Serving God in the Furnace (Part 1 of 2)

When the Babylonian king, golden image in his own honor. He required everyone bow down and worship it for those who refused a fiery furnace awaited. So why didn't Shadrach me shack and Abednego simply go along with the crowd today on Truth for Life.

Alistair Begg considers their resolved and asks what will we do well. I invite you to turn with me to Daniel Hunter chapter 3, I'm not going to read the whole chapter once again, in the interest of time, but I hope that you either have done or that you will do Daniel chapter 3 in verse one king Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth. Six cubits, he sets it up on the plane of Judah in the province of Babylon.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps the prefects and the governors the counselors the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up than the satraps. The prefects in the governors the counselors the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up in verse four and a Harold proclaimed allowed your commanded all peoples, nations and languages that when you hear the sound of the hornpipe flyer trade on heart pipe every kind of music you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fire furnace for as soon as all the peoples hear the sound of the horn the pipe the liar trade on the heart bagpipe and every kind of music all the peoples, nations and languages fell down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that time certain called the ends came forward and maliciously accused the Jews and then they point out that Shadrach me shack and Abednego, who had so recently been exalted to a position of usefulness are the very ones who are leading the charge against the whole notion of buying down to this gigantic statute. As a result of that, they are called. As we will see and that the king asked them if this is actually the case. And they reply that yes, it is the case, verse 18. If it not if but if not, if were not delivered. Let it be known to you.

Okay and that we will not serve your guards or worship the golden image that you have set up by then would just leave it there. Father, thank you that we have the Bible open before us. We pray that you will enable us to understand what it says to believe what it conveys to obey your word and to trust resolutely and you the God of all faithfulness, for we pray in Jesus name, amen.

Well I hope were beginning to get the picture here of the impact of this book that is penned by Daniel.

Perhaps little help from the secretaries as it conveyed the truth of God's faithfulness to the exiles, some of whom had been caught up in the first wave along with Daniel and his friends. Others who were coming later. There were actually three waves. If you check the historical books that brought these exiles finally into the bondage of Babylon and the chapter 1 we saw that God who is sovereign, had guided Daniel in his faithfulness, and in his friends to a position of honor and Babylon and he the same God guides his faithful people in the world that in in communicating that the need that was being addressed was a God's people would inevitably wondering be wondering where God was actually in control of everything. Whether he was really in control of these foreign powers and deities, and if you was not the temptation that was there was for them to compromise. In chapter 2 we realize that the God of heaven is the God who deposes and sets up kings and he will in the end bring all human kingdoms to an end and will establish his own everlasting kingdom.

Now here in chapter 3 in what was one of the most well-known parts of Daniel we discover that in the context of what is apparent defeat that God is able to deliver his people from the furnace expressly from this immediate incident in this fiery furnace by the very experience of exile is referred to in Isaiah as God's people being in the furnace of captivity and he is making it clear that whether God does acting deliverance or whether or not with any dozens that God's people must seraphim as God, even if their refusal to bow to the foreign guards results in their dad now is in light of thy that we come to the chapter and I want to quote the old Puritan who had an great number of points in his morning service.

He at one point he had said 17 flea and feeling feeling somewhat sorry for his congregation in the evening. He said them. I realized this morning on my sermon had a tremendous amount of points I want to be good to you tonight sermon tonight will be pointless and on and on.

This study in chapter 3 is essentially fitting that framework were going to as best we can simply follow the narrative and hopefully you will come up with a very very good outline of your own, which you can give to me afterwards and I will use when I try and preach this again all right.

The end of chapter 2 Shadrach me shack and Abednego are promoted. They now have a new profile and increase profile and as a result of that they are not able to go under the radar when it comes to the command of the king. There is quite a change in Nebuchadnezzar from the end of chapter 2 to the beginning of chapter 3, verse 47 the king said to Daniel, truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and the revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery and as a result of that.

He gave Daniel hi owners, and so on.

And Daniel being a good fellow, wanted his friends to be included in the promotion and that's how the end up where they are here, but now we are in chapter 3, and given that King Nebuchadnezzar obviously like the idea of being told that in the description. The Daniel had given of the dream that he was the golden head of the operation and apparently with the lapsing of time and there is some significant passage of time between the end of chapter 2 in the beginning of chapter 3.

It's not days, weeks, months, eight years and whether Nebuchadnezzar has just simply grown forgetful of what he said or whether his great protestation of allegiance or interest in God had been ultimately only skin deep. Whether pride had just simply crept up on him.

