Study InEsther

Presentation 001

The Queen Who Said ‘No!’Chapter 1v1-22

Presentation 001

Introduction

Presentation 001

The pressure placed on men and women, by others, to violate their consciences can be quite considerable. A young pregnant girl, once told me, 'My boyfriend said if I really loved him I had to sleep with him. I did but now he's left me'.

Bible characters have faced temptations that are no less real, ‘Abraham, I can make you an exceptionally wealthy man if you will have me as an ally and friend’. ‘Joseph, come and sleep with me, my husband will never find out, we will have a good time together’. ‘Moses, if you turn your back on your own people you could become one of the most powerful men on earth’.

Introduction

Presentation 001

Offers of wealth, pleasure and power were used to try and compromise Abraham, Joseph and Moses in the early days of biblical history. Such temptations have held out a hypnotic appeal to many throughout the years. Their goal has been to attempt to persuade people to violate their conscience. That pressure is compounded when our own personal safety is on the line. Saying 'No' in that situation takes a remarkable amount of moral courage.

The Show-off King

Presentation 001

The events recorded in the book of Esther took place about 500 years before the birth of Jesus. These were the golden years of the Persian Empire, when King Xerxes ruled. He wanted his empire to recognise the vastness of his fortune and the extent power. He gathered the leaders of his vast administration together and put on a show that lasted six months. Its climax was a royal banquet and everyone from the city was invited. The culture of the day required men and women to dine separately.

The Show-off King

Presentation 001

Wine flowed freely in the men's party and their riotous behaviour would have been an embarrassment to the womenfolk. When the show-off king was drunk, he decided to reveal his greatest treasure. Queen Vashti was ordered to come into the men's quarters to be ogled at by a bunch of drunks. Xerxes would take great pleasure in the cacophony of wolf whistles that her appearance would produce as his drinking companions recognised how fortunate he was!

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

The queen did not share Xerxes enthusiasm for such a performance. She had too much respect both for the dignity of her person and the nobility of her office. She had no intention of competing for the prize of pin-up of the month. She refused to perform like a prize heifer in a cattle market paraded in an animal ring, to be poked and prodded by admiring customers. She was a woman with a sense of self-worth and with the courage to defy the command of the king.

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

The king's treatment of his wife is but one response to many inadequate views of femininity. Donald G. Bloesch’s comments are instructive; “The model of woman in tribal patriarchalism is the brood mare; inhedonistic naturalism, she is the bunny or plaything; in feminist ideology, she is the self-sufficient career woman; in romanticism, she is the fairy princess or maiden in distress waiting to be rescued; in biblical faith, she is the partner in ministry.”

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

This idea of partnership is one which reminds both male and female that they are designed to complement one another. This is why there is something incomplete in a community made up exclusively of men or one made up exclusively of women. The point being, that the sexes need one another. Indeed, humanity is dehumanised and impoverished where the dignity of either one sex or the other is degraded.

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

This is not to suggest that a person is incomplete or less fully human if they remain a single man or a single woman. Singleness is the path laid out for some men and women. There was a no more fully integrated person, no one more fully human than Jesus - single Jesus. But it is important to point out that he did not found a male monastic movement, among the most committed of his followers were women whose companionship he prized highly.

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

The Christian gospel, while affirming that God has given men and women different and distinctive roles to exercise within the community, at no point suggests that one is more valuable to God that the other. The distinction of a person's worth, on the basis of their sexuality, is something that Christ's death has torn apart. This is what Paul meant when he taught that in Christ, ‘there is neither male nor female’ Gal. 3v28.

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

There are particular pressures placed on single men and women that few married people can begin to imagine. And those pressures are very real in contemporary society. Have you noticed there is little praise given to the sexually controlled single person? Too often, it is mixed with granulated pity or powdered condescension - ‘The poor soul doesn't have a partner'.Ironically, while discipline and self-control are encouraged and admired in scholarship, athletics, music, and ministry, its absence is strangely excused in sexual matters.

