There are some Jews … who neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:12).

Exile to Babylon was, for the Jews of Daniel’s time, the ultimate discipline from the Lord.  But God’s judgments are righteous and redemptive; their goal is not punishment, but recovery of identity, restoration of true health, reclamation of mission, and--

God extending his mercy—to the Babylonians!  

Babylon of the ancient world is a lot like the United States today: powerful, prosperous, strong, secure, the “Number 1” nation of its time.  And at the same time, and like our country, Babylon is spiritually sick, desperately so, despite its outward wealth and power.

It is God who has injected Daniel and his friends into this sick-without-knowing-it world of Babylon.  We might see them as a kind of spiritual antibody for the spiritually sick world of Babylon.

Antibodies are complex proteins that identify and fight infectious agents, the viruses, bacteria and other microbes that can make us sick and even kill us.  Our physical bodies develop antibodies in response to infection: we can’t have the protection without having some form of the sickness.

The same spiritual malady infected both ancient Israel and Babylon: idolatry.  We create idols when we allow some “thing,” often a good thing, to have God’s place in our minds and hearts; we try to turn something God has created into God.  It never works, and it always makes us sick.

Nebuchadnezzar, flushed with victory and pride, erects an enormous image, presumably of one of the main deities of the Babylonian pantheon.  He orders all his officials, under penalty of death, to bow down and worship the image. Bow down. And worship. The image is not a mere “symbol” or “cultural expression”—it’s an object of worship.

The three heroes of Daniel 3 don’t “do” much: they remain standing when everyone else is bowing in worship.  They speak but briefly (fewer than a hundred words) to the King, who proceeds to order their execution. And there are just three of them, facing the King and all his officials.  But they carry within themselves the life and the word of God. They are able to act like antibodies in an idol-sick world.

Graciously, God provides his sheltering presence to his servants in the midst of raging flames.  And God graciously offers Babylon some small but extremely potent anti-idolatry antibodies. Babylon is far from “cured,” but the possibility of true health has opened up before them.

Please continue to ask God’s blessing on the work of scientists researching vaccines and medicines for COVID-19.  

What do you see “infecting” your world these days?  How might God have prepared and positioned you to serve those around you as a “spiritual antibody”?