Faithfulness In the Heat of the Moment

Transcript

GR1903
Faithfulness in the Heat of the Moment
Daniel 3:1-30
11/23/2014
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Daniel in your Bibles, the book of Daniel and we have moved through basically the first two chapters, left a few verses at the end of chapter 1 that we will touch on; chapter 2, one of those very significant and important portions of prophetic Scripture.
There in a dream to Nebuchadnezzar God unfolded what would be the future course of the kingdoms of this world; a dream that was also revealed to Daniel along with its interpretation. It was in the context of a statue.
Why don’t you put that up on the screens there so you could look at that? This is just an artist’s rendition of the statue and you will remember the different parts of the statue, the different metals represent a different kingdom. Starting with Babylon the head of fine gold, you have the dates there for the different kingdoms. We noted this is the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. There was an earlier Babylonian kingdom, quite some time earlier as we have talked about. Hammurabi being the key king in that kingdom but that’s many years before. So you have Babylon. You have the chest of arms of silver. That’s Medo-Persia, followed by the belly and thighs of bronze which was Greece. Then the legs and feet and toes, represent the Roman Empire. I made a point to focus on that fourth empire because it’s in the time of that fourth empire that Christ will break in again into human history and return to earth to establish a kingdom.
So in Daniel chapter 2 there is verse 40: “A fourth kingdom, strong as iron,” and then he focuses on the feet and the toes and we looked at further information given on the final form of this kingdom in the context of the ten toes, called ten horns. Different images in chapter 7 but the same content. We will be looking into that more but we went over and just touched on it. The feet and the toes are mixed of iron and clay, the final form of this kingdom will be strong as iron but brittle. It will have clay mixed with the iron and so it will both be strong and weak, brittle. We noted in Old Testament prophecy consistently that prophecy brings us up to events surrounding the first coming of Christ and then picks up with the seven years that will precede the second coming of Christ to earth. This period of time in which we live called the Church Age from Acts 2 down to the rapture of the church is not part of Old Testament prophecy so we stretch out here this period of time but the Roman Empire is the final form of earthly empires. In its final form the Roman Empire will be comprised of ten nations, kingdoms, kings and then one dominant personality that comes out of that.
Then we are told in verse 44: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush; put an end to all these kingdoms. It will endure forever.” This will be the kingdom established by Christ and ruled over by Christ; the stone that crushes the image on the feet which crushes all the kingdoms because it’s seen as somewhat absorbed in the previous one even though it may not cover the same exact territory. Medo-Persia will replace Babylon. Greece will replace whatever is left of Medo-Persia and Babylon. These become the dominant empires and Rome does the same.
So when Christ comes, the stone cut without hands, He doesn’t take time to assemble an army, to build strength, to work His way through. He is a kingdom coming out of heaven so it grows into a great mountain, a great kingdom.
This period of time from Babylon down until the second coming of Christ is called the Times of the Gentiles, the time when Jerusalem and the Jews are dominated by Gentile powers. It starts with Babylon in 605 and then moves on. 605, 597, 586, finally Jerusalem is crushed and brought to its conclusion.
Come over to the New Testament and stop in Luke. You want to keep the phrases clear. This is review but in Luke 21 you have that statement by Jesus and what He has done has talked about that seven year period that will precede His return to earth. We will see that in specifics when we get to Daniel chapter 9, the seventieth week of Daniel, that last seven year period completing God’s program for the nation Israel, bringing in the kingdom that God promised to Israel.
In Luke 21:24, the last part of it: “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” So that is what characterizes the times of the Gentiles. Jerusalem is dominated by Gentile power
You come over to Revelation chapter 19. This is when Christ returns. The stone cut without hands comes out of heaven to crush the earthly empires and replace them with the kingdom of Christ. We talked in Revelation 17 in our previous study there is information. We will be back there when we get over to Daniel 7 that correlates with Revelation 17. We will go over that again. Then you come to Revelation 19, verse 11. “I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and He who sat on it is called faithful and true. In righteousness He judges and wages war.”
