One Moment Changes Everything

     Have you ever experienced a moment that changed your life forever?  Esther is the book on life altering moments.  It is the one book in the Bible where God is never named, but is in every part of the narrative.  It is a story that highlights four people: Xerxes, Esther, Mordecai, and Haman.  However, everyone has a story.  Today, I am highlighting the story of Queen Vashni.    

    We don't know a lot about Queen Vashni other than she was married to Xerves and was a woman of personal pride.  She tried to do what her integrity called her to do and it cost her everything.  She is the example of how sometimes life does not go as expected.  Sometimes we are treated horribly wrong and there is nothing we can do except get up and move forward.

    King Xerxes was a powerful king that raigned over 127 provinces, from India to Cush.  He lived in Susa.  In his third year as king, he held a banquet for the prominent men of the time.  His wife held a banquet probably for her friends and the men's wives or mistresses.  This particular banquet lasted for months, so it was more like a long vacation where the people came to them and then the banquet portion was for the last seven days.

    The last night of the banquet, the king had a little too much to drink and thought it would be a good idea to flaunt his wife's beauty.  Every woman wants to feel beautiful, but to be paraded around like an animal is not complementary.  She refused to leave her guest to give into her husband's flippant whim.  This was her one mistake as a king's wife.  

    We don't know their history.  We don't know if they had a good marriage, but standing up for her human right to be treated like a person was the moment that changed her life forever.  The truth was that God was in all of this.  He set things into motion to change things for His people.  

    The king was angry because she embarrassed him in front of his nobles.  Xerxes' nobles took offense that a woman dare stand her ground.  It was apparently the ultimate insult to men.  They convinced him that something had to be done or she would cause all the women to speak their mind and stand up for themselves.  After all women are supposed to submit to their husbands.  (FYI, that does not give the husbands right to bully, insult, hurt, or neglect their wives.)   If something was not done, then all the women in the nation would start speaking their mind.

    The king took action under the assumption that the queen would cause national disrespect and discord within the homes.  Vashni was banished.  Ultimately he divorced her in the terms of being divorced in those day.  She totally disappeared and her story ended there.  A woman that did nothing other than want respect from her own husband was thrown away like garbage all because she stood her ground.  

    I hope Vashni found something in her life to make her happy after that because it had to hurt horrible to be tossed away and see your husband's fun and games to find a replacement wife.  After she was discarded, a new law was put into affect: every man should rule over his own household.  That means that any man that was not happy with his wife that they could discard her like the king discarded the queen.  It sent a strong message to the women in the nation.  Be careful or you could lose everything.  It truly was a man's world.

Esther 1