August 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Esther 1:10-21

¹⁰On 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,
¹¹To 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.
¹²But 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.
¹³Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times, (for so was the king's manner toward all that knew law and judgment:
¹⁴And the next unto him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, and which sat the first in the kingdom;)
¹⁵What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law, because she hath not performed the commandment of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
¹⁶And 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.
¹⁷For 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.
¹⁸Likewise 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.
¹⁹If 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.
²⁰And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small.
²¹And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan:

Devotional:

God permitted His people to be carried away into captivity under an oriental monarch. Now He gives us a lesson from the life of the heathen queen of this monarch. What a surprising God!

Vashti took her life in her hands when she refused to allow herself to be used to gratify the lust of a roomful of drunken men. In her strong principle and her courage of conviction she is an example to the Christian woman who sometimes needs to be strengthened in this matter of the limits of submission.

God has made marriage and the home to be the basic unit of society. He has ordained that its unity be preserved by alloting different functions or positions to each partner. The man has been endowed with special characteristics that are designed to suit him for leadership and protection. The woman has been endowed with special characteristics which suit her for following, helping, supporting. Though not so public a figure she is equally important as a partner in this unity.

With the fall of man came all sorts of distortions of this pattern. The man was not always the gentle, loving leader. Now he was often the tyrant, or sometimes the weak, ineffectual, easily-influenced non-leader. The woman was now likely to be a sullen or rebellious helper or else one who wanted to usurp leadership.

Redeemed man can and must have a redeemed marriage. In Christ marriage can be as God planned it in the beginning. This means that the woman must be submissive.

If the husband, however, is not a believer or is out of fellowship with his Lord there may come a time when the wife finds submission to him a denial of her own relationship to God. God must come first. If she is sure that submission on some point is displeasing to Him, then she must follow the example of Vashti of old and refuse to obey her husband.

If Vashti dared to defy her husband, surely a Christian woman should be courageous to render her first loyalty to her Saviour when a husband is demanding that she compromise her faith!