A Word in Season: Polite Defiance (Daniel 3:16–17)

Daniel's friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were brought before the raging king

Nebuchadnezzar, the overlord of Babylon. He had set up a golden image with a command that anybody who did not bow down and worship at the sound of the great music that was played would be, here's the threat, thrown immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

And when these three young men were brought before Nebuchadnezzar, he challenged them on specifically theological grounds.

Who is the god who will deliver you from my hands? Now notice the way that these three men respond in verses 16 to 18 of Daniel chapter 3.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that is the case, our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand,

O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

Now notice how they respond, both in terms of the spirit and the words.

They speak throughout with the greatest of respect to Nebuchadnezzar, recognising his proper authority.

O Nebuchadnezzar, O king, O king. There's a proper humility and a recognition of the role that Nebuchadnezzar has, humanly speaking, in relationship to them.

But you'll see too that they're also conscious of their own standing in this matter. We have no need to answer you in this matter.

Perhaps it's already clear how they're going to proceed. Perhaps they're saying that there's no obligation on them to respond to Nebuchadnezzar's challenge.

If he follows through with his threat, they are very confident that the god whom they serve is able to deliver them from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver them from your hand,

O king. Now that may be a direct challenge to Nebuchadnezzar's theological attack, but it is couched in the most respectful and polite of terms.

There's absolute confidence that the god whom they serve has it in his power indeed to deliver them from the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

He is able to preserve them through the fiery furnace, either to stop them going into it or to keep them in it, and he is able to deliver them from the hands of the king, and he can do that in any number of ways, including by taking them to be with himself.

But they are not going to presume upon God's miraculous deliverance.

If not, if God does not choose to deliver us in the way that we know that he can,

O king, you need to understand that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

What they're saying is, regardless of the immediate or long -term outcomes of this situation, our mind is made up.

We serve the living and the true god, the lord of heaven and earth. He is able to deliver us in whatever ways he pleases, however he chooses, and whenever he chooses to do so, from the hands of the wicked.

But we are committed to serve him and him only, and so we will not bow down to other gods, we will not follow other names, we will not worship this golden image that you have set up.

Now this response infuriates Nebuchadnezzar. Why? Well first of all, because it rejects his abuse of his authority.

As king, he has no power to make them worship any other god.

They will not bow down at his command to worship the golden image. But I think probably one of the things that annoyed

Nebuchadnezzar is that they spoke so politely. There is deep respect, even as there is absolute principle.

And it's a good example to God's people as to how we ought to deal with those who are in authority over us.

We need to be absolutely committed to God overall. We need to serve him without exception, without diversion.

We will not serve other gods, and we will not bow down to golden images, whatever the commands, whatever the cost may be.

But in insisting upon our readiness to serve God even to death, we can do so politely and respectfully, even when we are speaking to those whom