As a result of being able to experience what it meant for him to be the head of gold.

We are unable to actually stay but what we doing all is that he is now determined that it would be a great idea to build this fantastic statute that was going to climb into the sky and he was going to set it up on the plane of Judah in the province of Babylon. Now why couldn't say in the province of Babylon don't we know that well again. There's nothing in there that is inconsequential and the writer wants us to realize that he's doing it exactly there in the province of Babylon in the realm of Shinar, which is where which is where the Tower of Babel was erected. As we reminded ourselves the other morning in Genesis chapter 11 and on the occasion when we erected the Tower of Babel. Remember the said land always make a name for ourselves and build this great tower and here says Nebuchadnezzar. I think that's a great idea and I'm going to make a name for myself and I'm going to make sure that everybody knows about me and everybody understands just who I am and what I've done while pride reveals itself in all kinds of ways and dramatically so here as he gathers all of his satraps and prefabs and so on. And again the emphasis is is important what he's doing is he's putting together the main body of his officials at the occasion of the dedication so as to show to the surrounding peoples that at the very heart of this organization there is a unified commitment to what he wants, mainly for these people to bow down before this great statute and the organization is pretty good as you would see that they've got the various instruments in there. When that when the band plays that will be your signal that I know to show that you found the introduction of bagpipes quite interesting and I presume that was your your sniggering is not uncommon with the English of bow down before our bagpipes ride all of the laws and I do not may not be the most tuneful of instruments, but they do strike fear into the average Englishman and and I for one, am quite happy about that. But of course the great threat that accompanied the music was that if you don't when you you the music bow down, then you will be cast in to a fiery furnace. This of course was not rhetoric as the people would know one cross reference will help you in this. I'll give it to you. Jeremiah 29 where in Jeremiah 29 we read of two individuals who fell foul of Nebuchadnezzar in relationship to these things, thus says the Lord of host, the God of Israel concerning Ahab, the son of Carlisle and Zedekiah, the son of Messiah who are prophesying alike to you in my name. God says because they're lying to you and are using my name to do so.

I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes.

Because of then this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah to Babylon. And here's the curse the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon, roasted in the fire so Nebuchadnezzar was a real bad character and when he made his threats. They were not idle threats. Therefore, this is no small thing for Shadrach me shack and Abednego to be confronted by this challenge and John the furnace itself was a significant affair. I don't know much about these things only what I read, and what I read suggested that these furnaces and Babylon were constructed a bit like some of our nuclear power plants.

In some ways more like a real weak tunnel with fast stretch sent that went up that it openings in the talk that provided the opportunities to to to bring in air and the fuel was charcoal and with the right circumstances, it could be heated where told to 900 or to 1000°C so powerfully good for a very very good pizza and for a very very burned hot dog and certainly providing no difficulty in AAA.

Address that taking a life into itself. And so it is where told that as soon all the peoples.

Verse seven Herod the sound of the horn, you bet your life the peoples and the nations, and the languages they fell down and worshiped the golden image is great is quite is going to sell it to pictures and it all. The king somehow or another. Having a vantage point props from being up here like this, and he looks out over a scene that would be that the lake scene without water and all he sees as far as I can see RR that the bow down had send the roles and the addresses of people who are senseless in their response as the statute to which they respond have long believed the Paul Simon has read definitely is Old Testament a great deal. I think that the opening line comes out of the Psalms, I met a chance to chat with them. Hello darkness my old friend I've come to talk with you again is a line from the Psalms not directly in the people bowed and prayed to the neon guard. They may in here they bow down the picture of absolute subjugation and in verse eight, the protagonists of marriage, the pivotal event in the story appears and at that time certain called the ends came forward and maliciously accuse the Jews they came to the king very obsequiously and they reminded him of what he had done and once again, for emphasis, there is the repetition back through the instrumentation reminder, that is, if the king needed a reminder that whoever doesn't fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace and then here we go.

There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the problems of Babel and another was this is a bad idea on your part. King you should have known that in the first place.

