Daniel 3:19-23 – “To the End”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled [with] fury and the expression of his face changed upon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answering and saying to make hot the furnace a one of seven more than being seen to heat it, ²⁰and men of greatness of valor who in his army he ordered to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cast [them] to the furnace of the fire of the burning. ²¹Then the men those were bound in their garments, their tunics and their turbans and their clothes and they were cast to the midst of the furnace of the fire of the burning. ²²Thereupon, because the order of the king being urgent and the furnace being heated exceedingly, the men those who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the flame of the fire killed them, ²³and the men those the three of them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell to the midst of the furnace of the fire of the burning being bound.

I think, in a sense, v23 is the most significant -- “and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.” What I mean is, at this very point in the narrative, the guys are as good as dead. They had told Nebuchadnezzar the Lord might deliver them, but at this point it looks like He did not. The furnace is quite real. The men who threw them in died in the terrible heat. Nebuchadnezzar had warned that anyone who did not bow and worship would in fact suffer this fate – and at this point in the narrative, it looks like that is exactly what has happened. I suspect Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego felt it all – the pain of having the king so angry at them, then no doubt being handled roughly by the soldiers, perhaps tied painfully tightly, then the terrible heat as they were carried to the brink of the fire pit and cast in. Anyone who viewed the whole thing no doubt would assume at this point, they are dead.

I point out all of this because I think this is often the case as we are called upon in any way to do right in spite of this world’s disfavor or simply to do right in ways that look like we’re walking into a black hole. Everything we fear may look like it is coming true even as we try to stay our course – right down to the very last minute.

What if you didn’t know the rest of the story? They didn’t. If it would have ended here, would God have still been faithful? I hope your answer is yes. That is what the guys told Nebuchadnezzar – “Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He doesn’t …” They believed they should persevere even if they died in the process. Their faith isn’t seen so much in the fact that they were delivered but rather that they trusted God not knowing the outcome. They trusted God even as the soldiers tossed them into the open air and they dropped into the fire. Note the last words are “being bound.” They fell “bound.” That means they were delivered in the fire. They fell into it bound.

That is the picture of faith. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

And I want to say I think one of the great dangers of reading this passage is to treat it as some kind of “pie in the sky” sort of thing. It would be easy to read it and walk away with some grandiose assertion, “Yes, yes. We should all have faith to stand for the right even if we’re called upon to die!” That may be true, but we lose the great benefit of the Bible if we limit its application to some far off unlikely challenge in our life. What about today? I believe we all face the raging king, the cruel soldiers, and the roaring furnace every day in a hundred million little challenges. Perfect love has to cast out fear whether the issues are large or small, whether the real threats come from a roaring furnace or from my overactive imagination. We all face threatening obstacles even when we simply resolve to love others today no matter what, to be faithful at my job even though I’m tired, to love my wife even when I don’t get what I want, to be honest even if it looks like I’m a fool.

But what should we do? Like our friends, we should trust God and do right even to the point we feel we’re dropping into an open furnace.

By the way, people offer their suggestions what sort of furnace this was, so I’ll throw in my two cents: One of the “problems” they have in the area of Babylon (now Iraq) is that there are no rocks to build with. We’re used to reading Bible stories centered in Palestine where there are rocks everywhere to build with. But that is not the case in Babylon. In Babylon, they would have to find places to mine clay then make bricks. I suspect that this furnace is actually a kiln for firing bricks. The kiln could easily be large. Babylon was a huge city and would need a lot of bricks for the building of houses, walls, etc. Also, I can imagine it would make sense if the wood was loaded from the top, so there would be some kind of stairs or ramp on which to haul the wood to the top, where even large logs could then be dropped in. Such a kiln would also have an open front to allow loads of brick to be rolled in and out. Perhaps all these features would be present in pretty much any kind of furnace or kiln used to heat materials, but the basic configuration would readily accommodate the events of our study.

Our story ends today with our friends as good as dead. So often, this is where it seems our lives and problems “end” too. But like our friends, let us resolve to be all the Lord would have us to be and trust Him with the outcome.

