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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
...who through faith...shut
the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of
the sword.
Hebrews 11:33-34
This ends this reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Imagine you were Daniel.
You were obedient to the Lord’s
call and as a result were blessed to the point where the king of the
Babylonians, Darius, was ready to put you in charge of his kingdom.
Unfortunately, jealousy raged in the hearts of the rival Babylonian
administrators and satraps, so much so that they hatched an elaborate scheme to
get rid of you.
This scheme involved getting
the king to agree to execute anyone who would bow down to any god or human
being other than him by throwing them into a lion’s den. They did this because
they knew you (Daniel) would refuse to worship anyone or anything than God.
And so Darius issues the
decree, you go on doing as you have always done, giving the Lord your full
attention and dedication, and the administrators and satraps run to the king to
rat on you, reminding the king of the decree he had declared. Here’s where your
uncompromising spirit toward God took you:
The king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and
threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you
serve continually, rescue you!”
A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the
den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his
nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. Daniel 6:16-17
No one had ever come back out
of the den of lions once within. The lions were a hungry lot and would easily
make quick work of any human being. And yet in the morning, when the king came
to check on the den and you, here’s what he found:
At the first light of dawn, the king got up and
hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an
anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you
serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”
Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! My God
sent His angel, and He shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because
I was found innocent in His sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you,
Your Majesty.”
The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel
out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on
him, because he had trusted in his God. Daniel 6:19-23
Tossed into the lion’s den,
all Daniel had to hold onto was his faith in God and he held onto it hard. The
king had a very sleepless night after committing Daniel to what he believed was
his sure demise but it’s very interesting to me that even the king, a
non-believer, held onto some hope that the God Daniel served possessed the
power to rescue him from what was seemingly an impossible situation. As we read,
he gained great relief when he heard Daniel’s voice crying out from inside the
den with the amazing testimony of how God sent an angel to “shut the moth of
the lions” so they couldn’t harm him. He was spared because God had found him
innocent and if he was innocent before God, then he was certainly innocent before
the king.
Imagine the amazement of King
Darius when Daniel emerged from the den without a “would found in him”. And we
know what happened next. All the administrators and satraps who had tried to
get Daniel killed were tossed to the lions with their families as punishment
and no one survived.
What do we gain through
faith?
In Daniel’s case, we see that
when we trust God will bring us rescue, no matter how impossible the
circumstances might be, He delivers.
Need another example?
We have one more in looking
at the life of Daniel. For before he faced a den of lions, three of his friends
survived a visit within a fiery furnace. Here’s what we learn in chapter 3:
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty
cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the
province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors,
advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial
officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. So the satraps,
prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the
other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King
Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.
Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and
peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: As soon as you
hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of
music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King
Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will
immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the
horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the nations and
peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King
Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
At this time some astrologers came forward and
denounced the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever!
Your Majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn,
flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and
worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not fall down and worship will
be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have set
over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who
pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship
the image of gold you have set up.”
Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, and
Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that
you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now when
you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds
of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very
good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a
blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King
Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If
we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us
from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does
not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace
heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest
soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them
into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans
and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king’s
command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed
the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and these three men,
firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in
amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and
threw into the fire?”
They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the
fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the
blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most
High God, come out! Come here!”
So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the
fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around
them. 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.
Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “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.”
Here we read where King
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he had set up a giant golden idol,
ordering the people to bow down to it every time an instrument sounded a
signal.
Similar to the story of
Daniel and the lion’s den, there were some villains in this story, a group of astrologers
who went to Nebuchadnezzar and informed him that three Jews, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, were defying the king’s decree and not bowing down to the idol.
The king had the three brought to him and they were openly defiant in their
steadfast devotion to God and God alone.
And so the Babylonian king,
in a fit of rage, had the furnace fired up seven times hotter than normal. His
intent was to quickly reduce the three Jews to ash but what a surprise he
received when he gazed inside the furnace to not only see the three men walking
about but accompanied by a fourth figure. There’s no certainty to the exact
identity of the fourth man in the furnace but we know it was a supernatural
figure who was involved in saving the three from perishing.
When Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego brought out of the furnace, he was astounded by what he
saw for none of the three were harmed.
Not a singed hair on their
heads.
Not a burn on their robes.
No harm to their bodies.
Not even a whiff of smoke on
them.
No one could have caused such
an outcome than the Lord God Almighty who Nebuchadnezzar formally recognized as
the superior God after witnessing the miracle.
While none of us may face the
danger of dying in a lion’s den or blazing furnace, we will face our own perils
in life and I don’t know about you but I am grateful for the biblical account
of Daniel and his three friends because their stories inspire me to hold fast
to my faith in God, no matter what, for over and over again, He has shown what
the scriptures confess...that with Him, all things are indeed possible.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a
comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send
any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.