God has been speaking to me about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Let’s dive into Daniel 3.
You have three men who are a part of what is the government of Babylon, but they are God-fearing men. At the time, King Nebuchadnezzar created a golden image and demanded that all people, at the sound of any kind of music, must bow and worship this image. If anyone failed to do so, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. These three men were devoted to God and chose not to bow to any other God, even if they would be punished for it. They were brought before the king, but still did not bow to the image. The king, in his anger and frustration, declared they should be thrown into the fiery furnace, and not only that, he declared that the furnace was seven times hotter than normal. These weren’t just random men; they were Jews appointed to oversee the affairs of the province of Babylon; they had status. They responded to the king with faith, believing that God could deliver them, but even if he didn’t, they chose to remain faithful to God rather than bow before an image. They were thrown into the fiery furnace for their beliefs. This story has me stunned because I am sitting here putting myself in their shoes. These men had status; they were a part of the government of Babylon. We often get into the mindset that “if I had status,” or “if I am known,” then bad things won't happen. Can you imagine how that felt walking up to the fiery furnace? My mind would be reeling like “God, are you there? We're about to be thrown into fire; you can stop this at any time.” It would feel like man, this is too late, we’re going to die. How many of us would lose faith the closer we got to the fire? There is a belief system in the body of Christ today that says that if we follow God, nothing bad can/should/will happen to us. This is just not true. Looking at this story today, I am confronted by the faith of these men. They were thrown into the fire. They could have lost faith, but an angel of the Lord entered the fire with them, and they were not harmed. God didn’t stop them from being thrown into the fire. Many of us would feel you can keep me from the fire, Lord, but He's saying it in the fire that MY GLORY will be made known. Wow. Just think about that, not my will but your will be done. He is faithful, but there might be moments when we are sent to a burning furnace that is hotter than anything we know, but God is in the fire.
God was speaking to me in this, showing me how we have become a people of little faith and how we give up hope when we need it the most. We are living in interesting times. We need to have faith at our core and understanding that God will do something even if it's in the fire.
We often romanticize our walk with God into something of a magical, nothing-bad-can-happen-to-me relationship. Where do we find this in the Bible? There is no story without pain or facing fears. We have to get this mentality out of our heads and start living with the faith of these three men. We might think God should have saved them before the fire, and that would have been great. God had a different plan, one far greater than saving them before the fire. He saved them in the fire. This shook all who were there, and King Nebuchadnezzar saw the glory of God and declared that He would be worshiped instead of his golden image. Their faith transformed Babylon. That’s what God wants from us. More than just living a Godly life, he wants to use you and your story to transform regions and nations.