In the third year of his reign, he made a feast.
The occasion of the feast
It was the third year of the reign of Xerxes. Now we know from the Greek historian Herodotus that in that very year Xerxes “summoned a council of the principal Persians, as well to hear their opinions as to declare his own,” on the matter of the invasion of Greece. At first, on his accession to the throne, we are told that “he showed little disposition to make war against Greece, and turned his thoughts to the reduction of Egypt”; but after he had succeeded in Egypt, he was all the more inclined to listen to the advice of his cousin Mardonius, and seek to punish the Athenians for the defeat of his father at Marathon. Accordingly, at the council assembled in Shushan, he declared his purpose “to lay a bridge over the Hellespont, and to transport an army into Greece, that he might punish the Athenians for the injuries they had done to the Persians and to his father.” Nay, not content with that, he added, “I intend, with your concurrence, to march through all the parts of Europe, and to reduce the whole earth into one empire; being well assured that no city or nation of the world will dare to resist my arms after the reduction of those I have mentioned.” He was opposed by his uncle, Artabanus, but ultimately, under the influence of Mardonius and some illusory oracles which fell in with his own ambition, the die was cast, and the decision was made to prepare for and carry out the invasion of Greece with such an army as the world had never before seen. Now it was in connection with this determination, and in order, as I believe, to give the greatest possible impulse to the carrying out of the enterprise so resolved on, that this long-continued fete was held. He wanted to produce the conviction that, with such resources as he had at his command, it was impossible that he should fail. This accounts for the magnificent scale on which everything was done. It looks supremely foolish, but it is a folly that keeps its ground to this day even in western lands, where it is still the fashion for men to banquet themselves into enthusiasm for some great railway enterprise or some party campaign. (W. H. Taylor.)
Feasting not favourable to valour
There is good reason to suppose that this feast was held on the occasion of his projected invasion of Greece. To fill the minds of his captains with confidence, and to fire his soldiers with military ardour, he makes all this vain display and provides this munificence of self-indulgence. If this be so, with how little favourable result when the brunt of the struggle came! Yet what other result than that which actually came could be reasonably expected? Real courage and endurance are bred of much harder conditions than these. How are real men made? and how are they made ready for any manly thing of more than common difficulty? By feasting on rich viands? By drinking wine and looking on it when it is red in the cup? By nights of revelry? By gazing on the outside shows of life? By sinking into voluptuous ease? Never since the world began have manhood and courage sprung of such things as these, although in a few rare instances they may have passed through them unbroken and not much defiled. The Greeks were comparatively few and comparatively poor; and their country had no vast harvest bearing plains. They were fighting for rocks and mountains and seas. But those mountains and seas were the symbols and the guardians of their liberty. (A.Raleigh, D. D.)
Pride spoils hospitality
He has ordained a feast for them. But the feast is really to his own power and pride. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The vanity of worldly grandeur
1. There is unlimited power. The man presented to our view is “reigning from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces.”
2. His power was supreme. The life of every subject in his kingdom depended on his word. He ruled without resistance and without control. The wealth, the productions, the inhabitants of the greatest empire of the earth, were thus his undisputed right. Here was one great object of human ambition completely gained. What struggles are made on earth for the attainment of office and personal dominion! The lust of power has waged the deadliest wars of earth, excited the cruellest murders of men, and deluged nations with blood. Among ourselves we see this lust of power on a smaller scale, in all the political efforts and contested elections of our own day, and in our own land.
3. There is a peaceful and secure possession of this unlimited power. The view is given to us “in those days when Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom.” Ahasuerus possessed his father’s dominions in perfect peace. He had nothing to do but to govern peacefully and to enjoy abundantly. What blessings he might have dispersed abroad! What monuments of usefulness to men he might have established! The peaceful possession of power is a great privilege, as well as a great temptation. It enables man to be a benefactor to his race. He may sit as king among the mourners and make a thousand weary hearts to sing for joy. But it is a great temptation to the sensual cupidity of man. The history of the world is filled with the stories of human power, oppressive and destructive.
4. There is the possession of vast wealth and outward glory. Ahasuerus gathered around him “all his princes, his servants, the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him, when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty.” No condition could appear to an earthly mind more desirable or tempting. We know something of the struggle for wealth. It is the great object for contest in the peaceful walks of business and commercial enterprise. To be rich, in modern society, is to be influential and exalted. What a vast privilege is the possession of such wealth! What happiness it may communicate when it is faithfully dispensed and employed as an instrument for human benefit! How great is the honour and the joy of being thus a public benefactor to mankind! But the responsibility is also great. Alas, how opposite to all this is the habitual use of wealth! It leads the selfish mind to a forgetfulness and neglect of the wants of others. It persuades sinful men that they have the right to live for their own indulgence and pleasure, and are not to be held responsible to others for the way in which their own acquisitions and means of influence are employed.
