[Nebuchadnezzar said], “Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?"
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." (NKJ)
Living: “If we are thrown into the flaming furnace, our God is able to deliver us; and he will deliver us out of your hand, Your Majesty. But if he doesn't, please understand, sir, that even then we will never under any circumstance serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have erected."
God is able to deliver, but even if He doesn’t, we will continue to serve Him and not sin.
How often do we place the strength of our faith on our circumstances? On what we think or expect God to do, rather than on His character? How often do we put our faith aside when hard times come, thinking that by being believers we should be excused?
There isn’t much said about these three men in scripture. They are mentioned earlier in Daniel as being with him in refusing to sin by eating foods forbidden by the Law and they are three of the ones Daniel set up as governors. But other than that, there is no mention. In other words, they weren’t great preachers. They simply worked in a foreign place, kept themselves clean of the sin of that society, and were willing to give up their lives for God. Actually, that’s a lot! Think just about living in a foreign place. No familiar foods. Away from your family. Strange language, strange customs, always wondering what the next “impossible” demand might be. These young men had very little security in their lives aside from their faith.
When the Israelites were first taken into captivity, King Nebuchadnezzar decided to take the best and the brightest and train them for his court. Daniel and these three young men were among those chosen. The king, believing that giving them the best of life would produce the best in them, sent all kinds of delicacies for them to eat. But Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego felt that these things would defile him and so declined, preferring to eat simply vegetables and drink water. They could have eaten the same delicious food as the king, but knowing that the king didn’t have a kosher kitchen, remained eating plain simple foods. In other words, from the beginning, they were giving up, living sacrificially.
You might think that simply having to live in a different country as a slave might be enough sacrifice in one’s life to satisfy God. But God is, I think, much more concerned with our character than our circumstances. His purpose is never to reward us here in this life, but to prepare us for the next. And a far greater sacrifice faced the three young men when they were faced with being thrown into the furnace.
The fire was so hot that the men who threw them in perished. And while the three young men were saved, miraculously, without even a singe on their hair, they had no idea that God would work a miracle. They were simply willing to serve Him, even if it meant dying for Him. Are we? Are we willing to serve God to the point of dying for Him? Are we willing to give up all creature comforts in order to remain pure for Him? These accounts were given to us in scripture in order to be examples for us (1 Cor. 10:11). The question is . . . will we heed the example, step up the pace, and learn to live one hundred percent for the Lord?
© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment