Page 28 - Florida Sentinel 1-12-18

Through The Fire:
refers to when it says that through faith “they quenched the power of fire.”
Bold Faith Generates Witness Daniel 3:28
Nebuchadnezzar and his whole cabinet were amazed. As Nebuchadnezzar did in other places (see Daniel 2:47; 4:34-35), he gave
praise (blessing) to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
The king admitted that the men were divinely res- cued. The king realized that their deliverance was due to their trust in their God. He confirmed that the men had defied (set aside) his own command. The king was impressed that the men
were willing to give up their lives rather than compro- mise their faith.
What is interesting about this nuance of bold faith is that it generated a witness for God from a pagan king.
Three words have have become quite famous. They are,“Butifnot...”(see Daniel 3:18). Bold faith says,“Butifnot...”
A Bold Faith Daniel 3: 1-28
Daniel took center stage in last week’s lesson. In this week’s lesson his three friends, Shadrach, Me- shach, and Abednego are at the center of the contro- versy. We move from food to fire. Another person who actually occupies a large portion of the first chapters of the book of Daniel is Nebuchadnezzar, the Baby- lonian king.
It seems odd that he would go from affirming the service of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 1:20; 2:46-49) to wanting to throw the last three into the fiery furnace.
Daniel 3 begins with Ne- buchadnezzar making a 90 feet tall by 9 feet wide golden image (of himself?) and placing it in the plain of Dura. When the music played, all the people were to bow down to worship the image. Obviously the Jews could not comply with that command in light of Exo- dus 20:3-6. The Chaldeans told on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:8- 12), and Nebuchadnezzar was furious (vv. 13-15).
One of the boldest exam- ples of faith in the entire Bible is the act of faith by Daniel’s friends. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ig- nored the king’s edict say- ing that their God was able to deliver them from the fire; but even if he chose not to, they would still refuse to bow down (vv. 16-18). They did not bend, or bow, or burn.
Bold Faith Faces Danger Daniel 3:19-23
Nebuchadnezzar did not take their refusal lightly. The king gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual. The number seven could be symbolic, meaning “very
hot.” But the extent of the intense heat is still evident in the verses that follow.
Nebuchadnezzar’s sol- diers bound the three He- brews and threw them into the fire. Two other details are mentioned about this event: (1) Shadrach, Me- shach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace, clothes and all, and (2) the soldiers who threw the men into the furnace were killed by the intense heat.
Bold Faith Is Rewarded Daniel 3:26, 27
God chooses when to de- liver and when not to de- liver (see Acts 12:1-17). Therefore, it might not al- ways seem to the watching world that bold faith is re- warded.
In this case though, it happened. Nebuchadnezzar could hardly believe that the three Hebrews survived the fire. His counselors con- firmed though that it was true. In addition to this the king saw yet a fourth person who seemed to be walking into the fire with the men (Daniel 3:24, 25). Was this Jesus or an angel? From the “pagan perspec- tive” it was evidently the latter.
How Nebuchadnezzar could see into the fire pit is not known. How the three Hebrews could walk out of it having been tied up is not known. But the reaction of the onlookers seems to have validated that something miraculous happened.
So complete was this miraculous reward that four aspects of it are men- tioned: their bodies showed no signs of harm, their hair was not singed, their cloth- ing was not scorched, and there was no smell of smoke on them.
This event may well be what Hebrews 11:34
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