“Trial By Fire”
Daniel 3
INTRODUCTION: One time on a school field trip I visited Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. As the tour boat approached Fort Sumter, our teacher asked if the guides would be dressed in blue or in gray. Sumter had been a Union fort in Confederate territory when the Civil War began. It had changed hands several times. We were greeted at the gate by a "soldier" wearing a blue coat and gray pants! This uniform wouldn’t have worked very well back in 1861. It would have gotten its wearer shot by both sides! (Like wearing a Duke cap with a Carolina sweatshirt—some things you just can’t compromise on.)
To compromise one’s beliefs as a Christ follower is a constant pressure in our culture. Often it is a subtle pressure that occurs in conversation or while watching TV or in front of your computer. How can we stand up under that pressure? It’s a pressure that God’s people have always faced, none more dramatically so than three young Hebrews in Babylon named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Here’s the situation they found themselves in [READ 1-12].
>>How can we stand up instead of bowing down under pressure? Options are few:
I. OPTION ONE: If you can’t beat the heat, join it. (1-12)
(That is, compromise your faith to fit in with your culture.)
A. Nebuchadnezzar likely considered bowing down to his statue the equivalent of taking a pledge of allegiance. He can see no reason but insubordination for refusal to worship as requested and therefore he does not hesitate to prescribe a brutal punishment in the furnace.
1. V.7 reads literally, “as soon as they were hearing they were falling down.” The response was total and immediate. The king had achieved the unity he sought.
2. The repetition of the list of officials and musical instruments achieves a satirical effect that may not have been unintentional. Here are all the great ones of the empire falling flat on their faces before a lifeless obelisk at the sound of a musical medley, controlled by the baton of King Nebuchadnezzar.
3. Where’s Daniel? We aren’t told.
a. Elsewhere doing the king’s business?
b. So highly favored he’s above accusation?
c. His absence supports the authenticity of this account. If this were fiction, why would the hero of the book drop out here?
B. Now Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had all kinds of reasons at their disposal for why it could have been in their best interests to compromise.
1. They could have said, “Look, if we get ourselves killed, who is going to look out for the welfare of the Jewish people? We’re no good to anyone if we’re dead! Even if it means bowing down to this idol, we need to survive.”
2. They could have said, “When in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do. We’re just trying to fit in so that we can stay relevant in our culture. God will excuse us.”
3. They could have said, “We’ll bow down, but we won’t actually worship the idol. We’ll just make it LOOK like we’re worshipping the idol, but we’ll really worship Yahweh in our hearts.”
4. They could have said, “We’ll worship the idol just this one time, then we’ll ask for forgiveness. No harm done!”
5. They could have said, “The king gave us these really sweet jobs, so I guess we owe him. We’ll bow down to his idol.”
C. All these rationalizations sound sensible …. at first. But God’s word disallows them all.
1. Exodus 20:4-5 [READ]
2. If there is one thing that is crystal clear in Scripture, it is the idea that God’s people bow down to God and God alone. There can be no compromise on this.
D. ILLUSTRATION: In the first season of the popular TV show "24," Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is a federal agent charged with protecting a presidential candidate from an assassination plot. He was given that responsibility because in the uncertain world of espionage he possesses that rare character trait of integrity. In the show’s first episode, Jack’s integrity is already put to the test. Because he turned in other federal agents for bribery, some of his own comrades have turned against him. In particular, Jack’s immediate boss has come down hard on him and tried to persuade Jack not to be so honest in his job. Jack has an explosive confrontation with his boss and will not budge on this point. Just after the confrontation, Jack bristles with intensity as he explains his actions to his closest partner. “You can look the other way once, and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time. And pretty soon, that’s all you’re doing—compromising—because that’s how you think things are done. You know those guys I blew the whistle on? You think they were the bad guys? They weren’t the bad guys. They were just like you and me, except they compromised once.”
>>So if we want to beat the heat, what’s our option?
