Esther 1:16

One of the princes, Memucan, took the lead in suggesting what should be done. He said that Vashti had not only wronged the king, but also all the princes and all the people who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus (v. 16). No doubt it was true that all women would hear of Vashti's behavior. They would then feel free to despise their husbands' authority unless someone took drastic action quickly (vv. 17-18).

This weakness shows itself again. Ahasuerus claimed to be a god-like ruler, yet he is the toy of his favorites. He lets them take his place, and the price is that he turns on them in revenge if they displease him. Let us add this too. He had to make a decision about Queen Vashti that concerned only himself. Yet he surrounds himself with advisers who persuade him that the queen's act touches the whole ordering of the state.

Memucan had brought about the downfall of the queen; she disappears completely. Jewish tradition gives several reasons why Memucan was so hostile to Vashti. One is that his own wife had not been invited to Vashti's feast and another, because he wanted his own daughter promoted and become the queen.

So the king asks his nobles for advice, and one of them dares to give very bold counsel: send Vashti away. This is the first great step in the providence of God that the book sets before us, and all the remarkable results follow.

A weak woman resists Ahasuerus and holds his limitless power in check. A grain of sand humbles all the pride of this huge, well-ordered empire. The king may divorce Vashti, but her act stands, and the humbled king has no power to make her appear in public. If she had repented, what would the result have been? Here, from the very beginning we find the hidden providence of God at work.

In this chapter we see Vashti, the Gentile wife, show her rebellion, her disobedience and her refusal to submit to the one whose favor had lifted her up to the throne. She is proud of her position and her rights. She is not afraid to show her independence from the head she depends on, and she refuses to show her beauty in public. The result of the revolt is that he puts her away as his wife, and a captive Jewish girl is called to take a place she has never held, as the wife of this great king.

In the 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, when she will no more be termed Forsaken, nor her land any more Desolate.