The God Who Saves Through Fire
Download MP3Invite you to open your bibles to Daniel chapter 3. We're continuing our study on the gospel through the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 3. Once again, it's a large chapter. It's not as long as last week, but we will be reading it in its entirety.
Joel Brooks:And listen carefully, this is God's word. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits, and its breadth, 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefix, 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 king Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefix, and 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 king Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Joel Brooks:And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and the herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded, oh peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and 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 in worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, liar, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at the time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, oh king, live forever.
Joel Brooks:You, oh king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, oh king, pay no attention to you.
Joel Brooks:They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So, they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, is it true, oh Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you're ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bag pipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I've made, well and good.
Joel Brooks:But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, oh, 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.
Joel Brooks:Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated 7 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 outer garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these 3 men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.
Joel Brooks:Then king Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast 3 men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, o king. And he answered and said, but I see 4 men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the 4th is like a son of the gods.
Joel Brooks:Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery 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, the prefix, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men. The hairs of their heads was not singed. Their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.
Joel Brooks:Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, whom 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 god. 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. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. God, we thank you for your word. Now, through the power of your spirit, it goes forth like a hammer shattering a rock, it breaks down the walls we have built around our heart. And I pray that would happen in this moment. Lord, that we would hear clearly from you and your word, And through your spirit, you would transform us.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, may we see you more clearly through this text. May we come to worship you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So lord, in this moment, may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. A couple of days ago, Lauren was, in the minivan with our girls, driving home from spending time with with a friend who a few years ago had lost her mother. And so that sparked some good conversation, in the car. And Lauren was talking about how, you know, if I died, it'd be okay. The Lord would take care of you, and the Lord would use you know, people in the church to take care of you, and just the the Lord is in control of all this, and and she's thinking she's having a moment.
Joel Brooks:You know, like, this is one of those teachable moments that they are going to remember for all their life. And she was even crying, And, and she looked, and Natalie, my middle child was just kind of gazing thoughtfully out the window, and Natalie said, hey, mom. And Lauren's waiting for something.
Jeffrey Heine:She goes, mom, did you know
Joel Brooks:I could do back handsprings? The moment just completely gone. There's there's times when you think as a parent that you have completely connected with your child, and you've you've laid this all important lesson before them, and then they just forget. This is Nebuchadnezzar. I mean, last week, you remember?
Joel Brooks:God sent him a dream about a giant statue, and now God would eventually knock down the statue, and he he gave this dream to Nebuchadnezzar over and over again. He was pounding this in him. God sent Daniel to interpret the dream. And so in response, Nebuchadnezzar, he listens to Daniel, he he hears God from the dream, and he builds a statue. That's that's his response to the dream is the first thing he does is he builds a statue, and he goes, the lesson I'm gonna take away from this is there will be no feet of clay.
Joel Brooks:And he builds a statue of all gold. This is Nebuchadnezzar doing his best to defy that dream. Nebuchadnezzar had heard God say, no kingdom will stand. No kingdom will last. I will someday demolish every kingdom and set up my own.
Joel Brooks:And Nebuchadnezzar says, well, I'm gonna do my best to prevent that. I think I could set up a pretty good kingdom myself that can endure anything. And so, Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's the exception, which which always happens. I mean, in in counseling, every time you're you're counseling with somebody and they're making just a boneheaded terrible decision, they always think they're the exception to the rule. Every time that is I know I'm not supposed to date a non Christian.
Joel Brooks:I know that, and that and normally that's a good idea. However, and then they explain why, or I know divorce is wrong. And and I know that, and hear me, I hear that, but but in this particular case, and everybody thinks they're the exception. Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's the exception here, and so he builds a statue. Let's look at the statue.
Joel Brooks:The only description we have besides it being completely overlaid with gold is that its dimensions were 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. This is a a very small base and a very, very tall structure. This this right here is 8 feet. So it's about this wide, but it goes up 90 feet. So you're looking at like an obelisk or a some kind of spire going straight up here.
Joel Brooks:This wouldn't have been of a person. And so this image here is just simply described as an image. It's not described as any certain god or looking like any person. You know, the Babylonians had many gods, and it would have been very easy for the author of Daniel just to mention one of them. That this was to that god, but no specific god is mentioned.
Joel Brooks:Matter of fact, the narrator goes to great lengths of void mentioning anything, just saying the image the image over again. The image isn't of Nebuchadnezzar because that would be grotesque. We have a 90 foot tall man there, and there's no archaeological evidence that the kings of this time ever set up images of themselves. So what is this a image of? It seems like that this is an image simply representing the power of Babylon.
Joel Brooks:This represents Babylon in all of its glory. This represents the kingdom that Nebuchadnezzar has built, and this image was put there as a way of unifying the people together in their worship of this empire. Look at verse look at verse 4. The, the herald proclaimed allowed your commanded. Oh, peoples, nations, and languages.