You appointed them. The inference being, we would never have appointed them and they don't pay any attention to, they don't serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set now. As a result of that were 12 verse 13 of the game in a furious rage commander that Shadrach me shack and Abednego be brought and so they bring the men and Nebuchadnezzar says to them. Is it true that you don't serve my gods or worship the golden image that I've set up now using my financers rhetorical. He says however I'm going to get the bagpipes cranked job and the drag on the liar. In the end, and the pipe on the horn. I'm going to give you a chance and give you one more chance okay follows get ready now play that funky music white boys come on get that going and will give you a chance follows you one more chance to bow down verse 16 Shadrach me shack and Abednego answered and said to the game. We really don't need to give you an answer in this this be the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand. Okay, but if not, be it known to you. Okay, that we will not serve your guards or worship the golden image that you have set up quite striking is that if only we could be reading this for the first time one of the great benefits of a Christian home that you know the stories from your infancy. I often wonder what it must be like to come to the Bible.

In later years, and for all of the stories to be brand-new to see start reading through Daniel and you come to this and you get to this verse in your same yourself.

I wonder what happens next. Do they go for it or what are they doing and and and eyes for the first readers must've been sick because it is written to the and is the read of the event concerning these three men I and and the story is read out for them there listening and saying what are they going to do. Are they going to bow down to this think or what will they do Nebuchadnezzar verse third 19 is then filled with fury. The expression of his face was change interesting detail in the art of the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated as this, the got it is that I means he got as hard as he could. I mean I've thousand degrees not make any difference to what's a few degrees between friends when you're dry all but what it what is it Dallas tells us about the nature of the miracle is not some he can come up with some story about it was really very hard on the choose DVD and get it usually is all you love it when people try to make the miracles explain the miracles by making the medical bigger than the medical actually is you find it in William Barclay's commentaries where you know Jesus didn't walk on the water.

The boat was only in at 4 inches and that's why it looked like he was walking on the water. You tell me got a boat the way like half a ton with 12 guys in it and it floats and 4 inches of water. That's a big as a bigger miracle than the jolly miracle itself again I say no you don't have to try and fix the Bible just leave the Bible as it is. God knows what he's doing. He knows what he wrote.

Now, here we go, what is it they don't pay any attention to you. Well, I wasn't true, but what should they do, what would you do what will we do after all, they didn't have to take it seriously. You bow down on the outside, but not on the inside. After all, if other statute was a bit of a joke and God knew that they thought that therefore they could of said homeowner really hurting anybody. By doing this I'm a nobody's nobody's harmed by all a kind of routine rationalizations of contemporary American evangelicalism. We do very quickly be brought into play to explain why. Was there really is a bad idea to do anything other than just get with the program and join the group. But what are they do now were not were not going to do that. Why not well, it made them feel good about themselves, know why not well like to be part of the big group. Now I'll tell you why not read to you. Why not you shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who ate meat by showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. In other words, they obeyed God because they must obey God, not because it works out best for them, but because God is to be obey.

You see when we take our Christian life's into the realm of that which is most suitable amenable, comfortable, understandable. We largely begin to extracted from the context in which what it means to be a disciple of Jesus actually says and to the extent that we have done that we make ourselves peculiarly vulnerable if the deed does come when the only thing that will actually holders to the lying is simple straightforward unerring obedience to the word of God that God has said this, and therefore whatever it might be and I resist again.

As I said the other morning. The temptation to go down all kinds of rabbit trails in my own mind.

Many of your filling in the blanks. Your sensible people. You understand this listing today to Truth for Life, a message from Alistair Begg titled serving God in the furnace. This is part of our series on Daniel called faith under fire. Today's message reminds us that Shadrach me shack and Abednego were determined to obey God. No matter what the consequences. Now what causes that kind of steadfast confidence and how can we take a stand in our generation when so many around us seem to be willing to compromise. That's the topic of Alister's brand-new book titled brave by faith God -sized confidence in a post-Christian world, Alister warns that today's culture is becoming progressively less tolerant of Christians and our beliefs.

The book brave by faith draws from Daniel's experience and encourages us to remain firm in our faith to trust God entirely. Even when it seems like no one is willing to stand with us. As you read this book you will be challenged to think ahead about how you will respond to a trial before the trial arrives. Request your copy of the book brave by faith. When you donate online at truthforlife.org/donate or give us a call at 88858878 and if you'd like to purchase the book as an audio download. It's available in our online store along with the brave by faith study guide perfect for small group discussion to find all these resources on our website@truthforlife.org/store Bob Lapine. Be sure to listen tomorrow as Alister reminds us what we can count on in the midst of the fire to keep us from melting in the heat of the Bible teaching Alister is furnished by Truth for Life learning is