5. There is also splendid display. Wealth is often hoarded with a covetous grasp for mere accumulation. Man wants even the openness of heart for its display. But in the picture by which the Holy Spirit will illustrate for us the emptiness of the world there shall be no such defect. The wealth which has been amassed shall have the opportunity of the utmost manifestation. How we follow after pageants and exhibitions of the lowest kind! The gilded tinsel of such scenes, whether military or dramatic, funereal or joyous, is always exciting and attractive to the giddy, silly minds of the multitude.
6. There is not only all this power, wealth, and display combined; there is also here boundless actual indulgence and hospitality. What could have been more grand or satisfying in earthly things? Doubtless the whole multitude applauded the magnificence and hospitality of the youthful monarch. If the world can give man happiness in sensual indulgence, here was a scene of its perfect joy. No element of delight is wanting in such a picture. All these provisions arc unsatisfying still.
(1) They are all unsuitable. The soul has other views and needs, which none of these outward provisions of the earth can ever reach. There is still the burden of inward sin. There is still the want of reconciliation to God.
(2) They are temporary. They are the things of a day at the best. The whole of a worldly life is but a day’s dream of pleasure. To-morrow it will be over. To take you off from this vain pursuit of earth is the purpose of such a scene as the one we have considered. Look at it, not to desire it, but to discern its vanity. Behold how empty, how unsatisfying, how unsuitable, how transitory it is! Cease to look there for your joys. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
Ahasuerus
I. The king of Persia at this time was Ahasuerus. We read in Scripture of four grand earthly empires, of which this was one--and the second in the order of succession. The Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman all passed away as a dream--they crumbled to dust, and their glory is long ago departed! Notwithstanding the strength and celebrity of these ancient kingdoms, they came to nought and “their dominion was taken away.” But there is a kingdom which passeth not away. Its King will remain in honour and glory for ever, and its subjects shall be blessed with everlasting happiness.
1. Great as was the extent of these kingdoms, His is inconceivably more extensive.
2. It is also more durable. “His dominion is an everlasting dominion.” Let us be anxious to be numbered among the subjects of this kingdom, for they are all “kings and priests” for ever. With Christ on His throne we shall stand before His throne and that of His Father in the celestial city; we shall see His face, and His name shall be in our foreheads; we shall need no candle nor light of the sun, for the Lord God will give us light, and we shall reign for ever and ever!
II. This mighty potentate, Ahasuerus, wished to make a display of his greatness. Seldom, alas! is that expression, “Where much is given, much will be required,” practically in their remembrance! Oh! let us beware of glorying in anything of our own--of “sacrificing unto our own net, and burning incense to our own drag.” Man at his best state is altogether vanity, and possesses nothing of any value but what God has given him. Where providence has bestowed much of earthly wealth and authority, it requires much grace not to be unduly elevated by them, and to keep ever in mind that they are given for usefulness. The weighty responsibilities which they bring with them are seldom considered. Let us beware of pride. “The proud in heart is abomination to the Lord.” Crush the first risings of vanity and self-importance. Dread every high thought of yourselves, every towering imagination, every exalted ides of your own moral excellency, remembering that God knoweth the proud afar off, but giveth grace to the humble.
III. At this feast, though a heathen one, there was one thing which condemned the practice of many who call themselves Christians. “and the drinking was according to law; none did compel, for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure.” Intemperance is an abomination to God and a degradation to man. Hereby the creature, which is inferior only to the angels, makes himself lower than the beasts of the field! The bounties of providence are continued evidences of God’s tender care toward us, His undeserving creatures, and are to be thankfully and humbly received and used piously and in moderation. They are given for the support of our nature, to enable us to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits: let us not, then, render ourselves incapable of doing so by drowning our rational powers in intoxicating liquors, and throwing our bodies out of health and comfort by a worse than beastly abuse of God’s mercies.
IV. But though the feast of Ahasuerus was free from the disgrace of compelling the guests to proceed to drunkenness, yet did very evil consequences result from it; indeed, it is but seldom that such meetings are free from such consequences. We read of Belshaznar’s feast, and that it was not without its grievous impieties. We read likewise of Herod’s feast, and of the deed of darkness which gave it its notoriety. Our Lord, too (Luke 14:1-35.), teaches us that, though the entertaining of our friends in this way is not entirely prohibited, the money thereby expended would be much better laid out, against the day of reckoning, in consoling the miserable and relieving the distresses of the indigent and needy.
