Vashti

We all know the story of Esther, but if not for the actions of Vashti, there would be no Queen Esther. Vashti was the original wife of King Ahasuerus.

In the third year of his reign, King Ahasuerus held a magnificent feast for all the nobles and officials that lasted 180 days. As a grand finale, he invited all the local residents for a weeklong feast.

At the other end of the palace the queen held her own banquet for the women. 

At the end of the feast, the drunk king sent his personal eunuchs to get Vashti so that he might show off her beauty to his drunken admirers. 

But when they arrived at the women’s banquet hall and gave their orders to the queen. Instead of obediently following them, she said no. She refused to go with them.

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well with the king. He was furious.

He gathered together his wise men and asked what could be done to the queen who had broken the law by refusing to obey his command. 

Memucan, one of the princes, had a solution. He proposed that the king send out a royal decree, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it could not be altered, that Vashti could no longer come before King Ahasuerus, and he would give her royal position to another woman. 

Vashti may have been a pagan queen, but she had her dignity. She chose to maintain her self-respect even if it meant losing everything else. 

Read about Vashti in Scripture: Esther 1

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