Esther 1: 1 – 12
This happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the same Ahasuerus who ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia. In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present, while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendour and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred and eighty days in all.
When these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet lasting for seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and coloured stones. Drinks were served in golden goblets, goblets of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished in accordance with the bounty of the king. Drinking was by flagons, without restraint; for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one desired. Furthermore, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women in the palace of King Ahasuerus.
On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who attended him, to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty; for she was fair to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Reflection
Vashti annoyed both her husband and commentators, puzzling over a woman disobeying her husband! Some felt she declined to go to the party because she had leprosy whilst others felt she was wicked and vain. However, early feminists applauded her actions: Harriet Beecher Stowe saw Vashti’s disobedience as the “first stand for woman’s rights” and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote about her saying ‘Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.'” Vashti is ejected from the story which turns to Esther who is more troubling to contemporary sensibilities. Esther uses her status and beauty to save her people. As a woman with little power she uses what she has with great effect but never defies the king. Esther worked within the system whereas Vashti defied it.
Women and other minoritised folk have always had this choice. In the election campaign the major parties offered limited options on how to make our economic systems more efficient; only minority parties questioned if those systems were good for us and the planet. Of course choices have consequences. Vashti was silenced and disappeared; Esther saved her people at great cost to her own integrity and freedom. She achieved liberation for her people at the expense of submitting to a patriarchal system which always harms women, children and those it decides are of no account.
As Christians we have to make similar choices; do we obey the systems that oppress and try to mitigate their worst excesses or do we try and put a spoke in the wheel of those evil engines that they may grind to a halt? Can we do both? Can we donate to the foodbank and pressure our new government to end a culture of hunger? Can we fundraise for the local hospital and demand that the NHS continues to care for us between cradle and grave? Can we work with asylum seekers, protest at how they are treated and work for a world where no one needs to flee their homes?
Prayer
O Most High,
you are the refuge of the poor,
saviour of the oppressed,
scourge of the tyrant,
and disrupter of evil systems.
Help us to know when to use the systems we inhabit,
and when to spoke their wheels,
that your people may be free.
Amen.