Many decisions that ought to be taken are not taken due to one of the following reasons:
1. we try to rationalize the situation assuming that our finite and limited human minds has infinite comprehension and abilities or
2. we think of the consequences of the decision and are paralyzed for fear of life or fear of being ridiculed.

In today’s text, taken from Daniel 3, we will look at the three Hebrew men Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah known more familiarly as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who chose not to bow to any idol and worship NO MATTER WHAT.

As a backdrop to these characters, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had erected a statue (idol) of himself and decreed that all should fall down and worship it and those who failed to obey would be cast into a fiery furnace that very hour. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were appointed administrators serving the king, chose to stand their ground and not succumb to this edict, knowing that in doing so, they would violate God’s commandments. When questioned by the king, they responded that their resolve in deed was, that they would not bow to his idol or worship him, irrespective of whether they are delivered or not. This infuriated the king who commands that the fire be heated seven times more and they are bound and cast in. Soon after the king witnesses that the three are loose, walking, not hurt and with them he see another whose appearance resembled that of the Son of God. The three are asked to come out of the fire by the king and they do. Seeing that they are free (who were bound) and who had quenched the thirst of the fiery furnace coming out unscathed and without a single singe, the king promulgates that there should be no longer any defiance against the God whom Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego worship, the one true God.

These men chose not to bow and worship any idol or image, NO MATTER WHAT. If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego  had rationalized or thought of the consequences, they may have succumbed to the edict of the king. Of course the rational thought would have been that we are appointed to serve him, why not worship his image as well. The consequences of not following the king’s order meant immediate (within an hour) certain death by fire. However, their act of faithfulness to God not only did it deliver them from the fiery furnace, but also proved to the heathen king, that the God whom they served and solely worshiped had the power to meet his faithful ones, in the midst of the fiery situation they are in, and can break the bonds that bind them, and deliver them. These three chose not to bow to anyone or anything else, other than Jehovah God, NO MATTER WHAT and this meant that they were unwilling to violate God’s first and second commandments – You shall have no other gods before me and You shall not make any idols, even if such a decision meant the price to pay is your life. They knew that succumbing to the first death by fire was infinitesimally insignificant when compared to  the second death in the fiery lake of hell and so chose not to bow and worship the king’s image, NO MATTER WHAT.

Points to ponder:

  1. What are the idols/images that you and I succumb to (bow down) and worship (give preeminence) before God?
  2. Can we take the step to not bow and worship anyone or anything else, other than God, without rationalizing or thinking of the consequences, NO MATTER WHAT?