Fury, Fire, Fidelity

Introduction

Dan. 3:19-30

Pg. 739

Recap

Last week we looked at the first half of Daniel chapter 3

King Nebuchadnezzar built a grand idol in the plains of Dura and commanded all his satraps and governors and princes and all the ruling class of his empire to a great worship the colossus.

He demanded that, as soon as the music begins, all his officials bow down and worship the image.

As an extra special incentive to keep them from bucking his authority and rejecting his state religion, the king clarified that anyone who failed to worship the 90’ idol would immediately be cast into the furnace.

And so we read in Daniel 3:7 “as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.”

the whole world bowed to the image, with the exception of three brave souls

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

v. 8 says, “certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.”

Just as the enemies of God always do to God’s people

On hearing of their rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar was furious and demanded that they be brought to him

He gave them one more chance to worship the lifeless metal or perish in the flames of the furnace

The young men refused to bow and were prepared to face the consequences

Because they knew that it is always better to suffer wrong at the hands of tyrants than to do wrong at the command of tyrants

This brings us to where we are this evening

Read Daniel 3:19-30

Thesis: God will not fail to deliver His people and this Deliverance always results in Praise

Deliverance

The Furnace

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were certainly in a pickle and they had no way of rescuing themselves.

What were they to do?

They did all they could. They did all that any of us could do in such a situation. They trusted God

Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

Recall Nebuchadnezzar’s question to the young men

His implied answer was, “there is no god able to rescue from my hands.”

Such is the way tyrants think

We have no need to answer you v. 16

God will answer you

He is able to rescue us.

They knew Nebuchadnezzar’s power was derived from God almighty and that there was nothing that he could do to them unless God allowed it.

They did not assume deliverance from their plight

Daniel 3:17–18 “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.””

God had not promised to save them from the furnace

But they knew that obedience to God in the furnace was better than idolatry in the palaces of Babylons

Heated Sevenfold

So Nebuchadnezzar orders his servants to stoke the flames

An illustration of the fury of the tyrants wrath

And he orders the Jews bound hand and foot

And they are tossed into the great furnace.

Likely the same used to smelt the gold of the idol

The death of Nebuchadnezzar’s servants

Daniel 3:22 “Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.”

It seems that the question is less about God’s ability to preserve his servants and more about Nebuchadnezzars inability to preserve the lives of his

How would you do in their place?

We regularly face fiery trials

Sometimes the fires are little tea candles

Sometimes they are great conflagrations

Both can be great temptations to bow to the images of this world

How much do you prize the true worship of God?

How much do you prize your own life, health, prosperity, reputation?

Would you suffer the loss of them all to honor Christ?

Immanuel

Nebuchadnezzar’s Amazement

The men are thrown in the furnace, the servants of the king are killed. Then, the king sees something that causes him to not trust his own sight

Daniel 3:24–25 “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.””

Who is The fourth man?

Is this a Christophany?

A visible manifestation of the second person of the Trinity?

I believe that it is

Because this is exactly what Christ does

He enters into our suffering with us and delivers us from it

Christ is Immanuel

God with us

He is the One who enters into the fiery trials of this life with us.

This appearance was certainly a prelude of his future incarnation and after that of his continued presence with his people to the end of the world; a presence especially seen in their sufferings, as he showed himself to Stephen before he was to be stoned. -John Mayer

Acts 7:54–57 “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.”

God has not promised to save us from trial. but He has promised to be with us in the trial.

He has said “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What fiery trial are you currently experiencing? Christ is with you as he was with these young men.

Temptation to sin? Pressures to conform to this world?

The fire of illness, disease, or sickness?

Financial crisis? Real threats and persecution from unbelievers? Alienation from unsaved family members?

Christ will enter the flames with you as He has always done for His people.

And perhaps, in entering the furnace with you, He will deliver you from the furnace.

But even if He does not, His presence in the trial is just as sweet as it is in the times of peace.

He is not just God with us, He is God for Us

The fourth man and His presence in the furnace is a foreshadowing of the work of Christ.

Christ entered into the fires of God’s wrath, only He did not do so with us. He did so for us.

And He did was not unharmed, but He suffered all the heat and fury of that wrath that we might not.

