Civil disobedience

Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego 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.” – Daniel 3.15-18

There is a lot of talk and a lot of discussion about the roles of church and state and Christians and government. In some countries there is a huge mingling of church and state and there are some places when the lines are blurred.

The Bible is clear about the importance of Christians submitting to government. There can be no doubt about it. We also know that when man’s laws are in conflict of God’s law we have to obey God.

But then the government has the right to punish us for doing what God says. The question we have to ask ourselves is how we are going to choose to disobey. In these three men we find out.

Of course when they refused to bow down they were called before the king. I imagine the king must have been hurt as well as angry. He had learned to depend on these guys and trust them. But now they refused to bow down! The king warned them again, but they still could not do it.

There were polite a decent and simply said ‘do what you need to do. Our God is able to deliver us. If He doesn’t we still cannot bow down to your image.’

There was no disrespect, no protests no crying – they just had to do right, and they did it. When they broke civil law the state had the right to punish them. They did; the men were sent to the fiery furnace. But that wasn’t the end.