“He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire,”
Daniel 3:25-26 NIV
I recently heard a sermon that changed my entire viewpoint about several things in my life. Everyone has heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego but do you know the whole story? I remember telling my kids this story and reading it but I didn’t remember some key points that I clearly missed. The first point was that this was not even their real names. Their given Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah and they were forced to change their names and thus their entire identity and told to no longer worship the God they served (Daniel 2). It hit me that so many times we give up who we are and what we believe in for others because of their demands or what might happen if we do not. But can you name one time that worked out for good? What came next was the big part of the story that I missed.
Have you ever been put in a position in life where you felt that the whole world was against you or where you felt like you needed to compromise your ethics or values just to make a living? I have had both regularly and recently and it’s hard to do the right thing especially when your life, your business and/or your family is on the line. In this story from Daniel Chapter 3, king Nebuchadnezzar made a massive golden statue and demanded that everyone worship and bow down to it and that those who refused would be punished. Does that sound like today? Where someone who doesn’t agree to the woke agenda gets cancelled. How many idols do they want you to worship today? Money? Sex? Government? Power? And what if you are the one who used to suffer from worshiping those idols and now try to break free. How are you treated? In this story from the Bible, the king was so furious he made his men stoke the furnace to 7 times hotter than normal and threated to throw the men in if they didn’t bow and worship the idol (Daniel 3:13-15). My favorite part was their stance and faith even staring down death. They told the king: “we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)
The king then ordered them tossed in the flames. The fire was so hot that it killed the men who pushed the three into it (Daniel 3:22). After the king demanded they were pushed inside, he jumped to his feet because he saw 4 men inside the blaze, not 3 and the “fourth looks like the Son of Man” (Daniel 3:25). And they were walking around unharmed. The king ordered them out of the fire and the three came out and didn’t even smell of smoke (Daniel 3:27). God has blessed and saved them because of their faith. Do you have a story to relate to this? The part that I missed in this story is that the 4th man didn’t come out. So what happened to the 4th man?
He Stayed Inside the Fire
In recent months I’ve been going through some things that I haven’t had to experience for a long time. My family asked me how it doesn’t make me panic. I had to remind myself that in the past God got me through and He will again. Even the king knew that the 4th man was Jesus but why didn’t He come out as well? The sermon I spoke of earlier made an excellent point that Jesus stayed inside the fire so that we can know if we are ever tested again with the same fire or trial that He will be there again and it struck me how that related to my life. It’s an amazing gift that He gave us to know that He not only will never leave us but will meet us at the lowest point again should we stumble. This is the foundation that Christianity has used to cure addictions and other idolatry since the beginning of time. We need to understand that the Holy spirit is always with us and God will always meet us at the low spots. If you are struggling and maybe even keep ending up in the same spot just know that God is there with you and He can use this experience to grow your faith and hope and help pull you out of darkness!
