Daniel (Greek) 13:15-21: a reflection

In the account of Susanna, a faithful woman is trapped by two wicked men who abuse their position, threatening to accuse her falsely unless she sins with them, so that she faces a terrible choice with no visible safe way out. Cornered by the two who had hidden themselves, she is told: consent to us, or we will testify against you falsely. Susanna is caught in a cruel trap: if she refuses to sin, she will be falsely accused, with the wicked men's word against hers; if she sins, she escapes the accusation but sins against God. There is no visible safe way out; either path seems to lead to ruin. And she must choose between doing right at great cost, or doing wrong to escape. This sets up the choice to do right even when there is no safe way out. Susanna faced doing right at great cost or wrong to escape. Sometimes doing right seems to have no safe way out. The choice to do right can come with no visible escape. Integrity may mean choosing right when every path costs.

Notice the cruel dilemma Susanna is placed in, and the choice it forces. The two wicked men, abusing their position, corner her and threaten: sin with us, or we will accuse you falsely, and our word will be believed over yours. She is trapped; there seems no safe way out. If she does the right thing and refuses, she faces a false accusation that could destroy her; if she does the wrong thing and consents, she escapes the accusation but sins against God. Either way, by human reckoning, she seems to lose. This is the kind of situation where integrity is truly tested: when doing right seems to have no safe way out, when refusing to sin means bearing a real cost, and sinning seems the only escape. In such moments, the question is whether we will choose to do right regardless of the cost, trusting God, or take the wrong way to escape. Susanna, as the account goes on to show, chose to do right, saying it was better to fall into the hands of others than to sin against God. To choose to do right even when there is no safe way out, bearing the cost rather than sinning to escape, is true integrity, trusting God with the outcome. Choose to do right even when there seems no safe way out. Better to bear the cost than to sin to escape. Integrity chooses right regardless of the cost, trusting God. When every path costs, do not take the wrong one to escape.

That is worth taking to heart, for true integrity chooses to do right even when there seems no safe way out, bearing the cost rather than sinning to escape, as Susanna faced her cruel trap. We can be placed in situations where doing right seems to have no safe way out, where refusing to sin means bearing a real cost and sinning seems the only escape; and we can be tempted to take the wrong way out. But Susanna chose to do right, trusting God, rather than sin to escape. When doing right seems to cost everything, choose it anyway, trusting God with the outcome, rather than sinning to escape. Choose to do right even when there seems no safe way out, bearing the cost rather than sinning to escape, and trusting God with the outcome, as Susanna, cornered by two wicked men who abused their position and threatened to accuse her falsely unless she sinned with them, faced a cruel trap in which refusing to sin meant a false accusation that could destroy her while sinning meant escaping the accusation but sinning against God, with no visible safe way out; for there are situations where integrity is truly tested, when doing right seems to have no safe escape and sinning seems the only way out, and in such moments the question is whether we will choose to do right regardless of the cost, trusting God, or take the wrong way to escape, and Susanna, as her account goes on to show, chose to do right, saying it was better to fall into the hands of others than to sin against God, so that true integrity chooses right even when every path costs, bearing the cost rather than sinning to escape and trusting God with the outcome.