Refuse to Break Your Commitment

Thursday, March 30

Refuse to Break Your Commitment

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. Daniel 3:17

Time has passed. Daniel has impressed King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel and three friends are now promoted to significant leadership positions and with that comes a challenge. A huge golden statue now stands in the center that Nebuchadnezzar has set up. All of the officials of all levels of government are assembled. The king’s herald tells them that they are all required to fall down in front of the statue and worship it. Almost everyone complies. Everyone, except Daniel and his three friends refuse.

Of course the king is furious. What ruler can bear such public disobedience, such disloyalty after all that he has done? He threatens to throw them into a fiery furnace. They still refuse. “16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”- Daniel 3:16-18

First, consider Nebuchadnezzar’s point of view. He has rescued these three young men from a devastated country and put them in positions of honor and responsibility.  All he is asking is that they show what he considers to be proper gratitude and respect. Is that too much of him to ask? How can a nation survive if the people don’t obey the law? Or, putting this question another way, whose laws should a nation’s people obey? Who gets to decide which laws are more important than others?

Then, consider our own situation. We have no Nebuchadnezzar in our lives. Nobody is demanding that we bow down to any really big golden gods. But, we do know right from wrong. We have the Holy Spirit living within and He is able to speak to us in our individual settings encouraging us to do what is right even if it feels wrong.

The story in Daniel is one of miraculous deliverance, but not all Bible stories — or stories in our own experience — have such happy endings. Yet we should, like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys stand up for what we know to be right even if it means being in the wrong. Trust God always believing that He is able.

Can we emulate these three faithful Jew who acted on the basis of what they knew was right although they had no certainty that their deliverance would come?