V. Let us consider the evil which was occasioned by the feast.
1. It behoveth us to lead exemplary lives, and the higher we are placed in community the more ought this to be the object of our ambition.
2. It behoveth us to regard the duties which appertain to the relations of life in which we are placed. (J. Hughes.)
The short-lived treasure
The apostle Paul speaks of the world as if it were a pageant which has been exhibited and is over; a procession which is on the march and has passed by; a scene picture which drops for a moment and then gives way to another which succeeds it. Here there is no continuing city for man. If he would have a kingdom which cannot be removed, he must seek it beyond the limits of the present world, among the things which are unseen and eternal.
1. Our first reflection must be, the world passeth away. It has gone. All its indulgences and all its glories have come to their appointed end. Nothing of them remains. Ahasuerus feasted and Vashti suffered. All is silent and dead. No single voice of the glory or of the sorrow remains. Where is the splendour of Shushan? Not one stone remains upon another of all the palaces of its glory or the portals of its majestic display. How wonderfully contrasted are the works of God and the works of man! The one has perished. The others remain, But is not this equally true of earth in all the relations and displays of its glory? Look where you will, you see the same history continually repeated. The bloom of youth, the gaiety of health, the boast of riches, the clarion sound of triumph and power, all, all pass away. They live a moment; they shine for a day; and they are gone. Man tries in vain to prolong their enjoyment and their being; or even to recover their shape, and perpetuate their memory. He is doomed to disappointment in them all. The retrospect is sadness and self condemnation. There at least we may say, “My heart and my hope shall not be fixed. Something better than this I must have and will have. The joys that fade so rapidly and so certainly are not for me. This world, and all the things which are in this world, shall never be the treasure of my choice.”
2. As our second reflection upon this accomplished scene, the manner of its passing has been most remarkable. In the lesson we have considered, God has been pleased to show us this experiment on the grandest scale. The world began with every possible advantage for its working and its display, and in every succeeding step it went downward until it came to nothing. Its first scene was its brightest one. The morning rose when the tide was at his full and the surface calm as the molten silver. Every hour marked its rapid ebb, till the evening closed upon a full accumulation of defilement and disgust which the preceding show had vainly covered for a season. It was a sad experiment indeed. In the manner of its passage and trial it was a universal type. In all our possessions of the world, in the whole scheme of mere worldly enjoyment, the first is always the best. The clock of this world still strikes backward. It begins at twelve, runs rapidly round to one, and then stops. Thus its circle is complete, larger or smaller as it may happen to be. How many have I seen, starting in all the pride of inherited wealth, closing their career in neglect and poverty! How many have I beheld the centre of personal admiration in the world of fashion, of earthly pomp and folly, living to be forgotten and abhorred! Thus this present world repays its votaries. And when the result comes in age, or sickness, or poverty, or neglect, and the whole machine has run down and stopped, bitter and disgusting indeed is the remembrance of the world which has gone. But what a contrast there is between this passing worldly portion and the reality of that treasure which stands in opposition to it! The heavenly portion ever grows more and more compensating and satisfactory. The heart never grows old or dull in the faithful pursuit of it.
3. In this passage of the world you may see what are the elements of its short-lived power to please--what are the facts which make up the necessity of this rapid rush of all that sinful man has sought and desired on the earth. Ahasuerus had everything which a mere sensual mind could ask. What formed the necessity of his wretchedness in the midst of it all? We may answer at once, because nothing of all that he had was adapted in itself to give him satisfaction. This is the first difficulty. You have a spiritual nature, a soul within which can never be satisfied with the mere shams of an earthly life. The soul looks out in the midst of all the joys of earth unmet and unhappy, unable to be contented thus, because there is no real proportion between the two. There is here an original and inseparable defect in the things of the world, which no multiplication of them can supply. These joys and treasures are all short-lived and perishing in them selves. They have the sentence of death within themselves; and you cannot prolong the period of their power. They corrupt and decay in your hands while you grasp them. The appetites which desire and seek these joys pass away with them also. There soon comes the time when there is no longer a susceptibility to their power. Their invitations find no longer a response in the heart to which they are offered. The voices of singing men and singing women can be heard no more. And this with no reference to a change of principle or heart. No, it may be we would willingly prolong their power if we could; we would gladly renew our former gratifications in them if it were possible. But all their power to please, and all our facility to be pleased by them, have passed away and cannot be recalled. The whole scene of which these earthly joys make up a part also goes, and cannot be arrested or recalled. Friends are gone; families are broken; homes are lost; companions have departed. We stand here to contemplate this inherent fading character in the world which has passed. What a contrast are all its provisions to the joys and advantages of real religion!
