“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was very surprised and stood up in a hurry. He said to his leaders, “Did we not throw three men who were tied up into the fire?” They answered, “That is true, O king.” He said, “Look! I see four men loose and walking about in the fire without being hurt! And the fourth one looks like a son of the gods (or the Son of God)!”
I love to watch football, especially the Dallas Cowboys. I like to watch shorts of great running backs, defensive linebackers, and quarterbacks. Back in the day, a wide receiver named Drew Pearson was one of those great players. The Cowboys were down by 6 and needed a touchdown to win, and there were only a few seconds left in the game. Roger Staubach called the play, and Pearson lined up wide right. The ball was snapped, and Staubach dropped back and scrambled for a second or two, then reared back and threw the ball way down the field. You could see Pearson running full speed, beating the defenders. At full speed, Pearson and the ball met in an acrobatic, superhuman way, leaping into the air. Pearson came down with the football, and the referee put both hands up signaling “TOUCHDOWN!” The Hail Mary pass was born.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not on a football team, but they desperately needed a Hail Mary pass from the Lord. Refusing to bow to the 90 ft statue did not sit well with the king. Refusing to bow a second time only made things worse. Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with these young men that his face became distorted with rage (vs. 19). Now that is super mad. He commanded that the furnace be made seven times hotter than normal. The Bible tells us that the heat from the furnace even killed the men who were throwing the young men into the fire. Have you ever been so mad you didn’t care what happened to the ones around you? King Nebby was not a happy camper, and reading the story you can almost taste the fury and rage from him.
Verse 21 tells us that the soldiers tied them up and were killed as they threw them into the hot furnace. “So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames” (vs. 23). I love verse 24. It reads, “But suddenly.” Nebby looks into the furnace and sees the three Jewish young men walking around, and also a fourth figure that looks like a god (vs. 25). Nebby then gets as close to the furnace doors as possible and shouts for the young men to come out. This time, he capitalizes on their identity by calling them “servants of the Most High God.” So the three men step out of the furnace, unbound, and their clothes were not singed or even smelled like smoke. When they walked out of the furnace, a crowd of high officers, officials, governors, and advisors crowded around them. Not even a hair on their heads was singed. Nebby then says, “Praise the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him” (vs. 28). He later exclaims, “There is no other god who can rescue like this!” (vs. 29).
Nebuchadnezzar decrees that no one is to speak a word against the God of these young men, or they will be torn limb from limb, and their houses turned into a pile of rubble. This was significant because now the whole kingdom could not discriminate against the exiled Jews or their God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were promoted to an even higher position in the province of Babylon after this.
We can say so much about this story from Daniel: the faith, the furnace, the fourth man in the fire, and even the promotion afterward. Today, if you are at a crossroads in your walk with Christ, then I hope this story pushes your faith in Christ to a new level. Just like Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson, you may need a Hail Mary pass to save the day. Many times the Cowboys won with that pass, and many times they lost, Pearson dropped the pass or never even got his hands on it. For these three Jewish young men, they had to get thrown into the furnace for their stance and faith in God, a real life-or-death situation. It may not be that point in your life now, but you feel the pressure, and it’s building. Just know that the only thing that wasn’t on the young men when they came out of the fire were the ropes that bound them. Jesus will be with us in the fire, and best of all, will take off those things that bind us and set us free. Today, make the choice of “even if,” those simple words that say, even if things go south for me, I will never turn my back on my faith in Christ.
Prayer: Father, I pray that we will be strengthened when we face trials and when Satan is having a field day in our life. I pray for supernatural boldness and resolve in times when life turns up the heat. I pray that we have the peace that passes all understanding in the middle of chaos. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
Leave a comment