Joel Brooks:What you see here is Babylon is is not just one people group. They're made up of all different nations, all different religions, all different tongues, all different races. Because what Babylon had done to Israel, Babylon was doing to all these other nations. Transplanting them into Babylon. And so Babylon was this melting pot of different races, different religions, different languages.
Joel Brooks:And so there would have been many gods being worshiped in Babylon. They already had many gods on their own, and now they're importing even more and more, They just imported the Israelite god in as well. And so what you see here in Babylon is what we would call a pluralistic society. And Nebuchadnezzar knew that one of the problems with a pluralistic society, one of the problems with having so many religions is that if any one of these religions made an absolute truth claim, if anyone said, our way is the only way, then there would be division. There would be division throughout the empire, and it would come crumbling down.
Joel Brooks:In many ways that dream would be fulfilled. A stone, an absolute would come and would demolish it all. So the only way that he knew Babylon would be able to exist is if people were religious religiously and morally tolerant of one another. It's fine for you to have your god. You you can have your god.
Joel Brooks:You can have your holy book. You could sing your songs. You can celebrate your religious holidays, but you just can't ever think that they're better than these peoples here. What we're a giant melting pot, all together for the glory of Babylon. No one has a claim alone to truth, And so to ensure the unity of the empire, Nebuchadnezzar sets up this image, says everyone bows on equal footing.
Joel Brooks:Everybody submits to the glory of Babylon. No religion is over the other. Let me just say it's no coincidence that this image is being set up where it's being set up. It's, it's in the same location as the Tower of Babel, possibly in the exact same spot, and it's being set up for the same reasons. Certainly pride is a motivating factor.
Joel Brooks:Nebuchadnezzar and his pride is setting this up. But the Tower of Babel, when it was built, it was set up to unify the people. If you read through Genesis 11, it says, let us build a tower, lest we become a people scattered all throughout the earth. We don't wanna be scattered. We wanna be unified.
Joel Brooks:Let's build this giant statue monument that will unify us together. That's exactly what Nebuchadnezzar is doing here. With so many different people, so many different religions, he knows the danger if people are not tolerant of one another. And so he makes an image that everybody bows down to. And I think, you know, just it's obvious that we can see the implications of this or at least can relate to this in our society because we live in a pluralistic society.
Joel Brooks:You're not to go far. We're gonna see on every few cars that coexist. Bumper sticker. Can't we just all get along? Can't we all tolerate one another?
Joel Brooks:The exclusive claims that Christianity makes are seen as primitive, as outdated, as divisive. Probably most people in the world would think that the world would be a better place if Christianity just dropped its absolute claims, if if all religions drop their absolute claims, you know. And you you hear like, well, you know, well, we're really all the same. We're all just different paths going up to the same mountain, and if we can if we can just accept that, the world would be a better place. And so the important thing is that we just tolerate one another.
Joel Brooks:One of my neighbors, actually left for a while, went to Tibet, lived in a Buddhist monastery for just a few weeks, and, and so we we talk a good bit. And he came up to me, and he's kind of done this several times. He just kind of gives this knowing little, like, you know, jab at me because he knows I'm a pastor and he says, you know it's really all the same. We really all know the same. Kinda like this, we're we're in the inside, like we really know it's all the same, whether it's Buddhist or it's Christianity, whether it's Islam, it's all the same.
Joel Brooks:And I always say, well, actually, it's not. And he looks at me like I'm the biggest jerk in the world for saying that. Like, he looks at me like I'm trying to pick a fight. That that that I'm an intolerant bigot simply because I say not all religions are the same. We're not all different paths going up the same mountain.
Joel Brooks:A few years ago, there was a church here in Birmingham that had a joint worship service with a Muslim congregation. They actually somehow celebrated the Lord's supper or communion together. And I remember reading about it in the paper, and it was just universally praised as as being very progressive and this a very hopeful thing that this is where religion was taking us, that we could all come together and show this kind of unity and tolerance. Let's look at how the bible presents this view. You probably noticed the reading of this text, I certainly did because I had to read it, there's a lot of repetition.
Joel Brooks:I mean, same thing over and over and over, and that's on purpose. It's a narrative device. Look at verse 2, for example. Then king Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefix, and the governors, the counselors, and the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that king Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, and the justices.
Joel Brooks:And and they repeat this, and then they repeat the the instruments that are played. And what the narrator is doing is he is mocking them. It's like they're coming like puppets on a string. They're they're just like little mindless robots, in which you got the safe traps, the prefix, the governors, the counselors, like all these just mindless people just kind of coming forward, and he lists them over and over. Going through this mindless automatic behavior.