Verse 14: “The armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean were following Him on white horses and from out of His mouth comes a sharp sword” and He destroys the kingdoms of this earth.
Verse 19: “I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and his army” and they are crushed and the beast and the false prophet. We will talk more about them in future studies, they are cast into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
Then you come to chapter 20 and you have the first phase of this eternal kingdom called the Millennium which just means 1000 years. Sometimes you hear it called killiastic or killism. Killism from the Greek word for 1000. There is 1000 years repeated six times in verse 2 to 7. Satan is bound for 1000 years. He doesn’t deceive the nations for 1000 years. Believers that came to life and reigned with Christ, the end of verse 4, for 1000 years. “The rest of the dead did not come to life for 1000 years. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power. They will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for 1000 years.” Then when the 1000 years are completed we have a final rebellion and dealing with sin, the Great White Throne and then chapter 21 moves us into the eternal phase of this eternal kingdom.
So Daniel more clearly than other Old Testament book sets down the key information and that puts a lot of Old Testament prophecy together and is foundational for understanding New Testament prophecy.
Come back to the book of Daniel. After this revelation, remember Nebuchadnezzar had the dream and he wanted his wise men not only to tell him the interpretation but first tell me what the dream was then I know I can trust what you tell me it meant. Daniel was the only one could do that. So after Daniel made the dream clear, what it was and what it meant. Verse 46: “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant sacrifice.” This doesn’t mean that he worshipped Daniel. Daniel would not have accepted that. I mean we saw his character in chapter 1. He wouldn’t even defile himself by eating the food that was contrary to what had instructed for him.
What he does here in honoring Daniel is acknowledging that the God of Daniel is the true and living God that rules over all other gods. You have that in verse 7: “The king answered Daniel and said, ‘surely your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” So you see there that he is honoring the God of Daniel, recognizing and acknowledging that Daniel truly represents the God who has more power than other gods so Daniel is promoted, given great gifts, made a ruler and becomes chief over all the wise men, a high and honored position in Babylon and then Daniel, verse 49 asks Nebuchadnezzar because you remember his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had joined with him in prayer in seeking God to reveal this dream and its meaning and God did that to Daniel. Daniel realizes that his three friends and their praying had been part of that so he asks Nebuchadnezzar to honor them. So they are given key roles which form an important background for chapter 3.
You know Nebuchadnezzar makes a great statement about God in verse 47. He is convinced of the power of God, the might of God but he’s not yet bowing before God, the God of Israel as the only true and living God. He’s comfortable to see Him as the greatest God in the pantheon of gods and to give Him honor but he’s not really ready to humble himself and place his faith in the God of Israel alone. That will come at a future time but it will take some other remarkable activity of God some of which will be in chapter 3 and then another in chapter 4. Then the indication seems to be that finally Nebuchadnezzar will be humbled and become a believer; a good reminder here. People can have dramatic religious experiences and not truly be converted. The statement of the king here can be taken in a very good way. He’s the god of gods but he doesn’t yet understand that as He is the only true God. He is willing to honor Him, honor Daniel as His representative, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
The challenges for Daniel and his three friends are not over. You might think if you know, the book of Daniel had ended at the end of chapter 2 as we have it, we would think well Daniel is in an exalted position, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are in an exalted position and everything comes out good for those that are faithful to God. Ultimately it does but not always in this life and so there is another challenge and that’s what comes to us in chapter 3.
“Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. The height of which was 60 cubits, its width 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.” He makes a mighty image of gold. We are not told what it was. Coming after chapter 2 this happened sometime after chapter 2 we know and sometime before chapter 4 because some dating we will see at the end of chapter 4. How long had gone by after the events of chapter 2 we are just not told. You read commentators and some argue that it would have been a number of years, ten years. Some say two or three years, we just don’t know. There is probably good reason to think that Nebuchadnezzar is reflecting back on that dream and that awesome image he saw and perhaps recreating it or creating an image to reflect one of his gods we are not told. But he made an image of gold. This would not have been solid gold. Even for Nebuchadnezzar if that was solid gold that would have been, you know a tremendous, tremendous amount of gold.
