Tuesday in Lent III: Rolling Sevens

Our passage of Jewish Scripture is from the book of Daniel.  It is one of the sections of the Bible deleted by the protestant reformers.  That is too bad because it articulates the song of the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the "fiery furnace" story.  It is third in a series of short stories, a dramatic contest about the nature of the true God.  The three companions show willingness to suffer death rather than worship a deity other than the God of Israel.  Babylonians had reported the three to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king.  He hauls them in and demands that they sacrifice to an idol.  When the refuse, the king becomes livid and orders them executed by fire.  He even orders that the heat level of the furnace be increased seven times (the number seven is symbolic of 'perfection' in the Middle East.)

The men who bind and commit the three to the flames are themselves incinerated by the great heat.  However, these three friends (and a fourth man who is an angel who stopped to lend moral support) are singing and dancing to their Lord in the fire, while they are miraculously untouched by flames!  The king hears the commotion, goes to the furnace, and sees the miracle.  He frees them, promotes them to high office in the kingdom, and issues a decree that anyone who blasphemes Israel's God shall be executed by dismemberment and have that person's property destroyed.  The bottom-line is clear:  faithfulness and loyalty to YHVH pay off!

In our reading from Christian Scripture [Mt. 18: 21-35] we find Saint Peter asking Jesus if he may limit forgiveness of another to seven times.  Jesus says no, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (or, in some manuscripts, seventy times seven times, which is four hundred ninety.)  Jesus is playing on a reference from Genesis which says Cain shall be avenged seven times, Lemuel seventy-seven.  Obviously the message is that God places no limit on his forgiveness of humans and humans cannot limit forgiveness of others.  An ancient provision in Jewish theology, still in effect today, holds that we may only ask for God's forgiveness if we have first forgiven others.  That is an important lesson worth remembering in Lent.