So the saga continues in Daniel chapter three for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The theme of Daniel's book is the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. Title of today's message is Walking in the Fire. We know the story that's led up to this point. Nebuchadnezzar is not happy.
These three young guys who've been brought over from Judah—they are captives. They have refused to bow down to the image that he erected. One thing that becomes clear from this text is that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were prepared to face the consequences. There was no debate in this for them. They were prepared to face the consequences of their choice to trust God and to follow Him.
The prospect of a fiery death did not rattle their trust in God. They knew God's character. They knew God's purpose. They knew they were His. And so, we have this part of the story here in Daniel chapter two, beginning at verse nineteen today.
The first point here then is the rage of the offended one. The rage of the offended one. It says here that Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury. What does that mean? This king was outraged.
A lot of outrage going on today, isn't there? Not same kind as this. I'm tired of outrage. Outrage. Why was he outraged?
Because he, this king, this monarch, this powerful monarch, was publicly defied in the name of Jehovah. Wasn't Jehovah the God of the people that I have captured? Aren't you three? Jehovah's people, and you are exiles in my country, and you publicly defy me in Jehovah's name. I think it's fair to say probably this powerful monarch was a bit embarrassed, even that he would be so publicly defied, and so it says that the expression on his face changed.
Meaning his disposition toward them changed. You can see how it was before. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar was a bit tolerant, guys, guys, guys. Really, now you're really not going to bow down. Do you really still only worship one God?
I mean, after all, your God let me bring you here. Do you really still only worship one God? Now I'm going to give you another chance. If you bow down when you hear all the music, you bow down. Things are good, okay?
And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't even have to debate it. Nebuchadnezzar's question: Who is the God who will deliver you? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, "Our God is able to deliver us." And if you were to read the amplified version of their statement, knowing from reading Isaiah's prophecies and Jeremiah's, we know God will deliver from your hand, O king. But if He doesn't deliver us, you need to know something, Neb. We're not bowing down.
And so Nebuchadnezzar's disposition changed. Before he was like this, and now he's. You like that special effects? The expression on his face changed from tolerance to rage, and in his rage, he said, "I'll show you." That's what an outraged person does. And so, what does he do?
You look at the text here, and it says he commanded that the furnaces that the furnace be whipped up. Seven times hotter, maximum heat. You can just hear him say it to these guys: maximum heat on you guys. Because he was outraged, he was personally offended, and probably embarrassed. You know, you think about that.
I mean, if they're going to be thrown in the fire, it's going to burn them right. Why would he want the fire to be like seven times hotter? Because I'm going to kill you, debtor, or something like that. I don't know. He really wasn't thinking.
He had roasted other people from Israel in the fire. If he wanted to torture them more, maybe he would have toned the heat down a little bit and let them roast a little longer. That's an awful thought. We're not going to go there. But you know, here's here's the point.
What's the point for this in us? All right, because he says he says you guys whip up that fire seven times hotter.
So these guys is probably it's probably a furnace that looks kind of like you ever seen a furnace where they make glass. You melt sand and they make the glass, and and it's a It's a shape like this, and and where you can put in and take out and stuff like that. It's very, very, very hot, and he probably had these pipes with these big, huge bellows. And these guys are just pumping on these bellows like this, pump, you know, get that thing whipped up really, really hot, as hot as they could possibly get it. Nebuchadnezzar was in a rage.
He got to the point now where he was being led by his emotions, and his emotion at this point was rage, outrage, fury, anger, and he was being led by his emotions. Here is a here is a tidbit we can learn from this: when you are led by your emotions, you do stupid stuff. That's what Nebuchadnezzar did. Seven times hotter. What's that about?
Not only that, but he put some of his key men at risk. He risked their lives. In fact, he killed them because he acted in his rage. When you're led by your emotions, you do stupid stuff. I can hear all the parents of kids saying "Amen" under your breath, right?
He put his good men at risk, and why is that? Because he takes these three guys and they're all their clothes on. You know, they have a tunic and and a robe and all that, and their trousers, and and they bind them up. He says, just bind them up and throw them in there. And their clothes are you know very consumable, right?
They're consumed with fire. He just bind them up, and so he needed strong men because he wasn't going to march them in there. These guys had to be picked up. They were all bound up. These guys had to be full-grown men.
Had to be picked up and thrown into this furnace like a log.
Well, you need a strong man to be able to do that, right? And these strong men who picked them up and threw them in the furnace. The fire was so hot it consumed them too. Thanks to old Neb acting out in rage, right? Stupid stuff when you're led by your emotions, and so he's going through the whole gamut of emotions here.
