The consequence of not submitting...

Esther 1:19 - 22: so, the consequence for Vashti's refusal to go to her husband was banishment. Why not death? How severe was the regime at the time?

The devotional today says: "When Queen Vashti did not come into the presence of the king when he asked, she was showing disrespect to her husband. Whether or not he should have asked her is not the point, the point is she made him look like a fool. We can do the same things to our husbands when we do not respect them. Respecting your husband is to humbly submit to him. Now I realize that this is not a very popular idea in our society, but popular or not, we are called to follow God’s word."

Ephesians 5:33 says: "So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband."

Humbly submit. Well, yes. Difficult, sometimes. But I guess the best attitude to have is that of Jesus as the Message says in Philippians 2:  If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.