Esther 1:3

The title of Ahasuerus was a general one, just as Pharaoh was the general title in Egypt, and Abimelech among the Philistines. That is, there were many Pharaohs and many Abimelechs. So among the Persians there were several who bore the name of Ahasuerus. Which Ahasuerus is meant is a question, but it is of no importance; if it were, God would have told us. I take it, however, that it was really Xerxes. One reason is the character of the man — a man of enormous resources, unbounded wealth, immense luxury and vanity, and a man of the most arbitrary and unpredictable character.

History tells us that "the third year of his reign" is the year the king ordered his great expedition against Greece, which had already beaten back his father Darius. We have no doubt that all this show of luxury and power was meant to prepare that expedition, planned together with the princes, nobles and chief men of the 127 provinces of this immense empire. One word used of some of them seems to point to this purpose. The verse speaks of the power (v. 3), listed right after the princes of the kingdom. Strictly, the word "power" means the army — that is, the leaders or generals of the army.

It is a vivid picture of earthly splendour, without a thought of God, true or false. Xerxes gave himself up to ostentatious indulgence, all the more after the utter failure of his invasion of Greece. Underneath such unmatched worldly grandeur you can see shame and fear.

All the haughtiness that declared itself in Nebuchadnezzar reappears in Ahasuerus. No spirit or fruit of repentance — no learning of himself, or of what suits him as a creature — is seen in this man of the earth. The lie of the serpent, which shaped man at the beginning, is working as earnestly as ever. The old desire to be as God speaks out in the Persian now, as it had before in the Chaldean.

The events that fill the history of the world with their noise count for almost nothing in the inspired book. God mentions them only when they touch the history of His people in one way or another, or when they foreshadow events that prophecy speaks of. This truth has great importance for us. The conflicts among nations in our own day often preoccupy us so much that our souls lose communion with the Lord. Let us take the Word to measure the value of these conflicts, and weigh the facts in the scales of the sanctuary. How small they will seem in the light of our God's eternal purposes!

The Persian king claimed the title King of Kings, which belongs only to the Lord Himself. Ahasuerus held his feast in the third year of his reign, to show the riches of his kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty. God invites us to a gospel feast, prepared in His Son, who died and rose again on the third day. This feast shows the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us. Ahasuerus invited all to come to his feast, with no condition but to come. In the same way, God wants all men to be saved, and He offers the riches of His grace without money and without price. While the Persian king displayed the glories of his great kingdom, God displays the glory of His grace.