After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.
The chapter opens on a king alone with a memory. His rage has burned out, the queen is gone, and the decision against her cannot be undone. At exactly this point the rescue of a whole people begins.
The years hidden in "after these things"
The verse follows chapter 1 straight away on the page, but not in time. Commentators point to the dates in the book itself, and to what the king had been doing in between.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThis probably did not happen right after the feast. We learn this from verse 16 in this chapter. He took Esther in the place of Vashti in the seventh year of his reign. The feast described in the opening chapter happened in the third year. About four years elapsed. During these years, secular history tells us, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) led a campaign against Greece. Many disasters came with it. He must have returned exhausted and unhappy. Then his conscience spoke. He probably missed the companionship of Vashti, and he remembered her and what was decreed against her. But why did the king not take Vashti back and forgive her, if remorse troubled him? Nothing more is said of Vashti, so it is more than likely that she was put to death.
Anger that cools, and a man who cannot govern himself
The verse says his anger "had abated." That is more than a detail of mood. It belongs to a pattern that runs through the whole book.
H. L. RossierAhasuerus was proudly aware of his own unlimited power. With that pride went a violent temper, whenever an obstacle or any resistance appeared in his path. Again and again, in the course of this account, the king bursts into wrath 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.
A law that traps the lawgiver
The reason his cooled anger changes nothing is the Persian system he himself boasted in. That system, writers note, appears again in Daniel's day.
Leslie M. GrantThe Medes and Persians prided themselves on having just laws which could not be changed (Dan. 6:12), and the king's question therefore was, what should be done according to law. Nebuchadnezzar would not have needed such advice. He was an absolute dictator: "whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished he kept alive; whomever he wished he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down" (Dan. 5:19).
Rossier sees the same custom working two ways. It "gave the king the illusion of being himself a sacred person, unchanging." At the same time it gave "the great men of the empire a way of escaping the power of the ruler on the throne."
Hidden providence in the deadlock
The king's helplessness is the space in which God moves.
H. L. RossierThe unlimited power of Ahasuerus is held in check by a weak woman who resists him. A grain of sand humiliates all the pride of this enormous, thoroughly organised empire. Vashti may be divorced, but her act remains. The humiliated king is powerless to force her to appear in public. Here, from the very beginning, we find the hidden providence of God at work. Her removal was decreed and could not be reversed, yet it is not carried out until Ahasuerus returns. Then the Jewish wife, prepared by Providence, can come on the scene and take the place of the Gentile wife at just the right moment.
An orphan and no accident
The book never names God. What follows the king's remembering shows His hand.
William KellyHow did this affect the poor people of God? It soon appears in seed form. For was it chance that gave an orphan of Israel a beauty beyond all in those wide provinces?
What the exchange of queens pictures
Kelly reads the substitution of one wife for another as more than palace history.
William KellyThe book is not only a book of providence — God's secret providence. This was a time when He could not name His name on behalf of His people, the Jews, in their poor and scattered condition among the Gentiles. It is also a picture of the great dealings of God still to come. What does the book open with? This: the great Gentile wife of the great king is discarded, and then a Jewish woman takes her place… Vashti is the Gentile wife discarded for her disobedience and for failing to display her beauty before the world.
Summary
- Remembered. About four years, a failed war and an empty throne lie between chapter 1 and this verse. The king remembers Vashti only after his anger burns out and his conscience speaks.
- Powerless. His fury looked like strength. In fact it showed "the weakness of a man who cannot govern himself." The unchangeable Persian law he was proud of now blocks the one thing he wants.
- Delayed. That deadlock is where God's hidden providence works. The place stays empty until the king returns, so the prepared woman can take it at just the right moment.
- Chosen. An orphan girl's beauty was greater than any in those wide provinces. That was not chance. God works where He cannot yet name His name.
- Exchanged. The king set one queen aside for failing to show her beauty, and another took her place. Writers see in this a picture of God's larger dealings still to come.