Now chapter three, starting at verse 16, once again, please give your full attention. This is the word of God. Remember in verse 15, left off with the question, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

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. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and 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, 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. And because the king’s order was urgent, and the furnace overheated, the flames 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. And then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste, and he declared to his counselors, do we not cast three men bound into the fire? And they answered and said to the king, true, O king. And 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. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the barny fire furnace, and he declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire, and the satraps and the prefects and 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 singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own. Therefore, I make a decree, any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, 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. than the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our Lord endures forever.

Well, years ago, I was doing an internship in Silicon Valley, as you know, is the belly of the beast regarding technology and all the techno things going on. It’s the depth really of techno idolatry. And everyone there that I encountered seemed to work in either technology or education or finance. And it was made very clear to me over and over again, as I got to know, and was befriended by the believers there where I was working. That could be a very difficult place to exist for a committed Christian. The prejudice and intentional keeping out of believers was prevalent and it was well known. And those who took a stand for Christ and attempted to live out their faith had a very difficult time in that place. Companies wouldn’t hire them, particularly in the tech fields. Of course, there were believers who would make their way despite the persecution and the discrimination against them. But we see in our text here a not too different situation. These three people of God in a godless land, a land not their own, taking a stand of faith in the face of persecution and certain suffering. We began to look at the chapter last week, or two weeks ago, as you’ll recall. And the theme we saw there is that no matter how things appear, that God is in control and God is with his people. God is in control and he’s with his people. And then we saw, and we see again throughout this chapter, indeed throughout this book, that in the light of that, living in hope and faith in exile, living in hope and faith while in exile, is something that we see thick throughout, particularly the first half of this book, the narrative sections. And as we see, The focus here is upon Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or their Hebrew names, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And this event is related to the book’s theme. Again, God’s power, despite how things look, and God’s presence with his people, his power and his presence.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Gross Self Obsession

