The first time I had a pastor search committee come to consider me for their church, I went to my pastor for advice. I told him I two sermons. One was better than the other. I asked if I should preach the best sermon first or save it for when the church called me to preach for their consideration. He told me to preach my best one first. I might never get another chance to preach to them if the first sermon didn’t move them. The passage we are considering this morning is the same as the sermon I preached for my first church as a possible candidate as pastor. While it may have been second best at the time, it is one that holds a lot of meaning to me down through the years because I have faced several situations in my life where I needed faith desperately and only had Almighty God to hold on to.
So, today, I want us to look at three young men who did not receive a last minute reprieve from the desperate hour by God’s hand. These young men simply had to go through with the fiery trial of a lifetime.
Open your Bible’s to Daniel 3:8-18
No incident in the Bible more clearly illustrates the affirmation of the early apostles’ that "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). Down through the ages, this section of Daniel has proved to be a constant encouragement to God’s people.
Two things about it are noteworthy:
(1) the accusation brought against the three friends,
(2) the response of faith they made to it.
Verses 9-12 record the accusation brought by a number of Chaldeans.
The very form of chapter 3 heightens the drama because no mention had been made yet of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The royal decree had been proclaimed (v. 4); the music had begun; the people bowed down. Naturally we are left wondering what response was made by the children of God. The very style of narration underlines a principle that was also evident in chapter 1: the people of faith do not make a "big deal" out of their acts of heroism. They don’t need to always being drawing attention to the fact that they are different from others. They simply act according to the Lord’s word and allow their actions to speak without unnecessary histrionics.
In fact, it was the Chaldeans who drew Nebuchadnezzar’s attention to what happened. The wording of verse 1 suggests that they did so as the result of a well-prepared strategy. They accused the Jews (literally, "ate their pieces," or as we would say today, "got their teeth into them"). Perhaps jealousy was their main motivation. Their words, "There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon" (v. 12) express a sense of glee that they have an opportunity to destroy the influence of these people and also, perhaps, a sense of vindication (since Nebuchadnezzar had not granted them such favor).
Notice that their statement is utterly without compassion.
Rather than plead for mercy on the grounds that these Jews were servants of the Most High God whose kingdom can never be destroyed ... and doubtless were of all people the most faithful to Nebuchadnezzar in the administration of his affairs ... they accuse them of not paying "due regard" (v. 12) to the king. Rather than throw oil on troubled waters (which the three companions evidently did by their low-key approach), these men were out to destroy the influence of God’s kingdom under the guise of their own faithfulness to Nebuchadnezzar.
The children of this world have a wisdom of their own. The Chaldeans had a firm grasp of human psychology; they knew their man. If they had a price so that Nebuchadnezzar could buy them (they chose to worship his idol rather than lose their lives), they likewise knew he had a price. They bought his anger against the three Jews by their plot to betray their faithfulness to their God. They knew that whatever religious impressions Nebuchadnezzar recently experienced, he was no true convert to the God of Daniel. All they needed to mention was the failure of the Hebrews to pay respect to his wishes (v. 12) and his rage was guaranteed. They knew his arrogance would erupt in a clear expression of the conflict between the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God: "who is the God who will deliver you from my hands?" (v. 15).
What was the response of the Hebrew believers to this undisguised challenge to the majesty of God? It was a part of their earlier simple obedience to God. It brings light even more clearly the leading characteristics of that faith that quenches the violence of fire (Hebrews 11:34) as it says in Hebrews.
Confidence in the Power of God
They had confidence in the power of God: "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" (v. 17). Trust in God implies the recognition of His power, of His omnipotence. It is one thing to have a general conviction about God’s omnipotence, it is quite another to believe that He can do what seems to be completely contrary to nature, namely, deliver men from fire.
On what did these confessors base their confidence that God could and might preserve them? It may have been the revelation God had given though Nebuchadnezzar (which originally seemed for his benefit, but now it becomes apparent that it is for the encouragement of His own people). God had promised to establish a kingdom that could never be destroyed. If He meant to do that in the future, then (these men may have reasoned) we are part of His preparation for that great day. God plans to preserve and keep His people ... and if need be He will do that even contrary to all expectation.
Yet as with all true faith, their confidence was not blind to the realities of the situation nor the fact that God works out His purposes in the way He chooses, not in the way we would choose. So there was a second element to their faith.
