First of all, my apologies for not posting anything for far too long… I hadn’t forgotten, but amid the bustle of things to do and to be done, blogging has slipped farther and farther down the list. I’ll try to do better in the future though.

A few evenings ago, for evening worship, we were talking about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. That story is such a classic Bible story.

I always used to think that the purpose of this story was to show that God can rescue you out of the most dire trouble. He certainly can. But this time, I saw it in a new light. Rescuing the three friends from the furnace was only part of the story. It’s a story about worship and commitment.

The three young men were determined to stand for God – quite literally in this case. When they were called to answer for their disobedience to the royal decree, they didn’t waver. They were no cowards, even when they were standing before the ill-tempered king who ruled most of the civilized world at the time.  They were so far from being cowards that they told the king that “we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.” They already knew their answer.

“Our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.” (emphasis added) God was able to deliver them from the furnace, and He would deliver them from the hand of the king. That’s interesting. Apparently delivering them from the fiery furnace is separate from delivering them from the hand of the king.

“But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

“If not” what? Probably if God chose not to deliver them from the fiery furnace…

Was there any thought in the young men’s minds that God was going to rescue them? They knew that He could do it. But in plain sight was the furnace, now being heated seven times more than it was designed to be heated. I’m sure they were aware of the very real possibility that they could be martyrs.

And so they were cast into the fire, but not to death. Death fell upon the men who cast them in, however. It seems rather ironic – Nebuchadnezzar wanted to destroy the men who defied his authority, yet instead he ended up killing the “most mighty men that were in his army.” And the men who were supposed to be destroyed ended up as national heroes.

This is a showdown type of story. And God wins, just like He did on Mount Caramel, and just like He has ever since. Yet His victory is not merely based on preserving His men from harm. That almost strikes me as of secondary importance. The crucial moment was just before they were cast into the furnace. All fear of death was gone. All fear of the king was gone. Instead, it had been replaced with all trust in God. And that’s where the real victory was. The power of God to turn a feeble human being into a courageous man, with no fear of anything someone else might do to him…

So many times Christians who seem perfectly steadfast and loyal end up failing when presented with certain temptations. “Surely God wouldn’t keep me out of heaven just for that.” I’ve even tried to use that line of reasoning (better known as excuses) myself. But that’s not what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. They could have come up with all kinds of reasons why it would be okay to bow before the image.

But they knew they could trust God with their lives. In fact, God was the only one to whom they could safely entrust their lives.

It wasn’t the first time they had risked their lives to remain faithful to God. But it was probably the scariest. The Bible doesn’t paint a picture of fearful men, however. These were men who had forgotten every trace of their natural self-preservation.

To them, life would not have been worth living had they purchased it by compromise.

Oh, that we would see more of that kind of commitment today…