II. OPTION TWO: If you want to beat the heat, fight fire with faith (13-18)
A. Nebuchadnezzar, despite his furious rage, will not condemn these men on hearsay alone and gives them opportunity to recant. He defied any god to deliver them from the hands of his Babylonian majesty. They have no where to run or hide—but they will fight fire with faith.
B. Fireproof faith has complete confidence in God’s power (17)
1. 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 people from fire. God has promised to preserve and keep His people. If necessary, He will violate His own natural laws to do it.
2. As with all true faith, their confidence was not blind to the realities of the situation nor to the fact that God works out His purposes in the way that He chooses, not the way we would choose.
>>So there was a second element to their faith:
C. Fireproof faith is completely submissive to God’s will (18)
1. In the final analysis, the 3 Hebrews’ faith was not in their deliverance, but in their God. It was of the same kind as Job’s, who said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” They knew that God should deliver them, His name would be vindicated. They also knew that should they die, at least their faith would be uncompromised.
2. 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. 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 ready willingness to follow Him whatever His purpose.
3. ILLUSTRATION: At the beginning of the movie "First Knight," Lancelot is asked by a farmboy how he can become as good a swordsman as Lancelot is. Lancelot tells him three things. First, you must dedicate yourself completely. "I can do that," the farmboy says enthusiastically. Second, you must learn to wait for the right moment when the swordfight will be won or lost. "I can do that," exclaims the farmboy again. "And third," Lancelot continues, “you must not care whether you live or die.”
D. ILLUSTRATION: In a story following the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in 2005, Chicago Tribune reporter Lolly Bowean wrote about several churches that had been scattered by the storm. Reverend Michael Mille pastored one of those churches, White Dove Fellowship International Outreach Center, and preached to 300 people during the first service after the hurricane. His church normally had over 3,000 in attendance. During an emotional sermon, Reverend Mille offered a unique, Christian perspective on the tragedy and how it had affected his congregation, saying: "We used to sing Jesus is all we need…now he’s all we’ve got."
III. God vindicates His children who fight fire with faith (19-30)
A. Furnaces in Babylon were connected with the firing of bricks, which were widely used in the absence of stone.
1. The fuel was charcoal, which could produce the high temperatures needed in the brick kiln and the ironsmith’s forge.
2. The furnace would have resembled a railway tunnel blocked at one end but with an entrance at the other. Uprights at regular intervals support the dome and serve as ventilation shafts.
B. It is worth noting that they had to endure the ordeal of being thrown into the fire. In a miracle, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were delivered from the flames, or more accurately in the flames.
1. There is no suggestion here or elsewhere in Scripture that the believer will be cushioned against trouble and suffering except by the presence of the Lord with him in it.
2. Rich Mullins: “You meet the Lord in the furnace a long time before you’ll meet Him in the sky.”
C. Instead of three men bound, Nebuchadnezzar sees four men loose. The fourth is like “a son of the gods,” and it dawns on the king that there IS a God who can deliver out of his hand. The three men are free to make their way to him out of the furnace at his command.
D. What was the identity of the fourth being in the fire? Scripture doesn’t say. The vital thing is that God fulfilled His promise to never leave nor forsake His people. Jesus tells us, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
CONCLUSION: In times of testing, God’s people fight fire with faith.
APPLICATION: How fireproof is your faith? Is your faith in Christ strong enough to meet the challenge of a personal tragedy? An unanswered prayer? Criticism? Personal threats? A Christian leader falling? Loss of health? Loss of possessions? Persecution? Let these three young Hebrews be our example and our encouragement to fight fire with faith.
ILLUSTRATION: In 1837 three young Methodist ministers, James Calvert, John Hunt, Thomas Jaggar, and their wives set out from England for the Fiji Islands. Theirs was a difficult assignment. The work there was only three years old, and the people were still cannibals. Hardly any fruit was seen during their first few years of service. Then in 1845 revival swept through the islands. Chief Thakombau, who had been the main opponent of the mission work, was converted to Christ. Within a few years a complete transformation of the islands had take place as the gospel took hold of the people there. The captain of the ship that took the three English couples from England tried to persuade them to change their minds about going to the islands. He told Calvert, “you will lose your lives and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”
