Wednesday, April 1
Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95. The three young men – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may God save us! But even if God will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the point is to obey God no matter what. No
matter if they died. No matter if anyone ever knew they were right. When Nebuchadnezzar gave them one last chance to change their minds, they did not presume to tell him what God would do because they did not know. They simply told him what they would not do, in the politest possible terms. It was that simple, and as far as I am concerned the high point of the story was right then, when all three of them said, “We will not.” The moment of sparkling clarity was the moment when three stubborn human beings declared what – for the love of God – they would not do. Period. - Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread of Angels, Cowley Publications, p. 20-21 |