The three young men respected leadership, perhaps because they knew that God ordains all in authority. Starting their sentence with, “live forever O King,” they also demonstrated they respected the prevailing culture. But that did not stop them from continuing with “we do not care to do as you ask.” Despite the respect they had for the king, they were going to disobey him. What!
As you might imagine, the king was furious. It is possible no one had ever said no to him. “We love and respect you but we do not care to worship you.” What a powerful statement! You may recall they were addressing their words to King Nebuchadnezzar. If we pay attention, we find that the Bible greats had that same attitude that the three Hebrew youths had.
Paul and Silas also had the same attitude. When it was time to choose between obeying God and caring about what the men thought, they chose God. In that instant., they were essentially saying “we do not care what you think. Later, because he had developed this attitude of “we do not care what you think” Paul was able to make a stupendous declaration. He told us, “be careful for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” I wonder how many of us can obey that injunction. Not many would be my guess, but there it is.
We Do Not Care Is A Double-Edged Sword
Caring is both a good thing and a bad one, depending on its target. Anybody who can say they do not care about others does not God because God is love. We must care about and for one another. Indeed, caring for, and about others is a sign that we know God. Jesus said “by this shall all men know you are mine when you have love one for another. So, if you are one of those who say “we do not care about others” you need to repent.
What we do not care about are people’s opinions of us. Whenever you care about people’s opinions, you immediately come into a snare or a trap. Or as King Solomon says, the fear of man brings a snare. Once you start caring what a person thinks about you, you start to fear him even more than you fear God. God is the only one we should fear since he can kill both body and soul. To the one who can only kill the body, our response is “we do not care.”
Do Not Become A Slave To Anyone
Anyone to whom we cannot say “we don’t care” is our master. And unless God delivers us, his slaves we remain. Those three Hebrew boys knew that and told the king, we don’t care to answer you. If they had cared about his opinion, they would have become his slaves. Trust me, it is better for you to be a slave of God than to be enslaved to anybody on earth. We do not care or bother what others think about us, even though we respect all.
Today, start caring for people and less about their opinions. It gives you true liberty and is the most potent form of deliverance. Does this mean we should not respect people? Far from it. You will recall that the youths started with an acknowledgment of the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar. And that is how we must be. We do not care to fear anyone.
Maranatha!
