Your God Has Rescued You, Too!”     Daniel 3:3-30

Pastor Thomas Kock     4^th Sunday after Epiphany     January 30, 2011

 We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of grace and truth.  Amen.  The word of God for our consideration is found in the book of Daniel, chapter 3.  Instead of reading the text today, I’m going to talk our way through it; you see it printed in your service folder.  Let’s jump in, shall we? 

What is the goal of life?  What is the purpose of this life?  I would hope that today’s theme, Jesus saying, “Come, follow Me,” would come to our minds.  As we look at our text for today, we’re going to get a wonderful reminder of what life is all about. 

Our text takes place about the year 600 BC, give or take.  The nation of Israel is in tough shape.  The northern kingdom had been taken into exile, and virtually disappeared.  The southern kingdom – Judah – should have learned a lesson, but didn’t. Instead, they too more and more walked away from God and His Word, so that God finally allowed the Babylonians to come in (under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar) and conquered Judah. 

Now, Nebuchadnezzar’s way of building his empire was that he didn’t totally destroy the areas he’d conquered; rather, he allowed them to have some self-determination, but had to pay tribute.  And, Nebuchadnezzar (“Neb” for short) took the best and brightest from those conquered kingdoms and put them to work inside his government.  So, there were several men from Judah who were put into Neb’s training process.  (Daniel 1 records part of that.)  We know about four of them – Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 

So, Neb has people from all over the world who are working in his gov’t.  He needs to have ways to unite them, to pull them together.  Perhaps that’s what he’s trying to do as he builds a huge image of gold on one of the plains in Babylon.  Perhaps he thought that he could unite them in this “worship.”  Or perhaps he was making a statement to all of these gov’t officials, that the gods of Babylon were THE gods, for Babylon had conquered all sorts of kingdoms and established an amazing empire.  Regardless, Neb commands that all of the leaders gather to worship the image of gold he’s set up.  There are eight levels of officials who are named: “So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled,,,” 

So, can you picture it?  There are probably hundreds – maybe even thousands? – of officials gathered here.  And Nebuchadnezzar gives the order that when the music plays, they are all to bow down and worship the image of gold.  And if they don’t?  They’ll be thrown into a fiery furnace, burned to death. 

So it’s time for the music to start playing.  If you’re Shadrach, Meshach and Abednedo (we don’t know where Daniel was during this event), what thoughts are going through your mind?  You’d been appointed to a pretty important position.  (Daniel 2 records that they’d been appointed administrators over the province of Babylon, per Daniel’s request.)  In that position, they could offer lots of valuable service to their fellow refugees.  Perhaps they could even have some influence as to how Neb treated their brothers and sisters back in the land of Israel.  If they refuse to bow down to that image, they’ll be burned up, and all their fellow countrymen will lose them as an asset.  Can you imagine those thoughts running through their minds? 

Or perhaps they had thoughts like, “We’ll just do it this one time.”  Or “We won’t really mean it; we’ll bow down but won’t really be worshiping.”  Or even “Everyone else is doing it.”  Can you imagine those sorts of thoughts running through their minds?  Oh, I’m guessing!  And to add one more, these guys were probably about 20 years old at the time.  Can you imagine each of them thinking, “I’m just a young man, my whole life’s ahead of me.  I don’t want to die.”  Yeah, I can imagine!

And that’s where our opening question comes to bear.  What is the point of life?  What is life’s purpose?  Finally, the Bible’s answer is simple: “to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.”  Our purpose in life is to give glory to God.  God’s goal with our lives is to get us to heaven. 

Whether or not the three men thought about all that, we don’t know.  What we do know is that when the music started, they refused to bow down.  So, some of the other officials came to Neb and told him about it. 

This is a kick in the teeth to Neb, yet apparently he wants to show himself as a gracious king, so he calls the three before him to give them a second chance.  He’ll play the music again, and if they bow down, very good.  But if they won’t?  Neb says, “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?” 

So there they stand.  Basically their choice are, a) refuse to bow down and so be thrown into a blazing furnace or  b) bow down and thereby stay alive!  If that choice were before you and me today, what choice would we make? 

It’s so easy to say, “Oh, I’d do like the three men did!  I’d stand up!”  And, I pray we would. 

But I wonder.  And, it’s not because you and I don’t love Jesus.  Every indication is that every one of you loves Jesus.  I love Jesus. 

