Esther 1:12

However, one jarring note marred this celebration. Vashti refused to come (v.12). What reason she had we are not told. The king had not expected any such refusal, and he became furious. The person he expected to cooperate most had challenged his authority.

The seven chamberlains were eunuchs who held important offices, and the king sent them to bring the queen to his feast. She refused to obey his command. Writers have explained her refusal in different ways. By Persian custom the Persian king treated everyone as a slave except his lawful wife. Was it in defiance of the king's order or out of self respect? She may have refused to show that a drunken husband could not order her about, and that she would not put herself on display in the middle of a drinking party. Perhaps she did not care to come because she had a feast of her own. Then the king became extremely angry.

Ahasuerus was proud of his own unlimited power, and he turned violent whenever anything or anyone stood in his way. Again and again in this account the king bursts into rage and his fury blazes. (Esther 1:12; Esther 2:1; Esther 7:7, 10) Violence is never a sign of strength. On the contrary, it shows the weakness of a man who cannot govern himself. His weakness shows again in this: for all his claims to be a god-like ruler, Ahasuerus is the toy of his favourites, and he lets them take his place.

It was a small beginning, poor and mean in its character and material. Vashti's temper drove her into conduct that put her life at risk. That temper was the "little fire" which kindled this "how great a matter." It is a shabby, contemptible thing. What could be lower? The temper, we may say, of an overbearing woman! And yet God uses it to work out results, planned then in His own counsel, and to be seen in full in the coming day of Jewish glory.

If we go through the book of Esther we will find that nothing happened by chance. All started with the feast of the king and Vashti's refusal to come when he called her. All ended with his second decree that saved the Jews. Everything in between was directed by God. He holds all things in His hand. Paul reminds his Roman readers that "for those who love God all things" — not only some — "work together for good" (Rom. 8:28). Even if we sometimes may not see this, or even believe it to be the case, it is true. There is no event in our life that God will not use to carry out His plan.

If the king's demand was unusual, the queen's refusal was an insult that could not be ignored. The king had properly sent the seven chamberlains to bring her, but she rebelled, when obeying would have done her no real harm. In the greater reality this pictures, how true it is that the Gentile has been unfaithful and defiant, following his own will and completely failing to show the world the beauty of one so favoured! The result will be, as it was here, the call of Zion to be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah and a royal diadem in the hand of her God.

In Vashti we see a picture of the refusal of the invitation. The king had invited her to come and grace the feast with her presence; she would not come. It reminds us of the parable of our Lord, in which He speaks of the great supper, a symbol of the gospel, and the invited guests who made excuses for not coming. She had her own feast, which she probably would not leave. How many there are who refuse the gospel invitation because they love their own things best. And Vashti is banished.