Copyright © 2006 by The Voice of Prophecy

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Freed from a Fiery Furnace

Well, this is one of the great gems of the Bible—the story of three young lads threatened with execution if they didn’t yield their wills to the vanity of a pagan king. Last Friday we opened this story of King Nebuchadnezzar in ancient Babylon, the country we know today as Iraq. The king had his skilled craftsmen fashion a vast gold statue and ordered the population of his city to bow and worship it. Daniel’s three friends couldn’t do that and be faithful to the God of heaven. These three young men lived by the words of the Ten Commandments, and one of the commandments says about idols, “. . . thou shalt now bow down to them.” So there was no way they could be persuaded to worship an image of anything. They’d rather burn than budge on that issue!

At the king’s direction, The Babylonian Symphony Orchestra played, and the population of the city bowed to the image as commanded—except Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The three were brought before the King, enraged that these new POWs were spoiling his big day. But he said he’d give them another chance.

But the teen-age spokesman for the three came right back and said (I’m reading Dane 3:18)

We want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

The young men were saying in effect, "It makes no difference what you threaten, we won't worship the statue. We'd rather die. But our God will deliver us. And even if God chooses not to intervene, we’ll remain as true to principle as the needle to the pole."

The strongest men in the army were called. They bound the three teens in heavy ropes and hurled them into the inferno. The soldiers were sizzled and killed by the heat. The fire also made short work of the ropes that bound the boys, and almost instantly they found themselves free. They got to their feet and walked around the floor of the kiln, red and yellow flames dancing all about them. They saw each other, but before they could say a word, they saw Him! God had come down from heaven to be with them in the fire, in the flames. And He would stay with them until they were delivered. Which reminds us that in Daniel's book a key word is "delivered."

How long the three talked with their Lord in the flames we can only imagine. Nebuchadnezzar sat close enough to the door of the kiln to see four people, and he knew instinctively, that the fourth Person had to be Daniel's God. Mightily impressed and chastened in the face of the miracle, the king invited them to step out of the fire. And listen to this description of what had happened: I’m reading Daniel 3, verse 27:

They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Not even the smell of fire on them after their trip through the burning, blazing brick kiln, no singed hair, no burning of their clothes, no physical imprint from the fiery trial. However, in heart and soul and mind they were transformed forever.

And in the face of this miracle, Nebuchadnezzar also found himself transformed, repeated the affirmation he made at the time of the interpretation of his dream recorded in Daniel 2. He made another decree that the entire nation would worship the God of the Hebrews. Listen to his words.

“Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way."

And that brings back to mind the numeral 6. If you read through the story, you’ll find the three worthies are named 13 times. Six times, they’re named in connection with Babylon and the king, and the conflicts and stresses that come as a result. And 7 times they’re named in connection with their God, and the peace and rest they found in God. It’s an important key to understand the significance of these two numerals when they’re used in the apocalyptic or prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation. You see, these twin prophets, Daniel and John, use the numeral 6 consistently in connection with Babylon, and those that choose not to worship God, and they use the numeral 7 in connection with God ad those that choose to worship Him. The significance of the numeral 7 finds its origins in the first two chapters of the Bible. It was on the seventh day of creation week that God the Creator, and the young couple He had just created, spent their first full day together in rest, worship and fellowship. Ever since creation week, the number 7 has symbolized rest, spiritual fellowship, and the worship of our Creator God.

So let me repeat this because it’s so important. The two numerals, 6 and 7, are used many times in the books of Daniel and Revelation and always with a consistent meaning: 6 is a symbol of a falling short, a rebellion, a failure to reach the rest and peace that comes in fellowship with God, the peace and rest symbolized by the number 7. Often Daniel and John, so skilled in the use of symbols, will suggest these symbols by writing a series of six, or seven words or phrases, and in this clever way convey the symbolic meaning without the use of the numbers themselves.

But back to the three young men fresh from the fiery furnace. I wonder if they might have felt just a momentary temptation to save their own lives, as they heard the roar of fire coming from the furnace in clear view from where they stood on the king’s elevated dais?

I can’t help but think of the excuses they might have offered, that I might have offered, if I found myself in a similar predicament. I can hear a temptation to say, "Is this really such a big deal? I mean, Is this worth putting my life on the line?" Christians faced the same issue in the first century. They were told to drop a little incense on the altar, and say, “Hail Caesar.” You could call that just an act of “respect” for the head of state, and doesn't the Bible tells us to honor those that rule over us? I mean, you can make a case for it! But little things have a habit of becoming big issues when the chips are down.

Or they might have said, "We can be a much better witness to the king alive than dead! There's no use throwing our lives away." But that begs the whole issue of trust in the sovereign plan of God. If Jesus had said something like that, He would have turned His back on Calvary and flown home to heaven.

Or they might have said, "Symbols are just symbols. Let's keep this thing in perspective. I'll bow down, for sure, but I'll be praying to my God, not worshipping the idol! It's what's in your heart that counts, not some external issue." Have you ever heard, or thought, or used those kinds of excuses when you found yourself in a tight spot? I sure have!

But if those young men had fallen for any of those arguments, it would have eradicated the possibility of this story ever making it into the Bible.

Which brings us back, in conclusion, to the question we asked last Friday. How much are you prepared to pay for a relationship with God? I shared with you the story of an auction at which an anonymous bidder purchased the ball with which Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run in the 1999 season. The bidder paid $3,005,000! And the question, with eternal consequences, that we face is this: How much are we prepared to pay for a secure relationship with God? And the answer that echoes down through the corridors of the centuries, from the inferno in a brick kiln on the plain of Dura in Babylon is this: It takes everything, everything, to serve the Lord. You can't keep back anything. That's the price we have to pay.