Week 29 Daniel
Yesterday I saw Nebuchadnezzar’s fury when his seers didn’t come through. And I saw that Daniel faced the king’s wrath with wisdom and discernment.
Today I was thinking about Shadrach Meshech & Abednego refusing to worship the king’s idol. Just like yesterday Nebuchadnezzar’s response was rage. SM&A tried to rationally and calmly explain their position to the king but it made no difference. He was mad. SM&A had collided with power.
I was reading a book about Ecclesiastes and the writer was talking about power – the incontestable power of a person who rules. A power so powerful that no argument matters. He said:
…it is pointless for the sage to challenge the king’s decision, since the king does whatever he wants! No one can insist that the king justify his actions…(Ecclesiastes) could just as well have in mind the board of a multinational corporation, or modern administration and bureaucracy. They are just as authoritarian, arbitrary, absolute, and without explanation as dictators and kings. No point in challenging them…Power is always power; whatever its constitutional form, it always takes the form of absolute power.
So that’s what SM&A were up against. Chapter one says they were ten times better than anyone else in wisdom and balanced judgment. Didn’t matter. Wisdom can’t compete with power.
Only one thing completes with power. Power. Which – fortunately for the three young men – is what happened in this story
Note: quote from Jacques Ellul Reason for Being (Eerdman’s: Grand Rapids, 1990) 76.