“…and who is that God that shall [bring deliverance from] my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Daniel 3:15b-18
Deliverance or not
I love to tell this story to kids. If I was telling this story to kids it would go something like this:
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego along with all the people in the land were ordered to bow down and worship the golden image of the king. So the music played, and the multitudes of people bent low before the golden image. Across the town square could be seen the bent forms of people bowing one right after another. A wave of submissive subjects.
But wait!
What is this?
Three forms standing tall in the midst of all others that are bent low. Wow! That would take guts. No one else was standing. Wouldn’t it be easier to just go ahead and bow along with everyone else and say in their hearts, that they really didn’t mean it? Yes, it would be easier, but it wouldn’t be right. The boys knew this, and they had determined within their hearts that they would do right, no matter what. They would do right, when everyone else was doing wrong. Because wrong is never, never right. And right is never, never wrong.
But on with our story. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were called before the king.
“Why didn’t you bow down to the image? Didn’t you hear the music? I’ll give you one more chance. When you hear the music bow down and worship the image. And if not, you will be thrown into the fiery furnace. There is no god greater than me that will be able to deliver you.”
As he raised his hand to motion the musicians to play for their last chance, the boys had the audacity to speak, “O Nebuchadnezar, we don’t need another chance. We don’t have to think about it again. Our God, whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace.” The face of the king became enraged as he began to bluster, “but, but…” The boys continued, “But if not, if God chooses not to deliver us, we will not worship the golden image that you have set up.”
With that statement, their second chance went up in smoke. Nebuchadnezzar’s heart filled with fury as he turned to his soldiers and shouted, “heat that furnace seven times hotter than it has ever been heated.” Then turning to three of his bravest and strongest soldiers he screamed, “You three soldiers, get over here and tie them up as tight as you can. “Then throw them into the furnace.”
The soldiers did as the king had bid. Tied up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, picked them up and slung them over their soldiers and headed toward the furnace. With a heave they threw them into the midst of the scorching flames. Then those huge, strong and burly soldiers suddenly slumped to the ground and died from the exceeding hot flames, outside of the furnace.
Well, there was that. Soldiers were dead. God must not have chosen to help those three boys. They couldn’t have survived. Especially since the ones outside the furnace had died.
Deliverance
But wait!
God still had a plan.
As the king turned back, relieved to have rid the kingdom of disobedient subjects, something made him stop and gaze again at the furnace.
“What?”
He felt dizzy and disoriented as he looked again. He grabbed the arm of a soldier standing next to him and asked.
“We had those boys tied up tight, right? And there were three of them. Only three?”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“What’s going on, then? There are 4 men in that furnace. They are not bound. In fact, they are walking around, unhurt.”
In disbelief, he walked closer to the furnace and hollered, “hey boys! Wow! You do serve a Living God! Come out!”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the furnace, and the great company that had been there that day witnessed the power of God. Their hair wasn’t burnt, their clothes hadn’t melted and they didn’t even smell like smoke.
Right there and then, Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who hath sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him. Therefore I make a decree that none shall speak against their God. Because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.”
Like I said, I love to tell this story to kids. My lesson is usually choosing right even if the ones around us are doing wrong. Or God is real or God is all powerful. Those things are true, but I want to focus on the words, “But if not…”
Deliverance that doesn’t happen
We don’t always get the miracle. That miraculous event that you would think would make everyone sit up and take notice. On a side note, remember all the miracles that Jesus did? You would think that would be enough proof for everyone living at that time to trust God and walk with Him no matter what. But you know that that wasn’t the case. In the end, the multitude turned against him.
Jesus knows that it is not the miracle in itself that people need. It is faith in an Unseen God to do what He sees is best. So no, we don’t always get a miracle. That is not to say that God doesn’t care or that He can’t. What God is most concerned about is our faith. Our faith must be just as steadfast as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s. They were willing to serve God without the miracle. They were willing to trust the “But if not….” to God Almighty.
