DANIEL 3
Recently, I have been spending some time reading through the book of Daniel. There were a few thoughts that occurred to me while in the third chapter regarding the men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. These three men refused to bow down and worship an image made of gold, and thus their punishment was to be burned alive. Often, when we hear sermons about this chapter there is a full concentration on the fact that God is able to save them from the fire. This then leads to the lesson that God is able to save even us from the metaphorical fires in our lives. We can take comfort in the fact that this is absolutely true! God did save these three men from this actual fire and God continues to save His people from their trials. What I don’t want us to miss is that there is also a second lesson that we can take away from verse eighteen.
In this verse, we must acknowledge that while these three men recognized that God had the ability to save them, they were also aware of the very real possibility that He may choose not to. With this in mind, I would like to delve into two points specifically.
The first point is that we can and should worship God independent of His choice to save us from the fires in our lives. To these men, the very fact that God may allow them to be burned alive has no impact on their understanding that God alone deserves their worship. The allowance of this trial is not a variable in their decision and understanding that God deserves all their loyalty. Just like in our lives, we may or may not understand why God is allowing something to happen but we can still hold firm to what we know is right. They did not give the flames power of influence on their understanding and decision making, and we would do well to remember that when faced with difficult decisions in our own lives also. Even with the possibility that God would not deliver them from the furnace, they still refused to bow down and worship a created image despite the suffering and loss that they would therefore endure.
The second point that can often be missed is that there was salvation to be found despite either outcome. We celebrate how great God is in that the fire did not touch them, but we forget that if these men died in that moment they would be in the presence of the One that they so loved and worshiped. The first outcome is salvation from the fire and the second is destruction by the fire but straight on to be with the Lord. These three men had their victory either way!
While reading this passage the greatness of God is evident regarding the preservation of the lives of these three men. That said, the greatness of God also lies beyond their unscorched clothing! From our worldly perspective, sometimes we can believe that salvation from the fire is the only outcome that shows the sovereignty of God in this situation. In actuality, we can celebrate and trust regardless of either outcome because in life there was victory and in death there was victory!
Ryan Willert