Est. 1-2
I know the book of Esther is not Queen Vashti’s story, but I wish I knew more about her all the same. We aren’t told why she refused to come to the king when he called her. In looking at the circumstances, though, I can’t say that I blame her. King Ahasuerus had been proudly flaunting his greatness, showing off everything he owned for a full 180 days. Six months is a long time to devote to showing off! At the end of all of that, he threw a great, seven-day feast for all in the citadel of Susa. He held nothing back. “And drinking was according to this edict: ‘There is no compulsion.’ For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired” (Est. 1:8).
Since Queen Vashti gave a feast for all the women in the palace, I think it’s a safe bet that the king’s feast was for all the men. So there was a large group of men having a lavish ‘do as you please’ party as the punctuation mark on the king’s great display of pride. By day seven the king and all of the men at the party were no doubt quite drunk. It is into this context that Ahasuerus called Vashti up with a mind to show off her beauty. Nothing good could come of that! I get the impression at the start of chapter 2 that the king later regretted the whole situation and how things had turned out. It was this regret that opened the door to put Esther where she needed to be to later save God’s people.
I like to think that maybe Vashti met Esther at some point and perhaps came to know the one true God.
Matt. 1
There are so many significant names in the genealogy of Jesus. Zerubbabel is one of those names. Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, was the one who returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon to rebuild the Temple. How fitting that this man should be in Christ’s lineage!
Also, Matthew splits Jesus’ genealogy into three sections of 14 generations. Realizing that there is significance to numbers in Hebrew, I looked into the number 14 a little bit. There are some interesting thoughts on it. There are several different ways to look at the number, all of which seem to have some significant connection with the Messiah. I certainly didn’t do a deep study on it, though it might be worth doing. One of the interpretations of meaning to the number was something to the effect of the completion of a unity made up of parts. Possible applications in this case would be that Jesus is the completion of His Church, and the completion or fulfillment of God’s covenant. We certainly see that second part in how Matthew lays out the genealogy. From Abraham, to king David, to the Babylonian exile, to Jesus – the full cycle of God’s promise.
Luke 3
Before Jesus started His ministry, John the Baptist was already teaching people how to live a repentant life. His understanding was clearly God-given, as he was born for the very specific mission of preparing people’s hearts to receive Christ, the truth. He gave some pretty specific examples to various groups of people as to how they should live. The gist of all of it is to love others. They were to consider the needs of others and not put their efforts toward selfish gain, which always comes at the expense of others. I found it interesting that part of the group asking him, “What shall we do?” were soldiers. I suppose these could have been Jewish guards for either the temple or Herod’s palace, but I wonder if any of them were Roman soldiers.
It is also hard not to miss the fact that the genealogy of Jesus Christ is listed quite differently in Luke than what we just read in Matthew. Genealogies were VERY important to the Jews, so I’m sure both are accurate. But they are definitely coming from different perspectives. I noted two very plausible possibilities. One is that Luke followed the legal lineage, while Matthew followed the biological line. This would mean that in some cases the biological father would be the kinsman redeemer for the legal father, which would explain why Joseph is listed with two different fathers. The other plausible explanation is that Heli was Mary’s father, and so Luke follows her genealogy back to King David through him. In either case, we know that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, and the son of God.