The plot of Haman
After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
3 Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” 4 Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
The remaining events of the book of Esther occur five years after Esther became queen. Haman, the great enemy of God’s people, appears abruptly on the scene. We know virtually nothing about his background. According to Jewish tradition, he was a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were among Israel’s most bitter enemies during Israel’s early history (Deuteronomy 25:17-19; 1 Samuel 15:8). It seems more likely, however, that Agag here is the name of the region from which Haman came and that the similarity to the name of an ancient Amalekite king is just a coincidence.
Since it was customary for even the highest nobles to bow to the Persian king, it is not surprising that lesser officials were required to give similar honor to the king’s highest representative. Mordecai’s reasons for refusing to so honor Haman are not entirely clear. There are numerous passages in the Old Testament in which Israelites bowed down to kings or superiors as a sign of respect. For example, Abraham bowed to the Hittite rulers (Genesis 23:7), Jacob’s family bowed to Esau (Genesis 33:6), and David bowed to Saul (1 Samuel 24:8). From these examples it is clear that at least in earlier times, it was not considered idolatrous to bow to a human superior. But Mordecai apparently felt that it would be idolatrous to bow down to a heathen ruler, since he justified his action on the grounds that he was a Jew. Perhaps Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to any earthly ruler was a reaction against the idolatrous demands that Babylonian and Persian rulers had imposed on Daniel and his friends (Daniel 3,6).
Again, as is so often the case in the book of Esther, the actions of the participants are simply reported without any analysis or moral evaluation of their motives. Nothing in the text indicates whether Mordecai’s actions were justified or were a case of misguided zeal. We simply learn how the crisis for the Jewish people came about.
Likewise, we are given little information about the motivation of the officials who reported Mordecai. It appears that they tried to give Mordecai ample time to comply with the king’s orders but may finally have felt compelled to report him.