The Errors Of Queen Vashti. Are You A Model Queen?

Esther 1:9-12, 16-18

Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.

On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him - Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carcas - to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.  

Then Memucan replied in the presence of the king and nobles, "Queen Vashti has done wrong, not only against the king but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of King Xerxes. For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, 'King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.' This very day the Persian and Median women of nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to all the kings's noble in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord.   

For about two days I had been praying and trusting God for what to share in my next blog post. I really wanted to move on from marriage issues to other aspect of our everyday life such as parenting, but the Lord just kept pressing on my heart to read the book of Esther in the Bible. I knew the story of how Esther became queen and just didn't see a desired message in that story until I picked up my Bible and began to read. I had just read the first chapter of the book of Esther when I realized why the Lord wanted me to read it all over again. 

My post today will touch on the role of the wives as queens with leadership assignments. The wife leader is more of what this Bible passage talks about. Much was not said of the wife of King Xerxes, other than three things. She was a very beautiful woman whose husband was proud to show off to the world; she was a woman leader as she was a queen, and she held a banquet for the noble women in the province just at the time her husband the king was holding a banquet for the noble men and princes of the province; and lastly she disobeyed or maybe its okay to say she disregarded her husband's command. 

But the highlight of what is contained in the first chapter of the book of Esther is what we read from Vs 16-18. The interpretation given to the action of Queen Vashti by the noble men. Because Queen Vashti is a woman leader, it is assumed that what she did will be replicated in all the women in the province and there will be no end to the disrespect and discord among the women to their husbands. Vashti might have been looking down on her husband within the confines of their home but when in public eye it was time for her to show restrain and conduct herself properly. Her sins where not just against her husband who is the king but against the entire provinces under the rule of the king because she was a woman leader, she was a queen, she was a role model that others looked up to and copied. She needed to set a standard and it has to be the right standard. 

Now, there is the need to point the flash light at the women leaders in our times and those who aspire to be leaders. The Pastor's wives and deaconesses in the house, the female pastors in the house. Those who are married to leaders of a group and leaders of organisations, those who mentor others and have people who look up to them as role-models, are you a model queen? What examples are you setting for those who look up to you with your conduct in marriage. Do you show total and complete respect for your husband such that those who see you can emulate such conduct and replicate it in their homes and then just by your actions you promote peace in other peoples lives and homes? 

The truth is that we might not understand the extent to which our actions can go. Vashti might never have thought that her lack of respect to her husband had a potential danger on the entire provinces under her husband's rule. But whether we know it or not, those action have ripple effects. Your children see the way you relate with their father with lack of regard for his authority as the head of the home and this leaves a lasting impression on them. They might grow up treating their spouses in the same manner because that is what they saw and know their mother to do. 

As a pastor's wife, your respect for your husband is also your respect for the entire congregation and the office he holds. The women in the church see the way the pastor's wife behaves and they go home and replicate the things they have learned not by words but through the actions of their role model and they get good results. 

In order to be a real queen there is the need to make that husband of yours a king both at home and in public eye. The king in him authenticates the queen in you and a disrespect to the king is a disrespect to the kingdom. You need to be a model queen at all times.