Esther 1 (Queen Vashti deposed)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+1
What is striking to me in the opening chapter of Esther is the way in which Vashti is treated. She is valued only for her beauty, not her will or identity. When she disobeys the king’s summon – which, I wonder if it had something to do with having her beauty displayed to a drunken all-male party — she was casually pushed aside to make room for a replacement. As we shall see, top priority for the replacement is beauty as well. She is not a person, but a commodity. When she asserted herself as a real person, she was pushed aside.
I know this reflects the values of the culture at the time. But I can’t help thinking how in many ways it reflects the values of our own culture as well. Despite the tremendous gains made in securing fair and just treatment for women as full persons, all too often the standard by which they are judged is physical beauty. The advertising industry and beauty products industry don’t help matters much. The pornography industry, earnestly at work twisting the minds of men, young and old, all over the world, has hurt as well. (Not saying these men are victims: They are willing accomplices of their own twisting.)
I am thankful for the truth of God’s word, that men and women are each fully made in the image of God, and for that reason, are to be accorded full dignity, honor, and respect. I am thankful that all persons are equally loved and redeemed by a gracious Savior without respect of gender(Galatians 3:28). I praise God that all people of faith, men and women, are called by Him to be His royal priesthood, and ambassadors of the new creation through whom He seeks to bless His world.
So my prayers today are shaped in that direction. I am praying in thankfulness for the women in my life – wife, daughters, grand-daughter, sisters, mothers, friends, colleagues – and pray for God to be powerfully at work in each of them, working His image in them, and blessing the world through them.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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