InPerspective

Harry Reeder: Here is seemingly a "religious tolerant pluralistic polytheistic society." We’re a secular society that says all religions are level and you may have your own religion, but amazingly, when you peel it back, we find out that it is not tolerant at all of those who will not bow to the supremacy of the image of Nebuchadnezzar. If you don't worship this image, we don't tolerate that. We will kill you.

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace reminds us that God's people often face the fiery trials of life. Sometimes, the Lord will douse the fire and spare us from passing through it, but at other times, He will allow us to enter into these fiery trials and He will be right there with us. For He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder continues our series, "Daniel's Memorable Memoirs and Message," as he takes us to Daniel chapter three for today's teaching, part two of the message, "Some Final Thoughts on the Fiery Furnace Incident."

Harry Reeder: Well, let's take a closer look at the three men. Go back with me to Daniel chapter three. Go back with me to Daniel chapter three. Let's take just a closer look at them. Look at verse eight. "Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward to maliciously accuse the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, 'O king, live forever! You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; and they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.'"

Then King Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace."

And here is the statement of supremacy: "And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?" Remember that dream? Nebuchadnezzar doesn't quite get it yet, does he? He doesn't quite get it yet. "I, I will reign supreme and my supremacy will be acknowledged by you bowing to the image that I have set up, and if you do not, then I will cast you into a burning fiery furnace and who will possibly deliver you from my hands?"

Look at the next verse. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Well, here is these three young men who have had a great testimony set before them in Daniel, who now begin to respond the same way. Please notice something. He had called everyone to worship this golden image. They had not made a big scene out of it. They hadn't called a press conference. They did not make a big deal of who they were. They had not used their power to stop people. They had not used what power they had—they were in the ruling class, they were part of the satraps and the wise men—but they had not used that to coerce people, nor had they drawn attention to themselves. They just did not show up. They did not come and worship the image.

And then when Nebuchadnezzar comes to them, their response is, "We don't need to answer you." Now, that could sound like they're being arrogant, but that's not really the purpose. They're just simply saying this: "Nebuchadnezzar, this is a matter of our heart before God. We'll be glad to persuade you. We'll be glad to talk with you, but we don't need to answer you. We need to answer to the one true and living God in terms of worship, and we will worship only Him. We will not worship your image and we will not worship your gods."

So they don't flaunt. They're not arrogant. They're confident, but not defensive. They don't seek power. They don't inappropriately use their position. They're not arrogant. They don't make a big deal about themselves. But what they are, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, is patient, persuasive. They live what they believe and then they confess what they believe, and they make it as clear as they can before him.

And then they do not have the arrogance that I hear many of us use in life and witness and prayer that I believe in well-meaning motivation pass off as faith. The other week, I prayed with someone, and after we'd prayed with someone who was ill—myself and about seven or eight other people—when I left, I had someone take me aside to rebuke me. They said to me, "You know, if I'd known you were going to pray the way that you prayed, I would have told them not to invite you because you don't really believe God can heal."

And I said, "Now, why would you say that?" "Well, we heard you pray. Oh, you said, 'God, we know you have the power to heal and we ask you to heal them and here's the reasons why we believe this is what we would like for you to do.' But then you said, 'But if you choose to do something else.' That really reveals you don't believe. That means you doubt."

And I said, "Oh no." I said, "Dear friend, I will accept everything that you say to me, but I will keep praying that way, and here's my reason why. I don't believe faith calls me to impose upon God my agenda. Faith calls me to communicate to God my heart and then to rest in His agenda because He does all things well. And His ways may not be my ways, but they are the right ways."

And while I am gloriously grateful that somehow God's supernaturally has intertwined the prayers of His people with the providence of His action, therefore I pray with all my fervor believing in Him, but I will not extend myself beyond my Savior who said, "If there be any way, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will be done but your will be done." I will rest in His will. My faith is not the arrogance that my agenda must be imposed upon God. My faith is that my God is able. But if not, if He decides not to answer the way I have prayed, I know He will deliver His people in His way, in His time, and it is that that I am assured of.

