By: Stan Shollenbarger
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
Do you live by faith or logical calculation?
I am so happy and feel very blesssed to live in America. The freedoms, opportunity, and safety we have is honestly the exception as compared to the rest of the world. But that comfort also sometimes brings with it a lack of a “need” for faith.
Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego were actually subjects to the conquering Babylonians. Despite the fact that they and Daniel were given a degree of favor by the king they were still by no means living a life that made following God easy. King Nebuchadnezzar, in a show of force was drawing a line in the sand and was going to show these three who was boss. He was asking them to submit to his wishes and both he and they knew those wishes were contrary to what they believed God wanted from them.
I wish my reaction, when I have to choose between what I know God would have me do and what the worlds asks me to do would look like the reaction of our three friends. And, if in the end I look foolish, so be it – I want to be faithful to God.
Nebuchadnezzar gets so mad that he orders that the furnace be made 7 times hotter than normal. It is so hot it kills the guards trying to push Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego in the furnace.
When the heat gets turned up, and up, and up that is when my logic wants to start kicking in and create a compromise. Can you relate?
I want my reaction to be, God is with me. That’s all I need. I don’t understand it and this really seems weird, but no matter what, I want to have faith that God is with me.
In the furnace the king sees 4 men walking around and the appearance of the 4th is like that of the gods. (V25)
I would not have seen that coming! Jesus meeting them in the fire and then protecting them so that not even their clothes smelled like smoke when they came out! Really, look at verse 27. You see over and over again in the bible examples of when God showed up. He is faithful.
When push come to shove are you looking to solve the problem or are you willing to go All In on faith. I have tried to solve problems with so-so results. Will you consider joining with me on an all-in type of faith?