The Fiery Furnace
Transcript
My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors with Mill City Church and I'm really excited to share with you our message for today. I got the privilege to open up the Bible Story series and actually get to close it for us this morning. And I think it's been a fun and enjoyable series for us as a church. And the question we've been seeking to answer along the way is, who is the Bible actually about? Is it about us or is it about Jesus?
And along the way we've had to ask other questions like, okay, how do I read the Bible? Am I supposed to learn a moral or am I supposed to learn some facts? Do I insert myself into the story or do I kind of sit off as a third person just viewing what's going on? And as we've walked through this series, what we've been able to see is that the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us. It's to tell us about God, specifically through the Revelation of his son, the person and work of Jesus. And that's what we've been looking at.
As we've been walking through this series, we've been trying to answer that question, who is the Bible actually about? And as we've walked through it, another thing that we've been able to see is that because we know the end of the story, it impacts how we read the beginning of it. So since we know what God's ultimately going to do through Jesus, it impacts, changes how we walk through the Old Testament, how we read the Old Testament. It's very similar to the way that you'd watch the movie Titanic. Okay? We know the history of Titanic before the movie in the 90s came out.
We already knew what had happened. And so the whole time you're watching this movie, as you're watching Jack play cards for the tickets to get on the ship, and he's hoofing it. He's hoofing it to try to get on the ship, and he gets on, and you're just like, no, that's not going to end well for you. And he and Rose fall in love. The whole time, you know what's going to happen. You know that the ship is eventually going to strike an iceberg.
It's going to go down. Jack and Rose are going to end up in the water. Well, Jack's going to end up in the water. Rose was on the door that both of them could have fit on. Rose was super selfish. She looks at Jack.
She goes, I'll never let go. I'll never let go. And then she, like, wakes up from her cold stupor and pries his dead hand from hers and lets him sink to the bottom of the ocean. Rose was a liar, guys. But because we know the end of the story, it impacts how we watch the whole movie.
The same thing is true of the Bible. We know the end of the story, so it impacts how we read through the Old Testament. And as we walk through stories like Adam and Eve in the garden, as we looked at Noah's ark, the journey of Joseph, last week David versus Goliath, we've gotten to see how they each give us glimpses into different aspects of the gospel, what God is ultimately going to do through Jesus. We've seen righteousness. We've seen how sin can be taken care of. We've seen grace.
And we've seen victory. And today, as we bring our series to a close, we're going to be looking at one of my favorite stories in the Bible. We're going to be looking at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. And I'm really excited to share it with you this morning. But before we hop in, I just want to pray that God would use this Old Testament story to reveal himself to us.
So you guys join me. Let's pray together. God, we are asking that you would speak to us this morning. In our own ability, we do not have the capability to look at your word and understand on our own. And so, God, we are asking that by your Holy Spirit, you would speak to us this morning. God, that we would hear from you, that we would understand in a greater way who you are and how we are to live in relationship with you.
In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, our story from today comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 3. So if you've got your Bible, go ahead and grab it. If you don't have one, we've got the blue and white Bibles on the seats. It's going to be page 480. And you're going to want to have it today because we're going to read all of chapter 3.
Scripture is not going to be on the screen. If you're with us this morning and you don't have a Bible, we would love for you to take one of these with you. We have plenty of them. We want everyone to be able to have a Bible. So go ahead and grab one of those and take it with you.
Now, in our series, three out of the five stories that we covered came from the book of Genesis. So we could have called it Genesis plus two more stories, but we went with Bible stories. And last week, we made a pretty big jump from Genesis all the way to 1 Samuel. And I want to take a little bit of time because we're moving even further down the timeline to get from the story of David versus Goliath to the story that we're looking at today. So if you've got those Bible stories handout cards that Raz was talking about at the very beginning, go ahead and grab those.
They're in the seats behind you or directly in front of you. Grab one of those. Take that with you. That's a helpful study resource. Raz is one of our community group leaders. He's a seminary student at CIU.
Just did a wonderful job putting that together so that you could actually see the chronological timeline of the Old Testament because it helps you as you're reading through to know where to actually place the story in the history. So go ahead and grab that. All right. Let's see if I can do this for us. Last week, we looked at David. We looked at David and Goliath.
And David defeats Goliath. And eventually, he's going to become the king of Israel in place of a guy named Saul. And David was a good king. He's known as the quintessential king of Israel. And he had his own flaws. He had his own shortcomings.
But David was a good king that led the people in following the Lord. After David comes his son Solomon. Solomon's known for his wisdom. He wrote several books that we have in the Bible. Solomon also got the opportunity to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem where God's presence was said to dwell. So he was very wise.
