Links for today’s readings:

Read: Daniel 3 Listen: (5:56)
Read: Hebrews 1 Listen: (2:15)

Scripture Focus: Daniel 3:12

12 But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up

Reflection: To Assimilate or Not

By Erin Newton

I love the Bible because it speaks to our culture—even when distantly removed in time. The stories in Daniel have been repeatedly used to speak of Christian ethics in a fallen world.

The story is familiar. The three men taken into captivity are asked to assimilate to the foreign culture. They refuse and are sentenced to death in a fiery furnace.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are tokens for standing up to power and choosing truth over popularity. Their determination to continue in honorable living outweighs their fear of death.

To refuse the king meant severe consequences. This time it meant fire.

The story continues with the miraculous salvation of the three men. They are thrown into the furnace and a fourth person appears—an angel or a theophany of Jesus, perhaps. Whoever joined the men in the fire was a divine instrument of salvation.

There are parallels between the stories in Daniel and the book of Esther. Both involve Judeans sent into the court of a foreign king and asked to conform their lives to the whims of those in power. Daniel and his three friends resist conforming. They consistently reject the king’s commands. Twice they are sent to their deaths. Twice they are miraculously saved.

Esther hides her ancestry and partakes in the customs and system of the foreign kingdom. She comes to the king when he calls for her. She performs the beauty and dietary regimen assigned to her. Her actions are quite the opposite of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

How do we reconcile the different accounts? Yes, Esther was later used to save the Jews and risked her life to do so. Daniel and the three men risked only their lives in resistance.

We have both stories of bold resistance and quiet acceptance to reveal the complexity of life. There are rarely simple answers to our situations. Perhaps God had stirred their hearts to boldness in refusing the king and boldness in obeying the king.

Too often are we tempted to judge one another for making these same decisions. I believe Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were right in in refusing and taking the consequence. I believe Esther was right in joining the king’s court. God used both.

The days ahead will be filled with opportunities and we may disagree on how things should be done. Let us pray that God is moving in the midst of us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Send our your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;

That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God. — Psalm 43.3-4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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