The Fire is not a problem

Interesting bit of history in the Book of Daniel. Three men were thrown into a furnace at full heat, had a chat and a stroll with Jesus and then came out totally unharmed.

You can read the story in Chapter 3, but here is the bones of it. There was a vast empire in the Middle East which covered what we now know as Israel, Jordan, Syria, part of Turkey Iraq and Egypt. Massive. At the time of this story the King who ruled over all this was King Nebuchadnezzar. Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? For the purpose of this blog, mainly to make my life easier, we are going to call him King Neb. Neb was a man to be feared. Powerful and despotic. If he said it, it happened.

King Neb liked a bit of a project, and he also liked to exert his authority. He had a gold statue made, 27 metres high and nearly 3 metres wide. (That’s a two storey house higher than the Angel of the North). Now King Neb wanted everyone to bow down and worship the Statue. Why? Because he could. Anyone who didn’t obey was to be thrown into a blazing furnace and burnt to death. Guess who didn’t obey? Three men who were believers in God.

Actually we will see that they were more than believers. They were followers of God. They didn’t just believe God was real, they followed Him, even if it meant risking their lives. They refused to bow down to the Image. They knew the punishment for not worshiping it but they said ‘No’. The three men were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. There are four important things to notice as the story unfolds…..

The first thing is that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew exactly what they were doing, they knew exactly what the outcome could be but they chose Truth and Integrity before anything else. No excuses, no trying to run away and hide. Bold as brass really. And an absolute trust in God.

 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up

Daniel 3v17-18

They knew God could deliver them, but even if He did not and they died in the flames, that was preferable to worshiping other gods or images. They knew that death, sad as it is, is not the end. They wanted to be able to face God with a clear conscience and look Him in the eye. Little did they realise how that opportunity would come about very shortly!

The second thing is that God didn’t intervene to stop King Neb. Why didn’t God stop King Neb? We often hear that question. Why didn’t God intervene? The answer is that He has given us all free will, including King Neb. Ok, so in that case why didn’t He just suspend King Neb’s free will for a few hours?

When He gave us free will it was to allow us to choose whether or not to love Him. Without free will, there is no such thing as love. God is not a controller. He is sovereign, He will get His way eventually no matter what it costs Him, even the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. But He is not controlling events. It would be easy to say ‘God please control that person and restrict their free will’ but how would we feel if He controlled us in a similar way? And anyway, as I said, without free will there is no opportunity for love.

The third thing is that God was there with them in the furnace. What God always does is meet us in the circumstances; and He always provides a way through to wholeness and healing – if we will take it. Jesus was in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. (Verse 25 describes Him as one who looks like a son of the gods). Jesus was already there, waiting for them. Wherever you go, wherever life takes you, whatever happens to you He is there before you, waiting to meet you there and bring you through whatever the situation is.

And if you didn’t realise at the time that He was there, He can still do for you now what He wanted to do for you then….bring you through in victory. Like our three heroes of the faith Jesus will bring you out with not even a smell of burning on you.

I went through some pretty horrendous experiences as a young child. I didn’t know Jesus then, and yes, I suffered. However, since I got to know Jesus for myself, we have together brought resolution to all that hurt and pain. His will for me? Not even a smell of fire on me. His will for you? Exactly the same.

The fourth thing to note is that for Jesus, the fire was not the problem. The fire in the furnace was an expression of King Neb’s free will. Jesus purpose was to redeem the situation, and to do that He didn’t need to put the fire out, control Nebuchadnezzar or control anyone else. His very nature is to redeem. He is the Redeemer, and He does it perfectly.

There is a line in a song that sums this all up, “The King is in the room; with redemption in His heart and Fire in His eyes”