Queen Vashti demoted for saying 'no' to king

By Gerald Ivey

This week, our lady -- and I believe she was -- can be found in the book of Esther, chapter 1. (Of the 66 books of the Bible, only two are named after women: Esther and Ruth.) The lady's name was Vashti (VASH-tigh). She was a queen, a real, live queen. Her husband reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over 127 provinces. This was a big empire that required a lot of help, so the king had people set over these provinces. To show his thanks to a good job, he gave a little party for them that lasted 180 days (according to our calendar, that's about six months -- wow -- who worked?) At the end of the 180-day party, he gave another that lasted seven days. Whether there were two parties or just one with the seven days added onto it is really unclear.

Anyway, we are told that on the seventh day, when he was feeling no pain (everybody was probably tipsy -- drunk), he told the seven chamberlains to go get Queen Vashti -- she was having a party for the women at the same time, probably Tupperware -- and have her put the royal crown on. He wanted to show off her beauty -- he had already shown off his kingdom, now his queen.

Some scholars think that he wanted her to parade around in an immodest fashion, but whatever his intentions were, she said no. Whoa! Nobody told the king no, especially his wife. She is the first woman recorded that said no to a king. Others probably did but did not live to tell about it. This knocked the king's royal socks off because she said no when all his guests were still there and probably embarrassed him.

Why did she say no? Scholars are divided on the reason why. Some think she was a modest woman. Others think because of a Persian custom that stated a woman could not come in the presence of a group of men. Others think she was expecting. I believe it was the last one.

The king called all his wise men around him and said, "What should I do?" They told him he couldn't let her get away with it or all the women in the kingdom would try it, and suggested putting her away and getting a new queen. This sounded good to the king.

I believe the reason the wise men pushed this so quickly is because once a Persian king made a decree, it could not be broken. (I guess he could have made a decree to overturn the first one.) Another reason they pushed it quickly, I believe, is they were afraid he would miss her and take her back, and that would not look good for the king or the other men. So the search was on for a new queen. And that, boys and girls, is another story which we will tell the next time.

Gerald Ivey, "The Preacher with the Plunger," is a lay preacher and serves as the maintenance technician at The Daily Times. His column will run the second and fourth Sundays of each month in the Women's Section. Mail comments about his column to Gerald Ivey, The Daily Times, P.O. Box 9740, Maryville, TN 37802-9740 or e-mail Women's Times Editor Linda Albert at linda.albert@thedailytimes.com.