In Esther, chapter two, verse seventeen, the Persian king appointed Esther as the queen. The illustration shows how God can turn the hearts of sinful people to serve His purposes, as in Proverbs twenty-one, verse one. Esther was now in a position to help her people when the need arose about five years later. God used the free decisions of those involved to protect His people.
The king loved Esther above all the women. The choice fell on Esther, who found favor in the eyes of Ahasuerus. He elevated her to the dignity of chief wife or queen. The other competitors had apartments assigned to them in the royal harem and retained the rank of secondary wives, of whom Oriental princes had a large number.
He set the royal crown upon her head and consisted only of a purple ribbon, streaked with white, bound around the forehead. The nuptials were celebrated by magnificent entertainment, and, in honor of the auspicious occasion, “he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.” The dotation of Persian queens consisted of consigning to them the revenue of certain cities in various parts of the kingdom for defraying their personal and domestic expenditures.
To celebrate Esther’s elevation to the crown, the king made a great feast, called Esther’s feast, for all his princes and servants and granted release to the provinces. However, it seems strange that a period of four years should intervene between the repudiation of Vashti in the third year of Ahashverosh and the elevation of Esther in the seventh, an interval whose length cannot be adequately accounted for by the statements of the present book. Only a few days could have elapsed between the disgrace of Vashti and the time when the king remembered her.