Scripture:
Daniel 3:13-15 NKJV
[13] Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. So they brought these men before the king. [14] 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? [15] 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?”
Observation:
I was going to finish writing about Abraham and the promises, but maybe we can pick that up tomorrow or the next day whenever the Holy Spirit takes me back there. But for some reason, when I saw this scripture, I knew I had to dive in a little. Most of us have been told the story of these 3 Hebrew boys from Sunday school as kids, but when was the last time we really took a look at the stand they made and the purpose for it? So let me paint the picture for you. Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of the Babylonian territory where Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-nego had been taken captive. Because they were young and seemingly easy to influence. The king thought that he would be able to deconstruct their faith and retrain them to worship him. Having had a golden statue made of himself, he wrote a law in the books that anytime the band played, everyone had to bow down and worship this Idle. Not knowing that he was dealing with some young men who knew how to stand firm in their faith. He set the law in place and expected it to be followed. That’s when the inevitable happened. These 3 young boys made a stand that could have cost them their lives. The band played, and they just went on about their business as though nothing had happened. It didn’t take long for this to get back to the king, and he became very angry about it. Having the 3 boys brought to him. He gave them one more opportunity to do what he saw as right… but what had been ingrained in them from birth was wrong. You see, they were brought up as Hebrews, and no amount of retreating could take that away. They were taught to worship YAHWAH and HIM only. So, all of Nebuchadnezzar’s efforts to force them to go against what they had been taught were simply a waste of time. Here in this small group of scriptures, we see all that unfold. The young boys in the face of death made a stand that YAHWAH clearly supported. They ended up in the middle of the fire yet came out not even smelling like smoke. When the men who attempted to throw them in burst into flames just getting close to the furnace door, you can imagine the look on the kings face when he looked into the window of the furnace and saw that the 3 boys had a companion in the fire with them. Fast forward to the end. Their stand made a believer out of the king, and he made the proclamation that YAHWAH was the only ture GOD.
Application:
I have a few questions, and they may hit a little hard, so bear with me. What would it take to deconstruct your faith? Would you be willing to stand in the face of death and say… no, I’m not doing that it goes against my GOD, and it’s just not right. Or would you, for the sake of your life, say ok, it’s only a little deal? GOD knows how much I love HIM, and HE will forgive me… after all, it is my life we are talking about. What can I do for HIM if I’m dead? GOD has given us many examples in HIS word of what HE is looking for, and honestly, cowards are not part of the army. The only person HE wants us to surrender to is HIM, and if we truly do that, HE promises HE will be with us in the fire. One thing we need to know is that it’s easy to just go along with the ways of the world and not even see that the choices we are making are taking us further and further away from our father. What HE wants to know is that you are willing to stand for HIM in the face of opposition. When someone tells you that it’s going to cost you your life, are you going to say so, be it or are you going to fold like a soft taco? Even though Gideon saw himself as a coward, he went with what GOD had said about him. He stood as a mighty warrior, and although he obeyed the first bit of instructions with fear following through at night when no one could stop him, he demolished the Idles in his land and built an altar for YAHWAH. Showing himself to be exactly what GOD had called him and standing in the face of his whole clan coming against him. My point is this, GOD is looking for men and women who will stand up and say we will not conform to the ways of this world. We will renew our minds and the minds of our children. We will not bow to anything but GOD the Father. You may be able to take our lives, but you can not snuff out our soul because it belongs to GOD. Our flesh will die, and what we leave behind will be the stand we made for the kingdom or against it, and to die as a soft taco doesn’t sound like a good place to end up. When we fold and are devoured, the flushing sound of eternity separated from the one who made us simply leaves us in the stench we chose. Make a stand for GOD. Live what HIS word says, the legacy you leave behind matters. Even if it leads to death, that’s only temporary when you live for GOD. When the trumpet sounds, you will rise again and be reunited with HIM. Stand on what HE says. Don’t alter it. HE has your back.
Prayer:
Father, we trust you with our lives. You have bought them with a price, and you have made us to be bold as lions. Give us the courage to stand for what you say and not water it down. Your truth will always be just that. Help us to understand it so that when we do make a stand, it is on the right things. We know you are not looking for an army of cowards but a church that will storm the gates of hell with a water pistol trusting that you will deliver us from the hands of the enemy. This battle is not ours, and victory has already been won. We ask for courage and boldness. We pray that every decision we make will show how much we love and trust you. It’s in the mighty name of Jesus I pray amen.