4. We may look at the result of this passage of the fashion of the world. What does it leave behind? All, this is the worst of all. We have seen the evidence in the experiment before us. Nothing in memory. There is no remembrance of benefit or pleasure. The past gives no satisfaction. There is no room for delight in retrospection. A wasted life, enfeebled powers, conscious degradation, are all the residuum of a life of sensual enjoyment in the world. Added to this, there is extreme regret, often the bitterness of unappeased remorse. Nothing in actual possession. What of all the array of human pleasures outlasts itself? Youth, gaiety and wealth successively pass by. Man goes out of one vain indulgence into another, but carries nothing away with him. The soul is empty. He presses on in this vain succession to the end. The fact of the result remains the same. He has nothing. Pleasure has gone; time has gone; indulgence has gone; means have gone; appetites have gone; life has gone. And of the whole pageant as it has passed nothing remains. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
Self-glorification
I. The monarch was able to mare a proud display and to gratify the oriental taste for magnificence.
II. But this proud display was a contemptible exhibition. It showed--
1. The materialism of his nature.
2. The narrowness of his view.
3. The childishness of his spirit.
III. This proud display has a sorrowful aspect. The display only lasted for days after all. Let our wealth--material, intellectual, or moral--speak for itself. Let us see the warning word “days” inscribed on all our possessions. (Homiletic Commentary.)
A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of his wealth
The whole struggle of modern life is exactly after the first chapter of Esther and the first chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Every Ahasuerus thinks he could do better than his namesake, and every new Solomon says that he would never play the fool as the old one did. What little toy houses are ours as compared with this palace; and yet we will persist. Why do we not believe history? Why do we not accept the verdict that it is not in time or sense, in gold or precious stones, to make a man great or happy? When we have built up our little toy houses, Ahasuerus looks down upon them, and smiles at the little honeycombs. His “beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” Yet it was an elaborate tomb, a magnificent sarcophagus! When will men come to learn that a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth; that he is most jewelled who has no jewellery; that he only is great who is great in soul? (J. Parker, D. D.)
The honours of the world should not elate
Alcibiades was one day boasting of his wealth and great estate, when Socrates placed a map before him, and asked him to find Attica. It was insignificant on the map; but he found it. “Now,” said the philosopher, “point out your own estate.” “It is too small to be distinguished in so little a space,” was the answer. “See, then,” said Socrates, “how much you are affected about an imperceptible point of land.” Your bags of gold should be ballast in your vessel to keep her always steady, instead of being topsails to your masts to make your vessel giddy. Give me that distinguished person who is rather pressed down under the weight of all his honours than puffed up with the blast thereof. (Abp. Secker.)
Waste of wealth
I am no advocate for meanness of private habitation. I would fain introduce into it all magnificence, care, and beauty, when they are possible; but I would not have that useless expense in unnoticed fineries or formalities--cornicing of ceilings, and graining of doors, and fringing of curtains, and thousands of such things--which have become foolishly and apathetically habitual. .. I speak from experience: I know what it is to live in a cottage with a deal floor and roof, and a hearth of mica slate; I know it to be in many respects healthier and happier than living between a Turkey carpet and a gilded ceiling, beside a steel grate and polished fender. I do not say that such things have not their place and propriety; but I say this emphatically, that a tenth part of the expense which is sacrificed in domestic vanities, if not absolutely and meaninglessly lost in domestic comforts and encumbrances, would, if collectively afforded and wisely employed, build a marble church for every town in England. (J. Ruskin.)
The royal feast
Let us draw a comparison between the great Persian feast and the feast of the gospel.
I. The one was provided by the king; the other by the King of kings.
II. The one feast is limited to nobles and princes; the other is made for all nations.
III. In the one we see the fading glories of man; in the other we see the unfading glories of God.
IV. The one feast continued for six months; the other continues through all time.
V. In the one case some were obliged to feast in the court of the garden, as there was not room for them in the palace; the church of God is for all comers.
VI. In the one case there was a separation of husbands and wives; but in the other both are welcome together. VII. The one feast ended in consternation and sorrow; but the other shall continue in joy and happiness. Learn, in conclusion--
1. The insufficiency and instability of all earthly things.
2. The rich grace and goodness of our God. (The Study and the Pulpit.)
When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty.