They Were Completely Submissive to God’s Will
They were completely submissive to God’s will, whatever that might be: "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" (v. 18). If there is any true faith in our own hearts, we will want to stand up and cheer as we read these words. In the last analysis, the friends’ faith was not in their deliverance but in their God. It was the same way for Job: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15). With Paul, they wanted to glorify God in their body either by life or by death. In a sense it was all one to them, as long as God’s name could be exalted. As Paul wrote in Philippians (1:20), "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." They knew that should God deliver them, His name would be vindicated
They also knew that should they die, their faithful testimony would display the worthiness of their God and the unworthiness of Nebuchadnezzar’s self-created idol. By the manifestation of the truth they would commend themselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. Death would work in them, but life would surely spring forth in others through their witness (2 Cor. 4:2, 12).
Notice that these men of faith would not have regarded their deaths in the flames to be a failure of faith but rather an indication of God’s will. By faith the flames may be quenched, but in that same faith "others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection... They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword" (Heb. 11:35, 37). Faith means trusting in God and His word. Faith does not mean that we either know or understand what His specific purpose in our lives may be. It means a readiness to follow Him whatever His purpose.
No one can make the sacrifices of faith without grasping these principles and no one can grasp these principles without making the sacrifices of faith. What was true of Christ ... the seed who fell into the ground to die in order to produce much grain (John 12:24) ... is perennially true of God’s people, both before and since His coming.
We see it demonstrated throughout church history, from Stephen (whose death so clearly affected the young Saul) to Patrick Hamilton (the young reformation martyr [the smell of whose burning corpse blew over the town of Saint Andrews in Scotland and (as was said) "infected as many as it blew upon]) and beyond.
This was the finest hour of these three confessors. Their faith did not hold fast simply by accident or by the decision of the moment. It had grown strong because in previous tests they had grown strong in faith as they had given glory to God (cf. Rom. 4:20). As they looked back on the crisis of the fiery trial, they must have seen the previous tests in a new light. Their significance was to prepare them for this monumental crisis so that through their faithfulness God would be glorified throughout all generations.
One of Oliver Cromwell’s contemporaries once commented on the remarkable fact that before his first battle Cromwell had no real experience in warfare and yet he appeared to be a skilled general as he directed his troops. What was his secret? Long before the day of his first public battle, Cromwell had won victory after victory in the inner battle for holiness and obedience in his own life. He therefore took the field as a mature and experienced soldier. The same was true for these three Hebrews.
Mrs. Chas Cowman in her devotional book entitled Streams in the Desert addresses this faith for desperate days.
The Bible is full of such days. Its record is made up of them, its songs are inspired by them, its prophecy is concerned with them, and its revelation has come through them. For it is in the midst of the fiery trial that God reveals some of His most amazing truths. And because of that, you can not learn them in any other fashion than to go through those days of utter desperation.
The desperate days are the stepping stones in the path of light. They seem to have been God’s opportunity and man’s school of wisdom. There is a story of an Old Testament love feast in Psalm 107, and in every story of deliverance the point of desperation gave God His chance.
The "wit’s end" of desperation was the beginning of God’s power. Recall the promise of seed as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as the sands of the sea, to a couple as good as dead. Read again the story of the Red Sea and its deliverance, and of Jordan with its ark standing mid-stream. Study once again the prayers of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, when the were in serious situations and circumstances and did not know what to do or which way to turn.
Go over the history of Nehemiah, Hosea and Habakkuk. Stand in awe in the darkness of Gethsemane, and linger by the grave in Joseph’s garden through those terrible days. Call the witness of the early Church, and ask the apostles the story of their desperate days.
Desperation is better than despair.
Faith did not make our desperate days. Its work is to sustain and solve them. The only alternative to a desperate faith is despair, and faith holds on and prevails.
There is no more heroic example of desperate faith than that of our three Hebrew children. The situation was desperate, but they answered bravely, "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." "But if not!"
We only have time to mention Gethsemane. Ponder deeply its “Nevertheless.” “If it is possible … nevertheless.” Deep darkness had settled upon the soul of our Lord. Trust meant anguish unto blood and darkness to the descent of hell – Nevertheless! Nevertheless!
One of my favorite poets is “Author Unknown.” This bit of verse was penned by him:
When obstacles and trials seem
Like prison walls to be,
I do the little I can do
And leave the rest to Thee.
And when there seems no chance, no change,
From grief can set me free,
Hope finds it strength in helplessness,
And calmly waits for Thee.
The desperate days do come. But, in those desperate awful days of no relief comes the experience of trusting God