And he had lots of riches. And he had a lot of wives. And I don't know how wisdom and wives work together. I guess that's where riches came in. I guess he was able to take care of them that way. But after Solomon, that's when things start to go south.
The kingdom splits in two. Splits between one of Solomon's sons and one of the commanders of his army. So we have a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And as generation after generation passes, the people begin to abandon God. The kings lead them in worshiping foreign idols and making sacrifices to foreign gods. And God in his grace sends prophets like Isaiah, like Micah to come and to warn the people.
To tell them to repent and turn back to God. Or they're going to be conquered by another nation and sent out of their homeland as exiles. That's what the prophets were saying. And while there were some kings along the way that heeded that wisdom, heeded that prophecy, over time they become more and more depraved and move away from the Lord until eventually the northern kingdom is going to be conquered by Assyria. And then after that, all of the known world in that time is going to be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. And that's where we find ourselves in the story today is with these exiled Jews in the land of Babylon that survived the destruction and are now living in captivity.
Now, I want to take just a second to paint that picture up for you. Because when it comes to reading the Old Testament, it doesn't seem real to us. It seems tall tale-ish or like it's a fable. This was real. It's not just the Bible that supports this. Historical documents from the time tell us that this actually took place.
This actually happened. So just go there with me for a second. Imagine that you're an Israelite. You're one of God's chosen people in the promised land. And a bigger, badder empire from the east comes in. And they go into your holy city and they destroy the temple where God's presence was said to dwell.
Most of your family and friends, they're killed. And those of you who are left are carried off to a country with a culture you don't understand. A language you cannot speak. And God's that you do not serve. Welcome to Babylon. I swear these exiles are.
They're living in captivity. And the other side of the prophecy did say this. That there would come a time that after these Jews had been exiled from their homeland, there would come a time where they would repent and God would rescue them out. And they would get to return to their homeland. So that kind of gives us a little bit of the background.
And now we can jump into our story a little bit. So now in Daniel, we're going to look at chapter 3. In chapters 1 and 2, what we see is that this, as the exiles are coming into Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar wants to take all the best of the young people, all the elite people, and he wants to bring them into the palace. And here's what it says. This is like his gauge on what he wants coming in. He says, Youths that were without blemish, good-looking, skillful in wisdom, and endowed with knowledge.
So didn't you feel kind of bad that you didn't get to go to the palace? Like, oh no, not only am I not smart, I'm not good-looking either. But the reason that King Nebuchadnezzar wanted these youths was to train them, to teach them culture and language. This was an expansive empire, and he wanted people who knew different areas to be able to rule over them. And eventually what we see is that some of the Jewish exiles actually find favor in King Nebuchadnezzar's eyes. Daniel, who wrote this book, and three of his friends whose story that we're going to look at today, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they rise to power, and they're put over top of different provinces, those three specifically over the province of Babylon.
And while they're in the worst possible scenario for them, while they're in the worst possible situation, we see that God's still with them. God is still with them in this scenario. So Daniel, Daniel chapter 3, verse 1. A lot of setup for us this morning. Go ahead and turn there. Verse 1.
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Okay, we don't know a whole lot about Nebuchadnezzar at this point. This is kind of our introduction to him. But what we see is that Nebuchadnezzar has an image set up that's 60 cubits high, 6 cubits wide, and is made of gold.
The most powerful man in the known world at this time is flexing his muscles just a little bit. And we talked last week about what that measurement of a cubit was. It was a rudimentary measurement of fingertip to elbow, and it was about 18 inches. Or if you're me and have T-Rex arms, it's more like 14 inches. But the standard man was about 18 inches, which means that this statue is 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide.
It was made of gold. And this thing was real. There are Babylonian documents from the time that actually talk about this statue. This wasn't just a made-up thing. It was actually real. And those documents nor scripture actually tell us what the image was.
Some people think that it was an image from a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had back in chapter 2. Daniel actually interprets that dream from him. You can read that story. Others think it was an animal, which would have matched up with other religions in that area of the world at the time. But regardless, this image had an intended purpose.
And we get to see a little bit of it in the next verse. Verse 2. Verse 3. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors. Okay, at some point, do you feel like Nebuchadnezzar's just giving out titles to all of his friends? I'm pretty sure he made satrap up.
That's not a thing, right? Like he's going around the room. He's like, okay, Frankie and Steve, you guys are going to be counselors. Johnny, you'll be a governor. And Rufus, you'll be a magistrate. What about Carl?
Carl? I didn't forget Carl. See, Carl is going to be a satrap. A what? A satrap. What's that?
