The book of Esther opens by presenting to us a glimpse of the Persian empire then in power. Ahasuerus reigned “from India even unto Ethiopa,” over 127 provinces. He is thought by some to have been the king Xerxes who invaded Greece and suffered an inglorious defeat. He was a man of enormous resources, unbounded wealth, luxury and vanity — a man who lived to please himself. We see in this Persian monarch a haughtiness and pride that went beyond that of Nebuchadnezzar. It was man showing himself to be as God as we notice in three outstanding Persian ordinances. 1) No one was to appear in the presence of the king unbidden. If one did, life and death hung on the pleasure of the king. 2) No one was to be sad before the king. 3) No decree of his realm could be canceled: it stood forever.
Ahasuerus had made a feast for 180 days, to show the princes and nobles the whole power of his realm, “the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty.” On the last day of the feast he commanded Vashti the queen to be brought before all that they might see her beauty, but she refused to come. The king became angry and sought the counsel of his wise men and nobles in the matter, and one of them recommended that Vashti be dismissed. They told the king that Vashti had not only offended the king, but that she had set a bad example to all the ladies, and that wrong had been done to all the princes and people of the realm. The result was that the king issued a royal commanent and sent letters throughout his kingdom stating, “That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.”
Though His name is not mentioned, still we see God moving through these circumstances. The enemy was plotting to destroy all the Jews in the king’s realm, even those who had returned to Jerusalem. But God was going to use two of the Jews, the only two whose names are mentioned in the book, to inform the king of how terrible it was, and thus to frustrate the enemy’s plans. The two were Esther and Mordecai, her older cousin who had brought her up since her parents died. Mordecai apparently held a position of honor under the king, for he sat in the gate. Just why he should hold such a position we are not told. Certainly Esther and Mordecai, in their exalted places with the king, could not know the joy of obeying the call of the Lord, as did those who returned to their land. This reminds us that even now there are those who are making sacrifices of what this world has to offer in order to have the joy of going on in obedience to the Word of God. We never find Mordecai or Esther referring to God’s Word, though they seemed to haye learned something from it. Still God was going to use them.
The setting aside of the Gentile wife and the bringing of the Jewish bride into honor is typical of the dealings of God that are yet to be in this world. The Gentiles now have a certain responaibility before God, but have failed in displaying the beauty that should be in the testimony of God before the world. According to Romans 11, the branches of the wild olive — the Geile — will be broken off, and the Jew will be grafted in again.
ML 10/25/1959