Divine Guidance from the Book of Esther (2)

From bad to worse

King Ahasuerus had prepared a feast for the nobles of his empire in the city of Shushan. Usually at these feasts things go from bad to worse. The more the enjoyment at the feast increases, the more people lose their common sense. Thus also it happened here. King Ahasuerus drank far too much, so much that the thought arose in his befuddled mind to display his wife, Queen Vashti, to the feasting people. Now that all the nobles had seen his treasures, he thought that they must also have an opportunity to admire the beauty of his wife!

At regular mealtimes the queen sat next to the king, but at a lavish banquet such as the one described in Esther 1, this was not true. It was contrary to the etiquette of the kingdom, but now Ahasuerus wanted to alter that practice. He wanted to flaunt his wife before the eyes of these drunken men. As Ahasuerus had first proudly shown off his treasures, he now wanted to proudly show off his wife. He saw no difference between his wife and a precious jewel. Ahasuerus forgot that this woman was not a thing, that a woman is not just a body. In addition to Ahasuerus’ lust for power was added his physical lust. Does this not pertain to a very real issue of the present time?

We live in a time characterized by sexuality; we are confronted with it on all sides. Modern media, all sorts of publications, and present-day advertising attempt to arouse sexual desires. In this sexualized time women are reduced to no more than a body. When we observe some women’s clothing, we must sadly affirm that the way they dress also gives rise to this problem. To what degree are we carried along by the spirit of our time?

Be not drunk with wine

Ahasuerus lost control of himself because in his drunkenness he forgot everything that was good and pure. Strong drink can have such terrible consequences! How many there are that have become slaves of alcohol! It is not without purpose that Scripture records that we must consider how carefully we should walk. This is also true with the drinking issue. The misuse of alcohol has increased dramatically in recent years; it is to be feared that many among us are also affected by this misuse. Let us be vigilant, especially our young people. So many lives have been destroyed by the abuse of alcohol, so many marriages have been broken, and so many families have been damaged by it. Let us carefully consider the warning of the apostle in Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

When God’s children are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Lord gives inward satisfaction, and we learn to hate and flee from sin. We learn to pray with the psalmist of Psalm 119, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.” Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit learn to know how empty and vain life is without God, how bitter and benumbing sin is, but also how sweet and blessed the loving service of the Lord is. “To what does drunkenness lead? To unbounded licentiousness, to unbridled, indecent merriment. And to what does spiritual joy lead, when it is most strongly excited? To psalms and hymns and spiritual songs...Innumerable benefits which we receive from God yield fresh cause for joy and thanks-giving” (Calvin on Ephesians 5:18).

A positive refusal

In verses 10 and 11 we read that Ahasuerus sent seven chamberlains to Queen Vashti with orders to display herself before the feasting, drunken nobles of the empire. At this time Vashti herself was having a banquet in the palace with the women. When she heard the command of the king, she refused to obey. “But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains” (verse 12a). She did not wish to be dealt with like a farm animal. She desired to maintain her high standard of feminine integrity. She resolutely refused to flaunt herself before the eyes of drunken men. She apparently had much too high an opinion of chastity and purity for that.

How bitterly disappointed she was with her own husband! If he had felt only a spark of true love in his heart for her, he would not have given such a foolish and ungodly command. Did he have any respect at all for his wife? Vashti positively refused to obey her husband.

God’s Word sets the husband before us as the head of the wife. We reverently hold fast to that even in an age in which feministic theology pictures God as a woman, in an age of extreme desire for emancipation wherein the scriptural teaching about the place for husband and wife is totally rejected. The fact that Scripture declares the husband to be the head of the wife does not mean in any way that the husband can therefore be a tyrant who can do what he likes with his wife. This is how Ahasuerus behaved towards his wife. We must always consider the husband to be the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is the Head of His Church.