That's what we see in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that they've already picked up from Daniel in the first two chapters and now they exhibit that same confidence in the Lord, that same desire to see the Lord's will done. Well, let me very quickly move on to give you that fourth question. Let's take a closer look at Nebuchadnezzar. Let's take a closer look at the king. Let's see what happens to him, all right?

"Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury. The expression of his face was changed." That means he got mad all over and it showed up on his face. As my daughter one time said, "He got ugly in the face, he got so mad." And so his face got contorted, and then he orders the furnace to be heated up seven times more than it was usually heated. He ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

These men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was overheated, the flame of the furnace killed the men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

I pointed out last week just how nonsensical. If you're really mad at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, why'd you heat the thing up? Why not slow it down and simmer a little bit and make them suffer? And by the way, all you did was lose a couple of war heroes because they got burned up because you got it so hot. Have you ever noticed that the anger of man really just doesn't make sense? Not the anger of man. Anger is an appropriate emotion when rightly used in the right place, but the Bible says, "Be angry, but don't sin."

And so here, his anger is what we see with Nebuchadnezzar and it takes hold of him. But now, that's not all that happens. Look what happens in that next verse. "Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. He rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, 'Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?' They answered and said to the king, 'True, O king.'" My guess is he got that answer about every time he said something. "True, O king."

He answered and said, "But I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods." Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, no smell of fire had come upon them. Now, that's a miracle. That's a miracle. You're in a fire and you're just kind of walking around, you're not even looking for a way out, you're having a conversation. And then when they do bring you out, you can't even smell the smoke. This is a miracle. This is the intervention of God's hand, this is a true supernatural intervention.

Now look at the next verse. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins, and there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the province of Babylon.

So a little bit closer look at the king now. A little bit closer. He looks in and his anger dissipates because he sees something that astonishes him. He rises up in haste and he calls all these satraps and prefects and everybody else together, and he calls them to get together and says, "Now, didn't I cast three men into the fire?" "Oh yes, king, that's what you did." "I see four." I could almost hear the mumbling behind here, "I think I see four too. I see four. Look, they're just walking around and one looks like the son of the gods."

That's just the language of a pagan saying, "I see someone who cannot be explained, who is supernatural. I see someone that is astonishing, like the son of the gods." And then he brings Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out and then he declares that your God is the Most High God. Couple of things are happening here with Nebuchadnezzar. God's doing a work on him. You saw that work back in Daniel chapter one when he saw that Daniel, Shadrach, and Meshach and Abednego in their obedience to the Lord had risen above everybody else in his training program. And so he raised them up and put them in positions of leadership.

And then in chapter two—and by the way, notice Daniel, this is how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego pick up on this—Daniel does not use his ability to interpret a dream to promote himself or to get a higher position. He says, "O king, none of your wise men, none of your satraps, none of those people, they can't know the dream and they can't interpret the dream." You know what I'd probably said next? "But I can." That's not what Daniel said. "There is a God who reveals, and it is not in me, it is of Him."

There is a God who reveals the secrets of men. And again, Nebuchadnezzar is arrested. Now we're in chapter three. Again, he's arrested. He's not converted yet, but he's arrested. Harry, how do you know he's not converted? Well, just look what he says. "Your God is the Most High God." He is starting to get it, but notice he doesn't say, "Your God is my God." "The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." He has seen power and that's what he has respected and he is responding to it.

But I know he's not converted yet. You know why I know he's not converted? Because he just does it all over again. He now takes the golden image down in his mind and now he puts the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and he says, "Now, if you don't bow down to this God, I'm going to tear you from limb to limb." And so he shifts his intolerance to the use of power to coerce for the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

You know, I know a lot of Christians that really think that's great. That's not great. We don't look for a government to coerce the worship of our God. Oh no. What a government does is protect the rights of people to worship. That's what the government does, not one that coerces: "If you don't worship the God of the Bible, then we'll tear you from limb to limb and turn your houses into rubble and ashes." He's still not there yet. He's not there yet. He's going to get there, he'll be there. We'll see him. He's getting there, but he's not there yet and you can see it by his response.

