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Context No. 1577 of 4322 · Esther (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Esther (Greek) 1:9-13: in context

9Also Vashti the queen made a banquet for the women in the palace where King Ahasuerus lived. 10Now on the seventh day, the king, being merry, told Haman, Bazan, Tharrha, Baraze, Zatholtha, Abataza, and Tharaba, the seven chamberlains, servants of King Ahasuerus, 11to bring in the queen to him, to enthrone her, and crown her with the diadem, and to show her to the princes, and her beauty to the nations, for she was beautiful. 12But queen Vashti refused to come with the chamberlains; so the king was grieved and angered. 13And he said to his friends, “This is what Vashti said. Therefore pronounce your legal judgment on this case.”

At the height of a lavish, days-long feast, the king of Persia, merry with wine, commands his officials to bring Queen Vashti before his guests to display her beauty. Vashti refuses to come. The king, humiliated and enraged, turns at once to his advisers to decide what should be done, and in his anger and his cups a momentous decision begins to unfold, one that will lead to the queen's banishment. The whole chain of events is set in motion by a king making weighty decisions while drunk and furious.

What stands out, whatever we make of Vashti's refusal, is the state the king was in as he made a decision of great consequence. He was merry with wine when he gave the command, and enraged when it was refused, and it was in that condition, drunk and then furious, that a momentous and irreversible matter was set in motion. There is a plain warning in that about making weighty decisions in the grip of drink or anger. Both cloud the judgment; both push us toward rash, extreme, and irreversible choices we would not make with a clear and calm mind. The king, sober and unangered, might never have summoned Vashti to be paraded before his guests, and might never have banished her; but merry with wine and then enraged, he did both, and could not undo them. Important decisions made under the influence of strong drink or strong emotion are notoriously poor ones, made by a self not fully in command, and often deeply regretted when the drink and the anger have passed. There is wisdom in the old counsel not to decide anything of consequence while drunk or while furious, but to wait until the mind is clear and the passion cooled. The king's folly was to act, on a serious matter, while merry with wine and hot with anger; and the wise learn from it to hold weighty decisions until they can make them soberly and calmly, rather than in the grip of drink or rage.

Do I make weighty decisions in the grip of drink or anger, when my judgment is clouded and I am pushed toward rash and irreversible choices, or have I learned to hold important matters until the drink and the passion have passed and I can decide with a clear and calm mind?

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