We must think that through for a moment. As Christ has loved His Church so must a husband love his wife. As Christ gave Himself for His Church so must a husband give himself for his wife. As Christ remains faithful to His Church so must a husband remain faithful to his wife. As Christ ministered to His Church, even having washed the feet of His disciples, comforting and instructing them, so must a husband be for his wife. How far Ahasuerus was from this! In what state is our marriage relationship? Who is there that is without guilt before God and before each other in his or her marriage? Yes, we know perfect marriages do not exist. The best marriage is but a faint shadow of the relationship between Christ and His Church. How good it is when husband and wife together know something of the fear of the Lord, of bowing as guilty sinners, also with their marital guilt, at the feet of the great Bridegroom Christ.

Vashti as an example

Vashti resolutely refused to obey the foolish demand of her husband. She was a heathen woman, but this heathen woman can still be set before our women and girls as an example. Do they also know of feminine integrity? Do they also have a high esteem for chastity and modesty, for example, in their clothing? Must not our clothing be sober and modest so that the evil lusts of the heart are not stimulated? We should not participate in all the latest fashions, but do we? Let us live as a separate people in this world.

Vashti was prepared to accept her rejection as queen as a consequence of her refusal. She could easily have known beforehand that the king would consider her refusal as unforgivable. God’s Word speaks about sobriety and godliness as we walk in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Have we conformed to this even if we must go directly against the flow of our time? Then our daily prayer may certainly be:

Help me Thy will to do, Thy truth I will pursue, Teach me to fear; Give me the single eye Thy name to glorify, O Lord, my God Most High, With heart sincere.
— Psalter 236:2

A maintaining of self

When Ahasuerus heard about Queen Vashti’s refusal to obey his order, he became furious. In the twelfth verse a very strong expression is used, “Therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.” He did not have the least perception of the distress that his foolish demand had caused in the very depths of his wife’s heart. On the contrary, he was determined to maintain himself to the full. He refused to submit to Vashti’s refusal. In his feelings his prestige was being tested before the nobles of his kingdom. What a person will do when his prestige is called into question! What a weakling Ahasuerus would appear before his officials if he accepted Vashti’s refusal. How deeply the sin of striving for our prestige lives in our hearts—the sin of maintaining ourselves, highly regarding ourselves, and refusing to admit that we are wrong.

We do this not only before our fellow men but also before the Lord. By nature our honor is far more important than the Lord’s honor. That is our sin. That is why we are those who miss the mark. Created to glorify God, we have become seekers of ourselves and of our own honor. That is why we refuse to bow before God and to confess our guilt. We can see the sin of maintaining self pictured so very clearly in Ahasuerus.

Grace, however, teaches us to bow. Grace teaches us to confess our guilt before God as well as before man. Grace means the dethroning of our selves, of the “I” that wants to maintain itself. Ahasuerus would not turn back from his disastrous and foolish way, but grace teaches the way of return. The way of return was the way that David went when he called out, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” That was also the way that the publican learned to go when he was in the back of the temple sighing, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Happy are those who may learn this. Those who desire to maintain themselves in all things will, like Ahasuerus, ultimately fall, but then it will be forever too late. On the other hand, those who learn to bow before the living God as a guilty sinner and as one who is doubly worthy of His wrath shall be lifted up by God. They shall experience that there is mercy with God in Christ. Those who lie in the dust, bowing before Him, are raised up by Him.

The counsel of the wise

Ahasuerus did not accept Vashti’s refusal; he did not want to acknowledge how foolish his demand to her had been. He wanted to maintain himself. We read in verses 13 to 15 that he sought counsel from his seven wise men. What must be the consequence of Vashti’s refusing to obey the command of the king? One of the wise men, a certain Memucan, stepped forward as the speaker. “Justice must be done,” he said. What justice? “Well,” said Memucan, “if other women hear about this, they also will not be obedient to their husbands. This will cause turmoil and disharmony throughout the entire kingdom.” Therefore, according to Memucan, the king had to set a clear example. Everyone must realize that disobedience is not acceptable. There is only one solution; Vashti must be disowned.

Setting examples

Was Memucan right? In one respect he was; the example of those who are set over us is of great importance. As the king is, so are the people; as the government, so are the subjects; as the leader, so is the congregation; as the parent, so is the child. What example do the office-bearers give to the congregation? Be assured that they are closely observed. What example do parents give in the families? Do the children notice in the parents what the fear of the Lord means? Is there not a generation growing up that never sees something near at hand, in relatives and family, of the true fear of the Lord? Examples are followed! The example of parents in a family can be so destructive, but it can also be for such a rich blessing. The importance of example can never be emphasized enough.

Memucan told Ahasuerus that the example of the disobedient Vashti would be followed by other women; therefore, according to Memucan, decisive action had to be taken. He at least realized that examples lead others to follow. How terrible it is when the government sets a sinful example for the people. How destructive it is when the conduct of the office-bearers in the congregation is such that the congregation is drawn away from the Word of God and the way of life that is based upon it. How terrible it is when parents set an example for their children by doing evil and when in the life of the parents, there is time for everything except for the things of eternity.

What a blessing it would have been for all the people if Ahasuerus had humbled himself and acknowledged his foolishness! What a blessing it would have been for the relationships between husbands and wives throughout the entire Persian empire! On the contrary, Ahasuerus was blind to the fact that the maintaining of self leads to destruction. We are all totally blind to this if God’s Holy Spirit does not bring us in humiliation before God where guilt is learned and confessed. Then it becomes a reality that we are doubly worthy of God’s wrath. Do we know of such a place in our life? Then our maintaining of “I” is dethroned. God becomes so great, and I become so small. It becomes a wonder that God has not cast away such a one from His holy countenance.

No way of return

On the basis of the official determination of the government, Vashti was disowned as queen. Her virtue was not rewarded. Her purity cost her the crown. For the banished Vashti there was no way of return. We also have been banished from God’s holy presence. Vashti was disobedient to King Ahasuerus, but we have been disobedient to the King of kings. Vashti’s banishment was not right, but our banishment from God’s presence is completely just. If the Lord would cast us away forever, He would not deal unjustly, for we have been disobedient to the King’s Word. Has that become a reality in our life? Have we become as one without any rights before God? Have we learned to know ourselves as a banished one who exists without God and without hope in the world because of our own fault?

Still a way of return

What is the wonder of the gospel? God causes it to be proclaimed that what was not possible for Vashti is possible for you. For Vashti there would be no restoration, for a law of the Medes and Persians could never be broken. Nevertheless, the King of kings declares in the gospel that there is restoration possible for disobedient rebels. Exiles who have been banished from God’s favor and communion because of their own fault are brought back.

Is it not true that God’s law also cannot be broken, no less than a law of the Medes and Persians? Must not God’s justice also be maintained? There is One who has offered Himself to the holy justice of God, namely Christ Jesus. Vashti loved her purity so much that she was willing to give up her crown for it. She offered herself for it. Christ offered up not only His throne and crown but even His own life. He was banished from before God’s eyes even though He was the perfectly pure One. As a rejected One, He hung upon the cursed cross of Golgotha. It was not because of His own guilt but because of the guilt of sinners who deserved to be cast away forever and who had learned to submit to that. He bore their guilt and the casting away which they deserved. In this way He satisfied the holy justice of God and vindicated His law; He paid for their guilt.

He merited the saving ministration of the Holy Ghost whereby sinners are discovered to themselves, learn to bow under God’s law and justice, but are also united with Christ. What was not possible for Vashti is possible in Christ. In Him there is the way of return, the way back to God against whom we have sinned. In Christ those who have been cast away are brought back to God.

For that reason a way of restoration is possible for those who must lament that they have been cast away from before God’s presence. What a wonder it is when such a castaway is brought back into God’s favor and communion. Then there remains no boasting in man but only gratitude to Him, from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things.

— Rev. J.J. van Eckeveld Zeist,
the Netherlands

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