Despotism occasionally generous
Despotism, while it has its caprices of cruelty, has also its occasional fits of generosity and kindness. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Extravagance
Every one is to live, and to entertain his friends, according to his rank and circumstances; but those who are of a liberal spirit are in danger of indulging in extravagance, to gratify their vanity and passion for show. (T. McCrie, D. D.)
Unsatisfying splendour
What was there in all that to satisfy the soul’s hunger and thirst, its craving and longing? One morsel of the bread of life would be better, one drop of the wine of the kingdom more blessed and exhilarating, than it all. So that when we look abroad upon the scene of Persian magnificence and luxury, the glitter and splendour of it seems to dissolve and fade away when there is brought into prominence our Lord’s solemn inquiry, “What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (T. McEwan.)
Temperance best
Epicurus himself, who placed happiness in pleasure, enjoined temperance as a necessary means of this pleasure. An author of our own nation justly observes that when a great multitude of alluring dishes are set upon a table a wise man may see palsies, apoplexies, and other grievous or mortal distempers lurking amongst them. Poor men, who are unable to provide for themselves anything beyond the bare necessaries of life, are apt to envy those who have it in their power to fare sumptuously every day. Be persuaded, if you desire to be content with your condition, that happiness does not lie in the abundance of the things which a man possesseth, or in the rich entertainments which he is able to furnish out for himself or his friends. Could not Jesus have furnished out as elegant an entertainment for those whom He fed by miracles as Ahasuerus to his noble guests? And yet He fed them only with barley loaves and fishes. Could not God have brought wine as easily as water out of the rock for the refreshment of His people? (G. Lawson.)
The expense of feasting
Poor man! Little did he know wherein true riches, and glory, and royalty consisted. It is said of the father of Louis XV., king of France, that when his preceptor one day was speaking of this feast of Ahasuerus, and wondered how the Prince of Persia could find patience for such a long feast, he replied that his wonder was how he could defray the expense of it. He was afraid that the provinces would be compelled to observe a fast for it.
The majesty of the Divine Ruler
From the tinselled splendour of the Persian court it may be well for us to turn that we may contemplate the majesty of Him who is the true King of kings and Lord of lords; of Him whom Isaiah represents as “sitting upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them as a tent to dwell in.” To acquire adequate conceptions of His majestic greatness is an impossibility. That which surrounded Ahasuerus was no doubt such as to inspire awe. And were it possible that a human potentate should hold sway over the several planets constituting the solar system--ruling subjects innumerable by his uncontrolled will--what majesty in the eyes of millions would centre around his person and government! He, however, into whose majestic presence we shall one day enter, and at whose footstool we ought now to bow in reverence, is the Ruler, not alone of earth, nor simply of the solar system, but He whose government is coextensive with the universe, whose presence fills immensity, whose sceptre when lifted in mercy bestows life, when in anger consigns to wretchedness. The inconceivable majesty of God ought to impress us with a becoming sense of our own insignificance. A proper conception of the majesty of God is fitted to induce the inquiry, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” It should prompt the desire for some humble part in enhancing God’s glory, the inclination to do something toward accomplishing the work He is carrying forward in the earth and is willing to effect in our own hearts. He whose ambition it is to conquer the kingdom of evil within himself and who accepts Christ as the Captain of his salvation is destined to no such disappointment as crushed the spirit of Xerxes, forcing him to feed upon the ashes of crushed hopes and to surrender to self-indulgence that he might drown the memory of former anguish. (J. Van Dyke, D. D.)
Where were white, green, and blue hangings.--
The beauty of nature
Every day we behold a more glorious scene in the canopy of the heavens spread over our heads. The roses and lilies which adorn our gardens are more beautiful than any of the productions of art which royal wealth can call forth. The earth is full of God’s riches. The heavens show forth His glory. Those who delight to have their eyes and their minds at once entertained can be at no loss, though they are far from royal palaces, when the earth displays her beauty and the stars their glory. (G. Lawson.)
And gave them drink in vessels of gold.--
An absurd drinking custom
What a miserable thing it is that we hear sometimes that a man cannot do his business without drinking! “Come and have a drink!” is the beginning of business, and “Come and have a drink!” is the completion of it. What a glutton and a beast a man should be if before he could begin or finish any business he must say, “Come and have a meal!” And is he any better who must always drink something? Surely, when competition is so keen, it is needful that he who buys or sells should keep his wits as clear as God made them. To muddle one’s own brain with drink is to play the fool; to muddle another’s is to play the knave. (Mark Guy Pearse.)