Joel Brooks:And and you look at verse 7, which says, therefore, as soon as the peoples heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped. Literally, in the original language, it says this, as soon as they were hearing, they were falling. As soon as the music hit their ears, they fell to the ground in response. They are mindlessly performing to the music that is played. I've worked with enough addicts to understand that what's being shown here is, all the signs of addiction.
Joel Brooks:People who are addicted to an idol. Addicts kind of become robotic. They click on automatic autopilot in the way that they they bow down to something that is lifeless. And in doing so, they enslave themselves to that object. They become like the very object they're worshiping, lifeless.
Joel Brooks:Even Nebuchadnezzar here has become a slave. I mean, how else do you explain that the emperor of all this land, just because three Jewish men refused to bow down, he goes ballistic, absolutely ballistic. It's because he's a slave to what people think of him. He's a slave to people's approval, and he can't have anybody define that or his whole world comes crumbling down. Really, if you look at this story, the only people who are really free, the only people who are really alive are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Joel Brooks:They they will not be mindless in their faith and in their worship. And pluralism is mindless. Pluralism is completely minus. If if anyone would ever for a moment, quit listening to the music of the world and actually examine what pluralism is, they would call it absurd. I mean, ironically, the very claim itself that that there is no absolute truth, that no one can make a claim, an exclusive claim to truth.
Joel Brooks:Ironically, that statement itself is an exclusive claim to truth. Pluralism implodes on itself. And how can anybody say that all religions are just different paths going up the same mountain, and we can only see our path? The only way you could say that is if somehow you can step back and see the whole mountain, and you have been given this divine knowledge to know it all. Pluralism is mindless.
Joel Brooks:It's self defeating. Now, let me just take a little aside here and say, I do think Nebuchadnezzar was right in one regards. Religion can lead to division and to violence. Any religion that makes an exclusive claim can do that. You've you've seen it throughout history.
Joel Brooks:I think he was right about that. But I do think Christianity, although it's made many mistakes in the past, is uniquely suited to battle against that, and and here's why. Separates Christianity from every other religion. At the very heart of our faith, you will find a man who suffered incredible injustice and died believing at the hands of the people, his enemies. And yet he said, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.
Joel Brooks:That is at the very heart of our faith. And so it should never lead to that violence. It should never lead to that division if we believe what we say we believe. Back to the story. When the music played, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down.
Joel Brooks:They didn't make a big deal about this. They're not drawing attention themselves. Hey, everybody. Look at they're not holding up picket signs. They're they're not yelling at people.
Joel Brooks:They just simply, in good conscience, I cannot bow. We will not bow. So 1,000 upon 1,000 and thousands of people bowed, and they're like, can't do it. Can't do it. And this was reported to Nebuchadnezzar by by their enemies.
Joel Brooks:He goes, what? Who who would make they they wouldn't make that mistake. Alright. They probably didn't here. Bring them here.
Joel Brooks:They probably weren't clear on the instructions, and we'll go through this whole thing again. And so the people are brought to Nebuchadnezzar, and we read this in verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, oh, 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.
Joel Brooks:It's one of my favorite verses in Daniel, but if not. This was actually in the newspapers all across London in 1940 when London had or England had many of its troops in France, and one of the commanders sent word back to Winston Churchill with these three words just said, but if not. But if not. And instantly, that kind of became a slogan for the war at that time because where they were in France was was they were supposed to just get demolished. And the press printed that, and they didn't need to print anymore because when people heard those three words, but if not, since it was such a biblically literate society, everybody knew what it meant.
Joel Brooks:If you were to run that now, and you know Birmingham News and its digital format, al.com, and it were to just say, but if not, most people would scratch their heads. But if not, what? But they knew what it was talking about, And it resonated with the British people, but if not, we will do what is right. And if God delivers us, he delivers us. If he doesn't, he doesn't.
Joel Brooks:And here Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego says, we are held captive to our conscience. We will do what is right. If God chooses us to deliver us, he can. But if not, it doesn't matter. And so they put their trust in the Lord.
Joel Brooks:They really have no idea what will happen to them. In some ways, I kinda wish the story ended there because then we can really all relate to it. Because I think we live our lives in that but if not and and we don't know, is there gonna be deliverance? Is there not gonna be deliverance? You know, you you don't somebody wants you to sign a business form to something that's fraudulent, and you're like, no.
Joel Brooks:But you're gonna lose your job. I might, but if I do, I do. And if I don't, the the lord can deliver me from this. But I'm not gonna do this. We we live in that moment of the but if not.
Joel Brooks:But we do know the rest of this story. They were delivered. Nebuchadnezzar is so infuriated with their answer that he orders, heat up the furnaces 7 times hotter than normal, which is just a way of saying get it as hot as you could possibly get it. And these would have been large brick making furnaces, that were all around in that region, and they were often used for executions, executions, unfortunately. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound, and then they were thrown in.