Shut it, Carl. You're a satrap. I don't know. There's all these different titles within the provinces. But it continues on.
Continuing on in verse 3. The justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the most powerful man in the known world summons everybody from every part of his empire. And it was huge. This empire would have stretched from the bottom of Egypt to the Persian Gulf.
It was huge. He summoned everybody, even the people with made-up titles. Everybody's coming. And I want you to imagine no expense spared Woodstock style. Because it says he set it up on the plain of Dura. He set this thing up on a level piece of ground so that as many people as possible could get to it, could see this image.
And now they're all standing. They're all standing in the shadow of this image. And it continues on. Verse 4. All right.
Time out. You guys know that I'm a musician. So that any time scripture expressly points out something about singing or about music or about instruments, I'm automatically drawn to it. And so you go back through this list and you're clipping along. Horn. Yep.
Pipe. Yep. Liar. That would have been like a stringed instrument, very similar to a guitar. Trigon. Don't know what that is, but it sounds cool.
Harp. That's an interesting choice. Bagpipe. Bagpipe. In the middle of all these Eastern instruments, who snuck the Scottish guy in? Wes William Wallace.
I'm really sorry. That's a terrible Scottish accent. That was terrible. I apologize. And speaking of terrible, this would have sounded terrible. I'm serious.
If you look, it was a horn and a pipe and a stringed instrument and a harp and a... I guess they were trying to scare them into submission to make them bow down. I don't know what the intended purpose was here. But all these different instruments, and in verse 6, And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe... Let's just call them the band, the really terrible band.
The band and every kind of music. All the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So they assemble all these people, and at the sound of the band, everyone's to bow down, or they're going to get thrown into a fiery furnace. Bow down or die. So all the people, including the Jews who had been exiled from their homeland for doing this same mess, have to bow down at the sound of the music to this inanimate object that's made by human hands.
The herald just said that King Nebuchadnezzar had it set up, which means that the elements would have been melted down and poured out by human hands, cast by human hands, shaped by human hands, lifted into place by human hands, could not move on its own without human hands. Bow down and worship. That's what's facing all the people that are standing beside this image. And it continues on. Verse 8. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.
Okay, Chaldeans would be similar to southerners. It was a regional designation, so these were people from Babylon. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. You, O king, have made a decree. You, O king, have made a decree. Lost my place.
That every man who hears the sound of the terrible band and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Okay, so there is likely some type of jealousy going on here.
Scripture does not tell us that. But these are hometown boys. And they are talking about the Jewish exiles. And this is a slap in the face to the king. Not only are they disobeying him, but these aren't even his people. These are conquered exiles.
These are people that he treated graciously and had them trained and gave them food and shelter and clothing. And now they're not bowing down to the image that he set up. And they're doing it in front of the entire empire. Nuh-uh. Not happening. And Nebuchadnezzar is hot.
Jump back with me. Verse 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now, if you are ready when you hear the sound of the band and every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good.
But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? So Nebuchadnezzar brings them in and he's going to give them another chance. But it's an ultimatum. Either you bow down or you're going to die. Bow down or I'm going to throw you into a fiery furnace.
And verse 15, the tail end of verse 15 really gives us a picture of what's going on here. Basically says, if you won't worship my gods, which God do you think is going to save you from the fiery furnace that I'm going to throw you in? And we get to see how they respond. Verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.
And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. And I love that. Don't you love that? That's why it's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. The king says, I'm going to kill you.
And those guys aren't fazed by it. They simply answer the question to which God could save them. And they say, our God, our God can save us. But even if he doesn't, we'd rather die than serve your idol. Don't even bother striking up the band again. You're going to have to kill us.
We won't bow down. You see what these guys are saying here? Don't miss the beauty of what's going on. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, our God can deliver us. He will deliver us.
But if he chooses not to do so, we still trust him. Even if we are to die, he is still in control and has a greater purpose. That in the midst of the worst possible scenario, they have placed their full trust in God. And let me just say this. It's not because these guys had super faith. Nobody's arguing that these guys had incredible faith and courage and trust.
But it's not even that they had faith that everything was going to turn out all right. They have faith in God no matter what the outcome is. They trust him. Him. Period. And that goes so far beyond our understanding of trust and faith.
So often with us, our trust and faith is very circumstantial and can be very conditional. So a lot of times it goes like this. God, I place my faith in you if... Fill in the blank. God, I trust you as long as... Fill in the blank.
We have fill in the blank faith. It's circumstantial. It's conditional. That when things in our lives are going well, when we're up on top, God, I trust you. I have faith in you. And as things take a turn for the worse, as we're like these guys and we're facing death and we're facing suffering, our faith and our trust begin to diminish because we're thinking about our trust.
