Vashti - I said, NO.

Disclosure: This is Part 1 of a 2-part series. Two brave women are involved in confronting a misguided and egotistical king. This is the tale of the first woman.

“Will these parties ever END?!” Vashti thought to herself as she looked out the window toward the gardens below. As big as the palace was, she could still hear the drunken laughter and music of the princes and military leaders. “They are all so full of themselves! It’s amazing that so many pompous men can all be under one roof at the same time.” She rolled her eyes and closed the curtains as she walked to her room.

She was expected to be grateful. She was expected to be kind. She was expected to obey. Submit. Go along. Give her body up whenever she was called. She was over it. OVER IT! She was just a child the night her father, Belshazzar, died from a bizarre accident. The palace was in an uproar after the disaster. Young Vashti, not realizing Belshazzar was dead, scurried amongst the traumatized dinner guests in search of her father’s comfort. She mistakenly sat in the lap of King Darius, who then ruled Persia. He took pity on the beautiful young girl and betrothed her to his son Xerxes—the current emperor of Persia and Media. She had been told that her ancestors were also royals, the wicked King Nebuchadnezzar being among them. As far as she could tell, all these men were power hungry. From her ancestors right down to her own husband. Grateful indeed!

Vashti knew how the people saw her. Cold, aloof, and detached. Some may go so far as to even say bitter and resentful. And maybe she was. Being raised among egotistical men, her beauty had been taken advantage of. Even as a child and young lady she was never more than an object in the corner with no voice. With no real mother to speak of, she lacked the nurturing a child so needs, and grew up never really understanding what proper affection looked or felt like. She often barked orders at her Jewish servants, then would immediately feel guilt at the way her tone would come out. It wasn’t that she disliked them, she was just never really sure who to trust. Or how to make a friend. They probably hated her.

She knew exactly what she’d do! She’d throw her OWN bash for the ladies! She organized a feast in the royal house, away from the rowdy drunkenness of the courts in the garden. She would express to the wives of the princes, military leaders, nobles, and even the women servants how she appreciated their company and presence in the palace. If she spends enough money on them, surely, they will befriend her. Money is the equivalent of love, isn’t it? The women would be allowed whatever food and drink they wished! Maybe she would even allow them to try on her old dresses for a fashion show. They could keep them for all she cared. She could always have more made.

The plans were set and the guests began to arrive. She surprised herself at how nervous she was. She was used to dealing with men and some of the lady handmaids, but all these women, in the same room? What if they didn’t like her…what if they hated her…what if they never came back again…? She pushed the thoughts away, checking herself one last time in the mirror, and stood at the banquet hall doors to greet her new best friends.

The party was going well! She even found herself laughing out loud a few times. She couldn’t remember the last time that happened! It was fun to swap stories about the men, and she was delighted and surprised to find out that some of their “wifely duties” weren’t much different from hers.

Suddenly, the banquet hall doors burst open and in walked King Xerxes seven eunuchs. The room went quiet as the women turned to stare. What do THEY want, she thought. Something about those men made her skin crawl. She spoke loudly across the room. “Why do you interrupt our party? We haven’t bothered you in six months throughout your celebrations, why crash our good time now?!” She could feel the eyes of the entire room upon her. There had to be 100 women in attendance, not including the servants. She held her head high. She represented them all, now.

One eunuch, Mehuman, stepped forward. “Your prescence is requested at the royal banquet of King Xerxes. He wishes to show you to his constituents.” He paused for a moment before continuing on and cleared his throat with a fake cough. “He wishes to show you in your crown. ONLY your crown.”

She heard gasps and whispers all around her. The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife.

“No.” Vashti stated.

“Excuse me, but Queen Vashti, he says to….”

“I SAID NOOOOOO!” she screamed! The force of her voice startled even herself. She stalked over to Mehuman, pointed her finger in his face and said with a hiss, “You tell him I. SAID. NO. Tell him I said he does not OWN me. I’m NOT just one of his many toys. He will NOT tell me what to do. He will NOT tell me what to say. And furthermore, from this day forward he will NEVER put me on display! You tell him exactly what I said, do you hear me you sorry excuse for a man? Say YES QUEEN VASHTI, I hear you! SAY IT!” She burned with rage. Listening to these men party for months had changed something inside her. She was tired of the wicked patriarchy she had come from and was forced to live in. She was done being silent.

Startled and confused Mehuman uttered out quickly, “yes Queen Vashti, I will relay the message.”

As the eunuchs shut the banquet doors and headed back to the gardens the room burst into applause! Her newfound friends came to hug her and praise her! They commended her bravery! Some were nervous, though. What would this mean for them when they returned home? Would they be reprimanded for being at Vashti’s party?

The story goes that Xerxes had Vashti banished from ever being in his presence again. He took her crown, sought another queen in her place, and decreed in all the provinces that all women throughout all the lands would give to their husbands whatever they wanted, no matter how great or small. No doubt, her actions caused an upheaval between husbands and wives that day in Persia and the surrounding areas. Vashti may have very well been one of the first recorded activist for women’s rights. She challenged the status quo and how she was being treated which encouraged other women to do the same.

It is important to note that Vashti may not necessarily have been a friend to the Jews. However, I do not believe she was their enemy either. The text never states that she was a believer in Yahweh. She was a woman caught in a patriarch that was unkind to her. What we can learn from her recorded history is that God allows all different backgrounds to play in his protection of the Jewish people. She had no way of knowing that the Queen who was to follow her would also bring great stress and turmoil to King Xerxes but do it in a way much different than she had. Not only did her defiance of an evil king prompt the coming of a new age, but it paved the way for women in her day and time to feel a new sense of redemption and empowerment. God never meant for women to be a footstool or an object of lust. Somewhere in Vashti’s subconscious she knew this. Yahweh knew that her royal blood would give her the zest to stand up for herself and go against the grain. She had seen the men before her bully nations and oppress countries, so she gave them back a taste of their own medicine. They were NOT going to oppress her. This decision to fight for her feminism, though it caused the end of her reign, was the beginning of a mind shift in women around the world, and the freedom of the Jewish people from King Xerxes.

(Continue to Esther-Queen, to read about a woman’s secret mission to free her people.)