“Love is patient and kind;…it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor 13:4-5, ESV).
The garden party had been going on for a week. On the last day of the feast, Ahasuerus gave proof that another king was right when he wrote, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Prov 20:1). We read, “the heart of the king was merry with wine” (Est 1:10). Most of us need all our faculties just to function adequately. We certainly don’t want to be making empire-wide decisions under the influence! But that’s just what the king did. He decided he’d like to show off his wife, “for she was beautiful to behold” (v 11). Her name’s meaning could be rendered “the best of women.” The king sent his seven chamberlains to bring her. “But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command… therefore the king was furious” (v 12). We all discover in life that two things can undermine a marriage: unrealistic expectations and unresolved communications. This situation had both. The queen didn’t know what the king intended her to do. Was it unreasonable? Indecent? Or did he feel the most beautiful sight to behold was missing from his side? The king, on the other hand, never even spoke to Vashti. The whole thing might have been cleared up in a moment. Instead he discussed it with his experts, “the wise men who understood the times” (v 13). You’ll notice it doesn’t say they understood women! One of them said, “The queen’s behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands” (v 17). A feminist movement in 482 BC! This certainly sounds like the wine talking. But the king agreed, and Vashti was banished from his presence, so “each man should be master in his own house” (v 22). But the love of power will never accomplish this—only the power of love.