Daniel 3:29 – “Every Day”

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

²⁹And from me is made a decree that all of a people of a nation and a tongue who speak anything upon the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego pieces he will be taken, his house an outhouse will be made, since not there is a God another who is able to deliver like this.

Comparing this book of Daniel to a mine, one of the old writers exclaimed something like, “The vein of truth runs deep in this book. Those who’ll take the time to mine it will find the ore rich!” “Aye!” says my soul. Rich it is. As we’re told in Psalm 19:9,10, “…the judgments of the Lord are true…More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold!” And my soul always love to add, “And when you know the truth, the truth shall make you free!” Rich it is!

That has certainly been my experience studying this chapter of Daniel. What an encouraging story this is! From beginning to end, this chapter would fuel our faith with the greatness of our God and make us who are but cringing worms to be instead faithful and brave servants of the Most High God. As I’ve studied I’m struck by how utterly practical all of this is for our everyday lives. I fear we commonly miss this chapter’s helpful instruction, when all we see is an utterly amazing miracle and then, in our minds, write it off as something far above the humdrum of our meager daily existence. A thousand times, No! Work the mine! This is our life. As another old writer noted, “We ought not wonder that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found themselves in a fire – that is where we believers live!”

Is that not true? Do you and I not live all day every day surrounded by fears, facing threats of danger from seemingly every quarter? As we would simply resolve to love God and love people, to be faithful about our duties, to humbly do right, does it not seem we face a thousand obstacles? “Terror on every side!” this evil world cries in our ears. It is true: “The enemy hounds me. He crushes me to the ground…” Where on earth could you and I possibly find the strength to even lift our feeble heads? Is it not when we hear the Savior say, “Fear not, I am with thee?” Is it not true that your life and mine all day every day is a constant reenactment of the very events of Daniel chapter 3?

Yes, I would answer, and a thousand times yes.

This story is our lives. This is every day.

This story would remind us this is God’s world. All day every day what really matters is that our great and glorious God is carrying on His work of Redemption. You and I are just players on His stage. “We’ve no cause for worry or for fear.” As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, “Our God is able to deliver us…” In all those threats, He’ll either deliver us from them or through them, but He will deliver us. They could trust Him and so can we. They could get up that morning not knowing what the day would bring and so can you and I. We need only know and remember that when the evening comes our God will have done great things.

Poor Nebuchadnezzar. He didn’t know the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He had nothing to hope in but his own riches and royal power. What so violently angered him was to find a situation where all of that availed him nothing. These three Hebrew exiles actually refused to obey him!!! So what did he do? He threw all of that power and riches at them in the form of a raging furnace. And what did it get him? Complete, utter, humiliating failure in front of his entire empire!

As I read his proclamation, several thoughts run through my mind. One is that I clearly do not see the fruits of any genuine repentance or conversion. I’ve remarked before, as an unregenerate man, all Nebuchadnezzar knows is power. What the Lord has done is spoken to him in his language and note he got the message. He calls our Lord the Most High God and acknowledges, “No other god can save in this way!”

What I do see, though, I believe, is a man progressing toward believing. We don’t know absolutely that Nebuchadnezzar ever truly believed, but I’d say there’s a good chance. Prior to this particular day all he’s ever known was his endless pantheon of gods and goddesses. Every nation and city had their own “god” and it was totally okay to show respect to someone else’s god. Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar meets this God who demands singular worship and has the amazing power to protect his servants who grant Him that allegiance. We need to understand, the whole idea is new to Nebuchadnezzar. He has today met the God of the Hebrews and found He is real and He is powerful and He’s a very different “god” – one who demands singular worship. That is significant – but it isn’t enough yet to actually accomplish a total and genuine conversion. Obviously in chapter 4 he’s going to have a much more personal encounter with the God of the Hebrews, but for now, I believe he’s still a work in progress.

