Esther Bible Study - Week 1

Ok, so all this past week, I have been doing my nightly homework on my Esther bible study led by Beth Moore. All week covered all of chapter 1. So I got to know chapter 1 REALLY well. And let me tell ya - them old testament peeps were some scandalous dudes.

Chapter 1 of Esther summarized:

This guy named King Xerxes was king over the whole world except Greece. So he was a mighty man and a mighty man was he. He was only 35 during this chapter. And he was the richest, most powerful man alive, I do believe. But as you will soon see, this guy had some major issues. I don't think his mama showed him enough love when he was growin' up. And his daddy didn't take him fishin' I bet not even once.

So Mr. King decided to throw a 180 day party in his hometown. Yep, that's right. A 6 MONTH party. And he invited all his military guys, all the nobles, and all the leaders of the provinces (there were a 127 scattered around Persia and Media, which was King X's territory). So all these guys come and during the 6 months it say that King X showed off ALL his wealth and splendor and majesty. So basically, he pulled out all the stops and all the finest china. I mean this guy LAID IT OUT for 6 months straight.

Then after this 6 month "look how wonderful I am" party, he threw a sort of farewell party which lasted 7 days straight. This party was held in his garden. Which a garden back then was like a huge state park, with wild animals and waterfalls and such everywhere. It was big enough that his whole City of Susa (his hometown) from the LEAST to the GREATEST was invited.

And at this party, he held nothing back either. Literally. Nothing. In fact it was so lavish that everyone had their own golden goblet to drink wine out of. AND each goblet had it's own unique design. THAT my friends IS.IN.SANE.

And in this golden goblet of yours, you had unlimited wine. King X ordered the wine stewards to serve wine at request of the individual. There WAS NO LIMIT!! WOW! What a party, my friend. Interesting note on this fact is that kings in general never did this. People were not allowed to drink wine unless the king did it first or something along those lines. Anyways, the kings had a procedure and control over the wine and always practiced that control. So this may have shown that King X was not too sure of his authority. He may have been a little scared of telling people no. Or maybe he just loved to get drunk and wanted everyone else around him that way. Who knows.

So anyways, King X's party in the garden was the all male party. The women were hangin with Queen Vashti, in her castle. They had their own 7 day party. Can you IMAGINE, for 7 days partying with other women while their husbands got drunk out in the garden, acting like a fool I am sure. I bet there was some major men-bashing going on at that party!!

So on the 7th day, when King X was in "high spirits" or as we would say drunk as a skunk, or wasted, or totally blitzed....anyways, he was inebriated fo' sho' and he sent his homies (his 7 eunuchs, which were kinda like his assistants) to go fetch Queen Vashti. The king wanted her to come show off her beauty to all the men. I guess he had showed off everything else, and needed to make sure all the men knew his woman was lookin hot!

Well, Queen Vashti said no. She ain't' goin. Not gonna do it. No way Jose. We don't know why she says no. But my own personal theory is that after 7 days of hangin with her girls, she wasn't about to all sudden hop up to the beckon'in call of her man to go parade around in front of a bunch of drunk men. There was no way she was going to hurt her pride in front of all those men gawking at her. Plus all the women sneering and laughing at her as she left and talking about her while she was gone. Or maybe she was making a stance for her girls, showing them they could be independent people from their husbands. Maybe she was a revolutionists and a mentor to these ladies. Or maybe her and king x had a real relationship and maybe she was in control. We already see that King X can't even excercise his authority over wine. Who is to say he can over his own wife too? Maybe she figured telling him no wasn't that big a deal.

Well, King X got so mad. He burned with anger. He was so mad (and drunk) that he consulted his lawyers. They suggested a law be made so that no other women would get the idea that this sort of behaviour was accepted. So King X, with the help of his law team, made a decree that Queen V was never allowed in his presence again. AND that all men were the rulers over their households. This was hand delivered to every village in all the provinces, all in their own language so there would be no mistaking the contents of the law.

No one know what happened to Queen Vashti. The text does not say if she was killed or just exiled. It doesn't speak of her children. Did they stay or go with her?

Some irony to King Xerxes decree is that he ordered Queen Vashti to never be in his presence again when she didn't want to be there anyways. Another irony is that King Xerxes is making a decree for all men on an issue he can not even master himself....authority over his own house.

"The essence of oppression is punishing one bu hurting many". ~ who is being hurt because of King Xerxes decree which stems from his public humiliation? All the women in his provice who have husbands who will abuse his decree. Also King Xerxes and Queen Vashti's children. They either lost their mother or they lost their father. Either way, they were never the same again.

So this is the Chapter 1 of Esther. Tomorrow I will try and long on and write a blog about the stuff in between the lines and how it can be related to our lives. Cause that is some GOOD STUFF too!!