Faith: Facing the Flames

Daniel 3:8 (NASB95)

For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews.

Daniel 3:8-30; Hebrews 11:34 

Last week we looked at Jonathan, and learnt on

How we view God dramatically affects the persons we become. 

How we understand God to work radically affects the life we live in God.

INTRODUCTION:

Os Guiness in his book The Call, 

“The modern world offers an endless range of choice and change, overwhelming traditional simplicities and cohesion. This intensification of choice and change has effects on many levels. Life has become a smorgasbord with an endless array of dishes. And more important still, choice is no longer just a state of mind. Choice has become a value, a priority, a right. 

To be modern is to be addicted to choice and change. Each choice sprouts with its own questions. Might we? Could we? Should we? Will we? Won’t we? What if we had? What if we hadn’t? The forest of questions leads deeper and deeper into the dark freedom, then to the ever-darker anxiety of seemingly infinite possibility. 

Most devastating of all the increase in choice and change leads to a decrease in commitment and continuity—to everyone and everything. Thus obligation melts into option and givenness into choice. We are taught to avoid above all being “stuck” with commitments that might “mortgage” the freedom of tomorrow. Choice for modern people is a right that overwhelms both responsibility and rationality. 

Ultimately only one thing can conquer choice—being chosen. 

My challenge is therefore deliberate. Many followers of Jesus today have not begun to wrestle with the full dimensions of the truth of calling because they have not been stretched by the real challenges of today’s world and by the momentousness of the present hour. “A time to stand” is a time to behave as our Lord would wish us to behave. A time to behave is a time to believe as he has taught us to believe. A time to believe is a time to move from small, cozy formulations of faith to knowing what it is to be called by him as the deepest, most stirring, and most consuming passion of our lives.” 

We are called to move from cozy formulation, to engage at the deepest level to know what it is to be called. 

And this morning we are going to look at 3 individuals, who because they knew they are chosen and are called, stood tall, showed tremendous display of faith and made very courageous choice.”

It is said that a faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted.

False faith withers in times of trials, but true faith takes deeper root, grows and brings glory to God.

The experience of these three men helps us examine our own faith and determine whether we have the kind of authentic faith that can be tested and bring glory to God.

What does their faith look like:

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego’s testimony is that even in the midst of the fiery experiences of life, through faith we can conquer and God will give us spiritual victory.

Background:

Nebuchadnezzar has conquered the people of God and taken many of them back to Babylon. Daniel was one of these, but our story today focuses on his three friends – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

So they are living in exile in a foreign land, but they were determined to be true to God, even though they worked for the government. And this wasn’t easy, especially with the beliefs and practices of the people of Babylon.

Think about what Nebuchadnezzar is doing here, especially in light of chapter two. Remember in Daniel chapter two Nebuchadnezzar saw a vision of another image. When Daniel came around and he interpreted that other image for the king, Nebuchadnezzar discovered that in that image he was only the head of gold. In the rest of that image represented kings and kingdoms that would follow in succession after the sun had set in Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.

Moreover, in chapter two we heard twice the declaration that ultimately, it’s the Lord who sets up kings and kingdoms. God in his sovereignty and providence is the one responsible for setting up kings and kingdoms and bringing down kings and kingdoms; not Nebuchadnezzar , nor anyone else. It’s the Lord who will one day set up his own kingdom, an eternal and everlasting kingdom that will supplant all kings and kingdoms for all eternity.

Now here in Daniel three, Nebuchadnezzar makes an image entirely of gold. You see the head is not enough for Nebuchadnezzar. Throughout this passage, that same verb that we encountered in chapter two, the verb to set up, that was used to explain God’s role in orchestrating the rise and fall of kings and kingdoms is now used with Nebuchadnezzar as the subject.

Nebuchadnezzar, we are told in the first seven verses a total of six times, that he set up this image. So, in other words, there’s good reason to believe here that Nebuchadnezzar in chapter three is trying to set up a sort of counter image to the one he saw in his dream in chapter two. Perhaps with the intent, if it would even be possible, at overturning the decree of God and ensuring that his own glory and security of his kingdom would continue down through the ages.

In short, Nebuchadnezzar is trying to make a name for himself here.

v. 1 sets up our story – “King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.” So this was a really big idol – 90 feet high and 9 feet wide.

V. 6 conveys his order to everyone, “whoever does not fall down and worship (the image) shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”

Although he was enraged, the king decided to give them a second chance. Knowing the kings of those days we know they were not used to giving second chances.

They already knew they would be thrown in the fire. But they have strong faith in God.

They entrusted themselves into God’s hands

Vs. 15 “what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

Vs.16-18:

Verses 16 to 18 are the key verses in the chapter. They record for us the reply of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar. It is a reply which is dignified and confident, full of trust in God, and yet not presumptuous before him.

Though the king had become angry, these three men remained calm.

They had no fear of man, only God!

They certainly could have come up with many ways to compromise and justify their disobedience to God, we do it all the time today.

1. Everybody else is doing it

2. Our office demands that we obey

3. We’ll bow our knees, but we won’t bow our hearts

4. We can do our people more good by being officers in the king’s service, than by being ashes in the king’s furnace.

True faith doesn’t look for loopholes, it simply obeys God and knows that He will do what is best.

