Holy Scriptures and Israel

Intro Narrator: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Daniel chapter 3, that they could drop the people or those things that they wanted to drop, they could drop it from the top, but there would be an opening below that you could watch what's going on right before you. And so, King Nebuchadnezzar have given the commandment that they might be dropped from the top down, while he himself is going to watch to see what's going on, the consequence of them being cast down into the burning fiery furnace.

And so in verse 21, their obedience to the king's command, then these men were bound. You see, they tied them, they bound them, in their coats and their leggings and their hats and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. What they have done? They have tied them with their own clothes. And you know when you have, if you are going into the fire with your clothes, you will, the flame will catch much sooner than on the flesh.

And so they tied them with their clothes, and they put them down and they cast them down into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. But then notice what happened. In verse 22, the ones that have cast them into the fiery furnace, they are the ones, first of all, who find themselves really in a bad state. It says in verse 22, therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The heat had been so tremendous that some of the flames of the fire have got out of the furnace itself. And while these strong mighty men came to cast those three Jewish boys into the midst of the fire, they themselves ended up to be slain by the fire. And in verse 23, the three Jewish men in the burning fiery furnace, it says there, and these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

And so those, the execution have been done. They have thrown up the Jewish boys into the midst of the fire. They were bound, their hands, their feet. They were bound. They fell down right on the floor, if you will. But the very ones that have cast them down, the mighty men of Nebuchadnezzar, they found them, they have lost their life. They have been slain.

And so the casting into the burning fiery furnace is in verse 19 to verse 23. And I think the next section is one of the most beautiful and interesting section. Verse 24, 25, 26 and 27, those four verses, we see the deliverance of these Jewish boys.

And first of all, it says in verse 24, Nebuchadnezzar's astonishment and his question. Then Nebuchadnezzar, you remember I said there's an opening right in the side. Nebuchadnezzar looking at the fire in the furnace, they have been cast down inside from the top. Nebuchadnezzar, it's interesting, Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished. He's going to see a sight that is unbelievable. He was astonished, and he rose up in haste.

And he spoke, and he said unto his counselors, “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said unto the king, “True, oh king.” He is asking this question, he says, “Did not we throw, we threw in three men bound?” They answered, “Yes.”

Then he called them in verse 24, and he says, he answered and he said, “Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire. And they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.”

Now, it is so beautiful to see, there is a very beautiful spiritual lesson to learn here. First of all, if you notice, it says here in verse 24, “three men bound.” In verse 25, “four men loose.”

In other words, they tied them, they bound them, they cast them into the midst of the fire, but he as he watches that, what does he see? He doesn't see three men bound. He see four men. All of them are loose. I mean, this is a miracle. I mean, this is if you know, we are talking about miracles, this is a miracle. Humanly speaking, it is not possible.

Humanly speaking, I just put myself, my finger at home, let's say on the, when we are on the barbecue, and you just put it for one second, you see you're going to say, “Ouch!” You're going to say, “Ouch,” right? And there's something is out of the ordinary here in this case. It is something that is unusual. It is unusual. It's not possible.

The men upstairs who, who cast them down, they already died. They cast them into the midst of the fire. They were tied when they cast them. Then they watched them. When he looked at them, he does not see only three men bound, he see four men. Now I want you to notice, there are a few things that are very interesting here.

First of all, if we want to notice, the first thing that we learn here in verse 25 is that they are not bound, but they are loose. That speaks to us, you know, sometimes, and I'm going to make it a spiritual application. Humanly speaking, you're going to go into a real fire, you're going to be burnt.

But when I speak about the trials that believers are going through their lives, the Apostle told us in the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 4, verse 4, 5, and 6. The fire in the Bible always have a picture of a trial, fiery trial. It speaks in Scripture of trials of life. And every person have trials. Some have more, some have less.

And the trials that the Lord allow us to go through in our lives, there are two ways to go about it. We either going through these trials with our face to the ground, discouraged, in other words, not enjoying the things of the Lord, just going through this trial and so depressed and so discouraged, or when we go through trials, to take the Lord along with us, and to have Him help us to be strengthened, to have peace, to have shalom in the midst of a trial.

Here is an example that we have in Philippians chapter 4. Paul said in verse 4, “Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always.” Don't only rejoice when things are good. Don't only rejoice when you get your way. Don't only rejoice when things are fine with you. Don't only rejoice when everything is fine and dandy. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord at all times.” That means when you are on Cloud 9, if you will, or when you are in the valley.

When there are trials and tribulation, and when things are fine and dandy. He says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And again, I say, “Rejoice.” Then he says in verse 5, “Let your graciousness or moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.”

We might say the Lord is at hand, the Lord is coming soon, or the Lord is near to assist us, to support us, to sustain us. And then he says in verse 6 this, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.”