Joel Brooks:But when they were thrown in, they didn't die. I love it. Nebuchadnezzar, he's he's looking into the furnace, and he's seeing them just walking around. They're unbound, and they're talking with somebody, this person who looks different to them from them, who looks like what he describes as the son of the gods. And so he says, well, come out.
Joel Brooks:And they came out, and not a hair on their head was singed. They didn't even smell like smoke. They were completely unharmed. And so Nebuchadnezzar is astonished. He blesses them.
Joel Brooks:He puts out a decree like he always does, either out of my way or you're dead. He he always does this over and over. And verse 39 is the key. We look at verse sorry. 29.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, I make a decree, any people, nation, or language speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their house laid in ruins. For there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way. In this way. That's the key to the story here. Now, because there doesn't just point out that God rescued them.
Joel Brooks:He says, there's no other God that rescues them in this way. It was the way that God rescued them that was so utterly unique. Because the god that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego served allowed them to be arrested, allowed them to be bound, allowed them to be persecuted, allowed them to be thrown into a fiery pit, allowed all those bad things to happen to them. It was only in the midst of the pit where they delivered. It was in the midst of the fire.
Joel Brooks:God could've delivered them any other way. He could've just put out the flames. There's there's a 1,000 different ways, but this was a god who allowed them to be thrown into the furnace and chose to deliver them there. Nebuchadnezzar said, there is no God like this. A God who walks through the fire with his people and preserves their life.
Joel Brooks:And here we see such a clear picture of Jesus. I mean, perhaps this was even the Son of God himself taking human form. We we don't know. But the very least, it was a picture of Emmanuel, God with us, in the midst of this persecution. No other god saves like this by entering the fire with us.
Joel Brooks:So listen. I mean, every everybody here knows furnaces are is going to come. Persecution, trials, suffering is going to come. The question is, who's gonna walk with you in the midst of that? Are you gonna go in it alone, or is the Lord gonna be in there with you?
Joel Brooks:Now the ultimate furnace of all that every person in here will someday face is death. That's the ultimate furnace, the ultimate pit that you will be thrown into. For these 3 Hebrew men to be thrown into fur into the furnace was to face death. And really, literally, they they they they were, for all intents and purposes, dead at this moment. They were as good as dead.
Joel Brooks:And what this shows us is that even death has no hold on the Lord, and those who trust him. I mean, it says these 3 men, they didn't even smell of smoke. I love that description because it reminds me of when Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus. You remember that story? Jesus, he goes to the tomb of Lazarus.
Joel Brooks:He let Lazarus suffer. He let Lazarus die. And he shows up, and Lazarus has been in the tomb for 4 days. Jesus gets there and he says, would you roll away the stone? No way.
Joel Brooks:No. We can't roll away the stone. He's been rotting in there. His his body's gonna stink, and Jesus says, roll it away. And so they did.
Joel Brooks:They they rolled it away at his word, and the first thing Jesus says is, God, I thank you, father. I thank you that you have answered my prayer and that you heard me. And I say this for the benefit of others around me. That's the first thing he said. He says that before he says, Lazarus, come forth.
Joel Brooks:He says, Lord, thank you that you have answered my prayer. And the reason he does that is because when the stone has rolled away, there's no stench of death. It's rolled away and there's been no decay. God, you heard me. You answered my prayer.
Joel Brooks:Lazarus, come forth. And there was no stench of decay, no stench of death. And the same way that God delivered Lazarus, he delivered these Hebrew men, and they came forth from the pit, and they didn't reek of death. They didn't even smell of smoke. The Lord completely preserved their body, because death cannot defeat the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And we know this because our Lord Jesus has actually defeated death. We're gonna sell we celebrate that every day. We're gonna celebrate it in full, come April 20th on Easter, where we believe that Jesus went to the ultimate furnace for us. You know, Jesus, he actually describes his death on the cross. He says at the cross, he says, where I'll be baptized with fire.
Joel Brooks:That that that's where I'll receive hell judgment. Hell is described as the fiery furnace, exact same language. And it's on the cross that Jesus receives that for us. He takes on that judgment, he takes on death, and he defeats it. And as a result, we no longer fear death.
Joel Brooks:We don't have to say with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but if not When we face a grave, we could say, but surely, God will. He has already shown us that. He had has already proven that to us. We are Christ and he's been through the flames and defeated it. No God saves like our God saves.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, give us the faith to know that you're in the flames with us. Whatever trials happen, you are there. Thank you that you are a God who saves. Jesus, that even even though the very thought of enduring judgment and the cross many sweat drops of blood, you went through it anyway.
Joel Brooks:And you endured that fire in order that we might be spared, that our bodies will not go decay, but we will live with you forever. And we give you thanks, and we give you praise. Fix that reality in on our hearts. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
