Delivered Through the Fire

Opening Remarks

Last time out we spent time considering the first half of Daniel chapter 3; Nebuchadnezzars golden image as a prototype for all forms of false worship. Today we turn our attention to the second half of the chapter, we will be considering the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace.

The Chaldeans, no doubt looking for an opportunity to cut these young Hebrews down to size after they had risen to prominence, report to Nebuchadnezzar, no doubt with a little glee, that the three Hebrews did not bow down and worship the golden image.

Nebuchadnezzar flies into a rage and has the three men brought before him immediately. To his credit, Nebuchadnezzar wants to establish the truth of the report before acting upon it. This is one of the great wonders of the scriptures, that the Holy Spirit instructs the children of God even through the actions of a despotic pagan king. What is the lesson here? Don’t be too hasty to act upon a negative report about someone else. Sometimes it’s tempting to do so, to dispense judgement upon someone because of something we have heard on the grapevine, especially if what we have heard feeds certain hurts and insecurities within us. We must instead resist the urge to jump to conclusions about people, especially other Christians and instead go and speak to them personally, check out whether the report we have heard is true and then respond to that.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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?”

Nebuchadnezzar is going to give the three men one last chance to absolve themselves, one last chance to bow down and worship the image. If they will do as they are told this second time around then all will be well and good.

S, M and A have already withstood incredible pressure once by not bowing in the presence of all the rulers and leaders from across the empire, but now they face an even greater challenge, to withstand the king to his face!

We live in an age where the same dark powers that were at play in Babylon are active. There is growing pressure upon Christians to compromise in their worship. In certain nations to worship YHWH is punishable by death. Though there isn’t persecution on that scale here in the west, there is a strong and coercive movement in our culture to get Christians to accept certain things that are completely contrary to the Christian worldview. These things that culture wants you to accept and even celebrate, whether they be certain truth claims about sexuality, gender, or the origin of life on earth aren’t in themselves open denials of Christianity, however to accept them is to compromise on the truth of God’s word and therefore to compromise in our worship of Him. Many of us have been silently resisting these things for years, but a time is coming and now is where the culture is no longer ok with you being silent about these things, you must outwardly celebrate what culture says about sexuality, you must celebrate what culture says about gender and about the nature of humanity. If you are found not celebrating these things then you will be questioned. “Why aren’t you celebrating what the world celebrates?” “By not celebrating these things you are actually causing harm!”

So how should we respond in the face of such questioning? Should we protest angrily? Let them have both barrells? Should we publicly bow to the pressure and just say the right thing but privately continue to believe God’s word? I think Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s response to the king gives us some healthy guiderails for how to behave in a situation like this.

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.”

They don’t fly off the handle and start telling the King that he’s evil and that he will be judged. They don’t even complain about the severity of the kings decree! I think this is one of the hardest things to learn as a Christian, not to react with anger and scorn in the face of real injustice. To be honest I think it’s something that is a real sign of God’s grace at work in our lives when we imitate our Lord who Isaiah 53:7

Isaiah 53:7 ESV

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Yet neither did S, M and A attempt to bargain with the King. They didn’t look for a compromise, for a way out. They accepted the fate that their stand for truth was going to bring them.

Moreover their response reveals three incredible truths about God’s nature, character and His sovereignty.

Our God whom we serve IS ABLE - God is able, He is all powerful no one can stand in His way when He has decided to act. When we face trials, suffering or persecution we remind ourselves that God is able, He can deliver us out of situations that seem absolutely hopeless.

He will deliver us out of your hand - These three men not only knew that God was able to deliver them, they also had faith in God’s kindness towards them, His good will towards them, His protective love towards them. This is to know that God’s disposition towards you as His child is all love. It’s easy to feel alone in seasons where we are experiencing trials, persecution and suffering, the enemy wants you to believe that God has abandoned you. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego weren’t reading their circumstances in order to tell them how God felt about them, they were reading His word, they were so convinced of God’s kindness towards them because of His covenant with them that their circumstances couldn’t convince them otherwise. How often do we look to our circumstances to tell us whether God loves us or not instead of trusting in His word and the covenant we have with Him through Christ?

