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.
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