We looked last week at Nebuchadnezzar’s gross self-obsession, and today we’ll finish up by looking at these other three brief, the way the text kind of breaks down is God’s gift of strength and faith, and then Nebuchadnezzar’s psychotic fury. And then finally, God’s powerful gift of safety, his gift of safety. And so first, let’s just review what we saw in verses one to 15, Nebuchadnezzar’s self-obsession, this gross self-obsession. It’s really a picture of mankind’s idolatry. In chapter two, you remember, ends with a word of praise to Daniel. to Daniel’s God from Nebuchadnezzar the king, right? After Daniel comes on the scene and explains the king’s disturbing dreams to him. And what does Nebuchadnezzar say, right? In an amazing and humble way, an outward appearance in chapter two closes this way after Daniel interprets these dreams for him. Daniel 2, verse 46, Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. And the king answered and said to Daniel, Truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery, referring to his dream. And the king exalts Daniel, you’ll recall, and he gives him high honors and gifts, and he makes him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and the leader over all the wise men of Babylon, all those who failed to interpret the king’s dream, or know the king’s dream. And remember, he also, Daniel asks for his three friends to have leadership roles as well in Babylon, and that comes to pass. And we see that this confession of the king seems so glorious, right, at the end, is not the expression of a truly changed heart, right? There’s this cycle that Nebuchadnezzar has of these confessions and then falling back. And we know this because the very next verse, verse one of chapter three, says otherwise. He just commanded, Daniel, your God is above all gods. He’s the king, lord of the kings. And then the next verse, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. Right, that’s how chapter three begins. Right after these recurring, terrifying nightmares, disturbing nightmares of this massive statue, Nebuchadnezzar makes one. And the statue in his dream, remember, had a head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar makes a statue, this image that is all gold, and it’s 90 feet tall, and it’s nine feet wide. He’s just been his thing. Israel’s God is God of God and Lord of kings, but now he sets up this image, this golden image, as a sign of his power and his dominance across the lands. Remember how Daniel hammers home, right, throughout chapter three, again and again, who is the originator and the erector of this image, the one who set it up, right? Twice it says Nebuchadnezzar made the image. And then nine times, it’s repetitious, Nebuchadnezzar set it up, this image, who you set up, he set it up, again and again, nine times. And we see in here also, we talked about last time, this connection between the Tower of Babel episode in Genesis 11. Right, and how are they connected? Well, one way is that the location of the statue here is in the Babylonian plain. And this was the same location for the building of that Tower of Babel. And we see a similarity in the goals between the two as well. Nebuchadnezzar’s goal in this image is to make a name for himself and for his kingdom. It’s a manifestation, an outworking of Nebuchadnezzar’s incredible pride and self-obsession. And we see also, this also commanded, we see this also in his command to worship this image. Look what I’ve done, look who I am, look at my eminence, you will worship it. And again, there’s this repetition twice, it says that Nebuchadnezzar gathered his government officials, all this list that he gives, for all the providences of the kingdoms. And we have this listing twice, in verse two and verse three. And why are they gathered? They’re gathered, they’re there for a dedication ceremony. And when they’re there, it says they stood before the image. And the decree came that when they heard the sound of all this music, all these instruments, they all fell down in verse seven. What a clear picture of the maddening nature of sin, of sin’s blindness, of sin’s stupefying effect on the heart and the mind as well. the king’s truly insane command for image bearers of God to fall down and worship a man-made image. And all of it at the threat of death, being burned alive in the burning fiery furnace. And notice the emphatic descriptors of that, the burning fiery furnace. And this is, by the way, likely the same furnace where this image was made, right? It’s big enough for them to walk around in. And so we see less dramatic ways for us, less dramatic, but no less real threats for believers today, threatenings for the believers today, pressures to compromise right in our culture, like being turned away from job opportunities. because of your faith. Like being denied work or service because the Christian faith cannot accommodate current cultural views on marriage or human sexuality or other such distortions and aberrations from God’s word. These are very real things. Our culture is actually very hostile to a committed believer who’s unwilling to bend. A committed Christian who has a heart for the Lord and refuses to set his faith aside to fit in with culture. All you need to do is read the news or try to exist and take a stand in this world to see the truth of this. And then notice in verse eight we see, it says, therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. These Chaldeans, recall, were the ones who were embarrassed in chapter two for their inability to do what they were called by the king to do, to know his dream and to interpret that dream. These are the same ones that were embarrassed, and they were called out by the king for it. They came and they maliciously accused the Jews. These Jews were the ones who refused to fall in line with the decree that went directly against the greater decree of Yahweh, their Lord and God. And these Chaldeans accused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they said certain Jews to the king, certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the providence of Babylon, 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. And in a furious rage, the king calls them before him and he questions them. and with equal sin-blind insanity and pride of setting up the image, demanding that it be worshiped by all, Nebuchadnezzar does what in verse 15? He says, if you refuse my decree, into the fiery furnace you go. And then listen, he says, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? This gross self-obsession indeed. May we always be aware, brothers and sisters, of the brazen attacks to compromise our faith and the covert attacks to compromise our faith, right? To put the dictates and commands of the government or the culture or those around us above and before the commands of the Lord. And may we ask the strength and pray for the promised faith and strength to do so, to stand up and to not bend to those pressures and to reject going with any flow that is against the God who gave us life and the God to whom we belong. Because there will be times, dear Christian, in life where we will feel like we are alone in our stand for God, like we are alone in the world. There are times when doing what is right will keep us from being anonymous, keep us from hiding in the crowd. The stand we take will be lonely. Sometimes we’ll see that the whole world is watching. As we mentioned last week, The historical event of Martin Luther standing before the church authorities at the Diet of Worms is well known to us. It’s well known throughout history. He was called, you remember, and commanded to abandon his commitment to justification by faith alone before these authorities of the Roman church. And we have that famous line, right, the here I stand speech of Luther, and he boldly says, unless I’m convinced by scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant of anything. For to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me, amen, he says. against the world, right, seemingly. Luther, contramundum, right? And so Luther’s fear of the Lord and his commitment to his word gave him a boldness that truly shook the world and led to the recovery of the gospel and the Protestant Reformation of which we are heirs even here in this church. And so the Lord gave him strength and he gave him faith to stand for the truth and we should pray that he give us the same things in the stances that we are called to make, maybe not as bold and history-shaking, but no less important and significant. The truth is the truth, and we must stand for that truth.