But if not - These men recognised and acknowledged something that very few Christians do today; that God is sovereign over all things and that sometimes His will might differ from ours. They acknowledged that within God’s sovereign decree, He might have chosen to not save them from the furnace, and they acknowledge even in that eventuality that God is still good and worthy of their praise. This is a hard truth to accept apart from the grace of God, but when we accept that God is God and we are not, that He is the centrepiece of all history and not us, that He will glorify His name in all things even through our suffering it changes our perspective. Many Christians are not willing for God’s will for them to be any different from what they would prefer, and on a level we can all understand that, no one ever wishes to suffer, we certainly shouldn’t be praying for trials and suffering to come our way! However, when they do it’s imperative that we ask for God’s help so that we might suffer like Christians, suffer like Christ knowing that Yahweh is working even that to our good.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 11:36 ESV

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

So Nebuchadnezzar, filled with fury, has the three young hebrews bound and cast into the furnace which was so hot it destroyed the mighty men who were tasked with throwing Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in. And now something truly astonishing takes place, the King stands up and looking through the furnace doors he sees not three but four men, unhurt, walking about in the flames and one of them he says looks like a son of the gods! He calls them to come out of the fire and out they walk, not only are they completely unharmed but they don’t even smell like fire, it’s like they were never in there. The King then honours the three servants of God, and honours their God above all other Gods and even promotes the men within his government! I want for you to see these five things about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s deliverance from the flames;

God didn’t deliver them from the flames, He delivered them through the flames. So often in scripture God delivers His people through the trial not from the trial. He delivered Israel through the Red Sea not from it, He delivers Jonah through the belly of the whale not from it, He delivered Christ through death not from it. So often we are expecting God to deliver us from trials and testing instead of delivering us through them.

A Christian has comfort when facing fiery trials. It was in the fire that God showed up, not in the great throng in front of the golden image, nor in front of the King but in the fire. It’s in our moments of greatest weakness that God manifests Himself to us more closely than ever before. Therefore a Christian has good reason not to fear weakness and suffering for it’s in the midst of the fire that God draws closest.

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The men were walking about in the fire - The angel of the Lord and the three friends weren’t motionless in the flames, we are told that they were walking around. What does this tell us? That they were not overwhelmed by the fire, neither were they preoccupied with it, the fire was not able to stop them from walking with the Lord. When we face fiery trials we too must keep walking, keep following the Lord, focus our attention on Him as much as we are able and not look at the flames. I don’t believe that this was something that the men did by sheer will power, as if they by their own strength of mind kept focussed on the angel, I think the power for the men to walk in the fire came solely because God was with them. When we likewise face trials our ability to keep walking through those trials doesn’t come from within us, it comes from His presence, it’s the Lord who will help you to keep putting one foot infront of the other. So in pain, suffering and trials, we must keep putting one foot infront of the other following Him.

Moreover the men were unharmed by the fire - Just as Christ walked out of the tomb unharmed by death, showing no sign of corruption of the flesh or decay so these men came out of the fire carrying no ill effects at all. God’s deliverance is always miraculous, these men didn’t merely survive the fire, just as Christ didn’t merely survive the cross, they defeated the fire, just as Christ defeated death. When God allows us His Church to come into times of suffering and trial He does so in order that we would come out the other side in victory, triumphing over whatever fiery furnace we have been walking through.

The men received favour and were promoted - Not only did God deliver these men from the fiery furnace but He saw to it that they were promoted within Nebuchadnezzars government. This is remarkable, these men had refused to bow to the kings golden image, they had done the one thing that seemed sure to rob them of their influence in his kingdom and yet they were promoted. This is similar to the story of Joseph, where his route to power and influence with Pharoah led through the prison. There is a worldly ideology called pragmatism, which essentially says that in any thing, the ends always justify the means. For example, if the end is that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego retain their influence in the kings court, then any means they utilise to ensure that would be deemed good, even compromise or skulduggery. Not so in the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, the means are every bit as crucial as the end. The world says do all that you must to succeed, be aggressive, be rude, be selfish if you have to, whereas Christ shows us a completely different way to live. We surrender all of our needs, desires and ambitions to Yahweh, we choose to follow His word even when it seems counterintuitive and we leave the outcome to Him. Not only did S, M and A retain their positions in Nebuchadnezzars court, they were promoted. There are many Christians today who would chide these three men if they could for taking up position in Nebuchadnezzars government, and yet God was the one who put them there. I believe that in this day God is giving Christians positions of influence before the Nebuchadnezzars of our time, I believe that he will continue to do so. Even after Nebuchadnezzar had thrown these men to the flames they continued to serve him, isn’t that something?! What a witness! Are you ready to serve God even if it means serving a Nebuchadnezzar? Even if it means taking unpopular stands? Risking your reputation and your livelihood? Be assured, should you be led into the flames, God will deliver you through them, just as Christ has delivered His people through the flames of judgement untouched and unharmed.

Pray