Daniel 3:13-18 – “Brave”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in shaking anger and hot wrath said to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then the men those were brought before the king. ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answering and saying to them, “[Is it] true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, my gods you are not serving and the image of the gold which I set up not worshipping? ¹⁵Now if you are ready in the time which you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, zither, the lyre, harp, and pipes, and the all of the kinds of music you fall and you worship the image I made and if not you will worship in that moment, you will be cast to the midst of the furnace of the fire burning, and who [is] that god who will deliver you from my hand?” ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and saying to the king Nebuchadnezzar, “We not having need upon this matter to respond. ¹⁷If it is [so], our God whom we worshipping being able to deliver us from the furnace of the fire burning and from your hand, O king, He may deliver [us].¹⁸And if not being delivered, let it be [known] to you O king that your gods we are not serving and the image of the gold which you set up we will not worship.”

I want to record one last thought before I leave this passage.

As I have been studying this passage and reading it over and over, I keep thinking how thankful I am that faith makes us brave. Generations of believers have admired the courage of these young fellows and rightfully so, but I’d like to ponder it for a bit.

Someone may simply conclude they were “brave” men, but I would suggest there is always something more going on in person’s heart when we see bravery, for whatever cause. Fear is a powerful emotion and too easily seizes all of our hearts. Someone has claimed that “Fear not” is the most oft-repeated command in the Bible. I do not doubt it. It’s there from cover to cover. Two verses that have personally buttressed my heart many, many times are: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a well-ordered mind,” (II Tim 1:7) and “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness … For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, ‘Fear not, for I am with thee’” (Isaiah 41:10,13).

But being honest, I have to say I often find myself “afraid” to do something I should, like make a phone call or talk to a particular person about something, or just deal with some kind of situation at work or at home, and I quote those verses to myself to steel my resolve and help me “just do it.” Obviously what these guys have to fear standing before a raging king and being thrown into a furnace makes my “fears” sound trivial, but I personally believe it all works the same. The same mental processes of faith have to be exercised in the “little” fear issues of our life in order to prepare us for the times when we face the “big” issues. That’s where verses like II Tim 1:7 and Isa 41:10-13 are so needed. Again, fear is a very powerful emotion. We need the power of God’s Word and His promises and Presence to help us be brave and go ahead and do what we should, in spite of our fears.

Can I go so far as to say that, underneath it all, I am actually quite the coward? I’ll stick my neck out and say that because I think it’s actually true of all of us. You can decide for yourself whether it is true of you, but for myself I would say that I simply am not brave. My natural posture toward life is always to turn and run. I think it is very easy to simply let fear rule me and then do whatever it takes to avoid whatever it is I’m fearing. I find myself there often and, as I’ve read over and over about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I see all the same forces at work – especially how faith is overcoming their fear and making them people we call “brave.” Again, I’ll go so far as to say I don’t think they were any more brave than me, that in their heart of hearts they were just as big a cowards as I am. I don’t believe they were simply “brave.” It was faith that gave them courage, faith that made them brave, and that same faith can make you and me brave too.

In the case of our friends in this passage, there is one very interesting verse in the Bible to notice – Isaiah 43:1-3:

But now, this is what the Lord says—
    He who created you, Jacob,
    He who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior …”

Of course particularly notice the promise, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” What is enormously significant for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is that Isaiah wrote these words over 100 years before this all happened! These verses were in the guys’ Bible, just like they are in yours and mine. I honestly wonder if the Lord didn’t move Isaiah to write these very words specifically for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? I’m sure they knew this was all coming – being high up in the government of Babylon. They almost certainly would have known about Nebuchadnezzar’s plans, why he was having the statue built, the planned punishment, and the whole program. You wonder if they didn’t hover over this passage in Isaiah and tell each other, “We have to believe this. We have to believe either the Lord really will deliver us from the flames or those same flames will be His means to deliver us to heaven. We simply have to believe these words and trust Him.” And how crazy was it for them to live the rest of their lives reading these words again and again and remembering the time when the Lord really did deliver them from the flames???