As the Old Testament talked about, remember, some of the items in the Old Testament tabernacle were made of gold but when you read the instructions there was wood overlaid with gold. Jeremiah talks about that as well, idols that were made overlaid with gold. It still would have been a spectacular image, 60 cubits is 90 feet. That is tall, over 9 stories, I guess and nine feet wide; tall and thin. Probably this stood on a base. In fact interestingly, some archeologists have found a large base in a plain several miles from the old city of Babylon which they think may have been the base for this statue. We don’t know but it is a huge base that was made for some kind of, you know monument or something on the top of it. So that may account for some of the height here which would put this statue more in perspective, width wise and height wise. In any rate it is quite a striking piece. He sets it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
If you like archeology you could read in some of the commentaries on Daniel and then some of the books on archeology. There are whole books written on just Babylon. It can talk about the possibility of these sights and some of the things that have been discovered and may fit some of these things.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasures, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” Then all these people assembled (the middle of verse 3) “for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. They stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up;” so all these leaders from all these groups would have been quite a sizeable group. It doesn’t mean every individual necessarily from these groups but at least the leaderships of these groups which have been at least in the hundreds are assembled here representing their various areas and their commitment to Nebuchadnezzar which is often the case, joined to worship.
“Then the herald loudly proclaimed: ‘To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language,” because remember how Daniel and his three friends got here. It the practice of the Babylonians to take the best of the people they conquered and bring them for training to Babylon and then use them in key places. This gave them a tie into the peoples that had been conquered and helped the people who had been conquered to be less likely to revolt against the leadership. They had a tie there and a connection; so all peoples, nations, whatever your language that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn. I take it you go back here. This is not a worldwide, empire wide but these people that had been sent for that are gathered here that would be representative of the different nations, languages and so, Daniel and his three friends, perhaps others representative of the Jewish nation, the Hebrew language and so on.
Verse 5: “At the moment you hear the sound of (and then you have the list of the musical instruments, the horn, the flute, the lyre, the trigon, the psaltery, the bagpipe, all kinds of music.” Music plays a key part in bringing something of the majesty, seriousness and emotion of this event and when Nebuchadnezzar commands it, it would have been the best and most striking that could have been provided at that time in the empire that Babylon ruled.) “When you here all the music playing you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up.”
That’s clear. The other side of that – you choose not to fall down. “Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.” I mean that is a pretty stark choice, black and white. Give Nebuchadnezzar credit. He drew the line clearly. You fall down and worship the image that I have set up or you go into the furnace, two choices.
Some of you have seen the remains of Babylon, perhaps not being there but in pictures and they had just multiplied thousands of bricks that would be first sun dried and then hardened in these kilns so this may have been this kind of furnace. It might have been built as part of making the material that would be necessary for this statue and things associated with it but at any rate you will be cast into the furnace of fire.
“So when all the people heard the sound of the musical instruments (you will note in the middle of verse 7), all the peoples, nations, men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.” No matter where they came from, no matter what their background the alternative was too terrible, they fall down and worship at this statue.
Now, verse 8: “For this reason at that time certain Chaldeans” now these are the wise men class, key people. They are named Chaldeans. We talked about would also be used for the Babylonians so these are native Babylonians who have power. Naturally they would be less appreciative of those from the other nations. They want to demonstrate their supremacy but “they responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: ‘O king, live forever!’”
Then he reminds him of his decree. “You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the music is to fall down and worship the golden image but whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.” This is what you said, O king. We’ve got this right. And of course that is what Nebuchadnezzar said.
