Mordecai Won’t Bow | Esther 3:3-4 | Week 3 Day 2 Study of Esther

“Mordecai didn’t bow because Jews aren’t allowed to bow before anyone but God!” 

This is one of the most popular and oft-repeated ideas about why Mordecai wouldn’t bow, but it’s not even remotely true. The Rabbis of Judaism soundly reject this notion, as nothing in scripture says that we are to bow before no one but God. In fact, we can see many people in the Bible bowing low before humans, and the implication in the book of Esther is that Mordecai didn’t even having a problem bowing before Ahaseurus. 

So, why wouldn’t Mordecai bow? It’s easy to assume that he wouldn’t bow before Haman because he was a Jew because that is what Haman's underlings thought. They say as much in verse four. The Bible tells us they say that, but it doesn’t say they were correct. In fact, it leads us to believe that wasn’t the reason Mordecai wouldn’t bow at all, but it is never explicit. It leaves us to discern for ourselves why Mordecai wouldn’t bow.

The officials asked Mordecai every day why he wouldn’t bow, but he would never give them an answer. We don’t know this for sure, but given the clues we already have, it seems most logical that Mordecai wouldn’t bow because of Haman’s ancestry and maybe even Mordecai knew a little about plans Haman may have already had for his people, the Jews.

One way to read the last part of verse four was that because they knew Mordecai was a Jew, they wanted to see if Haman would continue to allow it, possibly because Haman had already expressed his hatred of the Jews.

But we don’t know for sure why Mordecai wouldn’t bow, because he refused to tell anyone.

Why do you think Mordecai wouldn’t bow?  
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Esther is simultaneously a victory and a tragedy. In some ways, If you look at it through a modern lens, it should be called the Victory of Mordecai and the Tragedy of Esther. Esther loses her parents and then is taken into the harem of a despotic king to be used as he wishes. Mordecai ends up, like Daniel, a very high official and ruler in his expatriated land. 

This will be a great study of Esther as we look at the emotions, the world and the meanings of one of the most cherished, and often misunderstood books of the Bible.

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