Daniel 3: Hey Shadrach, Can You Turn Up the Heat?

"If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Daniel 3:17-18

We've all heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, but one question still alludes me: do you think that they were cold in the fiery furnace? I mean, if they weren't burning up, they had to be something. I can easily picture Abednego nudging Shadrach on the shoulder and asking, "Hey, friend, I know we're all in here together, but can I borrow your tunic for ten minutes or so? It's freezing in here." Surely this will be the first question I ask Jesus when I enter in those pearly gates. Nevertheless, this probably is not the point of the story.

Daniel 3 starts out by describing a great statue that Nebuchadnezzar had made, and how he commanded all to bow down to it when they heard the sound of music. Reading this chapter in connection to Neb's vision in Daniel 2, we understand that Neb building this statue symbolized his desire for his kingdom to reign forever, thus showing his pride and arrogance. However, there were three Jewish men who did not bow down to the image whenever Neb's favorite song came on the Babylonian loudspeaker, and you've perhaps heard of them before: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Neb hears of these three men's "disobedience," and threatens to throw them in the fiery furnace. After giving them one last chance to bow down to his image, they refuse and are thus thrown into the flames (literally). However, even though the guards who through the three men into the furnace perished because of the heat, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not. They remained alive (even though, in my hypothesis, they were shivering greatly), and another even appeared with them in the furnace.* In response, Neb confesses the God of Shad, Mesh, and Abed and promotes all of them within his kingdom. From this story, we see many, many things that we can apply to our lives. Let us look at a few of them quickly:

Firstly, God rewards the obedient. From each of the three chapters we have looked at so far, we have seen this principle, and we thus must mention it again. Although Daniel and his friends were in captivity, they kept their integrity, and therefore God did not forget about them. Likewise for us, we must realize that God will reward us from our obedience, even though it may look like in the present he is putting us in the fiery furnace. From this story, always remember that God will reward your obedience, even if not in this life, then in the life to come (see Matthew 6:19-20).

Secondly, God does not always promise deliverance. Now we have to be careful here, because in one sense, God certainly always promises deliverance, just read the Psalms. God will deliver us after this temporal life into eternal life with him; our struggle is not our end. However, the Lord does not always promise deliverance from earthly struggles. Just ask the handicapped man or the woman who has been struggling with cancer for ten years, and they will tell you that the Lord does not always deliver on this side of eternity. Likewise, perhaps the most impressive thing about this story is that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were very aware of this fact. Look at their words in verses 3:17-17 (quoted above). Unlike other biblical stories, God never promised these three deliverance. There was no prophet who appeared to these three men telling them of how the Lord would deliver them from the furnace. Nevertheless, these three resolved to not give up their convictions anyway. They knew that God had the power to deliver them, but they were not certain that they would. Nevertheless, they proclaimed, "but if [our God will not deliver us]. . .we will not serve your gods." Likewise, God does not always promise us deliverance, but even so, we must not give up our convictions. Integrity is not keeping our convictions when everything is going well, that's mere reaction. Interity is keeping our convictions even in the fiery furnace, even when hell breaks out on earth in our lives.

Thirdly, God uses our struggles to point others to him. This is what really hit home for me this morning. Often, amidst our struggles, our "fiery furnaces" [furni?], we counsel others with Romans 8:28: "For we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." Now, don't get me wrong, that is excellent counsel (that is, if we do it rightly, with regard to Romans 8:29 and the rest of the context of that passage); I tell myself that verse every day. But what if we had a less selfish and more outward focus of our suffering? What if, instead of looking about what God is doing for me in my struggles, we looked at what God was doing for others in my struggles? Maybe the main reason behind your job stress, your disobedient child, your workload at school, or your medical diagnosis is so that others can look at you and see a testimony of how the Lord keeps faithful those who are suffering. Maybe your struggle isn't about you, it's about the unbeliever who is watching you intently, wondering if you will give up on the God who has afflicted you. Perhaps the purpose in your suffering is greater than yourself; perhaps the purpose for your suffering is to point others to the One who suffered more than any of us ever have as he died on a cross for our sin and still did not deny his Father. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego pointed Nebuchadnezzar to Yahweh in their obedience even amidst the fiery furnace; how can you point others to Yahweh in your obedience in your struggle at school? In your family stress? In your work dilemmas? In your medical anxieties? Amen!

*There's at least one of you who's reading this devotional for the sole purpose of seeing whether I believe the fourth image was Jesus or not. My answer: the Bible doesn't tell us either way, so stop arguing about it. It doesn't change the meaning of the story either way, and your argument is distracting from the true meaning of the narrative.