The law really was about keeping a woman “in her place” as a subservient wife. Because when the First Lady, Queen Vashti stood up the King, why wouldn’t all the other women?
King Xerxes had been throwing a lavish party. For a week he invited everyone in the citadel to celebrate and he let the wine flow freely. It was a party for the ages.
For the big reveal he wanted his wife, Queen Vashti, to come make an appearance. She was gorgeous and he wanted everyone to know what a beautiful wife he had. So he sent word to her where the women were celebrating that she was to come to him.
She didn’t.
We really don’t know why she didn’t come. Perhaps he was asking her to come naked as some assumed? Perhaps he was abusive? Perhaps she was tired of being his showpiece? Perhaps it was even God “hardening her heart” in a sense like Pharaoh so another one, Esther could be put in the right place at the right time. We just don’t know.
But we do know she didn’t come. And that was humiliating, infuriating and degrading to a king who wanted to boast to everyone of all that he had.
“The king became furious and his anger burned within him” (Esther 1:12).
The king had a habit of always consulting his wise men before he made a decision, and he did so here. They recommended that they vanquish her and that she never be allowed to see him again. The reason? If she gets away with this, all wives will start standing up to their husbands. And everyone would be affected.
It was such a severe consequence that they wrote this in the laws of the Persians and Medes. This meant it could never be revoked. They also sent the decree through the whole empire and in every language. They weren’t messing around. Wives were to be submissive.
Perhaps it was a crushing blow to women who were trying to move their voice more forward. But God had bigger plans. And so did the enemies of the Jewish people. It wasn’t just about women, it was about genocide, working to destroy the entire Jewish race. But God was working preemptively through the situation with Queen Esther to put people in place who would do something.
It’s a good reminder that God is never caught off guard. He has put people in place to take care of many things. It’s often more of a question of whether they will do what they have been called to do, even at the risk of their life, or whether they will compromise.
