Esther 1:1-9--The King's Banquets

Esther 1:1-9
English Standard Version

The King's Banquets
1 Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces, 2 in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel, 3 in the third year of his reign he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him, 4 while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days. 5 And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace. 6 There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars, and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones. 7 Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. 8 And drinking was according to this edict: “There is no compulsion.” For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired. 9 Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus.

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A chronology of the book of Esther might be helpful as we study it, so here's a link to the that from the ESV Study Bible resources:  Chronology in Esther | ESV.org.  Identifying the exact Persian king we're talking about here and whether these events are in-between the groups of exiles in Ezra or post-Ezra but pre-Nehemiah vary from source to source.  What matters is that Esther and her uncle Mordecai live in citadel of Susa where King Ahasuerus kept his royal throne.  He ruled over a huge kingdom from India to the East and Ethiopia to the South (what the Bible calls Ethiopia is what we would probably call Sudan).  There were more than 127 provinces, each of which were either large city-states or small countries that were either vassal states of the Persian empire or had been conquered by the Persian empire or had been conquered by the Babylonians or Assyrians and now the Persians had conquered both of them and taken over their empires.  We're easily in the second phase of Daniel's vision where the lion of Babylon has been defeated and the bear that was raised up on one side that represented the Medo-Persian Empire (since the Persians where stronger than the Medes, it was an unbalanced alliance.  Things are looking pretty good for the Persians at the moment, but there is trouble within the royal palace.

The king likes to party and get drunk.  He was throwing a party that was going to last 180 days (six months of partying and drinking).  This is excessive and probably a dereliction of duties.  I can't imagine partying for six months and being able to watch over the empire and be in your right mind to be able to take care of issues.  However, he was a hedonist who had given official orders to all those who worked in his palace to have no inhibitions and to do whatever they felt like.  We almost feel like this king is another Solomon, but without the wisdom of Solomon.  He has all these gaudy riches and a giant empire, and a beautiful wife, and yet none of it makes him happy.  He tried to surround himself with parities and drink to excess, but that doesn't make him happy.  The queen would not attend his feast--she held her own feast for herself and her attendants, and likely she invited the wives of the nobles that the king had invited.  I'd imagine her party was much more subdued, but they were probably also drinking, which is going to make from some terrible decision making on the parts of both of them for our next section we will talk about tomorrow when the king calls for the queen to come to his party.