Fiery Furnace

Fiery flames threaten to consume people across America. The flames of financial ruin, disease, relational struggles, or other trials lap at the feet of believers as the enemy is on a rampage. He hasn’t yet received the word that he is a defeated foe – crushed by God under our feet (Romans 16:20). Satan delights when he lures Christian into fearing, failure, or doubt. He is doubly delighted when he sees us weaken and begin to listen to his taunts more than the Word of Almighty God.

I especially appreciate the writings in Daniel 3. An evil, conceited ruler, Nebuchadnezzar, mandated that the people under his authority to bow and worship a golden image of himself. Although this account occurred thousands of years ago, this scenario resembles modern day rulers, egotistical, Godless and vain.

Refusal to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image insured a trip to the fiery furnace. Denial of his mandate would not result in a slap to the wrist, but a flesh crisping trip to the furnaces. Just as our Christian walks require constant abiding and walking with the Lord to equip us to be able to stand against sin and temptations, this precise relationship with the Lord was required to stand against Nebuchadnezzar’s threats.

In the midst of the Nebuchadnezzar worshippers, there were some who chose to believe God and the Word of God. They were fierce in their faith and fortitude. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were called out and confronted because of their refusal to worship the false god – the golden Nebuchadnezzar image. Reflect on the false gods that lure people into their snares today. Without constant meditation on God’s Word and communing through prayer with Him, our eyes, ears, and hearts are lured away from the God path He has planted and planned for our lives.

When the rubber meets the road, ask yourself will you always stand for God and what is right in His eyes? Despite what others might say or think, will you not deny Him? If it means to lose your physical life or deny God, what option would you select? These are the very circumstances that Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-Nego encountered. They were ratted out and King Neb was not pleased when he learned of their refusal to worship his image. Always a gentleman (NOT) Neb gave them one more opportunity to bow at his image before he authorized their fiery furnace appointment.

These three men’s response detonates with faith:

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up’” (Daniel 3:16-18).

Their walk mimicked their talk. Titus 1:16 reminds us: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” All too often, the Christian’s talk is much more powerful than his or her walk. When times of trials or tribulation or temptation enter the believer’s life, he or she falters. This Scripture enlightens a vital Biblical characteristic of the Christian walk – many more people speak the faith life than who are living it. Hypocrisy runs rampant in the church. Hypocrisy was not present in Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-Nego’s lives – they didn’t deny God nor were they disobedient – even to the point of a death sentence. They were confident and resolved, even to the point of death, that their God would deliver them.

I felt many of these emotions when at the NIH and I was told that this leukemia is “end stage”. My fiery furnace was a terminal disease without a medical cure. I have no need to acknowledge or answer leukemia. I will remain confident that the Lord will deliver me from this fiery furnace. I will not, ever, bow down to or believe that leukemia has any power over me. It may taunt and tease to steal my physical life, yet, I am confident in my faith, that I am not going to die one second before my appointed time. I am convinced that the God of the Universe is my Advocate and He is not going to forsake me.

The enemy becomes livid when he acknowledges that Children of the Most High God are not bowing their knees or lives to him or the tumultuous circumstances he has generated. King Nebuchadnezzar was “full of fury” – so angry that he ordered that the fires of the furnaces to be stoked to seven times the heat as was normal. The Men of God Trio was bound and cast into the inferno. Such was the intensity of the blaze that it consumed the men who cast Shadrach and Company into the furnace. Imagine the indignation and astonishment that Nebuchadnezzar felt when he saw the three servants of God walking in the midst of the fire along with “the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” God had not forsaken his children in their most distressing moments. He was present. He was in their midst. He was the Ultimate Deliverer.

What truly tickles my spiritual funny bone is when the enemy is confident that his plots and ploys have tripped up and entangled a believer’s life, only to discover that he (the enemy) has been conquered. Not only did God rescue these three men of God from their fiery punishment, He also began praising their God. The description of these men as they departed the furnace amazes me: “they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them”. Nebuchadnezzar eventually acknowledged that “there is no other God who can deliver like this.”

I pray that I will be delivered from this foe leukemia. I want to emerge without a sign of this infliction in my body. I want to be unscathed despite the 12+ year rampage leukemia has tramped through my body. I ask for deliverance for personal reasons that I will be granted more time with those I love on this earth. Yet, the spiritual ramification of such deliverance will yield the eternal, substantial results – nonbelievers acknowledging as Nebuchadnezzar did, “there is no other God who can deliver like this!” Praise His Holy Name.