(notes from August 2010)

This morning, during my Bible study time, I read through the first and third chapters of Daniel. I’ve always loved the stories about Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego.

The third chapter starts off with King Nebuchadnezzar building a large golden image for everyone to worship. Anyone who doesn’t will be thrown into a fiery furnace.

In chapter 2, Daniel had interpreted the king’s dream to him, and the king had acknowledged that the God of Daniel was great and mighty; he had also put Daniel and the other three young men in places of power.

But the king builds this golden image, and commands everyone to worship it, and everyone does; everyone except the three Hebrew men. The other ‘wise men’ report them to the king. He gets very angry, but gives them another chance. They tell him they don’t even have to answer him, that they aren’t going to worship the golden image. The next words are so powerful, I want to quote them:

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. ” Daniel 3:17-18

Make sure you realize what that says: they know God is powerful enough to save them, but even if He doesn’t, they’re going to continue to serve Him, and not false gods.

The king has the fire built up seven times hotter than normal, and has the men tied up; they’re thrown into the fire by strong soldiers, but the fire is so hot, it kills the soldiers. The men who were tied up are now walking around in the fire, and another man is walking with them.

The king even asks his men how are four men in the fire, when they only threw in three. He realizes the extra man looks like the son of a god. He goes to the mouth of the furnace and tells the three men to come out; they have been kept safe – their clothes aren’t singed and they don’t even smell like smoke!

Once again, the king realizes that the God these men serve is the true God, and makes a new law that anyone who even speaks against God will be killed and their house destroyed.

For some reason, the part about their clothes not smelling like smoke is just as amazing to me as them not being burned; how many of you have ever cooked on a grill? You smell like smoke the rest of the day… smells seem to stick with us. I can remember a trip Randy and I took with Joey and Jennifer. We stopped for gas at a little convenience store. I went to take a potty break while Randy paid, and the kids stayed in the car. When we got back in, Joey immediately said, “did ya’ll get fried chicken?” When I asked him why, he said we both smelled like it. We were only in the store a few minutes, but the smell got into our clothes and hair immediately.

So God had his hands around those three young men so well that the smell couldn’t even get through. You know, He loves all of us just that much- enough to keep even the smell of smoke off of our clothes. Remember that, the next time you’re walking through the fire: whether it’s someone talking about you, or you’re having financial troubles, or your best friend has turned their back on you. All those things hurt, but God is with you all the way through it- and He’s powerful enough to keep you.