The Unsearchable Riches of His Grace

Esther 1:
10. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded… seven eunuchs who served in the presence of the king
11. To bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people to behold. She was fair to look on.
12. But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by his chamberlains; therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger turned in him

Beautiful Queen Vashti is the wife of king Ahasuerus, the ravish of his heart, the excellency of his glory and the delight of his eyes. He loves her for who she’s and for her beauty. He sees her as the ultimate of life achievements. He wants to show her to the world and say, This is life; this is perfection.

Seven is the number of perfection. In this story, there’s the seventh day when the king’s heart is merry and craving for his queen; seven eunuchs that serve the king are sent by the king to fetch the queen. This should have been the crowning of glory; this should have displayed the superior aesthetic choice of the king in Vashti.

For no particular reason except to conclude that God, the true King who brings to the dethrone and Who also dethrones is about to perform one of those acts peculiar to himself alone; acts which have confounded all humanity since creation. Could it be Him who made Vashti to misbehave at a crucial time in history? Vashti refuses the king’s call to crown his glory and majesty and might and power!

I’ve been a teacher for many decades. I’ve been privileged to teach brilliant and not so brilliant students. I can only conclude human life as a product of grace. The brilliant is just who he is, brilliant. He doesn’t know how and why. He’s a product of grace. The not so brilliant is who he’s. He too is a product of lack of grace. A person, by our aesthetic standard, is beautiful and easily attracted while it may be otherwise in someone else. None of the two group created himself/ herself; it’s a situation one comes into. If anything, one is expected to praise God for his bestowed grace. But it’s easy to fall into hubris, to think we are what we are because of our smartness. We think we got born again because we were good at understanding spiritual things and we see and call others satan’s children. Yet, we are wrong. We became born again because God chose us. This is an act peculiar to Himself alone and it’s a mystery we call grace.
We are great ministers and teachers of the Word of God not because we’re smarter than the rest but because of His grace. We are apostles and evangelists and prophets simply because God did the calling and the choosing; we contributed nothing to the decision. We were not the one that tilted the balance towards ourselves. Oh, that we may not precipitate a chaos we will not be able to handle! Oh, that we always remember the goodness and severity of God (Romans 11:22)! Those who don’t know the true way of the Lord today will enter into the knowledge tomorrow. Ishmael means God will hear. It’s a prophetic name. Ishmael may also come in soon.

Vashti refuses to show herself to the satisfaction of the king; she falls her role model as the woman to whom all eyes behold in the kingdom; she fails her role of enlightenment for the women and becomes a stumbling stone. Vashti the queen fails to appreciate the value of her relationship and position with the king. She is devoid of the spirit of submission to her husband dribbling with consuming love for her (Ephesians 5:22,24). She fails to appreciate the riches of the grace of God.

 


God, I pray that the love You created in me – for the scripture says that it is You Who makes me will and to want to do of Your good pleasure – will for ever bring me into place of submission to Your lordship. May I not be too familiar with You as to loose sight of Your love that brought grace