Esther starts out with King Xerxes throwing a big huge party for everyone that was in the palace of Susa. Now, I'm not just talking a party like we would have today, where the whole thing lasts for one night. Oh no, King Xerxes partied in style. It says that for a full 180 days (about 6 months) he displayed his vast wealth of his kingdom. After that he held a big ole banquet which lasted 7 days. It tells about how the garden was decorated with things that would even be impressive today. Things like couches of silver and gold on mosaic pavement, marble, and mother of pearl. On top of that, everyone was given their own gold goblet and each goblet was different from the others. Everyone got as much or as little to drink of the royal wine as they wanted. We're not talking the cheap wine either, this is the creme d 'la creme of the palace. It goes on to say that even Queen Vashti even gave a banquet for the women of the palace. Apparently they didn't get to party with the boys. Man, can you imagine having to clean up after a party like that?
Now let me give you a little bit of history here. King Xerxes the Great was king of Persia from 486-465 BC. He was Persia's 5th king. Susa was his winter palace. At that point in time, Persia was the world power. Persian kings of the day loved to flaunt their wealth and when they did so, it usually meant they were preparing for war. They wanted to show everyone that they had enough money to be able to go to war. It wouldn't be uncommon to see them wear precious gems in their beards and it was a common practice for warriors to even wear gold jewelry into battle.
On the 7th day of the banquet after King Xerxes was all liqueured up, he decided it would be a good thing to call his little misses out to strut her stuff and show off her beauty for all his friends. He sent off his 7 servants to tell Her Royal Highness to get all dolled up and come before him. They deliver the message to Queen Vashti and she suffers from a moment of diva syndrome and says "I don't think so" and refused to come before her husband. We don't know why, but she refused to go. There are a couple of possible reasons for this. It may have been that it was against the Persian tradition for a woman to appear publicly in front of a gathering of men. There is also speculation that Vashti was pregnant with their son Artaxerxes and chose not to be seen publicly in her state. No matter the reason, as you can imagine, this didn't set well with the drunken king. He decided that she had broken a law and gathered his closest advisers and friends to discuss what they should do about this insult to his personage. After all, he had his most important officials and advisers there so that they could see is power, wealth and authority. If he couldn't control his wife, how would he control his troops. This could have devastated his military creditability. So, they all decided that she should be never again be in the presence of King Xerxes. They also come up with this brilliant edict that is sent out to all the kingdom stating that all men should be the ruler over his own household.
I should mention that back in those days, the king was seen to some of his people like a god, so once a rule was made, there was no going back. The law couldn't be changed, no matter how ill advised it was. The only thing that could be done was for such an ill advised law was to neutralize it by create a new law.
So there you have it. The synopsis of the first chapter of Esther. Man! Women, can you imagine how many times you've refused to go to your husband right away after he has called you to come to him. I'm sure glad that we live in the society that we do! Otherwise, I might be banned from the palace even as I type!! LOL! I can't wait to share more with you! The book of Esther, I'm willing to bet, gets better as we go!
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