But let me just take one final fifth point, one final closer thought. There's something else he has seen and I believe this is what is working on him. When he looks in the fire, he sees a Christophany. Now granted, there's some argument amongst Bible commentators that this may simply be an angel, and it may be, but as I said last week, I believe this is a Christophany. This is one of those special moments like when Joshua met the Captain of the Lord of Hosts, when Moses met the Angel—that's the phrase you look for—"the Angel of the Lord."

This is a pre-incarnate ministry of Christ in the Old Testament, the second person of the Trinity. That is the one who has come into the furnace. And it is that that he sees. He sees not only three Jewish men in a furnace, but he sees—by the way, does that sound familiar? Jewish men thrown into furnaces. Not much has changed, has it? Not much at all.

But when he looks in that furnace, he doesn't just see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He sees the second person of the Trinity who has gone into the furnace with them and for them. That's what none of his religions have. Oh, all of his religions claim power, but no religion in this world that man makes reveals the God of glory who not only has power to deliver you from a furnace, He loves you enough to go into the furnace.

It's no accident. It's no accident that Jesus in Matthew 13, when He talks about the end of the days, says there's two destinations. There's a heaven to enter and there's a hell to shun. And in Matthew 13, what does He call that hell? A fiery furnace. A fiery furnace. And Jesus Christ came into this world and on the cross He entered into that fiery furnace. He descended into hell and paid for your sins and mine. That is the God who has gone into that furnace for us.

But not only 2,100 years ago did Jesus Christ come and go into that furnace and bear our hell that we might be delivered from our sin so that we don't have to go to that furnace, but we can go to everlasting life. But this same Jesus in your life, this same Jesus in your life, when you face the furnaces of a broken world, this same Jesus that went into the furnace for you to deliver you from hell is the same Jesus who will go into the furnaces of this life with you.

Now sometimes, He'll quench the fire and take out the furnace. But notice He doesn't do that. Could Jesus, could Jesus have just put the fire out? Could Jesus, when they threw them in, could Jesus just reach down and just push them, pull them right back up, "Scotty, beam me up"? Could Jesus have drawn them up? Could Jesus have snuffed the fire out? Could Jesus have just brought a big rainstorm and you can forget that burning furnace fire? Could He have done any of those things providentially, miraculously? Absolutely.

But He didn't take them out of that fire. He went into that fire with them. And that's what He does with me and you. He went into the furnace to save us from the furnace of fire of hell that we might enjoy Him forever. And the same God who went into the furnace of fire for us is the same God who every day will go into the fiery furnaces in this world with us to deliver us.

That's what is starting to get the attention of Nebuchadnezzar. We think, we think that what will astound the world is the power of our Savior, and it is astounding. But what astounds the world and what they need to hear is that we have a Savior who went to the cross for you and a Savior who walks through life with you. Periodically, He'll douse the fire. Periodically, He'll just pull you out of it. But basically in life in this broken world, the one who rescued from the eternal condemnation of the fire of hell is the one who will walk through the fiery furnaces of this world with you and never leave you nor forsake you.

Whether it's the challenge of economics, no matter what it is. Now do you see why I said dare to be a Daniel? Not arrogant, calling down power, but in the power of the Savior, showing the confidence and calmness and patience and persuasiveness of a life that lives and a life that confesses. Our God has delivered us and our God will deliver us. Come to this God that He might be yours, this Son of God who has come for you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to InPerspective, featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Our current sermon series: "Daniel's Memorable Memoirs and Message." For additional teaching by Dr. Reeder, visit inperspective.org. The Bible has no shortage of critics who are quick to point out seeming contradictions in the scriptures. If you were to come up against such a critic, would you have the confidence to engage in such a discussion?

Dr. Reeder's series would be a great resource for you, and it's our free gift to you. It's the series, "Is the Bible Reliable?" Call 1-800-488-1888 or visit inperspective.org. Request "Is the Bible Reliable?" This is our free gift to you, our way of saying thanks for listening. Thanks too for your prayer support as well as your financial donation, both of which are so important for us to continue bringing you messages like that of Dr. Reeder and other Reformed Bible teachers.

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And once again, if you would like to receive the series, "Is the Bible Reliable?", call us at 1-800-488-1888. Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder explains how the book of Daniel challenges us with a biblical model for how we can live by faith in the midst of an unbelieving and even hostile world. That's next time as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.