Blazing Fire

Call it fires, storms, valleys, mountains, deserts, cancer, loneliness, joblessness, poverty, brokenness, loss, or whatever you may; sometimes we must go through them. Many times God in His infinite power delivers us from some of them as we see them approach. Many other times, however, in His infinite wisdom, God decides that we need to go through them. And there is yet one last time when He, in His infinite love, delivers us into His arms by it.

God has delivered me from most of my personal fires…Now; however, He has chosen to make me walk through one. I am using the metaphor of fire at this time since it reminds me of the time when God appointed three of His most faithful followers to be in a not so metaphorical fire. The fire these three would have to be in was no sparkle. It was a full-flesh, Old-Testament-grade-fiery furnace! The incident was when The Most High allowed the Babylonian King to put Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into his special, super-hot, blazing inferno for not obeying his ego-maniac’s new command to bow down to a gigantic statue of himself at the sound of the trumpet and other such instruments.

The response that the three friends gave the pagan king when he asked them one last time to bow down to him was one for the ages:

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.” Daniel 3: 16-18

In other words, “No way, Jose!” We rather die a horrible death than do what you said and betray our faith. Our earthly lives are not worth risking our eternal salvation. What did God do? He rewarded their faith and used what developed as one of the best and most vivid examples of how He is with us even in the scariest of circumstances. “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Daniel 3: 25 Well, yes, turning the furnace 7 times hotter than usual and literally dropping the men in it didn’t make any difference. The Most High God was not going to have His beloved scorched by King Nebuchadnezzar…no way Jose!

The fact that God did not deliver His faithful ones from this fire, but allowed them to be dropped into it after such a demonstration of their trust and reliance on The Almighty may seem like a reckless move made by a God who is Love. God’s love, however, extends beyond the confines of time, space and dimension. Therefore, every decision He makes has eternal repercussions… Hence the fact that we are still learning crucial lessons from this incident which occurred a few millenniums ago.

The lesson for me today is to know that even though God did not deliver me from my current fire, I can be assured that He will be with me inside of it, walking with me, undoing my ties and breaking me free from my bondage of fear and anxiety during my time in the furnace. And the result of it all will be praises to Him, just like the unlikely source of this amazing response:

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…no other god can save in this way.” Daniel 3: 28-29b

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