A series on the Book of Esther from my preparations for the Ladies Spring Retreat as the keynote speaker.
Beauty is often portrayed on television and movies as outward. A woman’s intellect is far less appealing. In the Book of Esther, the King is celebrating, and a debate broke out among the drunken men: What kingdom had the most beautiful women? Not who had the smartest women, but the most beautiful. This is how we meet Vashti.
I dug into online resources to learn more about this queen who is mentioned once and remembered forevermore as the queen who refused the King’s command to be objectified as a woman in front of a bunch of drunk men.
No one knows if she was killed or banished. She was either a queen with the right to rule over Xerxes and lost that right to him or lost his respect. No one knows if she was a good queen or a cruel one. Vashti stood her ground and refused the King’s command to stand in front of his leering audience. Thus, enraging the men and the King for she held her own feast.
In contrast, Esther, who was also beautiful, quietly bucked authority. She was likable and smart. She gauged the environment and made her decisions more slowly. What made her different than Vashti was her dependence on the Lord. She didn’t make rash decisions and her upbringing by her Uncle Mordecai molded her into a strong, faithful young woman who was unchanged by her environment in spite of her forced isolation. To be seen among 399 other women in the harem is noteworthy.
In social media, it is tempting to make a lot of noise to catch people’s attention, and in doing so, we may be led into temptation to take short cuts, step on people, be opportunistic in how you get stories, or be blinded by a desire to grow the numbers on your platform. Let our beauty be what is inside of us and let that shine the brightest.
Ecclesiastes 3:7b says, “A time to be silent and a time to speak.”
The times when Esther and Vashti chose to speak are marked by how they chose to speak (tone, timing) and if God was behind them. I don’t know what Vashti’s motivations were, but I could see her getting peeved and outright refusing, tiring of the ritual – an ill-timed act of disobedience. Esther didn’t make rash decisions. Her story unfolds slowly and in God’s timing all throughout the book.
To be an influence rather than to be influenced by others online or in person, I think we should take a lesson in Esther.
- Be known for the new creation you are in Christ.
- Control what you consume digitally. Protect your heart.
- Surround yourself with people who keep your feet on the ground.
- Learn how to post wisely and be more concerned about the quality of your content rather than the noise you’ll make with it.
Esther is a reminder in our digital world, dominated by analytics, data, and algorithms, that we can either be a Vashti online shouting our displeasure or an Esther, building relationship bridges for the Gospel.
(The Ladies Spring Retreat is Saturday, April 26. I’ll be posting more soon.)