Esther 1:17 – The news of what the queen has done will spread to all women, and they will despise their husbands. They will say, ‘King Xerxes ordered Queen Vashti to be brought to him, but she would not come.’
Hmmmm. I think the men knew that the request was wrong. The king was drunk and the “excuse” in my opinion was just a excuse. The whole nation of women will rebel? Or would they just refuse to do something that was degrading?
Esther 2:1 – Later, when King Xerxes got over his raging anger, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decided against her.
Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that Xerxes regretted what he had done ad would have probably taken it back if he hadn’t made it an irrevocable decree (Esther 1:19). Truly decision should not be made drunk or angry. It also shows that Vashti was quite a woman who had a level of self-respect.
Esther 2:14 – She would go in the evening and come back in the morning to the other quarters for women. There she would be in the care of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz, the guardian of the concubines. She never went to the king again unless the king desired her and requested her by name.
Women were truly treated horribly during these times. So basically, the king would sleep with these women and then discard them. And they could not do anything but sit there and well…sit there. I couldn’t mek.
Esther 3:7 – In Xerxes’ twelfth year as king, Pur (which means the lot) was thrown in front of Haman for every day of every month, from Nisan, the first month, until Adar, the twelfth month.
So truly we can overlook that these records spans years. Esther would have been queen for five years already. And Haman cast lots everyday for a year to figure out when to carry out his dastardly deed. You ever notice how persistent evil is?
Esther 3:13 – Messengers were sent with official documents to all the king’s provinces. The people were ordered to wipe out, kill, and destroy all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. Their possessions were also to be seized.
Haman spent more than two years planning this! A year to choose the day. Then almost eleven months after the notice went out before the Jews would be killed. So essentially they would be living in fear for a year. Sigh. Yo. Xerces was easily swayed in all sorts of directions. Did he not think for himself. Double sigh.
Esther 5:13 – Yet, all this is worth nothing to me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.
Sidebar: Mordecai didn’t have a job? And Haman boasting about all that he has, but still jealous of one man. Envy is a hell of a thing.
I said it jokingly, but I don’t think that Mordecai was a rich man before, but he was definitely a wise man who trusted Yahweh. Seven years he sat at the king’s gate. It may have been in different capacities, but there is no indications especially at the beginning of him having great power. But decisions were made at the gates, bargains were struck at the gate and Mordecai definitely heard a lot at the gate. 007 material.