I’ve never directed a movie, but if I were writing a script for the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, I believe this would be the perfect place for the rescue scene.
These guys just declared they weren’t going to bow down even if it meant they had to die.
I can see it now – the music begins to swell, the screen beings to transition from darkness to light, and all of a sudden some angels bust onto the scene and tear of the place.
But it didn’t happen that way.
God didn’t come swooping in.
No white horse.
No heroic rescue.
No action-adventure scene.
Nope!
In fact, quite the opposite takes place.
Daniel 3:19 says, “Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage. He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual.”
Isn’t that what religion teaches?
As long as we do everything just right, nothing bad will ever happen to us!
But Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego had done all the right things – they had stood their ground and believed that God was greater than what they were going through – and now they were on their way to a furnace that was seven times hotter than it was before.
Some of us may have to walk into a furnace that is seven times hotter than we expected before we come out of our trial.
It may get seven times hotter at work tomorrow.
It may get seven times hotter in your difficult marriage.
It may get seven times hotter in your relationship with your parents or your children.
[The king] ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. so they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes, and other garments. And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. Daniel 3:20-23
They’d done everything right, and God still allowed them to go into the furnace.
What about God being holy?
What about God being good?
What about God being with them?
What about God being in control?
Just because we follow Jesus, it doesn’t mean we escape stressful and anxiety-filled circumstances. Perry Noble, “Letting Go of Control,” Overwhelmed, 76-77.
“GOD LOVES YOU AND I LOVE YOU AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S GONNA BE!” – MIKE
INCARNATE 