That is worth noting as I fear we often want people to believe now. We know their souls hang by a thread over the fires of hell and rightfully are concerned for them. But we have to realize salvation is the Lord’s work, not ours, and, just as He did with us, He will draw people often times over a period of years. Sometimes we have need of patience! Someone once noted, “Whatever the Lord does, He usually seems to do it slowly.” The other thing worth noting is that sometimes it may be our very trials the Lord is using to accomplish His drawing. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a harrowing day, but through their suffering, the Lord was very well drawing the heart of this pagan monarch – not to mention probably a LOT of other people. If nothing else, the Lord was writing a story that could speak encouragement to a thousand generations of believers yet to be born (us included!). The guys had no way of knowing any of this, but it was true nevertheless!

The other thing I want to note again is that, reading his decree, we see that, in essence, Nebuchadnezzar hasn’t changed. The same threatening despot just uses his tactics in a seemingly positive direction. It’s good that he’s requiring people not to speak badly of the God of the Hebrews. But he’s still saying, “…Or I’ll cut you to pieces and reduce your home to an outhouse!!!” He still knows no language but that of power. I hope before it was all over he really did believe in the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I hope he somehow got to taste the wonder of a God who stands for love and truth. I hope he got to learn that it is love that casts out fear, not power.

This is of course a great day for the Jewish people. It is, in light of eternity, a great day for Nebuchadnezzar. It is, in the end, a great day for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But who could have ever guessed or even imagined the events of this day? All we could have known in the morning was that our God is faithful and by evening we’d have been assured (once again) it was true.

But then, isn’t that every day?

Daniel 3:28 – “Inside”

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

²⁸Answering and saying Nebuchadnezzar, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who sent His angel and has delivered His servants who trusted upon Him and changed the command of the king and have given their bodies that they should not worship and not serve any god except their God.”

Here we have an unbelieving monarch marveling at what goes on between us believers and our God. In a sense, this is always the case. People see the outside. They see the results of faith. They cannot see the faith itself. The Lord tells us to “be ready always to give an answer to any man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you” (I Peter 3:15). They don’t know what it is. They can’t know. Your hope is “in you.” They can only see the outside.

So it is here with Nebuchadnezzar. He sees with his own eyes that the God of these men is extremely powerful. He sees that their God sends angels to help His people. He can see that somehow these men trust their God. He sees that this trust goes so far that these men were actually willing to die rather than abandon their singular worship of this God. From the outside, we could offer these men all sorts of accolades. They were brave. They were resolved. They were faithful. They were constant. All these things Nebuchadnezzar could see. What he could not see was what went on inside of them.

I think this an extremely important point to ponder. You or I could read this account, then say, “I should be more brave. I should be more resolved.” “When I face temptations or trials, I want to be more faithful.” But we, like Nebuchadnezzar, would be looking at the outside. What does the Bible itself tell us? “By faith they quenched the violence of the fire” (Heb 11:34). It was not by courage. It was not by resolve. It was not even directly by faithfulness. It was by faith.

By “faith” we’re talking about the kind of real faith which is something that goes on entirely inside of us. It is faith in the sense of our personal relationship with God. What kept Joseph from temptation? Listen to him: “How could I then do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen 39:9). What kept Moses going? “He persevered because He saw Him who is invisible” (Heb 11:27). What made young David brave to face Goliath? He asked, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? … The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (I Sam 17:26,37). What made the Apostles brave to face the Sanhedrin? “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God?” (Acts 4:19). In each of these cases, we can admire what we see on the outside, but let us believers be reminded that the virtues we think we see are being fired by the engine of faith inside.

Matthew Henry remarked, “Note. A steadfast faith in God will produce a steadfast faithfulness to God.”

