“The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands” (Prov 14:1).
I hardly think “the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces” (Est 1:1) liked having his buttons pushed. You remember his other wife, Vashti, disagreed once, and she was gone. Esther had defied convention by appearing in his presence unasked—the opposite of Vashti, who was asked and didn’t show. Then, not even responding to his offer of 49% of the kingdom—“up to half”—with him maintaining controlling interest, of course, she asked instead that he attend a banquet with Haman, the mass-murderer-in-waiting. Speaking of which, he could hardly contain himself as he left the first banquet. It doesn’t get any better than this—the only invited guest with the king and queen! But as soon as he left he saw Mordecai, unbowed and unimpressed. It takes a very small pin to deflate a very large balloon, and “he was filled with indignation” (5:9). But he “restrained himself.” He didn’t want to spoil the news he had to share with “his friends and his wife Zeresh” (v 10). Zeresh is the Persian word for “gold,” but she turned out to be a bad investment. The portrait Haman paints of himself (self-portraits are usually colored!) is nauseous to read (vv 11-12). It’s enough to quote these words from it: “no one but me” (v 12). That says it all. But then he brings up Mordecai, the spoiler. His wife and friends suggest he build a gallows 75’ high, then visit the office in the morning to ask for Mordecai’s execution. He just couldn’t wait for the big date! So while Esther was attempting to draw her husband back from the brink—from poking God in the apple of His eye—Zeresh was spurring on her husband towards the precipice of hell. Good wives are rarer than rubies; bad ones are fool’s gold.