Three Godly Men Who Resisted a Government Mandate (Yet Another Old Facebook Post)

    I came across this old Facebook post from just a year ago (first published on 18 October 2021), so thought I would put it here. In that post, I was sharing another post by someone who had shared part of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego found in Daniel 3. So here now is the post in question:

 

This is one of my favourite stories in the Bible, especially in the current day and age.

The background: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had passed a law saying that everyone in his empire had to bow down to a giant idol when music was played. In short, this was a GOVERNMENT MANDATE. Failure to comply with this mandate would mean being thrown into a fiery furnace to be burned alive.

For three young Hebrew men who loved God, however, this law presented a little problem. You see, the law was in direct conflict with the First and Second Commandments. So they faced a rather disagreeable dilemma. They could either obey God and face certain death in the fiery furnace, or obey the evil law and avoid the furnace, but sin against God by worshipping a god other than Him and bowing to a graven image.

Well, they chose to obey God - to honour Him even though it appeared to mean the end of their lives. They refused to comply with the wicked mandate. It is particularly important to note that they knew exactly what the price of noncompliance was - but they were prepared to pay it.

In the end, God honoured those courageous young men for their faith and obedience to Him, and miraculously delivered them from the fiery furnace, teaching Nebuchadnezzar a lesson in the process. However, they knew that He could have chosen to let them be martyred, and they were still willing to give their lives rather than comply with an immoral law.

A key takeaway for Christians is this: when you stand with Christ and take His side rather than the world’s side about something, there will often be a price to pay. It may not involve being burned alive (although for many Christians of the past, it did), but it could entail something like loss of a job or relationship, maybe even the loss of your freedom for a time. But if you stand strong and don’t give in, then one way or another, God will honour your faith and resolve.

Even for non-Christians, there is a worthwhile lesson here. Which is simply that if you want to stand for what is right (or what you believe is right), there will almost certainly be a price to pay. For example, if you want to stand against the vaccine mandates, you may have to accept some tough consequences like losing your job or losing some everyday freedoms. But if you truly believe in your cause, then you should be ready to pay that price. In the case of this story, all it took was three men taking a stand to get an unjust law overturned. If you’re willing to stick to your guns, regardless of the cost, then you too can make a difference, maybe even more than you might think.

 

    I would add that these three men "hated" their lives. They were prepared to lose their lives for the Lord rather than betray Him by bowing down to an idol. As I said in the post, many people who take this type of stand DO lose their lives. But in this case, God miraculously delivered them. He greatly blessed and rewarded their faith. Since they were willing to lose their lives, they gained them back.

     While it's not exactly the same thing, I know two Christian people who both faced losing their jobs because they refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine. They decided to stand on their convictions and not allow themselves to be forced to get it. Rather than give in to the mandate to save their jobs like so many others were doing, they chose to put their faith in God to take care of their future. Now, many people in this situation have indeed lost their jobs (very unjustly, I might add). But God rewarded the faith of these two saints. One of them was allowed to work from home for about four months. This agreement was reached about two weeks before she was due to have her job terminated. She was allowed back into the office in early May. At the time of writing, she is still in the same job. The other Christian, a young man, was about two weeks away from losing his job when the company he was working for dropped its vaccine mandate. Consequently, he is still working there to this day.

    So you see, God continues to reward courageous faith in the present day, just as He rewarded it in Bible times. I hope this will encourage anyone reading this to have faith in God (if indeed you are saved) and not give in to fear.