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.
He is there.
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