Xerxes and Vashti
Make no mistake King Xerxes was a nasty bit of work. We studied a bit about him during our OT characters course at seminay last spring, I'll dig up my notes if I can find them later!What strikes me as I begin reading Esther is this:
Queen Vashti has done wrong -.. for they [all the women] will despise their husbands and say King X commanded queen V to be brought before him, but she would not come ... and this very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility ...will respond in the same way to all the king's nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord." (Esther 1: 16-18)
Vashti's crime? - she chose not to come when the King wanted to parade her around "wearing her crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles" (who had been eating and drinking heavily during a seven day banquet!)
Her punishment? to be banished forever
Moreover
the king sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom proclaiming that every man should be ruler over his own household. (Esther 1:22)
And Esther became this tyrant's queen.
lovely? I think not.
posted by see-through faith @ 5:21 AM
1 Comments:
I wish I could remember the article's title or author, but I can't. However, I remember reading some time ago that the world Esther entered, the world of Xerxes palace and specifically the harmen, was a very dangeroud place indeed. The Book of Esther is NOT a love story, as some would have us believe!
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