But I wonder if we have a proper view of this life as opposed to the glory of the heaven which awaits us.  And the reason I wonder that is because of two things: a) the way we talk about how important it is to stay alive, and   b) the way we prioritize our lives.  When difficult health news comes, do we first rejoice, understanding that we’re several steps closer to heaven?  Or do we mourn, and immediately want to know how to cure the ill?  Now, please don’t get me wrong.  God said that this life was a gift from Him.  It’s totally appropriate for us to appreciate the life which God has given to us here, to attempt to live it to the full.  It’s totally appropriate for us to go to doctors and nurses and make use of medications – all of that is proper. 

But think of the way that God describes heaven!  God describes heaven as this place where there will be no more mourning or crying or pain!  God says that we will have a glorified, glorious body!  God describes heaven as a place where the streets are paved with gold.  If gold can be used for something as mundane as paving roads, how incredibly glorious will that place be!  God describes heaven as this incredible mansion!  He describes it as a place where there will be complete and total peace!  He describes it as a place where we will be able to see God face to face!  In short, He describes it a place which will be marvelous and amazing! 

And you and I would rather stay here?!?  You and I would rather wait to go there?  Are we crazy?  Think about it this way.

Let’s imagine that you’ve been planning a dream vacation to the place where you’d most like to go – Hawaii, or the Bahamas, or the Rocky Mountains, or whatever.  It’s going to be THE dream vacation.  Would you want to put it off?  Or would you rather get there more quickly?  I think it’s pretty obvious that by far the majority of us would rather get there more quickly, right? 

Well, heaven is going to be “Hawaii” times 100!  Or maybe times 1,000,000!  And, we’d like to put that off?  We’d rather stay here?  Why, that’s crazy, isn’t it?  Sure!

And perhaps that’s what was going through the minds of the three men as they stood before Neb.  Standing there with their lives on the line, they said to Neb, “We don’t owe you an explanation on this one.”  Yes, they were public servants.  If Neb. had told them to give an accounting of the tax revenue, they would have owed that to him.  If Neb had told them to report the way they were using their work time, they would have owed that to him.  But this had to do with their relationship with God; Neb had no right to intrude on that, so they didn’t even owe him an explanation.  They add, “the God whom we serve is able to save us, and He will rescue us from your hand.” They didn’t know how.  Either God would keep them alive, which He could, or – more likely – God would take them to heaven through these flames.  Either way, they would be delivered from Neb’s hands.  And so no matter what might come, they weren’t bowing down. 

You see, life isn’t about staying alive.  Life isn’t about doing what’s comfortable for me.  Rather, it’s about serving God, giving praise to Him.  That’s our purpose in life. 

And God’s ultimate goal for our lives is simple – He wants to take you to heaven.  And He’ll do whatever it takes to get you there.  If that means putting tremendous difficulty in front of you – like being thrown into a fiery furnace – then He’ll do that!  And, the rest of the account shows us that He has that ability! 

Neb is furious!  “Heat up that furnace!”  He heats it seven times hotter than normal, so hot that it kills the soldiers who tossed the three men in. 

But surprise, surprise!  The three men are walking around in the fire, unhurt, unharmed!  And there’s a fourth “person” in there, who looks like a “son of the gods!”  (Was that an angel?  Or even God Himself?  We don’t know, and either explanation fits!)  So Neb – so arrogant before – now has to yell into the furnace, “Hey, guys, do y’all mind coming out?”  J  And as you can imagine, the whole group crowds around them!  (Remember there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people there!)  God has protected them so much that their hair wasn’t singed, nor was there even the smell of smoke on them. 

All of which leads Neb to say, "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.”  (Dan 3:28 NIV) 

And folks, that’s what life is all about!  Life is about giving praise to our God!  Life is about serving God!  Life is about being on the road to heaven, about focusing on life eternal! 

And so I have a challenge for you and me.  This week, live your life with an eternal focus!  Live your life realizing that this life isn’t the goal, that the things of this life aren’t the things which really matter.  Live your life focusing on God, His love for you, the eternal home which He’s won for you.  In other words, live your life like you’re one of these three men.

And yes, you and I are going to fail at that on occasion.  When that happens, go back to the cross of Jesus.  Hear Him say, “Take heart, child!  Your sins are forgiven!” 

And then move forward with complete confidence.  Not only does your God love you dearly, but your God is the all-powerful One who is able to do anything!  Even rescue you from a fiery furnace!  Amen.