He wasn't born to be king of Persia. Nope. No royal blood coursing through his veins, no divine right backing him up. How did he become king then? Money. Pure, unadulterated wealth. According to the Legends of the Jews, he bought his way to the top, purchasing dominion over the entire world with his vast fortune. Think of it – a king whose crown was bought and paid for. It sets the stage for everything that follows in the story of Esther, doesn't it?
And speaking of setting the stage… Why throw such a lavish, extravagant feast? The kind that makes history books? It wasn't just about showing off his newly acquired power. There was a bit more to it, a miscalculation rooted in prophecy.
The third year of his reign coincided with what Ahasuerus believed to be the seventieth year since the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's rule. Now, the prophet Jeremiah had foretold that after seventy years, Israel would return to the Holy Land. (Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). But the Temple was still in ruins. Ahasuerus, in his arrogance, jumped to the conclusion that Jeremiah was wrong. That the Jewish kingdom would never be restored.
But here's the thing about prophecy, and about God's plans in general: they often work in ways we don't expect. The king made a big mistake. It wasn't from the start of Nebuchadnezzar's reign that Jeremiah’s countdown began, but from the destruction of Jerusalem itself. As Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, those seventy years of desolation ended exactly when Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, permitted the rebuilding of the Temple.
So, Ahasuerus, fueled by wealth and a misunderstanding of divine timing, throws a party to celebrate what he thinks is the failure of prophecy. A party that unwittingly sets the scene for a queen to rise, a people to be saved, and a story that still resonates with us today. What a thought, isn't it? How often do we, like Ahasuerus, think we understand the full picture, only to discover that the divine plan is unfolding in ways we couldn't possibly imagine?