Verse 12: you ought to underline the opening words. “There are certain Jews.” There are not certain people, not certain of the rulers because in verse 49 of chapter 2 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been given responsibilities in administration in the broader region of the province of Babylon. It doesn’t say some of the rulers, some of the administrators. These are Jews and as true and will be true during this times of the Gentiles there is an animosity in a greater way toward the Jews because they are Jews and behind that of course if the god of this world, small “g” who opposes God’s plan through His chosen people. “There are Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” So you see there is no indication that Nebuchadnezzar at the end of chapter 2 changed his worship of other gods. He was just willing to acknowledge that the God of the Jews is also a powerful God to be respected and given honor.
Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger we noted in chapter 2 he was a man given to fits of rage and the expression here, “in rage and anger” denotes somebody who is completely consumed with his anger. I mean he has lost it. You see here, it seems like well three men didn’t bow down. I wonder what they felt like on the plain there. Everybody bows down and there’s these three men looking around and there are other people peeking, you know they are bowed down but they are looking to see if anybody isn’t and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And they may have set this up because they may have known, had good reason to believe, they are not going to bow down. They won’t do this but whatever they identified them clearly.
“They have disregarded you, they don’t serve your gods, they don’t worship your image and Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.” Bring these men before me. He is going to hear it from them and you know perhaps he has some remembrance that comes to his mind as he thinks about what happened in what is recorded in chapter 2 and Daniel’s request. In this chapter we are not told anything about where is Daniel. We don’t know. Maybe he’s off on official business. Maybe he remained back in the city of Babylon. He didn’t come out. We are just not told. The focus here is on his three friends.
Verse 14: “Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, ‘is it true Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?’” You see how nothing is really penetrated into the inner recesses of Nebuchadnezzar’s heart and mind. What he said in chapter 2, verse 47, “Your God is truly God of gods, why would you worship any other god?” But here he is enraged that they won’t worship his gods or the golden image that he has set up.
“Now if you are ready (I am going to give you a second chance) at the moment you hear the sound of the horn (evidently, maybe there was a repeated time. You bring these people in from all over, you just don’t do it once. This is an ongoing celebration. It could have taken, you know, days longer.) If you are ready when you hear the music to all down and worship the image that I have made, well that will settle it.” It is just left hanging there. “If you do not worship you will be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”
You see the absolute arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar. Sometimes in the emotion of the moment things happen and godless people can make great statements. “Surely your God is a God of god, Lord of lords, Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries” in verse 47 of chapter 2. It means nothing. He is an unbending, arrogant, proud man. “I tell you who to worship.” I mean he puts himself up as a god himself without calling himself that. I mean “I built the image. You bow down and worship it and what god is there that can deliver you out of my hand?” He’s already forgotten the uniqueness of the God is Israel, the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and Daniel who is unique; could do what other gods couldn’t do. Nebuchadnezzar sees himself as more powerful than a god who would try to oppose him and his confidence is in his gods.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego give a beautiful reply. They replied to the king and said, “O Nebuchadnezzar (and they are respectful) we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.” Well, there is nothing to be said. “Our position is clear. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able.” We sing the song, ‘Our God is able to deliver you. God is able to deliver you.’ “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. We are confident but He is sovereign and in control. Even if He does not let be known to you, O king that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. We don’t need any time to think about it. We don’t need any time to pray about it. Our God is a God who is able. He can deliver us. We believe we may well deliver us but if He chooses not to and we perish in the furnace our decision is the same. We do not bow down before other gods. We do not worship your image.”
You think of Job, chapter 13, verse 15: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Job gave that point. Maybe the plan of God is to kill him, give to Satan the power to physically kill him. I still have my hope in Him. That won’t change anything.
Remember Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10:28? “Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him who after he has killed the body is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” I have complete confidence in whatever God chooses to do.
Leave a marker there. Come over to Philippians chapter 1, verse 20, Philippians chapter 1. When Paul wrote this he was a prisoner in Rome and it sounds like a little bit like those three men in Babylon. He talks about his imprisonment and describes it, verse 19: “I know this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything.” I’m confident that God can deliver me and I believe He will deliver me in this particular case but His overriding concern that I will not be put to shame in anything but with all boldness Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body whether by life or by death; very similar to this statement of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. “Our God is able to deliver us.” We believe He will deliver us but even if He doesn’t and death is the result we can continue to be faithful to Him. Paul basically says the same thing. I will be faithful. My consuming passion is that I have boldness in serving Christ. I honor Him whether with my life or my death.
