Standing Tall for Truth


“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” —Daniel 3:16-18, NIV.

It’s tough standing up for what you believe is right. Sometimes it gets downright dangerous! These three Hebrew men put their lives on the line to literally stand for truth—everyone else bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statute but them. They knew before that potentially fatal moment what would happen but didn’t shrink from the challenge. That’s courage. That’s faith. That’s scary.

Their answer to the king is classic. They fully believed that God could rescue them from the fiery furnace. But since they did not know whether God would be most glorified through granting them life or through taking them through death, they made their statement of faith clear so that everyone would understand. They would believe no matter what God’s decision for them turned out to be.

How many people thought they were fools? What harm would there be to bending their knees? Could they not still believe the truth in their hearts without making a big public issue about it?

No, not without compromising their faith and dishonouring God.

It’s no fun being “the last man standing,” or the last three men standing, when you can already feel the heat coming your way. But standing for truth in a world that prefers to hear what’s comfortable is the way of Jesus. He spoke the truth in love—and truth must be accompanied by love—but He never failed to stand for Truth. To do otherwise would have been to deny Himself because He IS Truth in the flesh. As His followers, we too must stand for Truth if we are to be a reflection of Jesus in a world that needs Him so desperately.

Kudos to the three brave men of Daniel’s day who took the risk, and kudos to those today who take the risk to stand for truth no matter what the cost.

Comments

  1. Joanne Sher6 May 2011 at 12:11

    This passage blows me away EVERY time I read it. EVERY time. Super thoughts, Lynda.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yvonne Blake8 May 2011 at 07:49

    I taught children and my students this phrase - "Do what's right,
    no matter what,
    even if you're the only one."

    It's not easy to be different. I know; I was a pastor's kid in a public high school. I hope and pray that this truth will pop in their mind when they need it most.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Staying Put and Moving On

Genesis 23-26 Among the many interesting aspects of these chapters is an incident that jumps out at me. This year I’m looking at my Scripture readings in the light of changes, adjustments, course corrections that have to be made, and what the Scriptures say about them. Abraham had died. Isaac was living in Gerar under the watchful eye of Abimelech. God blessed Isaac to the point that there simply wasn't room for him and all that he had gained to lived peaceable among the Philistines. There were issues of envy which resulted in some nasty events: “ So all the wells that his father’s servant had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth ” —Genesis 26:15. Abimelech asked Isaac to move a little farther away to prevent any more conflict. Isaac did what he was asked and moved, reopening the wells that the Philistines had stopped up when his father was alive—presumably the result of a different generation of envious neighbours at Abraham’s
Read more

The Case of the Pilfering Peacock

Image
Such little things under ordinary circumstances: a few pots of lettuce and a little spinach. But in a country like Pakistan, and in the heart of the Sindh, anything resembling salad is as hard to find as hen’s teeth; well, in this case, peacock’s teeth. My friend, Hannah, is a retired missionary nurse. Actually she became a retreaded missionary nurse, having returned to Pakistan several times several times after retirement to fill a desperate need for nursing staff at the hospital she first went to serve in back in the 1960s.   A wall surrounds the hospital. On the grounds are the homes of the medical staff and some of the Pakistani people who work at the facility. It also seems to be the favourite place for the peacocks from the local Temple to hang out.    It had to be the lettuce and the spinach that attracted them. When she first noticed the peacocks, Hannah admired their beauty—until she noticed that they were lunching on the spinach. She tried to shoo them away. “Persistent” seem
Read more

Worry Walks Alone

Somewhere along the way I picked up a little card that still hangs on the bulletin board above my desk. It says: "Worry slanders every promise in the Word of God." Naturally it came to mind this morning as I read my verse for the day. "Then Jesus said to his disciples: 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes" —Luke 12:22, 23. (And these verses come attached to yesterday's verse on being careful about greed.) Another image comes to mind. As I watched the news yesterday, several people cheated of their life savings by Bernie Madoff, were being interviewed. One woman in particular stood out. She said that, thanks to Madoff, she no longer has the means to feed herself or to buy medicine. Basically she is now destitute. Is she worried? Who wouldn't be? Matthew includes the teaching of these verses in the famous Sermon on the Mount, j
Read more