"You Keep Using That Word"

When my youngest daughter was two or three years old, she took to calling the instructions that came with the many board games and card games we kept in our closet: Destructions. So whenever we'd pull out a game to play it, she wanted to "read" the "destructions," so she could know what to do. 

It was super cute, and I didn't correct her terminology for a long time because of the cute factor, but eventually, as she got older, I had to say something, because what is cute for toddler-hood and young childhood becomes less cute when someone is old enough to know better, right?

Right. So today, I opened my Bible to the book of Esther and began to read. I got through three verses before I realized I was going to have to do some background research before I could finish the chapter so I could understand the place in history that this story occupies (you knew this would happen). :)

To start the book, the writer says: "This is what happened during the time of Xerxes, the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush [the upper Nile region]: At that time, King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, and in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the province were present" (Esther 1:1-3).

Here some important setting pieces to help lay out the story: Susa was the winter home of the Persian kings. The other three capitals were Ecbatana, Babylon, and Persepolis. The events of this story took place after the events of the book of Daniel, because the Xerxes in this story (there are at least two Artaxerxes, possibly more; the one in this story is the second one) was the son of Darius the First, under whose reign Daniel lives earlier. Archeological unearthings found a text where Darius the First described some extensive renovations he instituted in the palace in Susa; Xerxes continued the project when he came to the throne.

One thing I think I'm going to love about the book of Esther is the author's use of "bookends" -- pairs of things that happen to begin a theme and end a theme. Here, we have a great and continuing glut, for lack of a better word, that Xerxes throws -- it lasts for six months and ends with a massive week-long feast and revelry in the gardens of his palace -- and the book ends with the institution of an annual feast of Purim. But we'll get there.

Enough nerding for now. 

Turns out, King Xerxes is married. It also turns out that Xerxes didn't necessarily hold with the view of one man and one woman for life and faithful to one another within the boundaries of the marriage covenant (this is abundantly displayed throughout the book of Esther, as well as in historical writings). 

Anyway, while King Xerxes is holding his week-long feast to end all feasts as the finale to his six month glut for all his nobles and military leaders and princes... his wife Queen Vashti is holding her own banquet inside the palace for the women of those nobles and military leaders and princes, etc. 

Some interesting facts about Vashti: a.) she was beautiful, and b.) at this point in time... she was pregnant. This is not recorded in Scriptural text; however, according to Greek historians, Queen Amestris (a Greek name for Vashti) held a great deal of influence in the reign of her son Artaxerxes until the time of her death around 424 B.C. When Artaxerxes, Amestris' son, came to the throne, he was 18 years old. Working backward from that, he was born around 484/483 B.C., which lined up almost exactly to the date of Vashti's deposal as Xerxes' queen. Turns out, Amestris had three sons, and this Artaxerxes was her third one, so the name Amestris can't be applied to Esther -- it had to be Vashti.

There's not much known about the later events of Xerxes' reign beyond this story, except that Amestris held a good bit of influence in her son's reign, so it seems likely that after Esther's death or her fall from favor, Vashti reinserted herself into the political life of the Persian court.

Okay, I said enough historical nerding, and there I go again.

Banquets. Xerxes is giving a major one, Vashti is giving a corresponding one for the wives and women. It's a lush banquet, lots of finery, lots and lots and lots of alcohol. 

Picture with me if you will: "The king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king's palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest, who were in the citadel of Susa. The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones. Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king's liberality. By the king's command, each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished" (Esther 1:5-8).

In other words, it seems quite likely that the men at this banquet got super-duper drunk. When men get super-duper drunk, and then they do this... there's no good thing to come out of it:

"On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine (in other words, he would not have passed a checkpoint sobriety test, like, even by a little bit), he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him -- Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha (remember that name -- I'll come back to it in a later blog), Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas (what a name!) -- to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at" (Esther 1:10-11).

Queen Vashti... said, "Uh... NO." 

Consider this: Not only is she being called out of her house to a feast where alcohol has been liberally served for seven days, she is being called before a whole slew of men who have been consuming that alcohol for seven days, she is being called out to be fawned over ("for she was lovely to look at,") and... if historical records are correct, it is highly likely she was pregnant.

