SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/20/2011 8:49:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “His Vindictiveness”
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Ester 1:13-22
Message of the verses: “13
Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times-for it was the
custom of the king so to speak before all who knew law and justice 14 and were close to him: Carshena, Shethar,
Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and
Media who had access to the king’s presence and sat in the first place in the
kingdom- 15 "According to law, what is to be done with Queen Vashti,
because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the
eunuchs?" 16 In the presence of the king and the princes, Memucan said,
"Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king but also all the princes and
all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17 "For
the queen’s conduct will become known to all the women causing them to look
with contempt on their husbands by saying, ’King Ahasuerus commanded Queen
Vashti to be brought in to his presence, but she did not come.’ 18 “This day
the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s conduct will speak
in the same way to all the king’s princes, and there will be plenty of contempt
and anger. 19 "If it pleases the
king, let a royal edict be issued by him and let it be written in the laws of
Persia and Media so that it cannot be repealed, that Vashti may no longer come
into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal position
to another who is more worthy than she. 20
"When the king’s edict which he will make is heard throughout all
his kingdom, great as it is, then all women will give honor to their husbands,
great and small." 21 This word pleased the king and the princes, and the
king did as Memucan proposed. 22 So he sent letters to all the king’s
provinces, to each province according to its script and to every people
according to their language, that every man should be the master in his own
house and the one who speaks in the language of his own people.”
Toward the end
of his commentary on this first chapter of Ester Warren Wiersbe writes the
following: “The more you know about
Ahasuerus and his philosophy of life, the more you detest him.” It is not hard to disagree with that quote
after reading how he handled the situation with Queen Vashti. We have here a drunk, prideful king who wants
to save face after making a ridiculous statement. It reminds me of Herod who had John the
Baptist killed after making a ridiculous statement about watching his wife’s
daughter dance before him and his guests. Both of these events involved wine,
women and lustful men, and the three together will likely cause trouble as it
did here.
Queen Vashti was
nobler than the king and if the king would have taken time to get sober and
think about what he did then it would have probably blown over, but he had to
solve this “problem” right away and so he called his “experts” in to discuss
this pressing issue. These were probably
men who looked at the stars for all of the answers, something like is seen in
the book of Daniel. They had to flatter
the king so that they could keep their jobs and as it has been discussed before
the king was gullible and trusted these men too much, something we will see
later in this drama.
One might wonder
what happened to Vashti, for the Bible does not say anything about her after
this incident. Many Bible scholars
believe that she was pregnant at this time and that was another reason that she
did not want to parade before a lot of drunken men. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “Many biblical scholars believe she was Amestris,
the mother of Artaxerxes who ruled from 464 to 425 B. C. It’s likely that Ester
was either out of favor or dead; for Amestris exercised great influence as the
queen mother during her son’s reign.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think that what I can learn from this
situation is to stop and think about what needs to be done on a certain
situation rather than rush into it without thinking like the king did. He was angry and he was drunk and he made the
wrong decision because he did not stop and let his anger and drunkenness settle
down before acting. Proverbs 12:16 reads
as follows, “A fool shows his annoyance
at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” Good advice.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to work on a more productive prayer time.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
9/20/2011 10:52:55 AM
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