Esther Cont. - "No Means No"

Esther 1:9-12 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.

In verse 9, we see that the king is not the only one thats been partying for the last six months. The queen has also been entertaining the women on her side of the palace. Those of you that have the gift of hospitality may even find this one a bit of a challenge. Then to top it all off, the king and his boys are drunk - never a good sign.

He wanted his queen to dress in all her fancy finery and come out strutting her stuff. Now normally, I would not snub my nose up at putting on a pretty dress and modeling it - being the girly girl that I am - however, let's keep in mind that Vashti has just spent the last six months playing Sarah Social. I don't feel like cleaning up after a birthday party - let alone getting dolled up for my hubby after an evening of making sure everyone was happy and getting served their cake.

Let's not forget that she was being asked to prance into an area filled with all the drunken men of Shushan - a Promise Keepers Meeting this was not! And, after seeing how angry the king could get, I think all women would agree that Queen Vashti in verse 12 made a wise decision - otherwise this would have been bound to be an episode on Law and Order SVU.

No one at this point in the story is a Christian - they did not serve God, otherwise this party wouldn't have had to happen - the king could've just prayed about the war with Greece and God would've taken care of what was best (remember Jericho). But we can certainly see this from Queen Vashti's eyes and, as Christians, come up with an even better way to handle this type of circumstance. Analyze the situation, pray for wisdom, trust God to help you make the right decision, let Him lead the outcome knowing that He knows what He's doing - even when we don't have a clue.