In other words, in verse 6 it says like when when he means by being careful for nothing, he doesn't mean that we be careless. What he's simply saying, to entrust circumstances to the Lord. To entrust situation in our lives to the Lord Jesus, as it says here, “by prayer, by supplication, and also by thanksgiving.”

And you know what's going to happen in the midst of a trial if we have this kind of attitude? Verse 7. We're going to get the peace of God. In Hebrew, Shalom HaElohim. It is not peace with God, it's the peace of God.

Peace with God, we already have when we first trusted in the Messiah. We have peace with God, Romans chapter 5, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah. In Philippians, it's not peace with God, it's the peace of God. It's the peace that we have as we walk in the midst of the trial, if you will, the fiery trials, as we walk in the midst, there is shalom in the midst of a trial.

And you know, it is passing all understanding because it's not human. It says here in verse 7, “the peace of God which passes understanding.” It passes. We sometimes see brothers and sisters who are going through trial, and we are amazed, and we say, “How can they have that peace in the midst of that trial? How can they can, they can be sustained in the midst of such a difficult situation?”

Well, you know how come? They're not better than anybody else. They simply have done what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, or the Apostle Paul's counsel in Philippians chapter 4. They simply have cast their cares and presented it before the Lord.

They simply continue to pray. They simply continue to supplicate, and they continued to give thanksgiving to the Lord. And there is a peace that they have received in the middle of the trial. That is exactly what happened to these three boys in the furnace, in the fiery furnace, in the book of Daniel and chapter 3.

Matthew chapter 28, the Lord Yeshua said, “I will be with you all the way through, all the end to the end of the age,” He says. And so there is the promise that God will not forsake his people. Now, seemingly he forsook them because they were in the middle of the fire. But He never did, because we see here, as we are looking at this verse, four men loose.

So if we saw, first of all, all three of them were loose, on top of it, what we see there is a fourth person right in the midst of them. Now, let me just mention this for a minute. There are various way to look at it. Some suggest when it's speaking about the four men loose, or the fourth man, who will be that man? Who could that man be?

Some believe, of course, it is very well could be the pre-incarnate appearing of the Son of God, the Messiah Himself. We find it often time in the Scriptures that the Messiah before his incarnation, before He became a man, before He was born into this world through the virgin Miriam, He appeared in various situation in the history of the people of Israel.

And He surely did. For example, in the time, if we we just take the time of Abraham, Abraham in chapter 18, there were three men appearing in the tent of by the tent of Abraham in in a in a middle of the heat of the day. And two of them were angels, we find out in chapter 19. But one of them that Abraham remained to speak with him was none else but Jehovah Himself, the Lord Himself.

Chapter 18 and chapter 19 of the book of Genesis. And we can see it in various other passages. For example, Jacob, Ya'akov, in Genesis chapter 32, when Jacob was left alone at midnight, if you remember, and a man wrestled with him. And you remember at the he touched the hollow of his thigh, and he clung to him and he says, and that man told him, “Let me go, let me go.” And Ya'akov said to him, “I will not let you go until you will bless me.”

And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “My name is Jacob.” And he says, “Your name is no longer be called Jacob, but Yisrael, Israel. For you have wrestled with God and prevailed.” And if you remember that, you read it in Genesis chapter 32. And at the end, he called the name of the place Peniel, for I saw God, or I spoke to God face to face, or I saw God, the face, “Pnei” come from the Hebrew word face, “El”, El come from the Hebrew word for God.

And so we have the pre-incarnate appearing quite a few time mentioned in in the book of Judges, in the book of Genesis, and elsewhere in the Scriptures. So when we're talking about that fourth man, it's so beautiful if it is so. There is definitely, it is the beautiful promise that the Lord Jesus the Messiah says, “I am not going to leave you.”

In other words, the promise of God to be, or if you will, the pre-incarnate Messiah to protect the people whom have trusted in Him. Now, another consideration that we need to take here is that, remember Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan man. He did not know about the Son of God.

And so if you just, it might be very well on on another point, of another note of saying that it could be, and somebody mentioned it like that. It says, it says, “He saw four men walking in the midst of the fire. And they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the son of the gods,” rather than the son of God, the son, or a son of the gods.

Because Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan man, and he did not know anything to do about the Son of God. How could he say it is the Son of God? I mean, this is was known only to believers, and even Old Testament believers did not understand it the way we understand it today in this present day. But whichever way you take it, whichever way we take it, it is definitely the protection of God over those three Jewish boys.

I want you to turn with me to a verse in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 11. It's the chapter of faith. By faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by faith Isaac, by faith Jacob, by faith Joseph, by faith Moses, by faith Rahab, and so on.

By faith, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. And then just I want you to notice what it says in verse 33 and on. In Hebrews 11:33, “who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions,” who can that be speaking of? Daniel.

And then notice in verse 34a, “quenched the violence of fire.” Through faith, they quenched the violence of fire. This has direct reference to Daniel chapter 3. The violence of fire that came against them, simply by faith, by faith, they have quenched, if you will, the, the violence of the fire that came against them.

