Bow or Burn

                                                                                                        

Aloha Dearest Family,

             Lately I’ve been studying the book of Daniel. If you have not read it in a while I encourage you to do so. The book of Daniel focuses on four young men taken captive after the fall of Jerusalem and taken to Babylon. Their names were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The most prominent among them was Daniel. Can you imagine being a captive in a foreign country? They could do anything they want with you, even kill you. But these men not only survived life in Babylon but flourished.

             First, the king changed their names. Daniel became Belteshazzar, Hananiah became Shadrach, Mishael became Meshach, and Azariah was given the name Abednego. God gave them wisdom and understanding so that they were found to be the wisest of all of the men of the kingdom of Babylon. And through a number of miraculous events, these four men became the heads of certain provinces in Babylon. And they were still slaves. The wisdom they practiced outshone their states as slaves.

             In Daniel chapter 3, king Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image whose height was threescore cubits, breadth thereof six cubits. (This is as tall as the Washington monument). The decree throughout the land was that when certain music was played, you were required to bow down and worship the golden image. The penalty for not bowing down was to be thrown into a burning fiery furnace. (Nebuchadnezzar is a madman). Now Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were now rulers in Babylon, refused to bow down and worship this golden image. Most people would bow down rather than be burned alive in a furnace. Not these men. They would rather burn than bow.

            When the king heard this he was enraged. He called them and personally commanded them to bow and worship before the golden image.

            "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, "King Nebuchadnezzar, 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 NIV)

If you think the king was angry before, now he is so angry the scripture says that his appearance changed and he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than it was known to be heated. Next the king orders his mightiest men to bind them and throw them in. But the fire is so hot that it kills the men throwing them in.

             So our heroes fall down bound in the midst of the furnace. What happens next is one for the record books (in fact God had it recorded in the Bible). Nebuchadnezzar then looks into the furnace and is astounded by what he sees.

            "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Who is the fourth man? Some have said it was Jesus, but this happened many years before Jesus was born. This was an angel sent by God to protect these men. The king then commands these men to come out and what they see astounds them further.

        "And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God."

        Can God still do the same today? You bet He can – and He does! God has not changed. He can and still does do the same today for those who take a stand for God and not back down.

          Believers today get into some pretty hairy situations when their very lives are at stake. We cannot afford to bow down to the dire situations of life and living. God is Bigger. God knows how to deliver the righteous out of trouble and He loves it when we refuse to give in take a stand. When we take this kind of stand, God will not allow us to fall or fail. In short, if we don’t bow, we will not burn. 

   "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." (Psalm 34:19)

                                        Love Always, Ray