IF I PERISH, I PERISH

This week's Sunday School lesson is about three valiant Jewish exiles who lived in Babylon during the 70 years of Jewish captivity. We are all familiar with their stories of courage which landed them in a fiery furnace and a lion's den. When Judah was about to be sacked by the Babylonians, Jehovah promised to Jeremiah He would spare them if any righteous could be found in all of Jerusalem but such was not the case. Judah had sinned and broken her covenants with God. Out of this sinful and idolatrous nation, King Nebuchadnezzar carried off into Babylon (about 605 BC) the choicest Jewish youths to be trained for service in the king's court. Four such youths among them were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. It is not clear whether these youths were disposed towards the God of Israel before their arrived in Babylon or whether they learnt from the sins of their fathers and turned their hearts toward Him once they found themselves in a strange land where with others of their nation they became zealous about the God they once worshipped. Because of their righteousness and commitment to the covenants which they made with the God of their fathers, they were endowed with spiritual and temporal gifts and were given miraculous protection from their enemies.

During the 70 years of Jewish captivity in Babylon, Daniel served 5 kings remaining in Babylon even after most of his countrymen had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and nation. It would seem strange that a devout Jew such as Daniel would choose to remain in a foreign land and not return to Jerusalem but I believe there was a purpose for this for "......he was raised to positions that enabled him to spend his life in service to the kings of the land. He became the Lord's minister to those rulers. He was made chief of the wise men, chancellor of the equivalent of a national university, ruler of all the Hebrew captives, and as governor of the province of Babylon, one of the chief rulers in both the Babylonian and Persian Empires" (Old Testament Student Manual, 1 Kings-Malachi, p. 297). So honourable and righteous was Daniel in his personal and professional life that he endeared himself to King Darius to such an extent that the King preferred him above all the presidents and princes and he 'thought to set him over the whole realm' (Daniel 6:3). This attachment to the King ignited a lot of jelousy among the presidents and princes who sought to discredit Daniel in some way by hoping to 'dig up some dirt' on him. When they could find no fault in him they devised a plan by which they knew they could trap him and put him away for good. From their observation of Daniel, they knew that he was so committed to the worship of his God that he would not break that commitment under any circumstances. In other words, he was true to his covenants in every way. The trap which they set was to get the King to pass a decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days save King Darius, shall be cast into the den of lions. They then ensured that once the King signed the decree that he also signed a document stating that this law could not be changed. The trap was set and the victim caught. Daniel, as was his usual habit, continued to pray to Jehovah three times a day, facing Jerusalem, with his window open for all to see. Daniel was arrested for breaking the law and King Darius was devastated. The scriptures record that 'he laboured till the going down of the sun' to deliver him (Daniel 6:14), fasting and spending a sleepless night and when the morning came he went to the lion's den with haste to test his own belief that Daniel's God would deliver him (Daniel 6:16). Addressing Daniel as a 'servant of the living God' (Daniel 6:20) Darius called to him to come forth and was 'exceeding glad' (Daniel 6:23) to find him alive and unharmed. What can we learn from this? The usual lesson is that the Lord protects those who are loyal to Him and this truly is so but a further lesson lies herein. Looking at Daniel's life one cannot help but see that he was sent to Babylon and used by God to be his advocate with kings who presided over exiled Judah. This was Daniel's mission and God's purpose. Was Daniel successful in this? King Darius was certainly convinced enough to proclaim Daniel's God 'the living God' an made a decree that in every dominion of his kingdom 'men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God and steadfast for ever....' (Daniel 6:26,27). Daniel's story proves to us that God has a plan for each of us: "When we say God has a plan, he truly has a plan - not simply a grand scale, but for each of us as individuals, allocating some special talent to this dispensation and some to another. I regard God as the perfect personnel manager, even though he must work with and through all of us who are so imperfect. I assume, gladly, that in the allocation to America of remarkable leaders like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, the Lord was just as careful. After all, if you've got only one Abraham Lincoln, you'd better put him in that part in history when he's most needed - much as some of us might like to have him now" (Neal A Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, p. 46). We find another valid example of this concept in Queen Esther who had to marry King Ahasuerus of Persia in order to avert annihilation of all Jews in Persia and Media (Esther 1-10). Her story of intrigue and suspense reads like a modern day action drama series.

We can learn something about keeping covenants from Daniel's companions, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They too had risen to prominent positions within the governing body of Babylon and as such inspired jelousy amongst the other rulers of the provinces and in particular the Chaldeans (Daniel 3:8). When King Nebuchadnezzar erected a massive golden image for his people to worship, his three Jewish rulers were not found among the worshippers. The Chaldeans thought it their duty to report this to the King who summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and promptly reminded them that if they do not worship the designated image with his people they will be basically fried in a fiery furnace. He went further to assert his power by saying: "...and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Daniel 3:15). Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were not perturbed. With boldness and daring they answered: "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter" (Daniel 3:16). In other words, we are not going to weigh our words hoping not to offend you for we don't care if we do! They then made it known to the King that they would never worship his golden image and serve any of his gods even if they stood to perish. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego had learnt something valuable in exile, that the covenant which their fathers had made with the God of Israel that they would have no other gods before Him is not to be broken. They knew this is what led them into exile and servitude to other nations. They therefore chose to perish rather than break the covenants which they made to worship Jehovah. Their spiritual resilience paid off. King Nebuchadnezzar, seeing the three Jewish rulers come out of the fiery furnace unharmed, acknowledged the God of Israel as 'the most high God' (Daniel 3:26) and made a decree that whoever should speak against the God of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego should be put to death.

God is a keeper of covenants. We find proof throughout the scriptures that He keeps His promises. Whereas the House of Israel had forsaken Him as their God, He has not forsaken the House of Israel. He will never break the covenant which He has made with Abraham that through his seed all nations of the earth will be blessed. This promise includes gathering the scattered Israelites who He longs to bring back. In the Book of Mormon we read: "Yeah, and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn" (3 Nephi 29:8). The question begs to be asked: if God always keeps his covenants with us, are we prepared to keep our covenants with Him? Even at the point of death? Would we gladly step into a fiery furnace before we would break the laws of obedience, sacrifice, chastity and consecration that we have covenanted we would keep? Is there a Daniel among us or maybe an occasional Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?  These men could not be turned out of the path defined by their covenants or by their sense of right and wrong. We too can be like them and face the fiery furnace saying like Queen Esther did with all her daring: "If I perish I perish" (Esther 4:16).