The name Ahasuerus is the Anglicized version of the Latin version of the Hebrew אחשורוש (Akhashverosh), which comes from the Babylonian version of the old Persian name Xšayāršā. The Greek version of this name comes into English as Xerxes, a name we might remember from high school history classes. The narrative begins with King Ahasuerus throwing a week-long party to show off all his wealth and splendor to his nobles (Esther 1:5-8). Then, merry with wine, the king decided that he also needed to show off the beauty of his wife, Queen Vashti; he ordered her to come present herself at this party. The text tells us that the king wanted to display her great beauty to his officers, and that the king specifically ordered that she must wear her royal diadem; the narrator probably combined these two details to enable us to see that the drunken king intended to show off all her beauty, with her wearing her crown and nothing more (1:10-11).

When she refused this invitation to let the courtiers ogle her, “the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him” (1:12). The nobles proposed (for flattery? for paranoia?) that her denial of the king’s command would mean that throughout the kingdom “all women will look with contempt upon their husbands” (1:17), and therefore the king should rule that Vashti would never again be permitted in the king’s presence, and a new queen should be found.

So Vashti was deposed as queen, and many beautiful young virgins were added to the king’s harem, so that he could pick the one he liked the most to become the new queen (1:19, 2:1-4). As it turns out, Esther became the girl the king liked the best, and thus the new queen (2:16-17).

Intriguingly, although the book of Esther never mentions God by name, it gives us the chance to see God’s providential hand at work: Esther became queen just in time to be instrumental in thwarting the plot to assassinate the king (2:19-23) – and so that she could later be instrumental in thwarting the plot to destroy the Jews.

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We don’t always see it at the time, O Lord: yet even in the midst of human depravity you can arrange the circumstances to work in redemptive ways. Teach us to trust in you, and to know that you will bring us to the right place at the right time to fulfill your will.