You Don't Stand in Your Furnace Alone

There is a great a story in Daniel about three guys with funny Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  Their names are Babylonian, but these young men are Hebrew... having been part of the group of important leaders and families who had been exiled to Babylon after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and conquered Judah.  They were doing just fine in Babylon until the King (another great name) Nebuchadnezzar built a giant golden statue and made it law that all people to worship it every time some wacky music played.  A line was drawn in the sand.  It was a line that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not cross.  The penalty for disobedience was death: death by a really hot furnace.

I know it doesn't sound like it, but this often is a story included in Vacation Bible School curriculum for young kids.  It's also a story that's been made into a Veggietale, with Abednego's name changed to Benny.  (No wonder I often pronounce his name as A-BEN-de-go.)  It's funny how that often works.  Some of the Bible's most violent stories get turned into a children's Bible staple.  Just look at Noah's Ark.  The story of God destroying all creation by a flood becomes the decorating theme for a newborn's nursery.

Great lessons are learned from those stories, so why not teach them to kids.  In Noah's Ark God promised never again to destroy creation.  He gives us a rainbow as a sign of his covenant.  In Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego we get a lesson of faith that needs to be shared and heard, even by children, because it's impact is grace for our whole lives.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego worship the Lord and they are firm in their principles and values.  Up till them they had lived just fine under Nebuchadnezzar and have participated in the life of Babylon.  But when a line is drawn that would force them to compromise their values they don't struggle for a moment.  They say no.  No, we will not worship your statue.  No, my faith in the Lord will not permit me to do as you ask.  Threats don't sway them.  They know their punishment will be death, but they still hold on to their faith.  I ask though: what do they have faith in?  Do they have faith that God will save them?  This is what they tell Nebuchadnezzer in Daniel 3:16b-18:

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.  If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.

They have faith in God.  They have faith that God will be with them.  Their faith is not that they will necessarily survive this.  No.  Instead, whether they perish or whether they are saved they know God will be with them.  They will not budge from their values.

Bound up, the young men do get thrown into the furnace, now seven times more hot than normal because Nebuchadnezzer is so angry.  When the king looks into the furnace he is amazed by what he sees.  The men are unbound and there is now another individual "like a god" there with them.  Old Nebuchadnezzer demands they come out.  They are saved.  Not a scratch.

God meets Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in their furnace.  God stands with them.  God loves them.  On that day it meant that the furnace would not devour them. Faith is a powerful gift.  But what do we have faith in?  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's faith was based on core values that they would not compromise.  Their faith was in God who would stand with them as they faced their furnace and while they were in the furnace.  Their faith was not that God would let them live that day, but instead their faith was that whether they burn or whether they live God will be with them and God will be God.  "We will not serve your gods..."

Chances are that there's a furnace that your facing right now.  We all have our furnaces.  In Christ, on his cross, God meets us and stands with us no matter what that furnace might be.  Allow the Spirit to empower you to stay true to your values, principles and faith.  No matter what: God is with you.