J. Hubbard noted the fellows’ trust in God and wrote, “We pass by everything else and cling to this, because it is the chief glory of man, and his most lasting good. The imposing art of the magician, the foresight of the astrologer, the easy saying of the soothsayer, may be grand; but that power these three captives possess, which enables them to defy the king and live for God, is more glorious by far. The wealth of the king only enriched the body, and left the soul as poor as before; would last but a few years, and then vanish forever. But the faith of the captives enriched 'the inner man' with a life and blessedness that would endure throughout the hidden ages of eternity. The chief glory of man is not outward grandeur, but a strong trust in God; because it is a power to help amid the cares of life, amid the experience of death, and the unknown possibilities of the future.”

W. Boyd-Carpenter  commented, “The law of success is self-control, but the power to make the law effective is in the Divine presence. Life has little meaning unless I recognise that wherever the fire is kindled, there the Divine presence is also. To recognise that is the part of faith; to work and live by that is the power of faith.”

A strong trust in God. The Divine presence. If you and I would long to be brave, let us first cultivate our relationship with the Lord. “Be still,” He says, “And know that I am God.” “Fear not, for I am with you.” “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Jesus went to the Cross for you and me. Let us then not doubt His great love in each minute of every day. Failures we are, yes, but it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. We need to be saved, yes, but He is a Savior. His name is Jesus, “For He shall save His people from their sins.” “Let us then come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

If we would be brave let us cultivate our knowledge of God.  Speaking of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, someone said, “They trust in God. They believe His word. But the arm on which they leaned was omnipotent. The wisdom to which they confided their way was unlimited. Jehovah cared for them. He had kept them; He would keep them in the time to come. The truest courage is the calmest.”

Even as I type I’m once again faced with seemingly overwhelming obstacles at my job and at home. My workload seems overwhelming. Issues on the home front are threatening. I see plenty to fear. And at the same time I am feeling deeply my own failures and sins, my unworthiness that the Lord should even be willing to help me. But what gives me hope? It is not in somehow resolving to “do better” or to “be brave.” No. Where I find hope is by leaning into the Everlasting Arms. Where I find hope is being reminded of the greatness of my God, of the Calvary love of my Savior, of His “very great and precious promises.” “Lo, I am with you always.” What gives me hope is to see these three young men and being reminded that their job was simply faith. The Hero of their story was the Lord in whom they trusted. And He hasn’t changed. He’s there for me now. The same Jesus who walked with them in the fire walks with me today in my fires.

Oh for grace to trust Him more.

Nebuchadnezzar could see all that was true on the outside – even the fact that they “trusted in their God,” but he couldn’t see the relationship they had cultivated on the inside. He could see faithfulness, but not the faith itself.

Lord, give us a greater vision of You. Help us to live in the awareness of Your presence. Help us to live in Your love, to trust Your wisdom, to rest in Your power. May we be “strengthened in the inner man.” And while You are doing great things inside of us, may the world around us see not us but You.

Daniel 3:27 – “We Can”

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

²⁷And assembling the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the royal officials of the king seeing the men those. The fire did not rule them in their body and the hair of their head was not singed and their mantles were not changed and a smell of fire did not touch in them.

Isn’t it interesting how the Lord turns the tables on these guys? Back in 3:8, it was men from this same group who “tattled” on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to begin with. Now the Lord makes them the primary witnesses to confirm His miraculous deliverance! It is this very group who gather around our friends as they walk casually out of the flames and these men are, in a sense, forced to acknowledge what God has done. As it says in II Peter 2:8, “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.”

Fire is perhaps the most destructive element in our known universe. It need only touch us and it wins. I have read that the Babylonians actually worshipped it. If that’s true, I’d have to say, “No wonder.” We see its power to do us great good on the one hand (heat our houses, cook our food, etc.), while on the other hand if it once gets out of control, its power to destroy is almost limitless. In his furious anger, Nebuchadnezzar ordered this particular fire to be heated “seven times” hotter than normal. What a raging, fearful inferno it must have been. If there was ever a time to fear this world’s power, it was then. But what does our God say? “Fear not, for I am with you.” David says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”

Such destructive force is utterly impotent before our God. If it (or any other threat for that matter) ever hurts us, it can only be because our mighty God allowed it. If He wishes, His servants can walk unharmed in the midst of a raging fiery furnace!  These guys walked out without even the smell of smoke on their clothes!

