No 24

(Responsibility)

The common crow shows responsibility in its everyday activities. One crow will stand guard against enemies and warn of threats while others in the flock feed or take care of their young. Ornithologists are very much aware of their methods of communication and say that the crows can communicate such things as impending danger, likely spots to feed or to cry out to the flock to fly away because of the arrival of an owl, the crow’s arch-enemy. When a crow finds a mate it moves away from the flock and its responsibility turns to its family. Oh yes, they are absolutely not afraid of scarecrows in the middle of a field; they do however fear humans and when there is movement, they fly away.

I chose 3 youths as an example of responsibility in the Bible. They were subjected to very drastic cultural changes in their young lives and when the time came, they showed strong responsibility. I am referring to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah or as we have come to know them by the Babylonian names – Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. In Daniel chapters 1 and 3, we read of two incidents in the lives of these youths that demonstrated a strong commitment to the God of Israel and His laws. The first one concerned food that was given to them that had been offered to the gods of Babylon; God had strict laws about what His children ate and they showed much responsibility by refusing to eat it. The second incident concerned their refusal to bow down to an image of gold that Nebuchadnezzar had erected to his own glory. They escaped any form of punishment in the first incident but the king was furious when he saw that they did not obey him and bow down to the image. The youths said to him as follows “…be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (Dan 3:18); they were immediately thrown into a furnace of fire. It took courage to do that and they were preserved from harm because God honours commitment to righteousness and to responsibility.