“Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.”
~ Esther 1:19
Hi James and Ellen,
So Ellen – have you ever been a queen for a day? Would you like to be a queen? Do you think that you are a queen? Your grandmaa’s dad called your grandmaa his Princess. What do you think that life is like for a queen? Do you think that being a queen is more important than being a king? Kings and queens have been for centuries and centuries rulers over countries of guys and gals. A monarchy still exist today in England as well as in several other European countries. After Darius died after leading Persia to be the superpower over much of the known world, Darius’ kid – Khshayarshan or Xerxes the Great, was positioned or he assumed the royal responsibility of being Persia’s king. King Xerxes’ wife’s name was Vashti. When Queen Vashti – which King Xerxes’ wife was called, challenged one day a request that was made of her by her husband – King Xerxes, a chain of events began unfolding that would . . . and that is the story that makes up the rest of the Esther Book. Esther 1 sets the stage for what can be thought of as an allegory of how the Trinity – God – as God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit, goes about defeating the despicable enemy – who is Satan, who is out to destroy God’s specially chosen and elected guys and gals. The Esther Book begins with a six month party being thrown by King Xerxes. At that time – which was over 2500 years ago (as of the editing of this missive), King Xerxes was ruling from his royal throne that was in the citadel that was in the city of Susa. The city of Susa had been a Babylonian city before Persia overran the country of Babylonia. The city of Susa was then used by Persian kings for their winter residence. The citadel that was in the city of Susa was a fortified acropolis and a palace complex. When Xerxes inherited or assumed the Persian kingship throne from his dad, the Medes and Persians had conquered – stretching from India to Cush, 127 provinces.
Three or so years after King Xerxes took on being Persia’s king, King Xerxes threw a 180 day long party for his nobles, officials, military leaders and princes to show off his great wealth as well as his self-proclaimed majesty. King Xerxes may have used this party to plan what would become a year later an ill-advised and ill-fated campaign against the country of Greece. After partying for six months, King Xerxes threw a week long banquet. King Xerxes used his palace’s enclosed garden for his banquet site. King Xerxes’ enclosed garden had blue and white linen hanging everywhere. King Xerxes had his guests sit on gold and on silver couches that sat on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones. King Xerxes had the royal wine served in different size gold goblets. King Xerxes’ guests could drink as much wine as they wanted to drink. Queen Vashti also threw a banquet while King Xerxes partied at his banquet. It was the banquet’s last day when King Xerxes sent a message to Queen Vashti to come to his banquet and dance in front of the guys who he had invited, Queen Vashti refused to do what her husband asked her to do. Would you Ellen refuse to go to a banquet that was being put on by somebody special in your life – like your dad, to dance for the guys who he had invited? King Xerxes may have been close to being drunk – if not drunk, from drinking too much wine when he sent the message to Queen Vashti for her to join him at his banquet to dance for the guys who he had invited. When Queen Vashti adamantly refused to join him at his banquet, King Xerxes feared that his wife’s example would cause other wives not to respect their husbands so he did what verse 19 says, “‘Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King Xerxes. Also let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.”
Not long after your Aunt Lynn was born in 1972, friends invited your grandmaa and grandpaa to go with them to hear a deeper life speaker speak at the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church that is in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The deeper life speaker – Don McKaughn, was to speak at the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church for several nights. Your grandpaa was not sure about going to church for several consecutive evenings but . . . your grandmaa and grandpaa had never heard of the term ‘deeper life’ until they were invited to hear Don McKaughn speak. It did not take long for Don McKaughn to get your grandpaa’s attention. During one of his first messages, Don McKaughn randomly pointed right at your grandpaa and said ‘if you say that you are a Christian, why aren’t you acting like one’ – which woke up your grandpaa to realize that he could act a lot more like a Christian than how he was acting – leading your grandpaa to begin to seriously think about what it is like to be a Christ-follower and to treat the Bible as a living book. Your grandpaa thinks today that because he began to think about how he should act as a Christ-follower that God began opening the door for him to be involved in proactive ways. Don McKaughn’s deeper life series of messages were on the Esther Book. About six years later and after your grandmaa and grandpaa joined South America Missions’ field missionary team in Bolivia, a missionary who was ministering in Brazil who was visiting friends who were on the South America Mission field missionary team was asked to speak during the team’s weekly Wednesday evening meeting. The missionary talked about a chair in the house where he grew up in which his dad always sat to read the Bible and pray. The missionary called his dad’s chair a holy chair. Even though someone else could have sat in the chair, no one did. The missionary’s name was Paul McKaughn. Your grandpaa had the opportunity to tell Paul how instrumental that his dad had been in having him reflect on living as a Christian.
Esther 1 (625)