How beautiful to see these three young Jewish boys. Now, also, please turn to Isaiah chapter 43. And God promised to the future remnant of Israel, at the end of the tribulation, in fact, during the tribulation and in the tribulation time to protect them. Isaiah 43, verses 1 and 2. He said, “But now thus says the Lord that created thee, oh Jacob, and He that formed thee, oh Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walketh through the fire, thou shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

The promise of God for the remnant of Israel in the tribulation period, that when they go through the water, when they pass through the rivers, and when they walk through the fire, that God had promised to take care of them. Now you can see a miniature picture of the future days where God is going to preserve the nation of Israel for himself.

And you know what, beloved, we are already living about 2,000 years since the Messiah came, and we're living about almost 3,000 years since Israel's kingdom had been divided, and the Jewish people have been taken into the diaspora all over the world. God is still preserving the nation of Israel to a future day when He's going to regather the people of Israel and establish them in the millennial age under the headship and kingship of the Messiah Yeshua in a coming day.

And so we can see that miniature picture here in these three boys in the midst of the fiery furnace. Now, quickly go back to Daniel. In verse 25, we see the observation that King Nebuchadnezzar have seen. What did he see? Not three men tied, four men loose, number one. Number two, they were not laying on the floor, they were walking. Number three, they were not hurt. And number four, the son, one like the son of God, or like a son of a god is with them.

And so in verse 26, he calling those young men to come. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and he spoke, and he said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither.” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire. I mean, this is amazing.

He's calling them to come out, and can you imagine they're coming out as if nothing happened? Protected, of course, by God, protected and taken care of by the one that was with them in the fire. And verse 27, “The princes, the governors, and the captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together, they saw these men.”

Now, I want you to notice four things they notice about them. Number one, “upon whose body the fire had no power.” Isaiah 43, verse 2, “when thou walketh through the fire, thou shall not be burnt.” The power of the fire, the fire had no power. That's number one. Number two, it says in this same verse, “nor was the hair of their head singed.”

Now, I tell you, I've a few times I've been barbecue. Again, talking about barbecue. I just just tell you how much barbecue I do. But the fire came up, and some of my hair burned, singed. I mean, how is it possible to be in the middle of the furnace, turned seven times higher, and there's no affect on the hair? It's not possible humanly, unless God had been involved in that. That's number two.

Number three, beloved, it says here, “that neither were their coats changed.” Nothing happened to their clothing. Nothing happened. And number four, “nor the smell of the fire had passed on them.” Now, you know, you just have to be with somebody eating in a restaurant that they still allow them to smoke, and you come out of that, you can say, “Boy, you have been smoking.”

Imagine you are in the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and even the affect of the smell of the fire did not pass to them. That's the the the grace of God of the protection that he protected those Jewish boys. And so now quickly, the the last verses, 28, 29, and 30, the response of Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar recognize the God of these Jewish boys, in verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent,” now notice, he said, “has sent his angel.” You see, the man that he saw in verse 25, he says, “four men loose, one of them like the son of a god.”

In verse 28, he says, “who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.” You know what that's remind me? Is Romans chapter 12.

“Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” That's what, it's not only a New Testament teaching, it was taught already in the Old Testament Scripture, but also to yield, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. God wants our hands, our eyes, our ears, our feet. God wants it for Him.

And here they yielded their bodies, as he said, “that they might not serve nor worship any God.” You know how often we yield our bodies to the temptations of the devil, to the world, to the lust that we have in the flesh, how often we do so? Here the the king could see it in the lives of these Jewish boys.

“That they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God.” And finally, verse 29, he gave a new decree. The old decree, “Come and worship.” The new decree, verse 29, “Therefore, I made a decree that every people, nation, and languages which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.”

You see, the decree in verse 4, it said, “Then a herald cried aloud, and to you it is commanded, oh people, nations, and languages.” There was a decree made to fall down and worship. Now there's another decree in verse 29, the decree is that whoever is going to speak anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he probably was thinking about these men who came and put him against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he was pointing to these men.

If you are going to speak against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, look what's going to happen to you. You're going to be cut into pieces, and their houses shall be made like a public outhouse. Because there is no other God like the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And now listen, in closing, verse 30, the promotion of the three Jewish men. It says in verse 30, it says, “Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.” And you know what? He have given them back, if you will, even more what he have given them before. And now he have, he have restored them and given them far more than what they have had before.

And you know, this is a really good lesson for us to learn. If we're going to be faithful, whatever we're going to lose for the Lord, we're going to receive it far more, sevenfold, because God is faithful. God is going to give us, when Job had been faithful, and he lost everything that he had, God had given him everything back, and far more. We need the Lord to help us to be faithful. Can we say amen to that?

Intro Narrator: You have been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0. Or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com.

You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM, and Saturdays at 1:00 PM, at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.