“This very day the Persian and Median
women of the nobility who have heard about the queen’s conduct will respond to
all the king’s nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and
discord.”
— Esther 1:18
King Xerxes, the military leader of
the Medes and Persians, tried to fulfill his father’s failed plan to conquer
Greece. Darius had been defeated at Marathon in 490 B.C. and had died soon
after. Xerxes amassed one of the largest armies ever and marched back toward
Greece. His army managed to get around the Spartan forces at Thermopylae but
went down outside Athens when the Persian fleet was sunk in the bay of Salamis.
In the verse above Esther 1 records what may have been
Xerxes’ planning meeting for the military campaigns of 482–479 B.C. During this
lengthy meeting (lasting 180 days), the men feasted and drank extensively. At
one point, Xerxes commanded his wife, Vashti, to appear before the assembled
men. We are not told why Vashti refused, but given the circumstances and the
rate at which we can assume the men were consuming alcohol, perhaps Vashti was
afraid they would ask her to act immodestly—or worse.
Xerxes reacted like a spoiled child.
He was furious that his order had not been obeyed. His advisers encouraged the
king’s stupidity. They proposed deposing Vashti as queen and banishing her from
the presence of the king. Then they planned the first Miss Universe pageant to
replace Vashti with someone more beautiful and (hopefully) more compliant.
Enter Mordecai and Esther, two Jews
who were still living in Persia. Although Mordecai may have also had a Hebrew
name, his Babylonian name may betray the comfort his family had with Babylonian
life; it is derived from Marduk, the god Nebuchadnezzar followed and to whom he
dedicated Babylon, his capital.
Ultimately, Esther was chosen to be
the new queen, placing her in a position to intervene at a time when her people
were threatened. Esther and Mordecai were able to save the Jews, but the threat
made to exterminate them as a people during that time made its mark. Perhaps it
was an impetus for Ezra and Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem to help the Jews
there rebuild the city’s walls and reclaim their spiritual foundations.
Within this story, Vashti often goes
unrecognized as a heroine. Yet perhaps that should be acknowledged,
particularly within the context of marriage. For while Vashti had been obedient
to her husband in all things, there came a point when her moral fiber pulled
taut and would not allow her to cross a line that required her to do something
she knew was wrong.
In our marriages we need mutual
submission and respect, as the apostle Paul wrote (see Ephesians 5:21–33). But
we also need personal courage to say no to one another when decency is twisted
or when obedience to little things would deny obedience to God’s greater ways.
MEDITATIONS:
• What if spots of moral behavior
have caused disagreement in our marriage?
• Has one of us ever asked the other
to do something morally questionable? How do we balance mutual submission to
each other with saying no to behavior that compromises our integrity?
• How can we keep our relationship
unified so that we avoid situations that cause conflict when our morals differ?
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