In Esther, chapter three, verse four, those around Mordecai wanted to know why he did not bow down. He gave them only one answer: he was a Jew. God sent them into captivity to purge them from idolatry. The discovery from Ezra and Nehemiah that the chosen people of God went back to Jerusalem had learned their lesson and wanted to worship free from idolatry shows that the Jews who did not return had also learned their lesson. By this, it meant something to be a Jew, and Jews refused to kneel to any human or idol. The example should mean something to those who are Christians or believers. Like Mordecai, we must also take a firm and open stand for Christ and the righteous standards of His Word amid the pressures of world society.
Whether Mordecai would persist in his refusal and what the event of it would be doing not deny this reverence to Haman out of pride or any personal grudge against him, much less from a rebellious mind and contempt of the king’s authority and command, but merely out of conscience, being obliged, as a Jew, to give such honor to God only. Large mansions in the East are entered by a spacious vestibule, or gateway, along the sides of which visitors sit and receive approval from the master. None, except the nearest relatives or special friends, are admitted further. The officers of the ancient king of Persia waited upon being called and did obeisance to the all-powerful minister of the day.
Haman, being an Amalekite, was another element in the refusal, and on learning that he was a Jew whose nonconformity was the grounds of religious scruples, the magnitude of the insult appeared so much the more as the example of Mordecai would be imitated by all his compatriots.