Daniel 3 - Confidence Over Cowardice

Tom Shrader teaches from Daniel 3 on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego facing Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. He explores how false gods always fail and how God uses trials to strengthen us, give us testimony, and help us serve others. The message emphasizes trusting God's character whether He delivers us from our fires or through them.

“Don't be surprised if God intervenes and pulls you through the fire, but don't be disappointed if he doesn't.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Integrity Under Fire (2013)

Recorded: November 14, 2013

Duration: 39 min

Themes: integrity, trust, trials, faithfulness, persecution, courage, testimony, contentment, facing persecution, workplace pressure, standing for truth, new believer, struggling with fear, navigating hostility, parent, leader under pressure

Scripture: Daniel 3, 1 Timothy 6, Ecclesiastes 2, 1 John, James 1:2, 2 Samuel 22, Hebrews 11:33-35, Romans 5:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3

Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, biblical worldview, divine sovereignty, persecution theology, christian witness, faith testing, godliness

Full Transcript

Open your Bibles to the book of Daniel. I love saying that. Let me summarize and remind you of the studies titled Integrity Under Fire. I was talking with someone just before we started about leadership, and we were discussing the key ingredient in every relationship. It's not just leadership—it's marriage, it's friendship—it's trust. Once that's gone, that's a tough thing to get back, and you know that in a marriage, you know that with your kids. The subtitle is principles for living in a hostile environment.

We come into contact as followers of Christ because of the dual passport that we have: citizen of heaven, citizen of USA. We come into a values collision—not on everything every day, but on ultimate things. So the key for us as followers of Christ is to keep things calibrated and centered by making sure I see the world as God sees it.

I was talking to somebody on Tuesday morning about the fact that I've taught 25 years, and we were discussing the emerging theme of contentment that I come back to over and over again. I was talking about the passage in 1 Timothy 6 where it says, "Godliness plus contentment is great gain. You came into the world naked and you leave naked. You came in the world with nothing, leave with nothing. If you have food and covering, with those you should be content." I always wondered about verse 7 in there until I realized that's the key to contentment. The only way I'm going to be content is to remember that all of this is temporary. Not that it isn't important—it is—but it's not the ultimate. There will be a day not too long from now when our time here will end.

The Perspective of Eternity

I'm immersed right now in a study of the book of Ecclesiastes. I did this voluntarily, by the way. It's a personality fit for me because you're in verse 2: "Vanity, vanity, everything's vanity, this is a waste." But you have to get that whole thing. We've talked about it in here. Everything is a waste, and the phrase is "under the sun." If I look for ultimate value in achievement, accomplishment, money, sex, art, wine—whatever it is—if I'm going to try to find ultimate satisfaction there, then it's a waste of time. But all of those within the context of a right relationship with God begin to take on the proper perspective.

When you feel yourself going, "Jeez, I think I'm out of whack here," almost always you can come back to a realignment of perspective. Likely some things have become more important to you than they really should, and God has not had the place in your thought process that He really should.

The Story So Far

Now we bring that into relationship with Daniel and the boys. At 605 BC, they've been taken captive. Nebuchadnezzar has decided that he wants to see if he can recycle these guys, reclaim them, put them to work in the Babylonian Empire. So he assimilates them through literature, language, and culture. Immediately these boys come up against it. We saw the first week that when my convictions are challenged, it doesn't mean that I have to either cave in or fight to the death. Sometimes I can create a win-win situation.

Last week was one of those really scary times if you're a member of Nebuchadnezzar's cabinet, because he came in to the best and the brightest and said, "You know, historically I've told you the dream I've had and you give me the interpretation. I want to change that this time. I want you to tell me the dream and the interpretation." Remember, only Daniel could pull that off. We said he had an amazing response in chapter 2—at least from my perspective, a supernatural response. When God gave him the dream, he didn't high-five the boys and celebrate. He went to God and was filled with thanksgiving.

As a result, Daniel has moved up the org chart. So the org chart in Babylon goes something like this: Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, then these three provinces, and over them are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We said that's an explosive situation—ethnic professional jealousy. You're going to see it today.

