Daniel 2:24-3:30; 1 Peter 4:7-5:14; Psalm 119:81-96; Proverbs 28:15-16
“Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I have set up? I will give you one more chance to bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?’ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.’”
“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.”
“I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word. My eyes are straining to see your promises come true. When will you comfort me? I am shriveled like a wineskin in the smoke, but I have not forgotten to obey your decrees. How long must I wait?”
It is an old story, one that has assumed the status of mythological legend. We teach it to our kids and wisely nod our heads as the words are spoken. But rarely do we stop to actually consider the radical possibilities of its message, and we very rarely, if ever, actually consider it as fact. Unless one has been inside the furnace and felt the flames caressing their bodies, threatening to consume them, and unless one has been rescued from that fire by the supernatural intervention of the Almighty, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s tale is just a bit too far fetched for us sophisticated adults to accept as reality.
So, we continue to deplete ourselves trying to resist the flames. We refuse to confront our fears, and we pretend all is well with the world when, quite obviously, such is not the case. Avoiding the conflagration is exhausting work, too. Adversity and fear lie behind even the most innocuous experiences of life. As we love, we come to fear the loss of that which we love. As we learn, we risk disillusionment. As we live, we come closer to death on a daily basis. Pretty soon, avoiding the flames – both real and imagined – becomes a full time occupation. We focus so much on dodging bullets we forget altogether that we actually have a Savior who has been there and done that. We forget He waits to share His Victory with us, if we will just stop our defensive maneuvers and begin to trust Him instead.
Looking more closely at today’s Scripture from the Book of Daniel, I am convinced there actually are times in life when the center of the blaze is exactly where God intends to put us, and where we most need to be. It is simple enough to recognize we cannot truly be certain of what we (and the Lord!) are capable of until we are tested. It is another thing entirely, though, to gracefully submit to that testing, especially the more catastrophic we think the risk of failure. We see our fellow men and women engulfed and overcome by adversity, and we are thankful not to be in their shoes. We seldom stop to think what an excellent schoolroom is found in the belly of the beast.
Ask any adult when and where they learn the most, and the thoughtful, honest answer may surprise both of you. We anticipate success; it is in overcoming difficulties that most lessons worth knowing are finally experienced and found to be true…, or not. Challenge is what moves us from faith to knowledge. When we are in survival mode, we don’t often stop to consider that, or what, we are learning in the process. Nevertheless, we are learning… how to live…. Sometimes, we are learning how to die. But as Christians, we also are learning something else, if we keep paying attention to the Holy Spirit in all the noise and confusion. We are learning how to trust Christ in the middle of the flames. This is the single most important life lesson, and the hardest to internalize. Circumstances that require it often are so repugnant that we resist the context and so miss the message God would speak to us through it.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were given a choice: worship Nebuchadnezzar’s idol or die. Sell out God or face the fire. They were given another chance to obey the King’s decree, one more implicit chance to run, but they simply stood their ground. They chose instead to embrace the flames. In effect, their response was a remarkable, “Why wait? We know who Yahweh is and what the Lord requires. We need not waste time or effort fretting. Jehovah will protect us, or He won’t, but either way, we trust Him. Bring on the flames, come what may!” This is the essence, the very picture, of vital faith. It is also a faith which lead directly to fundamental, earth shattering knowledge!
Putting our lives into the hands of God is the ultimate surrender, but it is also the ultimate test – and fruit - of faith. Adversity will come. It will test us. Each of us is promised that much. There is, then, no point to struggling or running away. Life catches up. It is always best to turn and face our fears.
We need to learn what we have to learn about the fires of life. I expect to find I am not alone. I expect that the only time I will ever find true peace, in fact, is when I can embrace the flames as a meeting place of my Savior.
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