This verse reminds me of Psalm 31, particularly verses 19-21:

“How great is Your goodness,

     which You have stored up for those who fear You,

     which You bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in You.

In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from the intrigues of men;

     in Your dwelling You keep them safe from accusing tongues.

Praise be to the Lord …”

I noticed this passage when I was studying that Psalm. The Lord actually protects us from other people’s meanness! I’d never thought of that exactly before. I get to live and work in a world where I’m basically surrounded by a lot of very nice people. Pretty much all day every day I get to go from one meeting or phone conversation to another with people who I find all very pleasant. It hasn’t always been that way. I’ve definitely had jobs where I had to work with or under extremely difficult people. But right now that is not the case. And why is that? Psalm 31 and Daniel 3 tell me exactly why. It’s not because this world is a wonderful place! People and this very world itself are capable of incredible meanness. But, for whatever reason, right now the Lord is hiding me from it all. “In the shelter of His presence” He is hiding me “from the intrigues of men;” in His dwelling He is “keeping me safe from accusing tongues.” And yes, “Praise be to the Lord!”

I think it helpful to note here that the Lord doesn’t always rescue His faithful people like He did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Hebrews 11 of course mentions those who “through faith conquered kingdoms … shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength … received back their dead, raised to life again,” but it goes on to say, “Others were tortured … some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, they were sawn in two …” My mind immediately goes to Latimer & Ridley who were burned at the stake in 1555 under Bloody Mary. As they were being burned to death, Latimer encouraged his friend, “Play the man, Ridley!” and they both died praying for England. They died.

I think my point is to remind myself, in light of the amazing story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that our hope is in the Lord. Our hope is not that He will spare us from pain. Our hope is that, pain or not, He will be there, that whatever He allows is truly the most loving, most wise course for our lives. Our hope is that we can totally trust Him. Fire means nothing to Him. If He wishes, even a raging furnace can’t even leave the smell of smoke on our clothes. But, if we fall into the “others …” category of Hebrews 11, we can, like so many before us, go even to death assured of His sovereign goodness.

And the really good news is that we don’t have to wait ‘til we’re threatened to be killed before we enjoy the freedom of living in the shelter of His love. As we’ve said before, faith is about all day every day. As you and I would head out into our lives resolved to love God and love people we barely step out our front door before we face one obstacle after another. As the wicked cry, “Terror on every side!” -- without the Lord there is plenty to fear in this world. Even with the Lord there is plenty to fear! But you and I, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can do right, be honest, work hard, and love people regardless of whatever kind of furnace we feel we’re walking into. If we go with the Lord, He’ll either miraculously deliver us (which He does repeatedly all through the day!) or somehow He will use us to tell the world there is something worth living and dying for.

You and I live in the same world Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego lived in. May we have the same faith in our sovereign, wise, and good Savior God!

We can.

Daniel 3:26 – “Drawn”

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

²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar approached to the opening of the furnace of the fire of the burning answering and saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth and come. Then came forth Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the midst of the fire.

Isn’t it interesting that Nebuchadnezzar can see the “fourth” man in the flames, that he knows Him to be of divine origin, yet he apparently has no desire to meet Him. You would think, being a king himself, he would be calling to this divine being to bring his servants out. I can even imagine asking if I could come in and join them! When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water in the terrible storm, he said, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water” (Mt 14:28). Yet, at least from what we’re told, Nebuchadnezzar has no interest in the “fourth” man.