But I ask again, are we really any different? How many times have I hovered over God’s promises, taken Him at His word, found faith actually making me “brave,” only to realize afterward “it really happened!” He actually did make me brave. And, one way or another, He really did “deliver” me. The flames really didn’t harm me!!!

I guess I’m just wanting to say I am so thankful that faith makes us brave. I’m so thankful that everything about having a real relationship with God makes us better. Knowing Jesus raises us. Fear makes us do and say stupid things. Faith helps us to be who we ought to be – and then the wonderful thing is, when it’s done, it doesn’t make us proud to have done it – because we are keenly aware it wasn’t really “me.” It was faith working through me. I can do “brave” things keenly aware I am not brave.

There is so much these three young men could have been. They were young men probably rich and powerful – there were so many wrong paths they could have gone down and no one would have expected any different. Yet these guys go down in history known specifically for their amazing courage. Again, I would suggest we should actually be encouraged to realize it was not because they were somehow made of something bigger and better than us. It was faith that made them brave and that same faith can make you and me brave too. Whether it’s the little battles we face all day every day or some huge faith contest like Daniel chapter 3, faith is the victory. Let us all today take up the shield of faith, quench the fiery darts of the evil one, and, having done all, to stand.

May our faith today make us better. May it make us brave.

Daniel 3:13-18 – “Faith’s Sweet Consolation”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in shaking anger and hot wrath said to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then the men those were brought before the king. ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answering and saying to them, “[Is it] true, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, my gods you are not serving and the image of the gold which I set up not worshipping? ¹⁵Now if you are ready in the time which you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, zither, the lyre, harp, and pipes, and the all of the kinds of music you fall and you worship the image I made and if not you will worship in that moment, you will be cast to the midst of the furnace of the fire burning, and who [is] that god who will deliver you from my hand?” ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and saying to the king Nebuchadnezzar, “We not having need upon this matter to respond. ¹⁷If it is [so], our God whom we worshipping being able to deliver us from the furnace of the fire burning and from your hand, O king, He may deliver [us].¹⁸And if not being delivered, let it be [known] to you O king that your gods we are not serving and the image of the gold which you set up we will not worship.”

Before leaving these verses, there are a couple more thoughts I want to record. The first has to do with exactly what the guys said. In v17, the usual translation is that they said something like, “Our God is able to deliver us, and He will, but if not …” I would like to suggest it should be, “Our God is able to deliver us, and He may, but if not …”

I think it is “He may.” In Aramaic, as in Hebrew, there is very little “tense” as we know them. In English we have present and past and future and perfect and imperfect and past perfect and past imperfect and on and on. In Hebrew and Aramaic, they simply have what we call “Perfect” and “Imperfect.” That’s it. And they don’t mean what they mean in English. They’re more like “realized” and “unrealized” but even that doesn’t really help us understand them. In v17, the “He will/may deliver us” is an imperfect, an “unrealized.” What that means is that it could be either will or may. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that I think “may” makes way more sense and is a completely reasonable translation.

If we choose the “He will” translation, then it begs the question, “How do they know?” Someone may say, “Daniel told them,” or “An angel told them.” The problem I see is if they did in fact know that the Lord was going to deliver them, why did they go on to say, “And if not …”? It makes way more sense if they said, “He may, and if not …”

The “He may, and if not …” is exactly the perspective of faith we all have to live with all day every day. Personally, I think as we all face the threats and fears and dangers of living in this world, their words are a simple summary of a faith mindset: “My God is able to deliver me, and He may, but even if He doesn’t I will trust Him and do right, God help me.”