Come back to Daniel. I want you to see, you know, Old Testament saints lived in a different time. They had the Mosaic Law that they functioned accordingly. We don’t live at that period of time and in their kind of culture and we are not under the Mosaic Law but basically the character of believers and their faithfulness to God is the same in whenever we are dealing. Our overriding passion is to be faithful to God.
You know it is easy to look back and read about these men and honor them because we have read the last chapter already. They are going to come out alright. You understand that when they are standing before Nebuchadnezzar a man that is containing his anger, the most powerful man that they could stand before at this time. They don’t know how it is going to turn out. All they have is their confidence in God. It’s them and Nebuchadnezzar. They can’t say, well these people over here they didn’t bow down either. It’s just a matter between us and our God and between you and your requirements.
You note verse 19: “Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.” I mean he had tried to be conciliatory, given them an opportunity but their response enrages him. “He answered by giving orders “heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. I mean I want that thing to be cooking hot.”
I was reading that these kilns that they have found, they estimate could be heated to 1500 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Amazing the things they could do back then. So when he tells them, “you heat this thing up as hot as it will go,” basically. You see the irrationality of it. You are going to get more burned up at 1800 degrees than 1000 degrees and 800 degrees. I mean if you throw somebody in a burning furnace they are going to burn up but Nebuchadnezzar is so enraged it’s almost irrational.
So then “he commands certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. These men were tied up in their trousers” as we have it translated leggings, “their coats,” their caps, their other clothes. So they got all dressed and everything and then they bind them up in ropes and they are going to be cast into the furnace.
These kinds of kilns you may have seen them in pictures of archeological books, different shapes but basically you could see it was something almost like a cone and an opening at the top. You could throw in materials and then also openings at the bottom where you could you know, shuffle stuff in and out, retrieve stuff that would be like bricks being baked in the kiln and that so you could see in there and look in. Perhaps there were stairs, a slope, perhaps sometimes these were built on the side of a hill so you could go up and around and have access to the top opening but at any rate these are taken up and thrown in.
Verse 22: The furnace was so hot, “For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.” When Nebuchadnezzar told you to do something he expected you to do it. You see the power of his commands and why he expected obedience. These valiant soldiers, these men are tied up and they have to carry them up and throw them in but the heat is so strong they are killed by the fire but they don’t retreat, I mean this is what Nebuchadnezzar says, “You go up and do it.” And the result is they die. “These three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire while they are tied up.” God’s protection starts right here. They are thrown into the fire. They are tied but they don’t get all, you know, “Oh, I broke my arm, Oh, I’ve cracked my scull falling down in here.” No, they are just doing fine.
“Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded.” He’s sitting out and again ground level you can look in to the openings here and low and behold he asked a question. “He was astounded and stood up in haste; he responded and said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound in to the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.” “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” Can you image the impact on Nebuchadnezzar? You throw these men in and here they are walking around. They aren’t bound anymore. The only thing that was burned up was the ropes that bound them. And here they are. They’ve got their tunic on, their coat, their leggings or trousers, and they are walking around having conversation but the amazing thing to Nebuchadnezzar is there is an extra person there. We threw three in, we’ve got four. By now the three ought to be ashes. It’s getting worse. The three are walking around and they are talking to a fourth and he is like the son of the gods.
I don’t know whether this was the pre-incarnate Christ that appears in the Old Testament as the angel of Jehovah or it was an angel like Gabriel who will appear later in chapter 8 and chapter 9 of Daniel for example. It is a heavenly being. Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan he is, wouldn’t have a concept of the Son of God as we talk about Jesus Christ the Son of God. Here he is talking about he is a supernatural being. He’s just not human, he seems heavenly. “So Nebuchadnezzar came as near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire as he could and he hollers out, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, come out you servants of the most High God and come here.” I’ve had a change of attitude and so Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego come walking out. Can you imagine these come walking out of a furnace that was so hot that the men who got near to the opening died from the heat and these men have been walking around in there. The fourth man doesn’t come out.
