"Into the Fire" June 19 Readings: Daniel 1-4

Today's Reading - Daniel 1-4

Background

Daniel is one of the truly great men of biblical history. He is one of the few characters of the Bible's story without a major flaw or a sinful failing. From his boyhood in captivity until his older years in the lion's den and through all the visions God gave him, he is an example of spiritual courage and moral excellence.

Devotional - Into the Fire

It is one of my favorite stories in the Bible and has been since my youth. It has drama and tension and intrigue - everything that makes a story grand.

It begins in the mind of a megalomaniac named Nebuchadnezzar, who constructs a 90-foot high golden idol and demands that everyone in his kingdom bow down before it when the music sounded. Babylon was filled with captives, people from all over the world who still worshiped their own gods. The king didn't care about that as long as they kowtowed to his demands and when the instruments played demonstrated their loyalty by bowing before his god.

But there was a problem, one that was fairly easily identified, and one that Daniel 3:8-9 tells us was reported to the king. If when the music sounds everyone falls on their faces, it becomes pretty hard to hide the fact that three young Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were not bowing down. They were faithful servants to the king, but they refused to bow to his gods. When Nebuchadnezzar heard about their refusal, he hit the roof. In verses 14-15 he offered them one last chance to bow down and to save their hides, but their response was forceful (verses 16-18).

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

They would serve him. They would honor him. They would seek to please him any way they could. But they would not bow down to his gods. There was a limit to their submission. They faced the king in faith and confidence, believing that the God they worshiped was stronger than the most powerful man on earth, but they were also willing to face torture and death rather than serve the false gods of Babylon. 

This infuriated the king. He ordered the fire in the furnace heated to a temperature seven times its norm. He was going to show these impudent Jews what happened to dissenters and make an example out of them to everyone. No one would defy him! Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound and carried to the fire to be thrown to their deaths. It was so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were incinerated - a tragedy, to be sure, but at least Nebuchadnezzar had gotten his message across. 

But, wait! He looked into the fire to see to satiate his wrath and see the three young men writhing in agony, but he saw something very different. He saw the men who had been cast into the fire walking around, unbound, and there was another being with them, one he described as "like a son of the gods." I have a theory about who that might have been, but I'll let you guess that on your own! 

He called to the men and they walked out of the fire, unharmed, without even a whiff of an odor of smoke on them. Suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar knew the truth. There is a God in Israel, one unlike any other god. This God is real, not an idol. He's not some impersonal force to whom supplication is made to receive favors. He is a real God, a powerful God, a miracle-working God. 

How Nebuchadnezzar's attitude had changed. He may not have been "converted" but he suddenly had an amazing respect for the God these men worshiped. 

This all happened because three young men believed God enough to obey him, even at great cost, at the threat of their own lives. But because they believed, a wicked man saw the power of a mighty God. May we believe God and obey him that the world may see his power and tremble!

Father, may I live in faith and obedience to you in such a way that the world may see your power and tremble before you!

Think and Pray

Do you have the moral courage to make bold stands for Christ even at the cost of suffering?