As I sit here typing on an August morning, I feel almost crushed by the barrage of worries and fears that endlessly circle my head, by the weight of it all that feels like it would crush the very life out of me. And I don’t think I’m any different than anyone who might stumble across these thoughts of mine. It’s the fallen world we live in. No matter what we do, the threats and fears will all be there. For us believers, it’s a matter of how we’ll choose to think. And just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we can choose to look out at our world and say, “My God is able to deliver me, and He may, but even if He doesn’t I will trust Him and do right, God help me.” As the song says,

Help me then, in every tribulation,

so to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

that I lose not faith’s sweet consolation,

offered me within Thy Holy Word.

Notice the “…that I lose not faith’s sweet consolation.” That is precisely what we all need in this fearsome, threatening world – faith’s sweet consolation. And what is that? Is it not the promise that our God is able, that He may deliver us, but even if He doesn’t we choose to trust “our Father’s wise bestowment” and say, “I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.”

It gives me great encouragement to remember that there is no such thing as a future without the Lord. In other words, no matter what my future holds, the same God will be there in each moment of each day. A couple of years ago I realized that is really what worry is – it is imagining a world without God, a future where somehow God is no longer in control. And the plain simple truth is there’s no such thing. Right? The same Jesus who loves me today, and who is today working all things for my good, will be the same Jesus in all the moments of all my tomorrows.

The guys woke up that morning roughly 2600 years ago and went out to live their life in this threatening, fearsome world. On that particular day, they were supposed to be literally executed – roasted to death in a fiery furnace – but they all put on their pajamas and went to bed that night. Our God is able to deliver us, and He may, but if not, God help us to do right, to love people, to work hard, to do our best no matter what, and even if we die in the process, may we die with a sweet spirit, still trusting our Lord, still loving even the people who kill us or fire us or mistreat us or betray us or laugh at us or whatever.

May we, like the guys, not lose “faith’s sweet consolation!”

Daniel 3:13-18 – “Saying, ‘No’”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in shaking anger and hot wrath said to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then the men those were brought before the king. ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answering and saying to them, “[Is it] true, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, my gods you are not serving and the image of the gold which I set up not worshipping? ¹⁵Now if you are ready in the time which you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, zither, the lyre, harp, and pipes, and the all of the kinds of music you fall and you worship the image I made and if not you will worship in that moment, you will be cast to the midst of the furnace of the fire burning, and who [is] that god who will deliver you from my hand?” ¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and saying to the king Nebuchadnezzar, “We not having need upon this matter to respond. ¹⁷If it is [so], our God whom we worshipping being able to deliver us from the furnace of the fire burning and from your hand, O king, He may deliver [us].¹⁸And if not being delivered, let it be [known] to you O king that your gods we are not serving and the image of the gold which you set up we will not worship.”

Once again, there is so much to write on these verses, I almost don’t know where to start. What we have before us, of course, is one of the classic cases where believers are faced with earthly commands with which they simply cannot comply.

Right off the bat, I want to acknowledge that this is particularly difficult for real believers precisely because we are compliant people. James says the wisdom that is from above is “first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive …” (3:17). Paul tells us in Galatians, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness …” (5:22,23). Believers in the work place are to be “subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them …” (Titus 2:9,10). I could multiply passages like these from cover to cover in the Bible. As believers, a huge part of our spiritual growth is learning not to be rebellious, not to be headstrong, not to be self-assertive. We learn to work with sweet spirits, to try hard to get along with everyone, and in particular to please our bosses and those over us. Our gentle submissiveness is and ought to be one of the qualities that most endear us to those around us. We simply learn to be naturally compliant people – and we should.

But then that makes it particularly difficult for us when we come to those times where we have to stand our ground and say, “No.”  I particularly feel their pain when these guys have to actually stand in front of Nebuchadnezzar and displease him to his face. As real believers I have no doubt they have by this time distinguished themselves to Nebuchadnezzar precisely because they serve him so well. I do not doubt they have established a relationship with this monarch where he particularly finds these guys easy to manage. Someone could interpret it differently, but I think the text itself supports the fact that, going into this confrontation, Nebuchadnezzar actually likes these guys. Back in chapter 1, we were told he found “none equal” to them and Daniel. It says, “In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom” (1:19,20). Of course, in chapter 2, Daniel interpreted the king’s dream for him when no one else could.