If you are a woman who has had a baby, or if you are the husband of a woman who has had a baby, you may get a sense for how hormones often get turned upside-down during the pregnancy process. So you might be able to picture Vashti... who was busy growing a human inside her... who, when the order came for her to go allow herself to be leered at and discussed and degraded and possibly grabbed by a bunch of drunk men... you might be able to picture -- despite the cultural objectification of women -- why she put her foot down and said, No.

Now... I'm not a historian (despite all my nerdy research displayed above), but it does seem to me that when a Persian king of this era gave an order, particularly a drunk Persian king not necessarily known for his respect for women (he had a harem; that seems to denote that he didn't respect womanly choice) -- when that same Persian king issues an order and that order is given a resounding No! -- there might be a little bit of fallout.

Turns out, this is a correct assumption. King Xerxes "became furious and burned with anger" (Esther 1:12). So he calls together his "wise men who understood the times" (astrologers) -- he's got seven of them, which is apparently Persian tradition, according to the Greek historian Herodotus. Notice that these guys come in sevens -- seven eunuchs who serve him, seven astrologers who advise him...

Anyway, Xerxes asks his astrologer buddies: "According to law, what must be done to Queen Vashti? She has not obeyed the command of King Xerxes that the eunuchs have taken to her."

Memucan, who seems to be the astrologer spokesman, gives a quick answer -- in front of not only the king, but the king's nobles. There's no saving face here. There's no changing of minds. By pride the king asks, by pride the king follows through, and whatever happens, he can't go back, because pride.

So Memucan's answer amounts to this: Yeah, she did wrong, and because she did wrong, every other woman represented by their husbands and men here, will do wrong, too. Per the text: "For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, 'King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.' This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to all the king's nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord" (Esther 1:17-18). 

And here's where we come to the point (you know I'd get there eventually): Memucan calls what Vashti did: Disrespectful. Discordant. He says the women will despise their husbands, and the evidence of their despising is that they refuse to allow themselves to be degraded.

When what really happened was that Xerxes issued an order that was -- in fact -- degrading. 

It was a misnomer. And this mis-naming of what actually was happening was so buried beneath the pride of the ones who were doing the mis-naming, that they couldn't see what was actually happening.

Memucan advises the king to issue a decree in the law of the Medes and Persians -- and when such decrees were given, they were un-repealable. They could not be taken back (this is important for the later story). This decree that Memucan pushes is that Queen Vashti should be deposed. She's never supposed to enter the king's presence again.

The whole point of Memucan's advice is this: "Then when the king's edict (about Vashti's deposal) is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest."

Respect. Again... a misnomer. And Memucan wasn't a cute toddler spouting out the wrong word; he was definitely old enough to know better. In the words of my second favorite Spaniard: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means" (The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya. My first favorite Spaniard is Zorro, but that's another story). 

Memucan calls it respect; a more appropriate term would be fear. And one of these things is not like the other. 

But they can't see the difference -- because of their pride.

When my daughter asked to read the "destructions," we all knew what she meant, and we complied by handing her what she wanted, because it was cute and there was no harm done.

But this prideful mis-naming in this story caused harm, not only to Vashti, but to all the women of the nobility, and on a wider scale, to the culture itself, engendering subjugation and servitude and all sorts of disrespect (the opposite of what Memucan says) against women.

Y'all, I'm not a "women's rights warrior." I don't go to marches and shout about "rights for women," and all that, because the connotations of those activities often winds up being interpreted as this: Women first, which just repeats the offenses I've laid out on the part of Memucan and Xerxes, only in reverse. 

But here's the deal: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him. Male and female, He created them" (Genesis 1:27). God the Creator, made a man in His image, and He made a woman in His image, and get this: even though men and women play very different roles in God's order of creation, there. is. no. superior or inferior among them.

BOTH are created in the image of God.

You'll notice as we go through the book of Esther... God is not mentioned by name. It's almost as if the author so understood the fact that God was so intertwined in this story that it would be ridiculous to speak it, because it's so evident.

It's like you're telling someone: "I drove to town," and then -- to make yourself understood -- you have to talk about the vehicle that took you there, instead of assuming -- there's a vehicle that takes you to town. You don't have to say: "I drove the vehicle to town." It's already clear in the word "drove."

God's plan, purpose, and clearly evident work is threaded throughout this book, even though His name isn't mentioned.

So, with that, I'm looking forward to meeting Esther herself tomorrow.