Salvation

Their hair was not singed

Their clothes didn’t even smell like smoke

V. 27 the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.

They were unbound

Nebuchadnezzar was amazed to see them walking in the furnace.

The only things consumed by the fire were the ropes which bound them.

We ought not take from this passage a promise that God will deliver from all danger

“We should gather from our present narrative the sufficiency of God’s protection, if he wishes to prolong our lives, since we know our life to be precious to him; and it is entirely in his power either to snatch us from danger or to withdraw us to a better existence, according to his pleasure.” -John Calvin

There is no promise here for us that God will rescue us from every trial

Rather, we ought to see here a picture of the final salvation of every one of God’s children.

Salvation from the very furnace of God’s wrath for all who trust in Him

Not one tongue of the flame of God’s wrath will touch you

None of the wrath of God will come upon you. Not a hair will be singed.

Because the Son of God has taken that wrath for you.

No purgatory

There is no punishment we must endure just for good measure

The servants of the enemy will be consumed

As the servants of Nebuchadnezzar were consumed

Are you a servant of God or a servant of the enemy?

Do you serve the living God or false idols?

There is no third option and there is no third fate.

Praise

The Jewish youths were saved and their deliverance resulted in praise to God

As it always does

Nebuchadnezzar Praises God

He begins in idolatry and arrogance but ends amazed at the power of the true God

The chapter begins with a decree threatening to destroy all who do not engage in false worship. It ends with a decree threatening to destroy all who would blaspheme the true God

And the thing that takes him from one disposition to the other is the mighty work of God in the salvation of His servants

vv. 28-29 Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”

There he goes with his tyranny again

Insincere Praise

I don’t say his praise was sincere or that he experienced a true conversion

“He pronounces the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to be blessed; if he really felt this, he must at the same time curse his idols, for the glory of the one true God cannot be extolled without all idols being reduced to nothing.” -Calvin

Yet, his praise of the Most High is an indication that God had truly shown Himself great and merciful in that moment such that, even a tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar could not help but speak of His magnificence.

The Ruling Officials

They were summoned from around the empire as an audience to behold the magnificent idol of Nebuchadnezzar and to worship it

But in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s refusal to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image, these officials became an audience to the power and the magnificence of the God of Israel.

The enemy prepares the theater, and the king himself collects the spectators and prepares the lists; a theater too, not of chance persons or of some private individuals but of all those who were honorable and in authority, so that their testimony may be worthy of credit with the multitude. They had come summoned for one thing; but they all departed having beheld another thing. They came in order to worship the image; and they departed, having derided the image and struck with wonder at the power of God through the signs that had taken place with respect to these young men. -Chrysostom

This is how God often works.

What could be worse than an entire nation giving itself over to public displays of idolatry and the execution of the faithful?

Yet in this despicable and hopeless act, God forces a rebellious nation to witness His glory in salvation.

Even those who hate God must praise Him when they witness His salvation

The Servants of God

Implied in the text

We don’t see the praise of Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego in this text. But we can be assured that it took place.

Just as Daniel Praised God in chapter 2 after being delivered from Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath

Salvation leads to Praise

This is why Christians are a singing people.

Singing is central to our religion because our religion is fundamentally a response in praise to the salvation our God has granted us

Exodus 15:1–3 “Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.”

The Psalter

Revelation 5:9–10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Consider His grace to you

Think back on your life and His deliverance over and over again

Has He healed you from dire illness?

Has He delivered you from abuse?

Has He rescued you from the folly of your own choices?

Has He supplied you with what you need when it seemed impossible?

This deliverance is to lead to praise. It is the fuel which ignites your praise.

So let it fuel your singing and your prayer and your meditation and your good works and love toward others.

Saved from the King’s wrath

God miraculously delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery wrath of the king,

And so has He done for us.

We didn’t face the smoldering fires of an earthly tyrant

We were facing down the eternal fires of the furnace of God’s wrath

A fire which consumes not only the body, but man’s very soul

We were utterly deserving of this fire. There was no standing firm against it as the Jewish youths did because no one can stand against God

And there was no one to deliver us from the hand of God because, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, God’s power is ultimate

But Christ entered into our sorrow and cast himself into the furnace of God’s wrath for our sakes

He has delivered our lives from the fire and so our lives belong to Him to be an endless song of gratitude, joy, thanksgiving and praise