The problem, of course, is that he has an unregenerate heart, an Adamic heart that runs and hides from God among the trees of the Garden and sews fig leaves to cover his nakedness. It is only when grace touches and conquers our hearts that we suddenly want to know God. Until then, like Nebuchadnezzar, we can actually stand in His presence and have no interest in Him. We naturally see nothing “desirable” in Him. We even see Him as threatening, someone who, if He is there, will only cause us trouble. It is only when grace opens our eyes that suddenly we see Jesus in His beauty. It is only then we realize we want to know Him, that we want Him in our life, that we need Him in our life, that He becomes to us “altogether lovely.”

Can I suggest to you that this is where your life and mine become soooooo important? Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, grace does not take up a whip and thrash people into submission. Grace draws them.  You and I are not here to beat people into the kingdom of God. We are here to draw them. Walk in your mind from beginning to end of the New Testament. What kind of people does God call us to be? People of “love, joy, peace, patience …” He says Himself that the wisdom that is from above is “first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). He tells us “All that matters is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal 5:6). He tells us “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love” (Eph 5:1). He tells us even our work should “in every way make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Tit 2:10). God did not send Jesus “into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17), then Jesus told us, “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you” (Jn 20:21). Grace would make you and me “attractive.” Grace wants to use you and me to draw people to Jesus, to make them want Him in their lives. Until that happens, like Nebuchadnezzar, they could literally stand in His presence and see nothing desirable in Him.

I said last time I would love to know what Jesus said to the guys there in the furnace. Once again, we can be quite sure He commended them for their faithfulness, that He spoke words of hope and peace to them; but I can also say I’d be almost positive He would have coached them on what to say and how to act when they walked back out of the furnace. It would be of absolute paramount importance how they act. Will they come out of the furnace acting “triumphant” over Nebuchadnezzar? Will they come out angry at their accusers? Can we all see how important it would be that they come out humbly, with sweet spirits, bearing no animosity whatsoever, no arrogance, no vindictiveness? Especially in relation to Nebuchadnezzar himself, it is of absolutely paramount importance how they respond to him. If he’s ever to really come to grace, they cannot emerge from the furnace with a “Told you so” attitude. They must emerge submissive, thankful, and gracious to him.

I suggest to you that even in this one little verse we can see that is exactly what happened. First of all, if I was walking with Jesus in that furnace and Nebuchadnezzar said, “Come out,” I’d be tempted to say, “No! I’m in here with Jesus and I don’t want to leave.” But even the Aramaic itself would persuade us that wasn’t the case. The text tells us Nebuchadnezzar said “Come forth” and then it says they “came forth.” In Aramaic it is exactly the same verb. They did exactly what Nebuchadnezzar told them to do. Hopefully he immediately realized that is always how they had responded to him – that he had always found them very obedient, very sweetly submissive – and that would only highlight in his mind that this one isolated act of “non-compliance” really was a total God-thing. Their accusers had said, “They pay no attention to you” (v.12). I believe Nebuchadnezzar knew it wasn’t true then, but now he really knows it!

And we should take special note too of what Nebuchadnezzar called them: “Servants of the Most High God.” Notice that when Nebuchadnezzar calls Him “the Most High God,” all he’s really seeing is the Lord’s power. There are unfortunately a lot of people in this world who only understand power. What I mean is that to them what matters is not truth or right or virtue or anything else. All they understand is power. All that matters to them is who wins. Even Satan himself, when rebelling against the Lord, refers to Him by the same name saying, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). All he saw was power and he wanted it for himself.

We see this very contrast between the nations of Judah and Israel after the kingdom split. In Judah, the kings were descendants of David and they came to the throne by birth order. In Israel, whoever killed the last king becomes king himself. It’s the difference between the rule of law and the law of the jungle. Either “might makes right” or “right makes might.” Where truth prevails, law is king. Where only power matters, the king is law. In Nebuchadnezzar’s world, all that matters is power. He is the king because he is the most powerful. He maintains order in his kingdom by power. In the last chapter, he wanted his dream recalled and explained and threatened to kill all the wise men if they couldn’t do it. In this chapter, he wants everyone to worship his idol and threatens to throw them in a furnace if they will not. We even see it in the decree he issues in v29: “Anyone who says anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut to pieces and their house turned into a piles of rubble!” Still threatening. Still exacting obedience by power.

