Let's All Be Brave by Annie F. Downs

Author:Annie F. Downs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2014-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

I think one of the biggest mistakes Christians make while reading the Bible is forgetting that none of the characters, except Jesus, knew how things were going to end. So we read about Noah and immediately picture the rainbow. We focus on the fact that Jonah got puked out of the whale while forgetting he didn’t know that was coming. We think of the disciples and the miracles they saw, like the feeding of thousands of people with just a little bread and fish, and forget they didn’t know that story would turn out so awesome.

It did though, didn’t it?

I try to think a lot about how much the people in the Bible didn’t know. With that filter in place, we can identify courage much easier in the face of the unknown.

I am deeply moved by the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3. These dudes were Israelites who were captured as slaves when they were mere teenagers and taken to Babylon with Daniel.

We see them say no to meats and rich foods for ten days in Daniel 1, and at the end of it, they are honored for their strength, especially in the face of eating much less than the other soldiers in training. Later, they are honored by King Nebuchadnezzar, who gives them important roles in his service. The king likes these guys. He thinks they are smart and strong and beneficial to his kingdom.

Years later, our boys are administrators over all of Babylon, and Daniel is serving at the royal court. (Quite a move from being captive teenagers, huh?) King Nebuchadnezzar builds a massive gold statue — ninety feet high, nine feet wide (Daniel 3). That’s like what? A very skinny seven-story building? Gracious. And then he decides that everyone in town has to bow to the statue and worship it whenever the music plays, and anyone who doesn’t will be thrown into a blazing furnace.

So. He’s an extremist. I get it.

Our guys — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — worship the one true God and have no interest in bowing to anything else. They say no when the rest of the people say yes. They don’t bow when everyone else does.

Can you imagine that courage? To stand when everyone else bows? Knowing the result, knowing who you are and how much you are respected and yet choosing to go against your boss, namely, the king, in a life-threatening way?

That’s a major no that risked everything.

But that’s not the part that moves me.

When they are tattled on for not bowing and are brought before the king, he is furious. Like, whoa furious. Like, “You are my top dudes and you gotta do what I say” kind of furious. Like when the oldest kid in a family doesn’t follow the rules and it makes the parents extra-mad because the younger ones are seeing it? Yeah, that.

Let’s pick it up in verse 13 of Daniel 3.

Furious, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought in. When

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