And then you look down at verse 24. The guys, verse 23, they fell down into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace, and as far as they knew, this was it for them. This was it. They were facing the consequences of their choice to trust God. They were thrown into the furnace, and then the narrative continues in verse twenty-four.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. This word means he was startled. He was there was there was a sense of marvel there with a degree of fear. Marvel mingled with fear. What is this?
And Nebuchadnezzar, this powerful ancient monarch, is now face to face with a miracle—a miracle of God, of Jehovah God. Just what he needed now, right?
Something else that was out of his control.
Something else that he could not understand. And so he says he's surrounded by his counselors, and he says, "Guys, didn't we just throw three men into the fire? Can you imagine being one of his counselors? They're standing around here, and Neb is right now. He is not in a state where you want to cross him." You don't want to disagree with anything he says, so that's what the text says.
Didn't we throw three men to the fire? True, O King. I suspect that if Neb had said, "Isn't the river flowing up the mountain?" they would have said, "True, O King." You're not going to cross this guy, because you're going to end up in the fire with the others. That was his emotional state, but they said, "True, O King." Now Neb is witnessing a miracle, a real miracle, and once again, the most powerful monarch of this time will get a taste of who is really in control. I like what Elizabeth Elliot says, and she has every right to say.
To make a statement like this, you know who Elizabeth Elliot is. Personal sacrifice paves the way for God's miracles. We want to see God work. We desire, we long to see God work and to show His power. Listen to this: personal sacrifice pays the way for God's miracles, for God to show His power, and that's exactly what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did.
Had they capitulated? Had they said, "Okay, okay, okay"? We know. I mean, it's just us. Nobody's really watching.
We'll bow down in our hearts. God knows we still worship and love Him, but we're going to bow down just to appease you, O King. Had they done that, they would have robbed God of this opportunity to show His power. You say, Rich, how can you rob an infinite sovereign being?
Well, you really can't, but he can do what he chooses to do. But here's one fact that becomes abundantly clear through the scriptures: God works through His people. He works through the trust of His people. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. They would have robbed God of this opportunity to show His power, and so, in the context of the rage of the offended one, now we see these guys Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rescued by the Sovereign One.
Look what He says is very interesting in verse twenty-five. Look, He answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." The New King James reads. First of all, it says they're rescued. These guys were bound up, thrown into this extremely hot furnace, just thrown in there like logs. But now something's different.
They're loose. The only thing that the fire touched was the ropes that bound them, and these guys are experiencing a freedom unlike they've never experienced before. This next phrase is interesting. I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, walking in the midst of the fire.
Now, let me ask you something: Had you been thrown into the fire and you found that you're no longer bound, are you just going to be walking around in the midst of the fire? It makes sense to me that these guys would have been trying to run out of the fire, but no, they were walking in the midst of the fire. Why do you think that is? There's somebody else there. You know, this is the makings of a really great news story, new movie, "The Fellowship of the Fire." Think about it.
I think we ought to pursue that. They were walking around in the midst of the fire because someone else was there. They were not consumed by their circumstances. They were fellowshiping with God's representative who was there. It's pretty amazing.
They were not hurt. They were not impacted by the fall or the fire. Remember, they were thrown in there like logs. One of them, at least, probably landed on his head. But no, there was no injury there at all.
Fire didn't even touch him. The fourth man. It says in the New King James, it says the fourth is like the son of God.
Now. There's no real justification in the original text why "Son of God" would be capitalized. Nebuchadnezzar did not know anything about Jesus Christ. He did not know anything about the second person of the Trinity. In the Aramaic.
The son of God. This it is best translated. The form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar is a pagan king. He is a pagan king.
He had no knowledge of the second person of the Trinity. What he means, though, is looking at this fourth person is that this is someone supernatural. He's not one we threw in there. He got in there some other way.
So there's he he has the appearance of one who is supernatural. That if he were out here among us, we would have the temptation to venerate this individual. That's what he looks like to us. That's the best Nebuchadnezzar could come up with, a son of the gods. It could have been an angelic being where God.
Sends one of his ministering spirits to his children. That's what angels are, or it could be a Christophany, an appearance of the second person of the Trinity in the Old Testament before his advent to Earth. Either way, what's clear here. Is the words of David? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Why? For you are what with me. You think they understood that in this occasion? Yeah, I do. I do.
And in this occasion also, God elected to apply Isaiah forty three, forty three two to this situation as well. Isaiah 43:2 is written maybe almost two centuries before this event, and I am sure these guys were familiar with Isaiah's prophecy. And in this occasion, God sovereignly chose to apply Isaiah 43:2, which says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you." Had Israel passed through the waters in their history? Yes. And through the rivers they shall not overflow you.
Had Israel passed through a river in their history? Yes, these stories are coming back to mind. These historical accounts are coming back to mind. Isaiah forty three two next says, and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you. I bet they had a praise service right there.
