July 29

The Fiery Furnace

             Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.  If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”

                 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. Because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire. 

            Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.”  He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.”

Daniel 3:16-25

             

            Early on in the exile of the Jews, the Babylonian government decided to make some decrees about worship.  There were to be ceremonies and rituals and any time the sacred music played, everyone was to fall down and worship the immense golden statue of King Nebuchadnezzar.  Three of Daniel’s friends refused.  Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah had been taken from their homeland.  They had been separated from their families.  They had been given new Babylonian names and identities.  Now known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego they had risen in status and influence through God’s mercy and favor.  They would not turn their backs on their God in order to worship another, but they would not be able to defy the royal edict in secret.

            The king found out that they would not bow and called them for an audience.  He threatened their lives and they would not bow.  He had his furnace heated to seven times its normal level and they would not bow.  The king was so furious that he had them thrown into the furnace immediately and sat down to watch them burn.

            But they did not burn.  The king saw four men walking in the flames, unharmed, even as those who had thrown Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the furnace had been consumed by the heat.  The three Jews came out of the inferno intact, with no singes on their clothing and without even the smell of smoke on their persons.  The hand of God had clearly delivered the men and King Nebuchadnezzar’s eyes were opened to the power of the Israelites’ God.

            The three men did not know what would happen to them when they were thrown into the furnace.  They knew that God could save them, but that was no guarantee that He would.  Their faithfulness was not dependent on God being predictable.  It was dependent on God being good.  These young men had seen their homeland burned.  They had seen their people taken into slavery.  They had seen families separated.  They had been told that their names and clothes and culture were insufficient and given better ones.  And through it all they remained convinced that their God was good and would remain faithful to His promises to their ancestors.

            God is not predictable.  He is not controllable.  He is not manipulatable.  Our words and actions do not force Him to make good things happen or bad things happen.  There are some occasions in scripture where He interacts with people and changes His mind on the timing of certain things, but in the end God will do what God will do and it will be wholly, completely and utterly good.

            This is where our hope lies: God’s goodness.  If we were to get everything that we desired in this life…if we were to be wealthy and healthy and our children were healed and our political views were adopted and peace and prosperity and justice filled the land…if we were to get all that, this world would still be temporary and we and all our loved ones would still die.  And then we will come face to face with our Creator.  Our only hope in that encounter is that He is good and loves us as His children.  Whether we had a hard life or an easy life or a short life or a long life…everyone comes to that place with the same hope:  That God is good and that He sees us as His child in order to welcome us into Eternity.

            Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not worship another God and faced the prospect of death because they knew that this was their only hope.  May we be as certain.

           

A moment to reflect:

What do you hope for?