Isaiah 43, I can’t put my finger on the verse here, “I will be with you when you walk through the fire, God said.” Here is a literal fulfillment of that either in the person of the Son of God, the pre-incarnate Christ or an angel sent to be with them during this time.
“Then all these officials, the satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on them; the hair of their head wasn’t singed, nor were their clothes damaged, not had the smell of fire even come upon them.” I mean when God does a miracle He does a complete one. They didn’t get banged up when they were thrown into the furnace. They weren’t singed when the ropes burned off. I mean these ropes are around your clothes. How do you burn the ropes off and not damage the clothes? And you don’t even singe the hair and not even any smell of smoke. Are you sure you men were even in there? They know they were because they watched them and they saw them come out, amazing.
“Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent His angel” so here he refers to him as an angel. We don’t know whether he is accurate, you know, what it is. He knows it was a supernatural being in there with him to protect him. “Delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.” And now we’ve got a complete reversal. “Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in such a way. Then the king causes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to prosper in the province of Babylon.”
You know there is no stability at this point in Nebuchadnezzar’s life. He’s still not saved. a great statement like that, he’s impressed, he’s awestruck. Remember what Jesus said, “If they don’t believe Moses and the prophets they won’t believe even if one is raised from the dead.” Great miracles don’t change a heart.
What is called power evangelism popularized by the Vineyard Movement is not Biblical evangelism because demonstrations of power don’t change. I mean Nebuchadnezzar had the experience of the repeating of his dream and its interpretation and he’s awestruck. It doesn’t change his heart. He has a vision of seeing with his own eyes Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown into a burning fiery furnace, walking around with a fourth heavenly being, coming out unharmed in any way, unaffected in any way, makes a great statement still has an unchanged heart.
We realize how hard the heart of sin is. Only God’s grace brings a change and transformation. You know we are in the Times of the Gentiles. Remember from chapter 2, verse 4 when you are into verse 4 a little bit through chapter 7 is written in Aramaic because it is information about the Times of the Gentiles and the Jews’ lives in the Times of the Gentiles and for Jews it is a difficult time, constantly in danger and under pressure. And interestingly when you get to Revelation 13 and you have the final ruler before Christ comes, the final phase of that Roman Empire he also has an image made and requires all to bow down and worship it, to receive is mark under the penalty of death. You have something of a foreboding here, a forerunner. God will preserve a remnant of the Jews through that time by His grace but here you have Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. What would be the preparation for a child of God for a time like this? You know the preparation? You can’t prepare by anticipating. These grew up in evidently good circumstances in their homeland and then Nebuchadnezzar comes storming in and life will never be the same. They are carried off as captives to serve at his whim and pleasure, rooted from family and home and now to represent God and be faithful to Him in the most dramatic way.
Be faithful day by day. Be faithful day by day so when an opportunity comes, when you are placed in a circumstance that seems like more than you could handle you are ready because the pattern of your life is I am faithful to God. Circumstances change. My commitment to be faithful to Him does not. Opposition gets more intense but it doesn’t change my faithfulness to God. So be faithful day by day. We don’t know how God will choose to use us. You say, “Well I am not going to be put in a situation like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.” No, I don’t think so, neither will I, but God will put us in the situation where He wants to use us and our testimony for Him. The best preparation for what may come tomorrow is to be faithful today and then we are ready and God will do in us and through us what He intends.
Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your grace. Thank You for the testimony of the faithfulness of these three humble Jews who were willing to put their life a sacrifice rather than to compromise faithfulness to You. Thank You Lord as relatively young men they joined with Daniel having a continual testimony of being faithful and having a testimony that impacts continually. May we be faithful Lord in the circumstances which You place us and may we be faithful day by day so that at any time, in any situation, we are ready to be used of You in the greatest possible way and we praise You in Christ’s name, amen.