Okay. I know you're sitting there thinking, "I don't ever experience anything like that. I don't anticipate being thrown into a furnace." People in our culture just don't do that sort of thing. You might over in the Middle East, but not here.
So, what does this have to do with us? Paul makes it very clear in Romans fifteen four that things these things were written for our learning. That's the value of the Old Testament for us. It's written for our learning. These things were written for our learning.
The rest of the verse says that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope in God. This is God. This is God's doing. We worship the same God today. Reading this, understanding this, knowing this, anchors our hope in the object of trust that we call Jehovah God.
These things are written for our learning. Our learning what?
Well, first of all, we can know history. We read this, and we are learning history. Let me make something abundantly clear here. All right, this is not a myth. This is not just a nice story that Daniel conjured up and says, "All right, now that's a good illustration." Now, how does this apply to you in your life today?
And you come up with some allegorical interpretation of it. That is not what this is. This is a historical narrative. This is history. This happened to real people in time.
This happened. We learn from this. The miracles of Scripture are history. It's God's doing. We need to know history.
Even Mark Twain understood history. He believed it too, to some degree. The miracles of Jesus. He was familiar with them. Mark Twain was accompanied by his wife on a visit to the Holy Land.
They were staying in Tiberias, which was by the Sea of Galilee, and of course we know Jesus did a lot on the Sea of Galilee, right? It was a moonlit night, and the weather was perfect, and that gave Twain the romantic idea of taking his wife for a boat ride on the lake. And so they go down to the lake, and they inquire of a man sitting by a rowboat. And he asks the man, "How much would you charge to row them out to the center of the water?" And the oarsman, presuming him to be a wealthy rancher from the USA, you know, Twain was always wearing white, and he had boots on. He's probably wearing a hat.
Okay, he's a wealthy rancher from the USA. He's going to charge him for everything. Remember, this is over 100 years ago.
Okay. He says, "All about twenty-five dollars." And so, as Twain turns away, he says to his wife, "Now I know why Jesus walked." He acknowledged history, at least anyway, right? Listen. This is a record of history in which God invades the order of His creation. That's who God is.
That's who He is. That's what He can do. And this is one record of it.
So, these things were written for our learning, so that a we know history, b so that we know God, so that we know God. It is a record of history so that we can know what God is like. This is who God. This is what God can do. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not delivered from the fire because God was obligated to their faith.
Don't go there. That's testing God. No. They simply trusted him because they knew him. They knew him to be the Redeemer of Israel, the Living God.
Our God is able to deliver. We know that, and if He does not, let it be known to you, O King. We will not bow down to your image. That's trust. That's trust.
They were not tempting God. They trusted simply because they knew who God was. Listen, we have equal reason to trust Him today. Same God, same God. A.
W. Tozer said, "Anything God has ever done, He can do now. Anything God has ever done anywhere, He can do here. Anything God has ever done for anyone, He can do for you." Same God. I'm going to read you a account from the Middle East that is probably unfamiliar to most of us in our experience.
But I think it goes to show that, first of all, we cannot box God in in terms of telling him what he can and can't do. And just because something doesn't match our experience doesn't make it untrue. Are you listening to me, fundamentalists? Just because it doesn't match our experience doesn't make it untrue. God can do what God wants to do, and He's in the business of drawing people to Himself.
In an issue of Christianity Today, this was at the end of 2013. A Muslim man, Muslim man, describes his commitment to follow Jesus the Messiah. One night, he says, "The only food my wife and I had was a small portion of macaroni. My wife prepared it very nicely." And then one of her friends knocked on the door. I told myself the macaroni is not sufficient for even the two of us, so how will it be enough for three of us?
But because we have no other custom, we opened the door, and she came in to eat with us. I like that we have no other custom. We should learn from that. While we were eating, the macaroni started to multiply. It became full.
In the bowl, I suspected that something was wrong with my eyes, so I started rubbing them. I thought maybe my wife had hid some macaroni under the small table, so I checked, but there was nothing. My wife and I looked at each other, but because of the guest, we said nothing. Afterward, I lay down on the bed, and as I slept, Isa, that's Arabic for Jesus. Isa came to me and asked, "Do you know who multiplied the macaroni?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "I am Isa Al Masih, Jesus the Messiah.
If you follow me, not only the macaroni, but your life." Will be multiplied. Who are we to say God can't do this? I have been to Egypt, twice. I have heard personal testimonies of people who said Jesus appeared to them, and as a result of that, they are now committed followers of Him today. God's for you to do what He wants to do.
We need to discuss what a miracle is because that's a word that is thrown around by so many of us today in our comfortable culture. Here, we throw around the word miracle.
Something good happens and we call it a miracle. We wish for something and it comes true and we call it a miracle. A miracle in the biblical sense is this: when God freely overrides the laws of nature for the specific purpose of pointing people to Himself. There's three main points in this definition. When God freely overrides the laws of nature, you see, an infinite, sovereign, omnipotent being can do that sort of thing.
