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.

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.