All he’s really seeing in this passage is that this God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is stronger than him. Their God wins. Nebuchadnezzar understands this language. It’s the only language he speaks, and so he addresses them as “servants of the Most High God.”

We should inject here that, under grace, true believers actually love this name, “the Most High God.” We’re glad He’s all-powerful. We’re glad He rules in the lives of men and nations. We’re glad He rules over us. But, I would suggest our “gladness” arises from the fact that He is good, that He is wise, that He is loving, and that He stands for truth. We see the King in His beauty. He should win. He should conquer. He should be “the Most High.” He should be “the Most High” not simply because He’s bigger than the rest of us, but rather because He deserves to be. One of the first signs of a regenerated heart is that we call Jesus Lord. We’re glad to hear that one day “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We’ll be there that day, happily bowing and confessing, not because we have to but because we want to. We love the Most High God.

My point in all of this, I suppose, is that we should not be too enamored with Nebuchadnezzar’s words. He is not regenerated. He has not come to faith. He’s only discovered that there is a God who is bigger than him. And that is again why it is soooooo important how our friends act when they emerge from the furnace. When they emerge not as conquerors but as sweetly submissive young men, they will completely upend Nebuchadnezzar’s world. To him all that matters is power. What he sees is three young men who live for something much bigger and better, who stand for something much bigger and better, who are committed to something that trumps power. And our only hope is that, even as they emerge in Christlike sweetness and humility, something awakens in his heart, that perhaps even a little tiny glimmer suddenly shines in his heart and says to him, “Hmmmmm. I wish I had whatever it is they have.”

If all Nebuchadnezzar saw that day was power, then, in the end it did him no good. If, on the other hand, his heart saw in Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego something that awakened his heart to desire the Lord, then grace won. It will have a work to do before he genuinely comes to faith, but that is how it wins. Grace doesn’t conquer. It draws. We can only hope that Nebuchadnezzar (and perhaps many others who were there that day) suddenly found himself drawn. That’s how grace conquers you and me. It’s how it will conquer others around us. It’s how God wants to use us.

May you and I sincerely try to live Jesus today wherever we go, whatever we do, whomever we speak with, and may His Spirit take our fumbling, feeble, failing efforts and somehow use them so that someone, somewhere today is drawn. May grace win, not power.

Daniel 3:24,25 – “There”

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

²⁴Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was startled and rose in haste answering and saying to his royal officials, “Not three men we cast to the midst of the fire bound?” Answering and saying to the king, “Certainly, O king.” ²⁵Answering and saying, “Behold, I see four men loosened walking in the midst of the fire and injury not there is among them and the look of the fourth being like to a son of gods.”

These two little verses have to form one of the most triumphant passages in the Bible. This world, the devil, and his minions think they have won a gleeful victory over the Lord and His people – but wait! No! At the last second the Lord of Hosts, our great God and Father, our Savior, Defender, and Friend pulls the rug out from under them and they all lay flat on their backs as His men stand victorious, champions of faith, living witnesses that our God is the true and living God. Stand beside this passage the Crossing of the Red Sea, the Fall of Jericho, the Slaying of 185,000 Assyrians, Esther’s triumph over Haman, and so many other passages in our Bible. Before our book is finished, Daniel himself will emerge alive and well from a lions’ den. As the book of Hebrews celebrates this very victory, “Some … quenched the fury of the flames …” (11:34).