He is the one who established the laws of nature. Therefore, he is the one who can override them. That's why the miracles of Jesus mean so much, because it speaks to who he is. When God freely overrides the laws of nature, second point, for a specific purpose. Miracles aren't done just done just randomly because God feels like doing something neat.
God does everything with purpose, and when He does a miracle, He does it with a specific purpose in mind. And what is that purpose? Point number three: to point people to Him. That's what miracles are for—to point people to Him.
So, in the case of this Muslim, so in the case of Daniel chapter three, God freely overrides the laws of nature. Fire consumes material. Fire consumes human flesh. It is a law of nature. God chose to override that law with a specific purpose of drawing people to Himself, pointing people to Him.
That's what a miracle is. Let's be careful how we use that term miracle.
Now, understand, miracles are not all that common. We might look in Scripture, and Scripture is, to some degree, concentrated in certain periods of time in history. But miracles are really not all that common, though sometimes they may seem to be. But understand this, please, if you will. At the times when miracles seemed most common, in general, how did man respond?
Pretty much took them for granted and still ignored God. Doesn't mean miracles were in vain. No, they accomplished what God set them out to accomplish. But you look at the people of Israel walking through the wilderness. All the miracles that God did for them, He took them through the Red Sea.
He brought them out of Egypt. He took them to the Red Sea. He brought them through the Red Sea, and on the other side, they were thirsty. And what did He do? He brought water from a rock, and then He fed them in the wilderness with birds.
And how did they respond to that? Can you understand maybe why God's just a little bit shy? That's an anthropomorphism, but in Jesus' time, did Jesus not do miracles? He said, "Lazarus, come forth," and Lazarus does. He was bound, you know.
He didn't just walk out. He was bound, and then Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." So you learn something today. But the point is, he came out. Were there not Pharisees watching this? Yes.
And what did they say? We got to find out a way to destroy this guy. Really. How many of us have said, "Well, you know, if God would do something like this for me, then maybe I would believe." Didn't some of them say that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, "If you are the Son of God, come down from there, and then we'll believe you." Really, you think so? That's what Luke sixteen is all about.
The rich man dies, and he lived totally for himself. And he dies, and now he's tormented, and he looks to Father Abraham, and he says, "Abraham, send somebody back to talk to my brothers. If somebody comes back from the dead, they will believe." True or false? False. No.
How do we know that? In history. Has someone come back from the grave? Yes. That's what we're all about, and so the whole world believes, right?
All those who saw it and saw the first-hand evidence of it, they believed, right? No, they did not. It was too much of an obstacle to their own agenda and their own pleasure. This is why miracles really aren't all that common in Scripture. Mostly, when they're done, it's in the context of, of new revelation.
So these things are written for our learning.
So that we know history, so that we know God, and then thirdly, so that we know God's purpose. What is God's purpose? God's purpose is making Himself known to all peoples through His people. That's God's purpose today. He's making Himself known to all peoples through His people.
God is like what God has done. That's for us. And he is the sovereign God who, when he chooses freely, overrides the laws that he established for the cosmos for the purpose of getting people's attention. And again, in history, when you look at the record of Scripture, when miracles were most common, they were always juxtaposed to new revelation being given. God is speaking again, and it's being written down.
Moses, the prophets, miracles, Jesus, miracles, the apostles, miracles, and all of those new revelation was being given. That's God's purpose. Peter Larson says, despite our efforts to keep Him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked no entrance, and he left through a door marked no exit.
You see, God does everything with purpose. Everything, so. These things are written for our learning—to know history, to know God, to know God's purpose, and lastly, to know God's purpose in your context, in my context. God draws people to Himself through the trust and confidence of His people. Let me say that again: God draws people to Himself through the trust and confidence of His people.
A complaining, worrisome Christian is not one whom God uses to draw people to Himself. He draws people to Himself through the trust and confidence of His people.
Sometimes through great and powerful acts.
Sometimes through humble trust. Absent the great and powerful acts, but we know them from history.
Sometimes, through both humble trust and great and powerful acts, and in the case of Daniel chapter three, that's what we have. I like what Chuck Swindoll says: We are all faced with innumerable opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. They are opportunities, Vance Havner said. Too many times we miss so much because we live on the low level of the natural, the ordinary, the explainable. That's where we are today with scientism, materialism.
We think we can explain everything, so we're living on the low level of the explainable. We leave no room for God to do the exceeding abundant thing above all that we can ask or think. He's drawing from Ephesians three twenty. Loved ones, listen. Let's see God.
Let's see what God will do through those of us who trust Him with abandon. Trust Him with abandon because of who He is. Let's do it.