Here in this story, we see the miraculous. God chose to deliver. No burns, no hurts, not even smoke. Yet that is not always the case. What of the times we have prayed and prayed and our loved one dies anyway? Or that accident that happened and the parents were killed leaving a small child? If God is able to deliver, why didn’t He? I actually can’t answer all those questions, but I do know that God still knows what He is doing. God still can be trusted. God still cares about the hurts and problems in our lives and will be there for us.
Yet, it is our faith in the midst of our trials and hardships that God is trying to hone, to grow, to strengthen. Faith is of utmost importance to God. It says in Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” He wants a faith, found within us, that stands through the fire. In 1 Peter 1:6 & 7 we read, “….though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” It is in the “But if not…” moments of life that we have an opportunity to grow our faith. For our faith to be found glorifying to God.
Have you faced an overwhelming situation in your life and expected God to answer and bring deliverance, yet it seems like He didn’t? How do you react? Can you still say, “He is able, but if He chooses not to, I still trust Him.” That’s the kind of faith God wants from us. A “…but if not…” faith. Obstacles that are not removed, mountains that are hard to climb are all a means to bring us closer to the heart of God and strengthen our faith in the knowledge that we are only kept by the power of God.
These trials and tribulations can strengthen us to stand firm in spite of it all. We must dig our feet in, and say, “I trust Him in spite of my circumstances, in spite of my feelings. Even so, I still believe God.”
Deliverance through trials
God worked with Abraham for years. Loneliness, war, famine and childlessness were a few of the trials he faced. He had to walk through those troubles. Abraham wasn’t delivered out of them. And it was through those troubles, while still clinging to God that his faith grew. He learned to believe when there was no reason left to believe. Why? Because He found that God was faithful to him personally, even while facing insurmountable problems. Abraham came to the place where he recognized that God was able to be trusted, even when life was spiraling out of control. For in the end, he knew that though faced with situations that didn’t work out as he thought, God could and would redeem it. He could trust his present and his future to the perspectives and workings of an eternal God.
Job found that God chose not to keep him from calamity. Deliverance from these catastrophes did not happen. While suffering through the deaths of his children, loss of material goods and an aching, burning disease, questions filled Job’s mind, despair dogged his footsteps, yet he continued to call out to God. He planted his feet and spoke, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Deep down, Job had decided to trust, though questions filled his mind. Dark and lonely times that nothing but faith would fill had been Job’s situation in life. In chapters 40-41 God answers Job. God didn’t answer the questions Job was asking. What He did though, was show Job who He was. The Almighty God who is above all. A God to walk through the battles of life with and who will minister to each of us in the middle of our problems.
Jesus, too, faced a “But if not…” situation in His life. He was facing ridicule, torture and death. He prayed, “Let it not be so, (let this cup pass from me), but if not…(nevertheless) not my will but thine be done.” Jesus knew that the only way to bring complete victory for each one of us was to walk the path for us. He walked through the crushing blows, the denials of trusted friends, the aloneness of being forsaken by God and the defeat of death. The stark truth is that deliverance didn’t come for Jesus. He endured it all. For you and for me.
Deliverance, trials, and faith
Humanly, we shrink back from the thought of tribulations and trials, just as Jesus did. We don’t want to face unpleasantness and pain, but when we do face those situations in life that want to break us, that bend our spirits, and bring despair, we must walk on, letting our faith in an Almighty God fill the cracks in our lives. Jesus has walked the path of defeat, despair and death before us. He placed His utmost trust and faith in His Father. It was then through God’s mighty power He was raised from that darkness to abundant life, light and glory. God is working through our afflictions, our problems, our overwhelming burdens to bring to us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, than the pain we often go through. (II Corinthians 4:17)
It is because of this, because of Jesus, we do not lose hope. When we are faced with walking through the fiery furnace, we can rest assured that Jesus will walk with us. He is working in us that we might gain that faith that is pleasing to God. The faith that stands in the midst of our storms and that will see us to the reality of eternity with Him. A faith that says, “He is able to deliver, but if not….God still can be trusted to take me through.”
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