We're thinking about how much faith we have rather than the trustworthiness and the faithfulness of our God. And that's what we're seeing in the story. These guys look at Nebuchadnezzar and they say, he's completely capable. He's infinitely good and wise. And whatever happens to us, it's inside of his plan and control. We trust him.
Verse 19. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.
Now, it looks like Daniel is super fond of lists. Okay? But the Bible doesn't just throw out random facts for no reason. There's a purpose in that. We're going to come back to it. We're going to see it.
Verse 22. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Well, that didn't go well. These guys stood up for their God and they still get tossed into the fire. King Nebuchadnezzar was so enraged that he had the furnace heated seven times more than it could be.
I don't even know how they were supposed to measure that. That they had them bound in their clothing with ropes. And the mighty men of their army went to take these guys and throw them into the fire. And it was so hot that it killed the guys who were throwing them into the fire. And they're tossed in. And it seems like that should be the end of the story, but it's not.
Pick it up. Verse 24. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, But I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire.
And they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar's mind is blown because he looks into the burning fiery furnace. And instead of hearing screams of agony, of pain, seeing men riling around in pain on the ground, he sees men walking around. Unbound. Unharmed.
And he goes to count. One, two, three. How many men did we throw in there? And I'm looking at this man. He can't even describe what he's saying because he says, The fourth looks like a son of the gods. He looks like a divine being.
Verse 26. Pick it up. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out. Come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire.
What else was he supposed to do? Nebuchadnezzar runs as close to the fire as he absolutely can. And he yells for him to come out. They're walking around inside. What else is he going to do? Come out.
Come out. And this is like a movie. It's like one of those movies where the hardcore guys go into the abandoned warehouse and they wreck shop and they're, you know, killing people. And they're coming out. And the warehouse is like blowing up behind them. And there's fire.
And there's smoke. And they're walking out with the gangster truck. And everything's blowing up. Don't act like that's not the music that's going on in your mind. When you imagine yourself in that story. And they come walking out of the fire.
Verse 27. And the satraps. Good. Carl's back. The satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not sensed.
Their cloaks were not harmed. And no smell of fire had come upon them. All the fire was able to do was burn the ropes off that they had used to bind them. When they walk out of the fire, they don't even smell like smoke. I think that's why Daniel included those details. Hats weren't messed up.
Garments weren't messed up. They didn't even smell like smoke. God had delivered them. And Nebuchadnezzar's reaction is priceless. Priceless. Verse 28.
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and gilded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. Nebuchadnezzar says, Bump that. I'm switching teams. I'm on that God's team.
And anyone who speaks a word against the God of Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego will be ripped to shreds. Whoa, take it easy, king. Their houses will be leveled. Goodness. Moses. Holes cutting their favorite t-shirts and their favorite goldfish drowned.
How are you going to drown a goldfish? Shut it, Carl. You're a satrap. Figure it out. He loses his mind. He does a complete 180.
The most powerful king in the known world says, Nobody will speak a word against these guys. And verse 30. Then the king promoted Shadrath, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. And we get to the end of the story and we're pumped. What a story. These three guys in the face of imminent death placed their full trust in either God's deliverance or his providence.
And they're thrown into a fiery furnace. But that's not the end of the story. Nebuchadnezzar looks inside and he can't even explain what he's seeing. He goes to count. He says, one, two, three, four. One of them looks like a divine being.
One of them looks like a son of the gods. And we're getting a glimpse into what God is ultimately going to do in the gospel through his son as Jesus steps into the fire on our behalf. We get a picture of it. Right there. In the middle of this story. What God is ultimately going to do through Jesus.
And Nebuchadnezzar is puzzled and he's looking inside. He doesn't even know what's going on. He says an angel. The translation of that is a messenger. So whether it was an angel or a messenger that Nebuchadnezzar saw or something else completely, entirely different, one thing remains constant.
God is with them. And once again, we get a perfect picture of the gospel in this story. We're once again reminded that the Bible isn't about us. What we see, what we see in the story is that the God of the Bible, the one true God, the God of Israel, the God that these men refuse to dishonor and to disobey, he doesn't just deliver them out of the furnace. He joins them in it. We get a glimpse of his character here.
Why he's so trustworthy. He doesn't just keep them from harm. He walks with them in it. And as we continue to read, as the story of the Bible unfolds, this isn't a God that just calls for faith, that just calls for obedience, that sits far off and expects greatness from his people. No. He would join his people.
That Jesus would step out of heaven and step into the furnace. That Jesus would become a human. That Jesus would face temptation. That he would live and love perfectly. And he would go to a cross. And he wouldn't leave unscathed.
