We read today from the book of Daniel. The last two chapters of Daniel 13 and 14 are written like detective stories.
We have the story of Susanna and then we have the story of Bel and the Dragon. In all three cases, Daniel, like Sherlock Holmes, Matlock, or Perry Mason, which ever you prefer, steps into the case and uncovers the mystery.
They are beautiful stories to read. They reveal to us that to be a prophet, to be moved by the Spirit of God, doesn't take away from what we would do naturally but enhances it. In these cases Daniel's reason and logic become tools for victory and triumph.
The story of Susanna is about many things. It is about purity, false accusations, the corruption of conscience, lust and perversion, prayer and prayers that are answered.
As the story unfolds, it is noted that the old men, the judges who attack Susanna, "began to lust for her. They suppressed their consciences. They would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments."
This is an important truth. Our conscience is organic. It needs to be trained, exercised, formed. Just like all muscles of the body it too can go into atrophy with out use. It can be stunted, stamped out, it can be falsified. Conscience is a organ not an oracle. It requires growth, training, and practice. It can be formed in a negative way away from God just as it can be formed in a positive way toward God.
At each every moment, we have to choose to grow our conscience or suppress it, and ever little thing, thought, word or action becomes that by which our conscience is exercised. As we read today, it was the smallest thought of lust left unchecked led to the dismantling of the conscience.
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