We should note here that the reasoning behind the new law is given to us. The King’s advisors fear that if anyone hears that the Queen disobeyed the king, wives everywhere will stop listening to their husbands and chaos will ensue throughout the kingdom. The King’s advisors actually say to him in verse 17 that, “the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women, and they will despise their husbands and say, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. When the king’s edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest.”
I read that I and I get the feeling one of his advisors was having domestic problems with the little persian lady at home and thought perhaps this was his chance to lay down the law at home. Regardless, Xerxes makes the decree and the party continues. However, after the party, when Xerxes isn’t angry anymore, he gets lonely and so it’s decided that they’re going to need to find a new queen. A plan is devised where all of the most beautiful virgins in all of the 127 provinces are to gathered and brought to the capital so that they can undergo twelve months of beauty treatments after which, Xerxes will choose his new bride from his new harem.
Enter Esther.
Now, let’s pause to make a few observations before we move on to where Esther is brought into the story in part two.
Obviously right off the top you can sense the less than latent sexism in this story.
“The women of the kingdom need to know who is in charge”
“I need a new wife. Get me some virgins, pretty them up, parade them in front of me, and I’ll pick the one I like the best”
Again, all of this only serves to make the fact the Esther becomes the hero that much more compelling.
However the other piece that already jumps out at me I read this, is the huge emphasis in Esther on knowing the times.
First of all we’re told when this happens with a great deal of certainty. Then we’re told where this happens with a surprising amount of detail. More than that though, we are told a lot about what it was like in the world of this story. The opulence and wealth of Xerxes is pointed out for us as he hosts six month parties replete with elaborate party favours for guests. This bizarre relationship between law and justice in Persia is highlighted as we’re made aware that the King can say anything he wants but once it’s law even he has to follow it regardless of whether it’s wise or just. The imbalance in relationships and households between men and their wives is pointed out for us as men struggle and fight to maintain their dominance in the home.
It seems to me, like the author wants us to understand something about this world before we meet the characters. This is actually one of the major themes for me in Esther and I would argue it’s actually an important piece for us to hold on to.
There are some things we can only ever learn by stepping back and attempting to see the big picture. Some things can only ever be understood in light of what is common to the human story. That’s what Jonah was about. Then there are some things we can only ever learn by being incredible present to the very small story of our own personal lives. Perhaps you could say this, if Jonah was timeless, Esther is timely.
I’m a pastor. I help people understand the story and I can help give my community the parameters of what god imagines for us. I can point to the boundaries God has given us and I can help to illuminate the direction God has called us to head as a people. The true courageous life of faith however, is defined in small story of your faith journey because ultimately that journey is going to come down to how you putting the broad categories of faith into action in the specific details of what it means to be you right now.
If Jonah is a very broad story about humanity then Esther is a very particular story about a human being. Perhaps the lesson from that recognition is about our attention to our details.
Think about it this way, courageous faith is an easy category to believe in but it is a much harder reality to implement in our lives.
Think about it this way, trust in God is easy to understand at a theological level but it is also very easy to let slip at a scale of one.
This is really important for me as I wrestle with this story because if one of the major themes in the book of Esther is the idea that we are meant to push against the tide of our culture, that we are meant to change the status-quo, that we are meant to be in the world but distinctly unique in the midst of it, then we absolutely need to be students of what’s happening inside and around us. Injustice can be easy to recognize when it’s across the world emblazoned on a TV screen but the truth is it can actually be very difficult when its hiding behind our front door.
Let’s be honest, gender roles and the marginalization of women probably wasn’t a hot topic issue at the time of Esther. I doubt there were regular protests or bra burnings or feminist poetry readings for her to attend. I’ll bet she didn’t even see herself as the future poster child for women’s bible studies and conferences. Yet when we look back we see how her life slowly contributed to the growing push towards a re-imagination of who and what women could be in the story of God. Esther isn’t a story about jumping on bandwagons. It’s about being ahead of the curve. Its about seeing the spaces where culture is broken, where culture needs to change, but it’s about the spaces nobody notices.
The question then for us, the question we have to face into as we wrestle with the story of Esther, is just that. Where can we be ahead of the curve in our world?
