of the state and proclaimed that all the members of the Ruler’s Gate must bow down and prostrate themselves before Haman. Mordecai, however, refused to bow or prostrate himself. The other members of the court asked him every day, “Why do you defy the imperial command?” But Mordecai did not listen to them, so they reported the matter to Haman, hoping to see if Mordecai would continue his behavior, since they knew that he was Jewish.
When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai would not bow down and prostrate himself before him, he became enraged. When he was told that Mordecai was Jewish, he was not content just to see Mordecai killed, but wanted to wipe out all of Mordecai’s people throughout the empire of Ahasuerus.
Haman then sought an audience with Ahasuerus. He said: “There are people who remain unassimilated into our ways and they are scattered throughout the empire in all the provinces. Their laws are not like those of the other peoples and they disregard the imperial degrees. It is not in your interest to tolerate them. If the sovereign would order their destruction, I am willing to pay 375 tons of silver to royal tax collectors to fill the royal treasury.” The king removed his signet ring and gave it to Haman. “Keep your money!” said Ahasuerus, “You may deal with those people any way you want.” Letters were sent by couriers to every province in the empire, ordering the destruction, slaughter, and annihilation of the Jewish people – old and young, women, men, and children – together with the seizure of their property, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar.
In every province, wherever the imperial decree was read, every Jewish person began mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting, and many of them put on sackcloth and ashes. When Esther’s attendants told her what was happening, she was overwhelmed with grief. Esther called Hathach, a eunuch assigned by the king to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why. Mordecai told him what had happened to him, and about the bribe that Haman offered to the imperial treasury as payment for the destruction of the Jewish people. He also asked the eunuch to tell Esther to go to the sovereign and plead the case of their people before him. Esther returned the following message to Mordecai: “All of the king’s attendants and people of the provinces know that anyone who approaches the sovereign in the inner court without being summoned faces one punishment – death – unless the sovereign spares her life by pointing the golden scepter toward her. I have not been summoned to the king for the last thirty days.”
When Mordecai heard Esther’s reply, he wrote back: “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that, just because you are in the imperial palace, you will be the only Jewish person to escape. If you insist on remaining silent at this time, vindication and liberation will come to our people through another source, but both you and your family will surely die. Who’s to say — you may have come into the royal court for just this moment.”
So Esther sent a message to Mordecai, “Bring together all the Jewish people in Susa now and fast for me. Do not eat or drink, day and night, for three days. After that I’ll go to the king in defiance of the law; and if I perish, I perish.”