The very greatest of these victories is of course the Resurrection – when our Lord Jesus conquered death itself and arose once and for all victorious over it all. Once again, this world, the devil, and his minions thought they’d finally won – until their “victim” got up and walked alive out of that tomb! The Bible (and our lives) is full of these victories, but the common thread that runs through every one of them is that our God is in fact the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is to Him we can say, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me …”

Verse 23 ended with “…these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.” The passage doesn’t say it, but I do not doubt that a good part of the crowd gathered there at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s idol could see the whole ugly event – that they could see the soldiers carrying or roughly shoving our three friends up the ramp, that they saw them toss the men, and saw the three fall helplessly into the raging inferno. I do not doubt that they saw the three fall and they also saw the soldiers drop to the ground and lie there motionless, obviously killed by the flames. At that moment, Nebuchadnezzar’s terror would have accomplished its evil intent and everyone gathered would have turned away quite convinced that this king had better be obeyed … or else. It wouldn’t surprise me if the band was all prepared to play their music and have everyone once again fall to their knees before Nebuchadnezzar and his image of gold. As they were all painfully aware, evil is a very powerful force in our world. It very, very often seems to win. Without a God to trust, it’s no wonder people bow.

But again, wait! There’s some kind of commotion going on at the mouth of the furnace. What is this? Word races through the crowd, “They’re alive!” “What????” The thought begins to form in everyone’s mind, “What kind of god is this God of the Hebrews???”

We, of course, know the answer to that question. He is the God who promised, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Nebuchadnezzar asks, “Didn’t we throw three men into the fire? I see four and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!” I need to acknowledge here that there has always been scholarly debate regarding the identity of this “fourth” man. The old King James translated the Aramaic, “…the fourth looks like the Son of God,” leaving apparently no question that it was Jesus Himself who walked with them there. Unfortunately, like Hebrew, Aramaic isn’t a precise enough language to definitively support that translation. As I translated the words above, they literally read, “a son of gods.” In Aramaic, “the Son of God” is, in fact, a viable translation; but so is “a son of the gods.” The plain, simple fact is we cannot say conclusively which translation is the best.

But – this is one of those places where we have to ask, practically speaking, what does it matter? Whether it was Jesus Himself or “the Angel of the Lord,” or Gabriel or Michael or simply any other angel, what is important is that the Lord was present there. The fact is that our God fills all of the universe with all of His being all of the time. He is our “very present Help in trouble.” On that basis, I will choose to say that this fourth man is in fact our Jesus. Remember when Stephen was being stoned, he said, “Look! I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” The Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Father stood when His faithful martyr was dying.  And again, every moment of every day, we can pray, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me …” From this point on, I will write as if this fourth man is in fact Jesus Himself, while acknowledging if someone wants to differ, they’re perfectly justified. Whether Nebuchadnezzar himself realized he was seeing “the Son of God,” I doubt. I strongly suspect he simply could see somehow that the fourth being was something more than human. Once again, all that matters is that he knew of a certainty that the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was very real, very present, and very powerful.

An encouraging thought for us all is to realize the “fourth man” was always there. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow, Jesus was with them. When they stood before the raging king commanding their execution, He was with them. As the soldiers tied them up and shoved them up the ramp, He was with them. And even as they fell into the furnace, He went with them. The only thing that has changed is that He decided to allow Nebuchadnezzar to see Him with the guys there in the furnace. We can rest assured, He’s always there. We must “see” Him by the eye of faith, but we must “see” Him. He is there. He is always with us.

I would love to know what Jesus said to them as they walked with Him there in the raging flames. We can be assured He said something to the effect of “Well done, thou good and faithful servants,” but perhaps He said so much more? Knowing Him, we can rest assured He spoke words of love and peace and hope to them. Perhaps He explained to them that He allowed this whole episode in order to encourage the faithful among His exiled people, that perhaps there would even be other peoples all over the civilized world who would turn to Him when they heard of this. Perhaps He told them of countless generations of children who would hear their story and be drawn to the love of God? We don’t know what He said – but it must have been beyond wonderful for them to actually walk there with Him.

The good news for you and me is that by faith we can always walk with Him, because He’s always there. “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’” (Isa 41:10-13).

“The God of Jacob is our refuge, a very present help in trouble.”

He is there.