3 Verses: Response to Ideation as a Leader (Part 2)

Scripture — Esther 1:10-12 (NRSV)

On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who attended him, to bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing the royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the officials her beauty, for she was fair to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command conveyed by the eunuchs. At this the king was enraged, and his anger burned within him.

Devotion

In my last devotion, we investigated where leaders get their ideas. Next, we ask what you do with your ideas when they do not work. I know dealing with a child who throws a fit in the store is difficult and perhaps embarrassing. They want the new X-P32 Space Modulator Video Game, and they have a complete breakdown on the store floor because the response to their idea was “no.” We grow up and hopefully become more understanding or portray a more civilized exterior than just throwing fits.

Some ideas seem right, but to others, they are not. A wine-filled King Ahasuerus was merry and surrounded by others, affirming a façade of leadership and planting the notion that to lead means that everyone must do and be what the leader decides. He put his glory on display, which was not enough, so he decided he must get the queen. Seven eunuchs were sent to give one message to a queen—to come to the other party so she could be put on display. And with one simple “nah,” she sent the seven eunuchs back to convey to the king that behind the façade of 127 provinces was a reminder that he was not sovereign over anything.

We are gracious enough not to sum up a person’s whole being by their immediate response. But some things can be determined by it. The king “was enraged, and his anger burned within him.” This king’s leadership did not consider the context of entering a new environment where everyone else was different. Perhaps his leadership did not think that the request implied that the only value of her presence was to admire her appearance. And his leadership didn’t consider that perhaps it would have been better if he went to his wife himself and asked her versus using subjects of a kingdom to order another subject to do something.

Interestingly, he did not get up and find out why the “nah.” The ideation of a leader can change a person’s countenance in three verses. King Ahasuerus went from merry with wine and privilege to burning with anger from a single “nah.” Most people do not throw visible fits in leadership when an idea does not work. But behind the façade, the question stands in everyone’s conscience. How does a leader deal with a “nah”? How does a leader deal with their perceived sovereignty notions? And even good leaders know they have some Ahasuerus in them.

King Ahasuerus ruled 127 provinces, and yet one in his household said, “Nah.” The result is that we get the account we found in Esther. Behind the veil, God, in his providence, rules better. Three creation chapters went from “good” in Genesis 1 to little fruit in Genesis 3 because humanity said “nah.” God’s leadership remains unchanged when all creation says “nah” to his request to come to him. The Gospel is the good news that he is the only leader with the right to throw a fit about anything. The only one who should be “enraged” and have “anger [burn] within him.” But instead of taking it out on humanity, he does not send edicts but comes to humanity and takes his wrath out on himself. And we get this rich blessing of a leader who, through weakness, reclaims all the provinces to himself.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: God’s Hidden Hand and Human Response (Esther).