Volume I Part 18 (2/2)
May we attain the ”blessedness and holiness” of such as have ”part in the _first_ resurrection!”
Only one other circ.u.mstance is mentioned in the history of the Shunammite.
When Israel was threatened with a famine of seven years, Elisha forewarned her of the danger, and advised her retirement into some place of security and plenty. She accordingly removed with her family into the land of the Philistines. At the expiration of this period she returned; but finding that her property had become the prey of rapacity, or was alienated by some royal edict, she applied to the king for its restoration. This was perfectly consistent with her former character; for although she felt no eagerness for worldly advancement, and, indeed, refused it, piety did not require a total negligence of her civil rights, or of measures calculated to preserve her and her beloved family from a state of indigency.
Providentially, at the precise moment of her application the king was conversing with Gehazi, who was informing him of Elisha's miracles, and in particular of the miracle he had performed upon the deceased son of the Shunammite. She was of course introduced under the most favourable circ.u.mstances; and having ascertained the ident.i.ty of the present applicant, ”the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field, since the day that she left the land even till now.”
Thus is afforded a striking exemplification of the remark of Solomon, ”The king's heart is in hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it withersoever he will.”
Esther.
Chapter XIV.
The Feasts of the King of Persia--his Queen Vashti sent for--her Refusal to obey the Summons--her Divorce--Plan to fill up the Vacancy--Esther chosen Queen--Mordecai detects a Conspiracy--declines paying Homage to Haman--Resentment of the latter, who obtains a Decree against the Jews--Mordecai's Grief, and repeated Applications to Esther--she goes in to the King--is accepted--invites the King and Haman to a Banquet--Mortification of the latter at Mordecai's continued Neglect--Orders a Gallows to be built for the disrespectful Jew--the Honour conferred by the King upon Mordecai for his past Zeal in his Service--Haman's Indignation--is fetched to a second Banquet--Esther tells her feelings, and accuses Haman--his Confusion and useless Intreaties--he is hung on his own Gallows--Mordecai's Advancement--Escape of the Jews by the Intercession of Esther--Feast of Purim.
One of the most delightful employments of the heavenly state will probably be, to investigate the past dispensations of Providence, and to make perpetual discoveries of its mysteries. In that world of light, events which are now covered with clouds and darkness impervious to the eye of sense, will become obvious to the view of ”just men made perfect” in all their proportions, connexions, and combinations. The shadows of the morning having disappeared, the brightness of eternal noon will irradiate our existence.
We are by no means to imagine, however, that it is inconsistent with the present arrangements of divine goodness to afford us information, even in this world, respecting his plans and purposes; we do ”know,” though it be but ”in part.” The book of providence is indeed the least intelligible to us of all that the wisdom of G.o.d has written: but we can read _some_ of its pages, and understand _some_ of its hieroglyphical characters. The histories of Scripture const.i.tute a volume of elementary instructions, of which the narrative of ESTHER has always been regarded as singularly interesting.
[Sidenote: Years before Christ, about 460.]
In order to introduce this story, it will be requisite to take a cursory view of some previous occurrences. The scene is laid in Persia, in the days of Ahasuerus, another name, as learned men have generally agreed, for Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s. After struggling with those perplexing compet.i.tions for empire which often obstruct the path to a crown, and agitate the first years of power in arbitrary governments, he at length secured the dominion of Persia with its hundred and twenty-seven provinces. To proclaim his undisputed possession, and to display his glory, he appointed a feast, which may perhaps be deemed unrivalled in the majesty of its circ.u.mstances and the length of its continuance. At the expiration of a hundred and fourscore days the king gave another entertainment of seven days, for ”all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small.” It was held in the court of the garden, for the purpose of accommodation, and with great magnificence. Vashti also, his royal consort, in conformity to the usages of the times, which, it must be admitted, were admirably calculated to preserve the purity of morals, prepared a separate entertainment for the women in another part of the palace. ”Vashti feasted the women in her own apartment: not openly in the court of the garden, but in the _royal house_. Thus, while the king showed the _honour of his majesty_, she and her ladies showed _the honoux of their modesty_, which is truly the majesty of the fair s.e.x.” ... HENRY.
Alas! how little did Ahasuerus comprehend wherein true riches and dignity consisted; and how little are these heathen ”lovers of pleasure” to be envied by us, who are invited as welcome guests to a n.o.bler table and a better banquet! ”Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars, she hath slain her oxen, she hath mingled her wine.” Into the highways and hedges, into every quarter of the world, and amongst every cla.s.s of mankind, the messengers of heaven are commissioned to go and call the poor as well as the rich, the peasant as well as the prince, to the ”feast of fat things,” which celestial mercy has provided in the Gospel, where admission is not exclusive, where indulgence cannot be construed into excess, where not a brutal appet.i.te, but a mental and spiritual taste, is amply supplied. The princes of Persia congratulated themselves upon the favour of Ahasuerus; but how much greater reason have Christians to rejoice in the friends.h.i.+p of Christ! Now they are admitted to partic.i.p.ate the blessings of his grace and the sacramental festival; hereafter they have substantial reasons to antic.i.p.ate a diviner intercourse and a more exalted familiarity, when they shall drink new wine with him in his Father's kingdom.