Faith rests on truth and promises, not on arguments and explanations.

The three Hebrew men believed that God would deliver them, but they would trust Him even if He didn’t. They asked for nothing in return.

That is how faith is supposed to operate in our lives.

Remember the quote from Oswald Chambers, “ The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”

See how they deflate the king’s arrogance. He has asked at the end of verse 15, “What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Nebuchadnezzar believed that he is number one, greater than any god you might mention. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego simply reply, 

“O Nebuchadnezzar…”, using his personal name. No titles, no “O king, live for ever”. They address him as a man, and nothing more. They know that he is only a human being, despite what he might like to think! They know that their record speaks for itself: “We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter” (verse 16). 

And then comes their tremendous statement of confidence in God:

“Our God..” Who? The God of Israel, the God of all their history, the God of the exodus, the God of Sinai, the God of the conquest. They may have been living in Babylon, and working for the Babylonian government, but their hadn’t forgotten their faith. They knew God personally for themselves. He is “Our God…”

ii) “…We serve…” – Yes, Nebuchadnezzar, we are your civil servants. But actually in serving you and the Babylonian empire we are serving our God, who put you there in the first place!

iii) “…Is able to save us…” – The same God who made the sea and rescued Israel from it in the past, is the same God who made fire in the first place, and can save from that as well. As I pointed out last time (on chapter two) the key phrase is “God is able…”

iv) “…And he will rescue us… but even if he does not…” – These are crucial words. This is the triumphant affirmation of complete faith in God, which still leaves God the freedom to do as he pleases. They fully expected a miracle, but they would serve God without one.

It is a combination which is not always easy to hold together, but which is vital. And it does sound rather different to that which some so-called Christian teachers pronounce today. We are told by some that any need we have which requires a touch of the miraculous should be ours if we claim it by faith – name it and claim it! God is able and God always will!Verse 17 might lead us to that conclusion, but not verse 18. The Bible does not teach that God always will.

Heb 11:33–37

 “33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,

34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;

36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated”

Vs.19:21:

These three men were to be thrown into the fiery furnace.

vv. 22-25:

The furnace was so hot that the guards who threw these three men into the furnace were immediately burned up.

The King noticed that there were four men walking around in the furnace, and he was astonished.

He noticed that the fourth looked like the Son of God. It was the Pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

God was with them in their trials

vv. 26-30:

The king ordered the men out of the furnace; as all of the officials gathered around, they noticed that their hair was not singed, their clothes were unharmed, and they didn’t even smell like smoke!

v. 27 tells us that the fire had no power over them, God came through for them

Nebuchadnezzar, His emotions go from anger, through alarm, to admiration (acknowledges the greatness of the true God)

For we are in a similar situation. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego we too live in exile in a foreign land. Peter calls all Christians “pilgrims” in this world – 1 Peter 2:10. And the author of Hebrews talks about the saints as those who have “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” 11:13.

And in our time of exile we too will go through trials of various kinds. The world tries to get us to live by its will instead of God’s will for us. And this often puts us in a bind where we have to choose. And the evil one, the god of this world is always seeking to test and try us. And as 1 Peter 1:7 says, we are “tested by fire.”

Lessons: As called people, we need to recognise our faith will always be put to test

THE COST OF FAITH:

Faith in God always has a cost attached to it. “Everyone who lives a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3: 12).

they were willing to pay the price.

Faith is not believing that God will.....faith is believing that God CAN...and then leaving the decision of whether He will or not to Him.

Faith calls us to be willing to operate in the realm of uncertainty. The realm of uncertainty is also the realm of miracles. 

Faith calls for commitment: just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made the right choice and stuck with it despite the rage of many and the threat to their lives, so we need to make right choices. We can’t let difficult circumstances lead us to be unfaithful to God.

Lesson:

In the fiery furnace here’s what happened.

Freedom from their bonds: the only thing that the fire touched was their bonds, they found freedom in the fire when they were bond outside the fire.

Secondly, Who showed up. There was an awesome encounter with Jesus in the middle of the fire. It became a worship experience for them.

Thirdly: the ones who were the safest, the guards. They ended up being perishing. 

What if because of the uncertainty we might be refusing the journey, we might be refusing an opportunity from bounds we might not even known our lives. We might be missing an opportunity to encounter Jesus in a fresh way. And by remaining were we are because we think we are safer something might actually die within us that we might not be aware of. 

Illustration:

Stoddard Kennedy was a chaplain during World War II, he was often thrust in the frontlines of battle, where his ministry to the troops endangered his life. One day while he and the armies were moving through France, Chaplain Kennedy wrote this letter to his 10 year old son, “The first prayer I want my son to learn to say for me is not “God, keep daddy safe,” but “God, make daddy brave. And if he has hard things to do, make his strong to do them.”

Son, life and death don't matter. But right and wrong do. Daddy dead is daddy still, but daddy dishonoured before God is something too awful for words. I suppose you would like to put in a bit about safety, too, and Mother would like that, I’m sure. Well, put it in afterwards, for it really doesn’t matter nearly as much as doing what is right.”