The Fourth Man in the Fire
Daniel 3
Is our faith in the Lord Jesus so precious to us that we would not only refuse to compromise but that we would even give our lives if called upon?
Daniel and his friends thought so.
They were willing to die before they would sacrifice their belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
These young men, along with thousands of others, were plucked from their homeland and taken as captives to the pagan nation of Babylon to serve before the pagan king of the land, Nebuchadnezzar.
He gathered all his officials and declared to them, “When you hear the royal symphony play, you and all the peoples will bow down before the image in worship.”
In vs. 6 he warned, “All who fail to do so will be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
It was quickly reported to the kind that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, (aka - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), refused to bow to this pagan golden image.
The three Hebrew men were summoned to stand before the king…
Our text verses…3:14-18…reveal the courage and bravery of these three young men…
(Daniel 3:14-18)- Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, 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. 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.”
Nebuchadnezzar not only commanded that they be thrown into the fiery furnace, but that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than normal.
What are the truths we learn from this incredible story of faith?
Like the three Hebrew young men in our story…
I. We are living in a
We still have strong pockets of Christianity in America, but a big part of our country has followed in the footsteps of Europe.
Our leaders have constructed an imposing godless image that is standing before us.
3,100 years ago, the Psalmist proclaimed…
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 33:12)
…but he also foretold of a nation’s fate when he declared…
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:17)
II. We must
How will we respond to this godless mandate?
The time to decide what we will do and how we respond is not in the heat of the moment, but
Peter and the Apostles declared before the Sanhedrin…
(Acts 5:29) - We ought to obey
We are to never
No matter what it costs or where our stand takes us…
III. We will always have the
(Daniel 3:24-25) - …he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
(See … Joshua 1:9; Joshua 23:14; Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 43:1-2)
Whatever fire the church faces…whatever you and I face…we will never be
Are we willing to