He was brutally murdered. See, what we see in this story is that three men step into an execution, and they're joined there by their God. And they're delivered. What we see in Jesus is that Jesus goes to a cross, and he switches places with us, and he dies. And we're the ones that walk out of the furnace free. We get a glimpse into the gospel in this story.
But the cool thing about it is that Jesus doesn't stay dead. Jesus walks out of the grave three days later to defy the furnace, to defy death and punishment and offer life. What we see is that these men have faith, and they're joined in the furnace, and they're granted life. And we're offered the same thing. We're offered the same thing. That we're offered to join a God who isn't unfamiliar with pain and suffering, a God who died in our place on our behalf, who took our execution.
The character of God is fully revealed to us in Jesus to show us that he is trustworthy, that he is faithful. And the cross ultimately proves that. Jesus stepped in, and through his death and resurrection, he proves that. And just like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the purpose of their suffering was to bring glory to God. These three guys were in the face of death and suffering. And when they're thrown into the fire, they don't know what's going to happen.
But as they're brought out, Nebuchadnezzar makes a decree that no one can speak a word against the God of these guys. God's name is made known throughout the entire empire. And in the same way, in the suffering and the death of Jesus, God had a greater purpose. That through the sacrificial death of his son, the debt of our sin would be paid for. And that as Jesus dies on the cross, we who are sinful get to walk away. And so, how much more do we, on this side of the cross, understand God's faithfulness and his trustworthiness in the midst of our trials and sufferings?
How much more can we claim, just like these guys, that our God can deliver, he will deliver, and even if he chooses not to, in my present circumstances, we ultimately know that he delivers us from sin, death, and hell through the cross. That as we go through hard times, as we go through suffering, he doesn't sit far off. He joins us in it. And so, since we know that God is ultimately going to deliver, we get to face trials and sufferings, realizing that he might not change our present situation. You see, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire, it wasn't the strength of their faith that could save them.
It was the object of their faith. It was that God was faithful. God was trustworthy. And they knew that it might not mean that God would change their situation. And the same thing is true for us. He might not change the present situation that we're going through.
The oncology report might come back and you still have cancer. You may go through the third month and not be able to pay your bills. Work may continue to be a living nightmare because you have a boss that constantly demeans you. And what we see in this story is that God is faithful and he's trustworthy. That no matter what happens, our hope is not in our circumstances, but it's ultimately in the fact that God will deliver us. That he joins us in the furnace to walk with us through it and that in the end it brings glory to his name.
How much more do we on this side of the cross get to say, I know that my God's going to deliver me. It doesn't matter what I'm walking through right now. That I can endure suffering. I can endure trials because I know that he's faithful and I know that he's with me in it. He joins me in the suffering and ultimately it brings glory to his name. Raz, Bianca, and Josh are going to come back up.
The response this morning is to place your faith in Jesus and not in your present circumstances. Some of us in this room are walking through really difficult life situations right now. And you're asking the question, God, where are you? Where are you? I don't feel you. I don't see you.
Everything that's going on in my life is a mess. Where are you? Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were joined in the fire. We know perfectly how willing Jesus is to step into the furnace on our behalf. That ultimately Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego show us what it looks like to walk in relationship with Jesus because we have a God that endured suffering for us. And that we don't look at the flames.
We don't look at the furnace. We're not looking at our present circumstances. We're looking to the God who's faithful and who's trustworthy. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego look to the guy on their left. We look to the cross. The cross proves that God loves us.
It settles that so that no matter what we're walking through, we can trust God. And listen, I don't know why suffering and trials happen the way they do. I don't. I don't know why that situation may not change. I don't know why that relationship hasn't gotten any better. I don't know.
But what I do know is that God is good. And He's for our good. And He loves us. And He's got a plan. He's got a purpose in the midst of our suffering and our trials. And we look to Jesus as we walk through it.
Because He's with us. And ultimately, He delivers us. Place your faith in Him because He's faithful. Trust Him because He's trustworthy. We're going to stand and we're going to sing praises to Jesus. And I'm inviting you, if for the first time, to let go.
To stop looking at the flames and to look to the cross. Let's pray. God, we praise You that You are not a God who sits far off, that leaves us in this mess by ourselves, but You join us in the suffering. And in doing so, You swap places with us. That we can place our faith in You for the forgiveness of our sins and for salvation. God, I'm praying that all across this room, Lord, that You would awaken that within us.
Instead of looking at our present circumstances and our trials, God, give us a picture of the cross that proves Your love for us. God, awaken faith and trust within us because You are faithful and trustworthy. In Jesus' name, amen.