On the seventh day of the feast already mentioned, the king commanded the seven chamberlains of his household to wait upon Vashti, and bring her before him arrayed in the crown-royal. His heart is said to have been ”merry with wine,” or he would not have thought of indulging his own vanity, and insulting his queen's dignity, by such an exhibition. She ventured to refuse a compliance with this royal order, in which she was probably countenanced by the concurring opinion and feelings of the ladies who were present at the entertainment. As a woman she felt for the honour of her s.e.x, and as a queen for her individual reputation and dignity. It was unquestionably a foolish command, contrary to the Persian customs, and dishonourable to the character of Ahasuerus as a sovereign and a husband.
It is not by indulging pomp that the glory of a prince is best displayed, but by useful enactments, virtuous a.s.sociations, and an upright uniformity of conduct.
Unreasonable, however, as the demand of Ahasuerus was, Vashti ought not to have been so peremptory. In such an age, and under such a government, a moment's consideration must have excited in her an apprehension of danger.
Besides, it was not the time for remonstrance. She was no private character; it was, therefore, an injudicious resistance of his authority.
Obedience would have involved no guilt; but disobedience, even though the command were ridiculous, necessarily exposed her husband's authority to contempt. It must be admitted in Christian communities, that the Gospel requires submission on the part of a wife; nor is this requisition limited solely to those commands which the woman herself may deem just and proper, otherwise her own humour, caprice, or misconception, would perpetually infringe upon a positive law, and in fact, render it nugatory. On the other hand, if the husband would secure a cheerful obedience, and cherish, instead of spoil, an amiable temper, or regulate a peevish one, let his wishes be reasonable in themselves, and uttered without a look or a term expressive of an insolent consciousness of superiority.
Ahasuerus instantly resented the refusal of Vashti. His pa.s.sion became outrageous, sensible that his dignity was insulted and his authority questioned. He not only felt the uncomplying message of the queen as a sufficient mortification to his personal vanity, but as a public attack upon his influence and power as a king. It was not in a retired apartment, or on a private occasion, but, in a sense, before the eyes of a _hundred and twenty-seven provinces!_
Immediate recourse was had to his counsellors, who concurred in the opinion of Memucan, that it was a public question of great importance to the future welfare of the state, and affecting the domestic felicity, not of the king only, but of every family in the Persian empire. The advice he gave them, which Ahasuerus promptly followed, was to divorce Vashti, and interdict her forever from reappearing in the royal presence. ”If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered. That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus: and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she. And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small.” It is not surprising that such a gratifying, but _unchristian_ proposal, should be adopted by an arbitrary heathen monarch. Neither Memucan nor his royal master had drunk at the purifying fountain of evangelical truth.
G.o.d was now making ”the wrath of man to praise him.” Human pa.s.sions, prejudices, and errors were promoting divine designs. The feast, and the riot, and the vanity, and the rage of Ahasuerus, all concurred, though unconsciously on his part, to fulfil the mighty arrangements of Providence, and to introduce, a train of events which now march through the page of sacred history in rapid and wonderful succession.
After the divorce of Vashti, the ministers of Ahasuerus advised him to adopt speedy measures to fill up the vacancy in his affections and his throne. Their plan exhibits the barbarity of the age and the sensuality of the king. He was to have his choice of all the ”fair young virgins,”
collected from the provinces of the empire: and it devolved upon Hada.s.sah, or Esther, an orphan educated under the inspection of Mordecai, her cousin and guardian, one of the captive Jews at this period attached by some employment to the royal establishment. That G.o.d, who had bestowed upon this young Jewess unusual beauty, gave her favour in the eyes of the king, and secretly accomplished his own gracious purposes respecting his people by her advancement.
Little did any of the persons immediately concerned in this affair imagine the predestined results. Ahasuerus was gratifying his pa.s.sions; Esther and Mordecai conforming to an irresistible influence; Hegai, the keeper of the women, following the impulse of a secret admiration, and, perhaps, aiming to ingratiate himself in the favour of one whom he might suppose likely to become the future queen; while the Supreme Disposer was making use of all this variety of feeling and design as the means of securing the ends in his omniscient view.
Esther retained her humility of spirit after her elevation of circ.u.mstances; for she ”did the commandment of Mordecai like as when she was brought up with him.” She was one of the very few that resist the allurements of splendour--that cherish kindness for their poorer relatives--and remember with grat.i.tude the guardians of their youth.
<script>