What happens when you can’t obey?

You, O king, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the gold image; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up.” – Daniel 3v10-12

I almost missed commenting on this little section. I was going to write about tomorrow’s topic but felt like we needed to pause and look at this.

We all know that we have a Bible responsibility to submit to governing authorities. We may not like what they do, we may not like their character, we may not like the laws they pass. But still, we are told to obey the law and submit to our leaders.

That’s fine. We can obey the speed limits, pay our taxes, control our behaviour, and generally submit. Though there are Christians who feel like they have the right to take the law into their own hands, they will find no Bible support for their choices.

But what happens when you can’t obey the law because to obey the law would put us in direct conflict with the word of God?

We all know the story here. The king’s advisors had him build a huge golden statue. When the people were gathered together and the music played Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could not bow down and obey the law. They simply stood there. There is no sign of a protest or a march on Babylon, they just stood.

They knew the consequences. They did not condemn the law. The simply couldn’t obey because the law was in conflict with their obedience to God.

In reality that is all we can do when man’s laws come in direct conflict with God’s laws. This is no licence to simply break a law because we don’t like it. It is what we have to do when we would have to disobey God in order to obey the law.

The time may come when we have to choose to obey God or man. What will we do?