Esther 1
For those who think the Bible is always banging on about God - you may be surprised that this book of the Bible does not even mention God by name.
This occurred during the time of Xerxes - who ruled the Medo-Persian empire between Cyrus and Darius -in Israel the Temple was being rebuilt.
The king decided to show off he arranged for a banquet for all the nobles and officials, military leaders, princes and provincial nobles.
Xerxes spent about 6 months displaying his wealth and basically showing off.
After this he gave a 7 day banquet/party/drunken orgy (delete according to your sensivities) for all the men of the capital city.
In the palace garden, he had decked out with mosaic, gold couches and blue and white linnens.
All the guests drank all kinds of wine from all kinds of gold goblets with the wine waiters given instructions that there were no limits on the types or volume of alcohol they were to serve.
Meanwhile the queen was giving a similar, though probably less rowdy, party for the women of the city.
On the 7th day Xerxes (whose condition is described in the bible as "in high spirits from wine", and by me as "drunk as a skunk") decided that his wife was so pretty he wanted to show her off to his drinking buddies wearing her royal crown as she was very attractive to look at.
Queen Vashti refused point blank to go and be ogled by a bunch of extremely drunk blokes.
Xerxes was absolutely furious, but decided not to act immediately, so he sought advice from experts in the laws of persia and with men who understood the times .
They decided that the queen had done wrong by not obeying her king's and husbands instructions.
The advisers (all men I suspect) think that the queen's refusal would be contagious and wives all over the land would stop obeying their husbands every whim
I can just imagine a scene from the old BBC sitcom "Yes Prime Minister" where the heads of the civil service in the UK would have an extremely similar discussion!
They advised the king to issue a decree, written into law that could not be repealed that Queen Vashti was to be deposed as queen and never see the king again.
These days this kind of behaviour should be unthinkable, unfortunately they probably are not.
For those who think the Bible is always banging on about God - you may be surprised that this book of the Bible does not even mention God by name.
This occurred during the time of Xerxes - who ruled the Medo-Persian empire between Cyrus and Darius -in Israel the Temple was being rebuilt.
The king decided to show off he arranged for a banquet for all the nobles and officials, military leaders, princes and provincial nobles.
Xerxes spent about 6 months displaying his wealth and basically showing off.
After this he gave a 7 day banquet/party/drunken orgy (delete according to your sensivities) for all the men of the capital city.
In the palace garden, he had decked out with mosaic, gold couches and blue and white linnens.
All the guests drank all kinds of wine from all kinds of gold goblets with the wine waiters given instructions that there were no limits on the types or volume of alcohol they were to serve.
Meanwhile the queen was giving a similar, though probably less rowdy, party for the women of the city.
On the 7th day Xerxes (whose condition is described in the bible as "in high spirits from wine", and by me as "drunk as a skunk") decided that his wife was so pretty he wanted to show her off to his drinking buddies wearing her royal crown as she was very attractive to look at.
Queen Vashti refused point blank to go and be ogled by a bunch of extremely drunk blokes.
Xerxes was absolutely furious, but decided not to act immediately, so he sought advice from experts in the laws of persia and with men who understood the times .
They decided that the queen had done wrong by not obeying her king's and husbands instructions.
The advisers (all men I suspect) think that the queen's refusal would be contagious and wives all over the land would stop obeying their husbands every whim
I can just imagine a scene from the old BBC sitcom "Yes Prime Minister" where the heads of the civil service in the UK would have an extremely similar discussion!
They advised the king to issue a decree, written into law that could not be repealed that Queen Vashti was to be deposed as queen and never see the king again.
These days this kind of behaviour should be unthinkable, unfortunately they probably are not.
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