Esther 1:5 And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace;
Esther 1:9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus.
Vashti was holding court. She was in the palace, in the royal house that belonged to the King, but she was not in the King’s Presence. She was with the other women, where she was the most important person in the room.
Esther 1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, 11 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on. 12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.
Historically, this has been interpreted as she was commanded to come for other purposes. But it doesn’t say that. It says she was commanded to come with the Crown Royal.
Read It Again. Not what history has told us, not the interpretation or the commentary or the exegesis or the hermeneutics or any other interpretation device or cultural context.
Just Read the Words Again.
There is much we can learn from history and cultural studies, but sometimes we need to see what has been there staring us in the face, and the only way we can do that is to Read It Again.
Vashti is holding forth at a feast for the women. She is in the palace, but not in the presence of the king. She is in a house that belongs to the king, and she is the most important person in the room. She is the center of attention, and she is enjoying the fruits of the authority that she has as queen.
Her husband, Her Bridegroom, calls her into His Presence, sending his 7 servants to fetch her, asking her to come with the Crown Royal, the symbol of His headship and authority.
And she refuses. She refuses to leave a place in the palace where she is the most important person in the room and come to a place where she is second best. She refuses to submit to someone else’s crown on her head, even though her existence in the place that belongs to him is because of that crown on her head.
Historical commentary has justified, and even commended, Vashti for her refusal to submit.
Isn’t that just something the enemy would like us to believe?
As his BRIDE, the Lord wants to show the world how beautiful we, the Church, look with the crown of headship and submission on our heads. When we refuse to come when we are called, when we are too busy being a big shot elsewhere to Come Into His Presence, then we forget whose palace this is, and we forget who is on the throne, and we are in danger of losing our crown.
Rev 3:11 – Be careful, let no one take your crown.
Esther 1:16-19 16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus. 17 For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not. 18 Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king’s princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath.
This deed affected everyone. How can one defiant queen affect everyone? Because she is the King’s Bride. And her refusal to submit to the King affects everyone. And the King’s advisers Know the Times.
When we are submitted to His Authority, we are Under Authority
As the Church, and as Individuals, when we disdain the call of God into His Presence, when we are playing big shot and not submitting to His Headship, we break everything down around us. We have Authority from Jesus Christ our Bridegroom, and we wear that Authority on our head as a crown. When we are submitted to His Authority, we are Under Authority. Read Matthew 8:9 and Luke 7:8, and see what the Centurion knew about being Under Authority.
Esther 1:19 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
Vashti was not banished, she was banned from the Presence of the King. She wasn’t banned from the Palace, just the Presence. As a wife of the King, she could not be released to go elsewhere…SHE HAD BEEN INTIMATE WITH THE KING. Therefore she had to stay in the palace, but not the presence.
Think about that.
Not everyone in the King’s Palace is in the King’s Presence.
Read That Again.
Just because you are in the palace does not mean you are in the Presence of the King.
Vashti wanted the palace, but disdained the submission, obedience, and responsibility that comes with being in the Presence.
So she was no longer welcome in His Presence…But she was still in the Palace.
Because she was the King’s responsibility, and she had been intimate with the King, it must be ensured that she never be intimate with anyone else. Consider what would happen later with Esther and the other women taken into the palace…once a woman had been intimate with the king, she stayed in the palace in the harem, for she could not be intimate with anyone else.
She wasn’t banished. Her punishment was far worse. She had to watch quietly from the shadows of the palace while someone else took her place and her crown.
Turn now to Esther 5, and read it again. Esther, the new queen, had just learned that her husband, the King, had signed a decree that put her life and her people’s lives in jeopardy. She could have marched into his throne room and given him a piece of her mind…which would have resulted in her death. Instead, she respected the space, the sanctity, and the headship. She fasted for 3 days, and then dressed in her Royal Apparel, clothing suitable for greeting a King, garments of praise the king himself had given her, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, where the king was seated upon his throne, and He Extended His Scepter.
Esther was not summoned into the Presence of the King. She was an interloper, come to intercede for her people. And she knew how important it was. It was her death if the King refused her. She prayed. She fasted. She adorned herself in appropriate attire.
And the King accepted her, for she didn’t march into the throne room with a list of demands, but she came in humility and submission…and invited him to dinner.
She didn’t make a single request of him until she had been intimate with him over dinner. Through this act, she showed the King that their RELATIONSHIP was more important to her than any request that she had of him.
And just for good measure, she invited Haman too. She wanted to show the Enemy that her relationship with the King was strong, unbreakable, and far more intimate that his was with the King. He was only an adviser. She was his WIFE. And she was going to dine with her Husband in the presence of her enemy.
She showed the King that their RELATIONSHIP was more important to her than any request that she had of him.
Esther understood through Mordecai’s advice the importance of obedience, submission, responsibility, and faith in the Love the king had for her.
Esther 2:17 And the King LOVED Esther above all the other women…
I John 4:19 We love him because He first loved us.
Queen Vashti lost her crown.
This isn’t just about women.
King Saul lost his crown too (1 Samuel 16)
They forgot where their crown came from and what they needed to do to keep it. History tells a long sad tale of crowns given and crowns lost.
We also have a crown.
I Peter 5:4, Isaiah 28:5, Isaiah 62:3 – A Crown of Glory
James 1:12, Revelation 2:10 – A Crown of Life
I Corinthians 9:25 – an Incorruptible Crown
I Thessalonians 2:19 – A Crown of Rejoicing
2 Timothy 4:8 – A Crown of Righteousness
Submit to the crown you are given.
Don’t disdain your crown
Don’t lose your crown.
Your crown is not yours. It is HIS, to freely give. But once he places it on your head, it’s up to you to keep it there.
Submit to the crown you are given. Don’t use your authority to lord it over people or be a big shot. Don’t forget whose palace you live in. Use your crown to intercede for the people. To Pray. To Fast. To do the work of the Kingdom the Crown represents. And when the King calls you into His Presence, be ready to drop what you are doing, no matter how important it seems, to get into His Presence.
Revelation 3:7-13
7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
8 I know thy works (EPHESIANS 2:10): behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie (II PETER 2); behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I HAVE LOVED THEE. (ESTHER 2:17, I JOHN 4:19)
10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.(II PETER 3:9-10)
11 BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY: HOLD THAT FAST WHICH THOU HAST, THAT NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.
12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.