God’s Gift of Strength and Faith

And so that’s what we see next, right, in verses 16 to 18. God’s gift of strength and faith for these three men. These three men are before the king. He’s questioned them and called them out and threatened them, and they’re God. And what are they going to do? What are they going to do? All of the kingdom, including we would presume their fellow exiles, right? Other Israelites taken captive or watching, how are they going to respond? Listen to their response again, as they show truly God-given strength and faith. In verse 16, 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, firing 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. Right, what a stand indeed. You want a here I stand speech. There’s it, this is it. before the king of the known world, really, at that time. And they said, nope, defiance. And Nebuchadnezzar says, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? And they say, our God will, our God will. He is able and he will deliver us from your hand. And we serve God regardless if he saves us or not. Amazing faith indeed, amazing faith. And just to state the obvious, why was the King’s decree such an issue for these Jewish men? Couldn’t they just go along to get along? As that super lame saying goes, just go along to get along. Well I guess they could, if they had no concern or care about violating the first two commandments, I guess they could. But they clearly had a faith and a commitment to the one true God and to his will and his way and his word, and they could never do so. You shall have no other gods. You shall not worship images, right, the first two commandments. So they could not and they did not. And again, we pray, may we do so for this faith as well. May we pray for the strength that is needed in these times of testing. And the truth is that we have a hard time, right, we look at these, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in this truly amazing, strong faith that they’re given and that they express in this episode. But the truth is that we usually have hard times with things much lesser than that. We have a hard time with things like loving others in our hearts, like not murdering with our hateful thoughts and words, with setting aside regular times of devotion and worship before the Lord, shutting off digital distractions and getting quiet before the Lord, to take in his word, to commune with him, to pray and seek his leading and his change. But when the Lord gives the strength and faith to do so, and we submit to that, and we bow the knees to him, he indeed is faithful to grow us, to make us stronger through his word, through the supper, by his spirit.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Psychotic Fury

And then we see in verse 19 to 23, again, Nebuchadnezzar’s response, this psychotic fury from him. to the response of these three men. The faith in the stand of these men brings a response. In verse 19, then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against them. And he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than it normally was. It was a response of rage, and the fire rages, right, seven times than it normally was. And it says, and the king ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cast them into the burning fire furnace. And these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments. And they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. It says, because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace was overheated, the flames of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, fell bound into the fiery furnace, the burning fiery furnace. They were called to be cast, they were thrown, they fell bound into this burning fiery furnace.

