The Four "E's" of Daniel 3

This story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is one we have heard since Sunday school as a small child. There are four lessons we can learn from this common story. This week we are going to look at one of them.

Daniel 3:13–30 ESV

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 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. 18 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.” 19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. 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. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. 24 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.” 25 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.” 26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. 28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “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.” 30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

The first E we get from these verses is....

Edification

In verses 16-18 we see the edification of our trio of Jews. First we need to define edification.

Edification is defined as the the instruction or improvement of a person morally, intellectually, or spiritually.

Our trio was faced with a dilemma. Cave in to the pressure of the king and bow down to his idol, or maintain their faith and commitment to the one true God, regardless of the dire consequences that would be the price of disobedience to the king. The penalty for not bowing down to the king’s golden idol was death by being thrown in the fiery furnace.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were very aware of this. The obvious, easy thing to do would be to just bow down and go about their way. King Neb actually gives them an opportunity to do just that in verse 15.

Daniel 3:15 ESV

15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

The response in verse 16 shows the faith of the three men. They first state that they have no need to answer the king in this matter. Translation, your threats and your gods are meaningless to us, and we will not do as you ask. They go on to proclaim the options that they value. 1st option is that God will deliver them from this death. The second is that God will not deliver them. Regardless they tell King Neb that they will not bow down to his idol.

You see, this isn’t just about an idol. This is about a King and his desire to force his VALUE SYSTEM on his people. He’s IMPOSING his pagan lifestyle on an entire people. And he’s doing it because he can. He’s rich and powerful and he can definitely hurt you if you oppose him.

You see, this isn’t just about an idol. This is about a King and his desire to force his VALUE SYSTEM on his people. He’s IMPOSING his pagan lifestyle on an entire people. And he’s doing it because he can. He’s rich and powerful and he can definitely hurt you if you oppose him.

It’s kind of like the powerful people of our day who say –

You WILL accept homosexuality.

You WILL accept gay marriage.

You WILL accept all kinds of immorality.

You WILL accept all kinds of immorality.

Because if you don’t… there will be a price to be paid. You’ll do it or it’ll cost you your job/business/income. The rich and powerful in our society tell us that if we don’t bow down to their altar… they WILL DESTROY YOU.

And so everybody bows down. It’s not worth the hassle and they don’t want to pay that kind of price for saying “NO”. Everybody bows down. Everybody, that is, except 3 good old boys from Judah – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Now there’s people that might look at this story and say “Why on earth would these boys risk everything just for the sake of a silly old idol? I mean, why don’t they just bow down to the thing for pity’s sake?”

Well, this reason comes to mind: – this was a “God moment” – this was a time when I believe God was setting them up. He was putting these boys in a position where they had to make a choice. And God does that a lot in Scripture.

• Abraham (for example) had been given the son God had promised him… but then he was asked make a choice– God asked him to sacrifice his only son Isaac.

• David was just a young shepherd boy whose father had sent him with food for his brothers who’d been fighting the Philistines. I believe God arranged for David to be there at just the time Goliath insulted Israel and their God. At that moment, David had to make a choice, and the choice he made was he heard the threats of Goliath.

• And then there’s the story of Esther - a queen married to an evil and brutal king. She learned her people were in danger and her uncle, Mordecai, came to her to ask her to intercede with her husband to protect her people. But she wasn’t eager to do that. Her husband was known to kill people on a whim and if she approached him without his permission she might end up dead.

It is then that Mordecai tells her: “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

What will you do when your God moment comes? You will no doubt have times when you have to choose the world or God. Will you believe that God has your back in every situation? Do you believe he can do things in your life?

If you don’t believe God can do things in your life… you can’t win. You’ve already lost. And Satan has already won.

But if you take the field believing that YOUR GOD can DO STUFF, and you’ve spent time in prayer asking for His help, there’s no force on the earth that can bring you to your knees. You may not “WIN” … but you won’t have lost.

That’s what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were saying. “We may not win… but we WILL NOT lose. Our God IS able to deliver us. And then they said: “BUT IF NOT (if God decides that He isn’t going to save us today) be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Even if God decides not to rescue us from your fiery furnace…we will not bow down. We will NOT surrender. We will NOT dishonor our God no matter what the price.

The Mercy Me song “Even If” describes what the trio was saying to the king.

The chorus says this: “I know you’re able and I know you can, save through the fire with your mighty hand, but even if you don’t, my hope is you alone.”

Is this your faith? Will you be edified by the trials of this life? Will you allow God to grow you through the trials and challenges of this life?

We see the edification of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; God allowed them to face this situation with the King, and you see them grow morally, intellectually, and most importantly they grow spiritually by choosing their faith over compromising their beliefs.

I want to close with a quote from the movie “Glory.”

Morgan Freeman’s character prays this prayer as his regiment is going into a battle where they know the losses will be heavy. He is a part of the first United States volunteer infantry all black regiment in the civil war, 54th Massachusetts.

“Lord, we stand before you this evening, to say thank you! And we thank you, father, for your grace, and your many blessings! Now I run off, leaving all my young'uns and my kinfolk, in bondage. So I'm standing here this evening, Heavenly Father, to ask your blessings on all of us. So that if tomorrow is the great getting-up morning, if that tomorrow we have to meet the Judgement Day, O Heavenly Father, we want you to let our folks know that we died facing the enemy! We want 'em to know that we went down standing up! Amongst those that are fighting against our oppression. We want 'em to know, Heavenly Father, that we died for freedom! We ask these blessings in Jesus' name. Amen!”

No matter what this world brings, trust God!!! If we have to go down, lets go down standing up!!!