Read Daniel 1,3
God’s people received an alarming message from Isaiah, that God would allow their enemies to conquer them and take them into captivity. Time and time again they had rejected God’s ways and chosen to live in opposition to them. Now God does the most disturbing thing – he gives them what they want. They have chosen to worship things and made up gods instead of him, and so they are now left to the worthless protection of these non-existent deities.
We zoom in on some young men who have been taken by Babylon. They are forced into service there, and given new names to remove their Jewish identities. The King forms an absolutely enormous statue and decrees that everyone shall be required to fall down and worship it, or be thrown into a blazing furnace.
God’s people are to worship no other thing or god. The young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, know they must not bow before this statue. They’ve seen the trouble that worshipping things has got their people into. But will it be worth dying for?
I wonder is there any value or person you hold dear enough to die for? Is there anything you’d consider your life worth giving up for? Very few things I imagine. This life is precious once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Isn’t it?
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego aren’t prepared to compromise. They are spotted failing to bow to the statue and hauled before the king for a dressing down. He threatens them with the furnace, but they won’t budge. They are confident God can defeat a furnace. But even if he doesn’t, they refuse to bow.
Why?!? It’s one thing to be confident God will deliver. But whilst they are 100% confident of his ability, they aren’t expressing 100% confidence he will choose to! And yet they aren’t prepared to hedge their bets. They are sticking with God. Are they mad?! Or do they know something about life that isn’t immediately apparent – that we don’t only live once. That after this life, there is another for those who entrust themselves to God. The Saviour who was promised way back at the beginning was to restore relationship with God. That relationship is a forever one so that after death, life continues with the God who loves abundantly. These guys aren’t mad, they just aren’t prepared to gamble eternal life for a few more years living in captivity.
And so, having taken their stance, they are bound and into the furnace they go. It’s so hot that the henchmen who throw them in are instantly killed just by approaching the entrance. It’s an awful fate, and yet there is an inexplicable beam of light. As the king looks in, he sees not three, but four men walking around in the flames. The fourth man looks like a ‘son of the gods’. The king has Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego removed from the flames and miraculously they are completely unharmed. They don’t even smell like they’ve been at a bonfire.
In the hottest, fieriest trial they could image, the men found someone walking alongside them in the flames. A Saviour stood beside them. Yesterday, Isaiah told us the Saviour, the Lamb, would be a man. We already knew the Lamb needed to be a firstborn male – now the Saviour who walks with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is described as ‘a son of the gods’.
This Saviour can’t and won’t just be the firstborn son of anyone…
Reflect
Have you considered what happens after death?
What would you give up in this life to gain eternal days?
What would it mean to you not to be alone in the fieriest of circumstances?
Susie lives in NE Fife and works in ministry. She loves being with friends, feeding people and half finished creative projects.