The Queen Who Said ‘No’

Presentation 001

A secular myth has infiltrated the Christian consciousness, namely; “Our sexual urges are overpowering and irresistible....” Chastity is a requisite of Christian singleness. Furthermore, chastity is possible.

There will always be someone who suggests that such thinking is antediluvian, legalistic, unreasonable, and unlikely to succeed. It may appear increasingly difficult to push away these pressures and say ‘No’ to impurity. But the grace of God is bigger than the greatest pressure.

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

Courageous stands often meet with either callous contempt or glowing admiration. Xerxes was beside himself with anger, that he, an absolute monarch, should have his authority challenged in this way by a woman! 'She said ‘No' to me!' You could probably hear a pin drop as all eyes turned to see what the king would do. Xerxes, could not afford to lose face publicly. He could not laugh the matter off and say, ‘Well I made an unrealistic request, my judgement was impaired by drink! It was a mistake.’

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

If it takes courage to say ‘No' it also takes courage to be on the receiving end of a ‘No' and to say, it was wrong of me to ask that of you. Big men make mistakes, fools never do! Xerxes was a fool. Pride finds it hard to bend. The line it takes is,'Even when I am wrong I am right'.

Xerxes had painted himself into a corner and the irony of the situation is that he knew, that as a result he would lose what he held to be the most precious thing in his life.

Presentation 001

Of course Xerxes had to find a way of dealing with the situation that would limit the damage to his own reputation. And so he decided to make it a legal rather than a personal matter v13…

The legal experts whom he consulted were motivated more by self-interest rather than by justice. They were concerned that Vashti's stand might be the catalyst for a women's liberation movement, which their own wives might join. They advised that the queen be banished from the king’s presence - exile or execution?

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

Vashti had a moral right to say ‘No’. Any woman would! But does the Bible not teach wives be submissive to their husbands? Is this not the divine order that God introduced to his creation?

Yes. But the submission given by a wife to her husband is intended to mirror Christ's submission to his Father, and the church's submission to Christ. It is not submission to tyranny, abuse or selfish caprice.

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

Husbands who have used, or rather abused, the teaching of scripture to turn their wives into slaves and who expect unquestioning obedience are no better than Xerxes. When God gives authority, be it in the home, church, or land, it is to be exercised for the good and benefit of others and not to promote authoritarianism or self-interest. Xerxes could have taken some lessons from a greater King who took a wash basin and began to wash his followers feet. This concept of service was alien to Xerxes as it is to many in authority today.

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

The so-called justice of the king’s advisors would ensure that the king would be deprived of his queen. But there was compensation as far as the king was concerned. He liked the advice that he run a kind of Miss World competition. He would then get to choose the winner and make her his queen. That made Xerxes feel much happier!

The Dilemma Of Vanity

Presentation 001

What do you feel about what happened to Vashti? Does it leave a bad taste in your mouth? Do you find yourself bemoaning yet another injustice? Do you find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer oppression of the system of that day - far less our own? Do you find yourself asking,'Is it worth while being a man or a woman of principle? Is their any reward in virtue? Is it not better to conform to what influential groups in society require of me? Is it not safer to keep silent?'

Conclusion

Presentation 001

There was no reprieve for Vashti. She was publicly humiliated. She was exiled to obscurity or executed. You might ask, Where is God while all this is happening?’ A very good question. Would you be surprised to learn that this in the only book in the Bible where God’s name is not mentioned? But he is not absent from the story. We will learn something of the hiddenness of God in history. He is on the field when he is most invisible. In the book of Esther we will see the hand of God operating in a way that will cause us to marvel at his timing and control not only over history in general but over our own personal histories

Conclusion

Presentation 001

The courage and moral integrity of Vashti began a domino effect that save a whole nation from destruction, paving the way for Christ the Redeemer of the world to be born. Did Vashti realise that her courage would have such far-reaching consequences. I doubt it! This incident encourages us to believe that the moral stand we take, on whatever issue, can impact on the purposes of God. May God help us to register a ‘No’vote when we know that our decision might cost us dearly.

Conclusion