To whom are you loyal? Hopefully your spouse if you have one. Your boss? Your family? Your country? Your political party? Your church? We claim loyalty to many things. But how do we know if we are loyal or not? We know if we are loyal when we are tested. That's exactly what Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, found out when they were confronted by King Nebuchadnezzar's ninety foot high image dedication. All those who worked for the king were invited to this dedication. What an honor to be invited! Yet S, M and A were torn. Who were they loyal to? Their boss and their king or God Almighty? After all, S, M and A were cared for, clothed and given positions of honor by Nebuchadnezzar. God had seemingly abandoned them and let them be taken captive by this foreign power house nation, Babylon. Where was God in all this? Did God really care about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Were they going to be loyal to God, who was distant in their lives at this time? If you know the Bible, you know the rest of the story. Daniel's pals would not bow to an image in idol worship. They were loyal to the God of their forefathers. I love the words they retorted back to Nebuchadnezzar when they were faced with certain punishment by death in a furnace.
"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel 3:17).
Wouldn't it be nice to know that your kids were loyal to you when you weren't around? Or even that they were loyal to your family's values. Better yet, it would be fantastic if they were as loyal to God as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were. How did their parents do such a great job raising outstanding teenagers? What did they do? What was their secret? The Bible doesn't give us the answer to that nor is there ever any magic formula for success for parenting. But we'll never know where their loyalty lies until they're tested. I don't think any parent in their right mind would wish for their kids to ever be put in this situation where their loyalty could be tested. So what do we do? I say we pray and do our best to point them in the right direction. Leave the rest up to God because:
God. Is. Able.
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