“Trial By Fire”

Scripture: Daniel 3 (Selected verses)

During the month of May, we will be looking at some of the trials that people of faith are subjected to. In some instances, our struggles are similar to those of the world, such as illness, finances, hunger, and so on, but there are others that are unique to the faithful, and they usually center on issues related to persecution.
But even in the commonality that we have with non-Christians, we approach our troubles, and we deal with our troubles, in different ways. When we get sick or break our arm, we all go to a doctor for treatment and care – or at least we should! When we lose our job, or experience financial setbacks, we change our lifestyle to reduce expenses, and set out to find a new job. We all do that. When we’re hungry, we eat. When we’re tired, we sleep. Nothing very surprising here.
But when we have problems in our relationships, or when we are hated because of what we look like and because of who we are, or even when we have some of the same troubling issues that our counterparts experience, we see the situation, and our way through it, in a different way. Instead of trying to resolve the issue on our own, or just bucking up and moving through the physical pain or emotional hurt with our own strength, we look to the one who not only can help us resolve our struggle, but who will walk with us through our darkness and who will never leave us.
That is the difference - people of faith have always, and will always, depend on their Lord God for guidance and wisdom and power to get them through their trials. And so, for the next 4 weeks, we will consider the divine lessons that we are to learn through the Book of Daniel. The children of Israel were in captivity; they were being held in slavery in Babylon; they were subject to all the rules and demands of a pagan society; and it wasn’t a pleasant time for them. Today, we begin with a look at the extent that some will go to in showing their disdain toward the faith of others.

Read Daniel 3:1-7

Have you ever had one of those days when something happens, and you just know that it will never bode well for you? When Israel heard this particular decree, they had that same sinking feeling – that it was not going be a good thing for them. Worship the gold idol, or die – it was to be, literally, a “trial by fire” for the people. The decree would test their resolve to be faithful to their God, it would test their courage to do what was right, and they knew that Nebuchadnezzar would, without hesitation, enforce the penalty on all who refused to worship.

But the strange thing is that the King knew Daniel and the faith that he had in the true God. Daniel had interpreted a dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s when no one else could. The King showed great honor to the Israelite, he knew the power and wisdom that came from their God, and yet, with the erection of this monstrous gold god, he was, in essence, thumbing his nose at Daniel’s Lord. And just to make sure that everyone knew about it, he summons all of the officials of the land, and there were a lot of them, to come to the dedication of this travesty. The ceremony occurs, the music plays, and everyone obediently falls down in worship to this most recently ordained idol – partly out of respect for the king, but primarily, I think, out of fear for the reprisals!
But they don’t all fall down. Some do not, and it includes 3 young Israelite men who had been placed in positions of authority in the kingdom. Because of their offices, they had become more visible than other Jews, and their disobedience quickly came to the attention of the king’s astrologers. Now we may not see much authority in someone who tries to discern the future, and to unravel mysteries, through the movement of the heavenly bodies. But the people of Daniel’s day did. These men had great influence, and they used it very effectively.

And what was the charge that was brought against the 3 men? They “pay no attention to you, O king.”, which was pretty serious in and of itself, but it got worse. Not only weren’t they doing what the king had ordered, but they had no interest or respect for the king’s gods, and more importantly, in this new one.
Religious freedom was a foreign concept in those days. There was no freedom of choice – you simply worshipped the same as your leaders did. And now, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in trouble.

Read Daniel 3:13-15

You can repent of your sacrilegious attitude, or you can die. Some choice!! Simple, but not especially pleasant! Deny the one true God, or be burned to death. And as if the penalty wasn’t dire enough, Nebuchadnezzar throws out an insult to them – “Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
Did the king really think that he was more powerful than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? After what Daniel had done for him? Now, maybe the king was thinking about the gods he knew and not the Almighty God, remembering what his gods had been unable to do in the past, and how he was able to do things that they could not. That would put a false sense of power in your heart, if anything would.
There are many people today who consider our God to be bound by many of the same limitations that we are - that standards tend to change with the circumstances that confront us; that decisions are not perfect and must be modified to make them pertinent for the moment; that Godly power can come and go, that it can be strong one minute and weak the next; that God will back down when the going gets tough.
This is about as great a mistake as any that can be made. The king had totally misjudged the power and majesty of God, and he had totally missed the fact that their faith was absolute - that his bullying could never make a difference in their dedication to their Sovereign God.

Read Daniel 3:16-18

The men not only refused the king’s overture to repent, but they refuse to even defend themselves against the charges! Think about it – if they attempted to justify their decision to deny the false god, the king would only have grown more angry; if they had witnessed to their faith in the true God, the king would have refused to listen; if they had appealed to the king’s good nature (which he didn’t really have!), he would have laughed at them. And besides that, why should anyone have to defend God? The omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the universe, needing to be defended by the likes of us? There is nothing in all of scripture that calls us to do that! We are to simply follow him and worship him and obey him. Period.

And that is what Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego do. “Our God can save us, no matter what you try to do to silence us. And even if he chooses to let us die, we still won’t worship in your false way!”

That’s what God wants to hear! Faith, and faith, and faith again!

And they are thrown into a furnace that has been stoked up to a heat that is 7 times hotter than it has ever been before – so hot that the soldiers who push them in die from the heat. But the 3 Hebrew men do not!

Read Daniel 3: 24-27

God will not allow them to go through this alone, and a “son of the gods” has joined them. It makes you wonder if this image is not just an angel, but the Angel of the Lord, the true and only Son of God? Has Jesus himself joined them, and in the joining, protects them? In this most severe “trial by fire”. Greater than anything that anyone could possibly imagine, Jesus is with them.

And when the king orders the 3 to come out of the furnace, the same furnace that killed the strongest soldiers of the kingdom, there isn’t even a hint of first degree burns on their bodies, not even one singed hair on their heads, not even the scent of smoke on their clothes – no evidence whatsoever that they were even near the furnace, let alone deep inside it.

The condemnation of the world can never hold a candle, if you’ll pardon the expression(!), against the salvation of Jesus Christ. Not then, and not now. And Nebuchadnezzar recognizes the power of their God, and rightly decides that he had better change his attitude toward Almighty God, and lets his subjects know that no one is allowed to say anything against the God of Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego.

What a demonstration of faith! And we think our trials are difficult! Think about the extent that God went to for these 3 young Jewish boys, and then imagine what he would do for us in our daily circumstances. In illness, in financial loss, in job setbacks, in the corruption of our relationships, in times of persecution and ridicule, in hunger and thirst and exhaustion.

Remember Jesus words:
Matthew 21:22 – “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
And in John 16:23-24 – “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. .. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

But Jesus cautions us that “to ask in his name” can never be a shallow and halfhearted effort. “IF YOU BELIEVE” is the critical phrase here, because just saying Jesus name is not enough – to ask in his name is a statement of faith, a declaration of who we believe in. Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego had faith – solid and unwavering faith – and just see what it brought to them! If we come to the Lord in faith - firm and steadfast, unyielding to the pressures of the world - just imagine what he will do for you!

We have our own trials by fire every day – some are faith shaking, some are soul stretching, and some are life threatening. But none, I expect, are quite as challenging as the one that faced these 3 Hebrew men. God was faithful to them, and he will be faithful to us – in all circumstances, in all situations, in all trials.
Give Almighty God a chance to prove the power of any request that you make in Jesus name, and you, too, will immerge without a single trace of trial left on your soul.