God’s Powerful Gift of Safety

And then what happens? What happens, what comes next is God’s, we see his powerful gift of protection, of safety for these men. Nebuchadnezzar astonished and he rose up in haste. They had just thrown these three men tight up into this burning furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar looks and he sees four men walking around free, unbound. In verse 27, it says, the hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and the smell of fire, no smell of fire had come upon them. Which is an amazing thing if you’ve ever been to you know, like a campfire and you just permeated it for weeks with the smell of smoke, right? No smoke on these individuals, no smell of smoke. They were not hurt, they were not even tainted with the smell of fire. Nebuchadnezzar says, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods, right? Incredible, incredible. And what Nebuchadnezzar sees here from his pagan perspective is some divine being with them, protecting them. But who is it that Nebuchadnezzar saw? Why this fourth man, why does he show up here in this story? Well, in other places in the Old Testament, throughout redemptive history, we come across a figure called the Angel of the Lord. You’re probably all familiar as you’ve read your New Testament, your Old Testament. The Angel of the Lord is described in scripture as a man in Genesis, in Numbers, in Joshua, in Judges. This figure also is described as God himself. Psalm 34, seven says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them, right, is an example from the Psalms. And in Daniel three, we see the angel of the Lord entering into their sphere of death to save and deliver these men who belong to the Lord. And this, of course, most apostolated, and it makes consistent sense in scripture, this is the pre-incarnate son of God. the Son of God before he took on flesh. It’s a picture of what he would do in entering into the sphere of death in this world, our sphere of death, for us, and undergo the hell of the cross for us as his people. And he was there to show all the people that he was yet with his people, even in Babylon, even in this fiery furnace. And this, of course, is that great principle, right? The Emmanuel principle. Emmanuel, God with us. I’ve told you before, my son, when he was younger, we were having a psalm sing, and it was around the time that the birth of Christ is celebrated culturally, and someone was, in one of the hymns, talked about Emmanuel. Our pastor said, Vinny, do you know what Emmanuel means? He said, yeah, it’s like the manual, you know, the manual, so you know how to live. So let’s nod. Emmanuel, what means what? It means God with us. God with us, it’s the promise and the great gift of God to his people throughout scripture from beginning to end and all the way through. I will be your God and you shall be my people and I will dwell with you. And we know from God’s holy word that to commune with the Lord we must be holy, because he’s a perfectly holy God. Perfectly holy and righteous. You must be holy for I am holy, the Lord says. That’s the requirement, to commune with him. For him to dwell with us, for us to dwell with him. But we are not holy. We are not holy. We are not by birth. We are not by our sins throughout life. And in order for us to truly enjoy communion with the Lord, we must be united to the one who is perfectly holy and is perfectly righteous. We must be given his perfection and righteousness. to us. And you know, when we think about these men, these three men, that God was with them in the fire, and we have the sustaining promise of the Lord’s presence as well amidst our trials, our trials as well, yet on the cross, consider, Christ felt the utter aloneness and abandonment of the Father. There was no one with him as he passed through these fires, and he took the full weight of the fury of the Father’s wrath upon himself. There was no mighty arm to deliver him from this greatest of trials. A real wooden cross, real blood flowing out, and in our flesh, our response is to ask, why would the Lord be with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but be left alone on the cross? Why would provision be made for Adam and Eve to spare them, to deliver Noah and his family, to be with Israel? All sinners, all failed him. And then forsake Jesus in all of his perfection. And this, of course, you know, dear Christian, is because Jesus on the cross took to himself all the heat and fire of God’s wrath that we deserve. for our compromise and our sinning and our idolatry. Christ took it all for us in our place. And because he did so, right, this is the most glorious thing, most glorious news. He did so, brothers and sisters, that because he took it for us, all of it, there remains now no wrath of God for you who belong to him. No wrath. Only blessing and communion with the perfect Lord, because you’re covered with the perfect robes of Christ’s righteousness, if you belong to Him, if you place your faith in Him, for your life, right? No wrath, rather all that Christ earned and merited by that perfect life is ours, is yours. May you rejoice. Brothers and sisters, do you remember these basic, mind-blowingly profound truths, the gospel, Christ’s life and death in our place? May this indeed stir your hearts, warming them and causing the blood to flow again in a fresh, or for the first time, for this Christ who came and took our sins and freed us from them. and from the Father’s just judgment. And as we go from here back into the world as his ambassadors, as he commissions us to go, may this give us strength to be bold and winsome and wise, to speak the truth in love and to witness to that same world, evermore living for Jesus and telling others of the wonder and might of his love for sinners who come to him in faith. Amen, let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, We give you praise, Lord. It is never commensurate or never measures up with the praise that you deserve, Lord, with all that you’ve done and the glory and magnitude of the blessing that you bestowed upon us so graciously and lavishly, Lord, but we pray that you would accept our praise, give us hearts to believe, Lord, what you tell us concerning ourselves, who belong to Christ, that we are dead to our sins. We were raised to live in newness of life. Father, help us to embrace and revel and take joy in the reality that Christ is with us. Despite all that we go through, help us know that nothing comes to us but by, through your loving and providential hand, and that you are with us, and that it is for our good, though beyond our ability to comprehend. Help us to trust you, Lord, increase our faith, and give us a boldness, a spirit of boldness as we take a stand for you in a world that is so backwards and contrary to you and your will and your word, Lord, that we would indeed be witnesses to this world with our lives in our lips, this world that is so in need, this dead and dying world in need of the gospel. Father, bless us and protect us, we pray. Amen.