Day 2 of bible study introduced a concept that is difficult for teenagers to grasp, obedience. We always started off day 2 by doing a little role-playing activity. We would divide our students into groups and force them to create and act out a situation in which disobedience became an issue with a particular authority figure. Now at the end of this exercise an interesting question was presented to our youth, is it ever ok to disobey an authority figure? 90% of the time the first answer they would give would be what they perceived to be the biblical answer by saying, no you always have to obey those in authority, but most of the time someone in the room truly thought about my question and gave a good answer. The correct answer is of course yes, but only when what the person in authority asks you to do something that is against what God called you to do.
This idea led us into the first of two stories covered in Day 2 Bible Study. This first story was about a man by the name of Daniel and his three friends: Azariah, Mishael, and Hananiah. Now these four men were from Judah who had just been taken over by the Babylonian Empire. All four were entered into the king's service and given the choice meats and wine, straight from the king's table! Pretty sweet deal, right? Not if you were a Hebrew, see in Leviticus 11 God gives laws about food and what you should and shouldn't eat and these four guys knew this, but their authority told them they had to eat this choice food. Now they were faced with a decision: obey God or obey the earthly authority?
So these four young men decided to take a major stand for obedience and obey God even though it was a dangerous decision. But, they didn’t do this disrespectfully to the authority figures, Daniel created a compromise which allowed he and the others to be obedient to the Lord, but didn’t disrespect those in authority over him. Because he and the other three guys remained obedient to the Lord, He blessed them with great success in the King’s service.
We transitioned from this smaller step of obedience by these four guys into what would be the ultimate step of obedience for Azariah, Mishael, and Hananiah or as you may more commonly know them: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego. While obeying the Lord and not eating the king’s food took some major faith on all four guys’ parts, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego were about to have to really take a stand even when it might cost them their lives. You know the story, the king builds a statue, calls for everyone to bow down to it, or be thrown into a fiery furnace. These three men decide to obey the 10 commandments and not worship a false idol so the king brings them before him.
When they are brought before him, they make an even bigger stand. In Daniel 3:17-18 they say that God is ABLE to deliver them from the king’s hand, BUT EVEN IF He does not, they still will not bow down to this false idol. They will remain obedient even if God does not rescue them from this situation. So we had the students write down things in their lives that they needed rescuing from. I assured them that God is ABLE to rescue them, but even if He doesn’t rescue them, they are still supposed to OBEY God’s word.
This lesson taught me a lot personally. There are many things in my life that I need rescuing from. However, God isn’t ready to rescue me just yet, He is able to, but instead there are things He still wants me to learn from the situation. But even though He doesn’t rescue me now, I’m still called to obey Him.
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