Scripture Daily

Context No. 1787 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Daniel (Greek) 13:55-59: in context

55And Daniel said, “You have certainly lied against your own head; for even now the angel of God has received the sentence of God and will cut you in two.” 56So he put him aside, and commanded to bring the other, and said to him, “O you seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and lust has perverted your heart. 57Thus you have dealt with the daughters of Israel, and they for fear were intimate with you; but the daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. 58Now therefore tell me, under which tree did you take them being intimate together?” He answered, “Under an evergreen oak tree.” 59Then Daniel said to him, “You have also certainly lied against your own head; for the angel of God waits with the sword to cut you in two, that he may destroy you.”

Susanna has been condemned on the word of two respected elders, and as she is led to death, God stirs up the young Daniel to intervene. Daniel separates the two accusers and questions each alone. Under which tree, he asks the first, did you see this happen? A mastic tree, the man answers. And the other? Under an oak. The two accounts do not match; the confident lie, examined, falls apart, and Daniel declares that each has lied against his own head. The truth comes out, and the innocent woman is saved.

The lie was undone by a simple thing: honest examination. The two elders had told their story with the full weight of their office, and the assembly had believed them and condemned Susanna. But when Daniel questioned them separately, refusing to take the accusation at face value, the falsehood could not keep its story straight; one said one tree, the other said another, and the lie collapsed under its own inconsistency. Falsehood, however confidently told and however respectable its tellers, cannot finally withstand honest examination; the truth, when sought, comes to light. There are two encouragements in this. The first is for the falsely accused: God is able to bring hidden lies to light and to vindicate the innocent. Susanna had trusted God when she could not defend herself, and God raised up Daniel to expose the lie and clear her name; the truth others had twisted was brought into the open. What is done in falsehood does not stay hidden forever; there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed. The second is a lesson in wisdom: to examine before we condemn. The assembly's error was to accept the accusation at face value because of the standing of the accusers, without testing it; Daniel's wisdom was to examine, to ask the questions that would show whether the story held. When we hear an accusation, especially a confident one from a respected source, the wise course is not to swallow it whole but to examine, to seek the truth, to test the story before condemning. Confident falsehood collapses under honest examination; and the truth, sought patiently, comes to light and clears the innocent.

When I am falsely accused, can I trust, as Susanna could, that God is able to bring the hidden lie to light and vindicate the innocent, and when I hear a confident accusation myself, will I examine and seek the truth before condemning, rather than swallowing whole a story that honest questioning might undo?

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