Imagine that you are the supreme political leader. More powerful than the President of the United States. On a whim or a bet, you can have people killed.
Yet, you are isolated in a palace surrounded by people who tell you how great you are to your face, but who also are constantly on the watch for opportunities to do you in and take your place. Whom do you trust?
Such was the lot of middle eastern kings 3,000 years ago–and probably up to the time of Saddam and Qaddafi.
Our small group was reading Esther. Suddenly a point was made that I had never considered before. King Artaxerxes, although all powerful, holding the power of life and death in his hands, was actually pretty insecure. And therefore easily manipulated if you were smart and conniving enough to work it out. Or if he had plenty of wine–there seems to be a lot of that flowing in the story.
We meet him (in this story, he is prominent in other stories, as well) during a banquet (which doesn’t last several hours, but several days–evidently they really needed something to do). He and his “friends” are getting pretty drunk. He decides to show off his beautiful wife, but she refuses to act like a common dancing girl. Oops, wrong choice. She’s banished to the back parts of the harem.
So, he gets another beautiful wife. She knows how to work men like a potter can a lump of clay. She has a political agenda. Her tribe has antagonized a powerful leader and is about to be exterminated. She has a banquet. Plenty of wine evidently. She sets up her enemy. A TV script writer couldn’t have composed a better scene. She wins. Gets her wishes.
It’s a great story. Not entirely sure where I was going with this. But as you assume leadership positions in church or other groups, watch out for who is manipulating whom. Or who lashes out from insecurity. Or maybe you men out there should be careful of beautiful women. Especially beautiful women and too much alcohol. That would be a formula for disaster, wouldn’t it?
Faith Venture 
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