Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
13And the king spoke to the wise men knowing the times because thus [was] the way of the king to face of all ones knowing law and judgment, 14and the ones approaching to him [were] Carshena, Shetar, Admata, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, ones seeing the face of the king, dwelling [in] the chief place of the kingdom. 15“In law, what to be done to Queen Vashti upon which not she has done the command of the king Xerxes in the hand of the eunuchs?” 16And Memucan said to the face of the king and the princes, “Not upon the king only Vashti the queen did wrong because upon the all of the princes and upon the all of the people which [are] in the all of the provinces of the king Xerxes, 17because the matter of the queen will go out upon the all of the women to despise their husbands, in their eyes in their saying, ‘The king Xerxes said to bring in Vashti the queen to his face and not she came,’ 18and the day of the this the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard the matter of the queen will say [the same thing] to the all of the princes of the king and [there shall be] thus much contempt and strife. 19If upon the king it is pleasing, let him send out a royal decree from before him and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media and not let it be changed, that Vashti may not come to the face of the king Xerxes and her royal position the king should give to a (female) neighbor, one better from her. 20And the decree of the king which he will make will be heard in the all of his kingdom because great [it] is and the all of the women will give honor to their husbands, to great and unto small,” 21and the word was good in the eyes of the king and the princes and the king did according to the word of Memucan, 22and he sent documents to the all of the provinces of the king, to province and province, according to its writing, and to people and people, according to its language so that every man may be ruling in his house and speaking according to the language of his people.
I have to say, after studying these verses and reading the comments of a great deal of authors, I find myself almost exasperated. Everyone of course finds much in this passage to comment on and question. “Was Vashti justified to disobey the king?” “Is the king right to divorce her over it?” “Are the princes really giving him wise counsel or just flattering him?” “Is there an element of truth in their advice, or are they just being cruel tyrants over the women of the kingdom?” “Is this response simply necessary in a real world where people really do follow bad examples?” And on and on.
After a while one finds himself saying, “Well, yes that is true, but…, and yes, that is true too, but…, and no, that is just plain wrong, and so is that, and…, but…”
What is going on? Why is it not clear exactly who is right or wrong or what is true and what is not? Frankly, I think the answer to that question is highly significant to our story. The reason why right and wrong in this story are so balled up is precisely because what we have is a bunch of completely godless people who care absolutely nothing for the true and living God, who are simply careening around through life doing whatever appeals to them and trying to get whatever it is they want. This is the same careless, godless world Jesus described as “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage…” In that kind of world, people do some things right but also a lot of things wrong. In that kind of world, sometimes it’s hard to decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong.
It’s basically just a big moral mess.
Kind of like our world.
Kind of like the world you and I face every day at work, in our extended families, in our communities, in the kids’ soccer league, and pretty much everywhere we go.
It is a world without God.
It is the world you and I live in and it is the world Esther and Mordecai live in. You and I can study the Bible and think about God’s truth and be very aware all through our day that God is very real, that He is present, that there is very clear right and wrong for us. That is, of course, precisely what we do and because we do have the moral compass of the Bible in our hearts, we can make good choices, we can be all too aware when we’ve made bad choices, and in general, we can enjoy the peace of living in what is a well-ordered world – the world of God’s kingdom. But as we’re living in that world in our own hearts, we physically live in this world. That’s all part of being “in this world, but not of it.”
Really, the world we live in is a world where God simply does not exist. (Of course He does, but I’m talking about how people think). At work, no one asks, “What does the Lord think?” No one says, “We should pray about this.” No one asks God’s blessing on our plans or thanks Him for what is accomplished. He doesn’t exist. We all just careen around doing whatever seems right in our own eyes and whatever we think will get us whatever it is we want. And that is precisely why it becomes such a confusing ball of who’s right and who’s wrong? And such a ball of “That’s a good thing…and that’s a bad thing.”
Think back through this entire first chapter. From the very beginning and every verse along the way, we can debate endlessly about whether this or that is right. Is it right or wrong for Xerxes to live in such luxury? Is it right or wrong to throw a 180-day party? Is he commendable because he said, “No one should be forced. Everyone should be allowed to drink as he wishes?” Is he wrong to ask Vashti to appear? Is she being virtuous or wrong to refuse him? As I asked above, are the guys really giving him good advice or just flattering him?
What a messed up world.
Sounds familiar.
The hope, however, for you and me, is that this story is going somewhere. God may not exist in the world of chapter one, but He is nevertheless quite real and quite present. The people in chapter one may utterly ignore Him but He is in fact carefully controlling even their wickedness. For all their twisted machinations, the Lord is setting it all up to bring our Esther to the throne. And that same God is quite real and quite present in our world too. The same God who is working all things together for my good in my home and in my personal life – that same God goes with me to work.
Although others may not see it, I can see His hand in all that I do. I can pray His blessing on my projects. I can thank Him when things succeed and pray for grace when they fail. I can ask His help when I face difficult assignments. I can do my work sincerely believing that what I’m doing is the good He wants done for the people I serve. My work is His kindness to my world. Because He is very real, I can work every second hoping that somehow He is using me to touch the lives of everyone I work with and interact with. I can do all of this, though, to everyone else, He simply does not exist!
I do want to insert here that I am very thankful I work for a very good company. It isn’t a “Christian” company or even trying to be, but there are a number of Christian people I work with, and there is a sense of morality in all we do. In my office, the men respect the women, everyone works hard and tries to be honest, and we sincerely try to do good for our clients. I have worked in places where you weren’t sure who was sleeping with who, where we were instructed to lie, and no one really cared what work we got done. So, I am very thankful for all that is right about where I work. However, all that said, it still is part of this world. Basically I think it is true that even “religious” people see their religion as something that happens on Sunday mornings and other than that, God really does not even exist.
But you and I, like Esther, must be different. We need to go out into our worlds to literally live in the presence of God whether others do or not. We can go in the peace of knowing He is present and very much in control and that all His promises are ours to have and to hold all day every day, in everything we face. Even at 2:00 on Tuesday afternoon, we can “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
May the godless book of Esther today remind us and encourage us to live in His presence!
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