The crowd had been filtering in all day, and they made what was usually a spacious open, green area just outside the city feel tight and claustrophobic. Men wearing royal insignias were spaced strategically about 50 yards apart throughout the crowd. Their faces were stern, and their hands rested on their weapons in an attempt to look menacing, but their eyes betrayed their nervousness.
What could they do against such numbers if the people got too agitated?
(And these people were definitely annoyed.)
An impromptu conference had been called, and all the federal employees were gathered in the plain of Dura to hear the king's new proclamation. They could not help but wonder: What new war was being declared? What new bureaucratic office created? What ridiculous new regulation would make work impossible? Was the government shutting down? Was a new tax being levied against them?
Nothing made life harder quite the way governmental edicts did.
At noon, trumpets around the crowd blared in unison. The people quieted, turning their eyes to the raised dais where the king sat. It was impossible to see him unless you were standing in the front row, but some over-paid artist had been commissioned to create a giant golden statue that bore his semblance. It stood ten stories above the raised platform, towering over the square, so everyone at least knew where to look. Construction of the golden monolith had been ongoing for months, and it looked every bit the waste of taxpayer money it was.
Soon, the trumpets died down, and the crowd waited in wary anticipation as the king's herald read from the scroll bearing the royal seal,
To you the command is given, you peoples, nations, and populations of all languages, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of musical instruments, you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into the middle of a furnace of blazing fire. [Daniel 3:4-6]
A wave of relief must have washed over the crowd.
That's it? Just bow down to this giant golden statue, and then we can get back to work? No problem. Let's get this over with.
Soon, the music began to play, and everyone in the crowd bowed low.
Well, almost everyone.
The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is prolifically taught in Sunday Schools across the world: A paradigm of resisting peer pressure and doing what is right no matter what. Who wouldn't want children to know this lesson? We used to teach the same principles in secular schools too: "Don't get pressured into taking drugs, kids!"
But there's another lesson to be taken away from the three men who refused to bow to the king's vainglorious edict. Consider that the whole point of the exercise was to get rid of these three men. The architects of the statue knew they would never bow; it was against their religion.
How many things in our world are designed with the same purpose in mind?
Consider the story of Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor of psychology, who refused to bow down to the idol of gender affirmation. In 2016, he made waves by refusing to use a student's preferred pronouns. As that battle blew up and pushed him into the international spotlight, he took on more and more of the Left's neo-Marxist policies. Just recently, the proverbial fiery furnace has caught up with him as the highest court in Canada ruled he must attend reeducation classes in order to maintain his professional licenses as a clinical psychologist.
He'll weather the storm. If anything, he's way better off not having bowed down than he would have been giving in. You could say he's having a real-fourth-man-in-the-furnace moment with his books selling millions of copies, international speaking events, a huge platform with The Daily Wire, and the launch of his own school.
But not everyone gets saved from the furnace.
Consider the story of Glawdys Leger. This teacher is not an international super star. She'll probably never write a bestselling book, speak internationally, start her own school, and she certainly doesn't have the backing of a multi-million dollar conservative machine ready to go to bat for her. But just like Jordan Peterson, she refused to bow down in her classroom. In May 2022, she refused to teach her students in her Church of England school that boys and girls were able to switch genders.
I raised what I did because children were being taught one extreme LGBTQI+ narrative at the school with no debate. Yet for raising, expressing and teaching Christian beliefs on these issues, I have been accused of not presenting a balanced view.
Any Christian or religious school must be upfront and honest with parents who believe they are sending their children to a Christian school, if it no longer adheres to Christian teaching or beliefs, or even its own teaching on human sexuality.
They must be transparent with parents that, in many cases, some Christian schools are instead pushing deeply contested and harmful ideologies on children without their parents' permission or knowledge.
For that reason, she was fired and referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) who ruled that she was guilty of
unacceptable professional conduct contrary to fundamental British values in that it lacked tolerance to those with different beliefs.
Jessica Tapia has a similar story in the United States after she refused to comply with an order to withhold gender transition information from students' parents in 2023. The school fired her from her contract.
I knew immediately, like in my gut, in my heart, in my soul, that there was a decision I had to make because, you know, these two things were totally butting heads. I essentially had to pick one. Am I going to obey the district in the directive that are not lining up with… my own beliefs, convictions and faith? Or am I going to stay true…, choose my faith, choose to be obedient to… the way the Lord has called me to live. And so, it was crazy to be in the position where I realized that I couldn't be a Christian and a teacher.
There's no happy ending for these teachers, no million-dollar book deals. Their fiery furnace moment was just the end of their careers.
But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not counting on being saved either.
Our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.
But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up. [Daniel 3:17-18]
And that's the cost of serving the Lord in education (and really any field) today.
When the trap springs that's designed to out you and your beliefs, you can put your head down with all the rest. Maybe you'll get lucky and save your body from the furnace by sacrificing your soul?
Or, you can choose to stand, despite the fire. Maybe God will save your livelihood, maybe He won't.
But I can tell you this, whatever the outcome, He's the only thing worthy of the costs that remaining on your feet brings.
Those teachers who chose to stand for Christ and sacrifice their careers and reputations may not see much reward in this life, but I guarantee their actions are the stuff of superstardom in eternity.