Notice too in this text that the Chaldeans had leveled three accusations against the guys: 1. They pay no attention to you, 2. They do not serve your gods, and 3. They do not worship the image of gold which you have set up” (v12). When Nebuchadnezzar asks them, “Is it true?” he only mentions 2. and 3. I don’t think that is an irrelevant deletion. He already knows it is not true, “They pay no attention to you.” Notice too that even though he is very angry, even the very discussion he is having with them is about giving them a second chance. His decree was that, if anyone did not fall down and worship, in that moment, they would be cast into the fiery furnace. Here he is willing to do a complete replay of the entire procession, just to give these guys another chance. Personally, I don’t think he wants to throw them in the fiery furnace. These are three of his best people. He’s used to liking them. He’s used to them being unusually compliant and easy to supervise. Notice too that, after they make it clear they will not comply, it very specifically says in v.19, “his attitude toward them changed.”

I say all of this continuing to acknowledge how hard this is for these guys. They have established an excellent relationship with this king precisely because they are compliant and happily do whatever he requires of them, then they suddenly find themselves standing before him knowing they are displeasing him. It is easy to focus on how they need to obey God and not men, and they do, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that resistance and non-compliance are just plain “out of character” for these guys, as they are for all real believers.

Unfortunately, there are simply innumerable situations we face like this, where we have to displease people while we are normally known to be compliant and “easy to get along with.” It is precisely these times we are reminded why we’re compliant. It actually isn’t ultimately to please our bosses and the people around us. We’re compliant with them precisely because we’re compliant with our Lord. As in Col 3:23,24: “And whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men … It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Hopefully for us Christians, our humble spirits, our compliant, easy-to-get-along with manner is actually an expression of our constant, personal relationship with the Lord – so that when we have to choose between pleasing God or pleasing people, that decision will already be made.

I also want to record a few more thoughts based on what the guys said. I think there is an element of modern Christianity that would want to assume that they were “militant,” that somehow that’s how we’re supposed to be when we do face these situations. Once again, I realize it is all subject to other interpretation, but I don’t think they were “militant” at all. I think they went on being the same humble young men. Notice that their response was short. They could have gone into a long dissertation on their belief in one God as opposed to everyone else’s polytheism. But they didn’t. They specifically said, “We have no need to respond to this matter.” I think what they meant was there was no need to even take up the king’s time discussing it all. They realized at this point he must carry out the threatened punishment. The herald’s warning was crystal clear – bow or burn.  They won’t bow. They must burn. To do less would undermine the king’s authority.

Notice too that they (at least twice) refer to him as “O king.” They are acknowledging his position of authority.

Also, I think they respectfully answer his question, “What god shall deliver you out of my hand?” They could have gone on quite a dissertation on the power of God. They could have even told the king the stories of Pharaoh (“Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him?” and Sennacherib (“Do not let the god you depend on deceive you …”) and what happened to them. Instead, they simply assert that they do believe their God is able to deliver them, but then say, “But even if not, we’ll still obey Him.” Finally they state their position very clearly, “We will not serve your gods or worship the idol.” Once again, I don’t think we should read in any “militance” (which frankly just comes across as obstinance). I think they are just very bravely making sure there is no question whatsoever where they stand. That can be expressed humbly but clearly, which is what I think they’re doing.

We will in many ways face exactly this situation. Living our faith, there will be times when we have to stand our ground. Jesus warned us about it. Paul said, “All who live godly in Christ Jesus will face persecution.” Maybe there will be times where we too have to engage in “civil disobedience.” But I rather think most of the time it is the little decisions of day to day, like when men want to bash on their wives or wives their husbands, or when people at work are bashing on the boss or on the co-workers, and they want us to join in. It might be the less than scrupulous business practices.

Whatever it is, I hope we believers will go into it already having established our relationships as people who are humble and submissive. And then, however we need to respond, may we do it in that same humble, submissive spirit as we have to make it clear we cannot and will not go along.