The book we now take up belongs in point of time to the period of the book of Ezra, between chapters 6 and 7 (see chapter 6:15 and chapter 7:1, the king Ahasuerus of the book of Esther being the son of Darius, and the father of Artaxerxes).
About forty thousand had returned to the land of Israel, and had set up the altar at Jerusalem, and begun work on the rebuilding of the temple which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
But most of the Jews remained in the land to which they had been transferred under the judgment of God, unresponsive to the offer of Cyrus (Ezra 1).
With these, the book of Esther deals, and we cannot wonder that the name of God is never mentioned in it, though the hand of God is seen throughout its pages, because Israel now Lo-ammi ("not My people," see Hosea 1:99Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. (Hosea 1:9)), and the mass of the people were moreover content to stay in the land of their exile, far from God in heart, and far from the land of their fathers, His land. But He had not forgotten them and watched over them, moved the actors unconsciously to themselves, preserved His earthly people though He could not own them as His, because of their unbelief.
Ahasuerus, it is well known, was a title in Persia, as Pharoah was in Egypt, and not the personal name of the ruler here who is known to profane history as Xerxes.
For six months, in the third year of his comparatively short reign (10 years), this arbitrary, capricious, vain autocrat caused a grand display of the riches of the Persian empire, now at the very height of its glory, and of the magnificence of his grandeur.
At the close there was a seven-day feast for all the people in Shushan, and upon the final day, the king decided to display his beautiful queen, Vashti, to his assembled subjects, but she refused to answer to his call, and was set aside in consequence.
Although it was likely modesty that moved the queen to refuse to appear publicly, the king made the occasion one for establishing by royal decree the authority of husbands in Persia, sending the decree to each of the many provinces of the empire.
Thus far, not a word or act has disclosed the unseen hand of God in behalf of the people of His choice. The Gentile queen has been rejected because of her refusal to display her beauty, and we are to see the daughter of Israel taking her place. Is this not illustrative of the coming cutting off of the Gentiles, the grafting in of Israel? (Romans 11).