The Golden Image

Daniel chapter 3 is one of those stories that if you were around church as a little kid, you know it. Maybe even just from culture you know it. It's the story in Daniel chapter 3 where, as we look at the chapter, the obvious missing person is Daniel. Daniel is not present here.

Let's pick it up in chapter 3 verse 1: "Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold 90 feet high, 9 feet wide, set up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon." Archaeologists have not found the statue, but they've uncovered the base of the statue, and it is 20 feet high. So if you can picture this: here's this combination that is now a 110-foot statue—roughly 11 stories—on this dead flat area. It's gold. The sun would hit that and it would shine. It had a presence in the midst of that area.

He's created this, and we're looking at a historic event here. Nebuchadnezzar declares in verses 4-5: "This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations, men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn and the flute and the zither and the lyre and the harp and the pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up."

Nebuchadnezzar does not declare himself God, but he does say, "I'm at least going to determine who you worship." There's a new idol in town, and when you hear that music—especially the zither; there's nothing like happy hour and a zither in my mind—then I want you to fall down and worship this. This is everybody.

If you need incentive, he always has an incentive plan. Verse 6: "Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace."

The Nature of Idols

I wrote this down—I think it's obvious, but let's make sure we get it: Idols don't have to be a statue. If we were to take this and fast forward it 2,600 years to today...

He's saying to us what John says. John writes the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation, but then he writes First, Second, and Third John. At the end of First John, he's writing along and then it just stops, and he says - and this is the close of that book - "Little children, guard your hearts against idols."

For those of us who are followers of Christ, there's that battle: the idols in our life. Again, they don't have to be statues. John Calvin has said our heart is an idol factory - not using the word "idol" meaning not working, but constantly producing something that wants to take the place that's reserved for God in your life.

An idol is something, and it can be anything: person, place, thing. It could be what we call a good thing. It could be your family. It could be your kids - I know people who have their kids really as their idols. It could be what you wear. Anything from which you're trying to derive a satisfaction that only comes from a right relationship with God through Christ.

False Gods Never Fail to Fail

Here you go: fundamental rule never violated. False gods never fail to fail. A false god will always fail. Maybe not initially. When I go back to Ecclesiastes, that's what Solomon is saying. Solomon is saying you might find a momentary rush or a momentary satisfaction - that first hit, that first snort, that first deal, whatever that is. You might find a sense of peace there for a second, but ultimately you need more to make it work.

That's what happened to me in terms of a lot of things. I used to love to bet on football. Now I was cured by Joe Pisarcik. Those of you that remember the story - Joe Pisarcik. I watched that game. I said, "I win. I lose." I called my friend. I said, "I'm done. I won't bet again. I'm done. I did everything right. I can't win on this." Joe Pisarcik was it.

But with almost all destructive behavior, the reason I ultimately stop is because the pain of hurting exceeded the joy of winning. That's just true. A false god will never fail to fail.

The Challenge Comes

For the boys, here's the challenge. The declaration goes out: everybody without exception, when you hear this music, bow down to that idol. Chapter 3, verse 8: "At this time the astrologers came forth and denounced the Jews."

There's what we looked at last week - the potential problem now coming to surface. It's a problem of professional jealousy, ethnic jealousy. "There are some Jews whom you've set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They don't pay any attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold that you've set up."

So there's prejudice here. There's professional jealousy here. Their goal is to take these guys down. They're looking for a reason to do it, and there it is.

There's the tension. Nebuchadnezzar, you're the king. You've said this is what's going to happen. You've declared it. Apparently these guys - it's kind of like sometimes when you're praying. You're praying, but you're still looking around the room to figure out who isn't praying. I don't know, there's something about that, isn't it? Head goes down and we pray, and then you just kind of study. Then they make eye contact and then they know you know, and then you give them a wink.

I don't know how these guys knew it. They're bowing down but their head is up - perfect tackling position probably. They come to the king and say, "We have a problem here because you're the great king and there is nobody above you, and you've made this declaration. In a sense, now your reputation is on the line because you've said this is going to happen. So you need to do something about it."

Nebuchadnezzar Shows Restraint

Verse 14: "Nebuchadnezzar said to them, 'Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego,' He said, 'Is it true?'" Which is kind of interesting - I don't want to read too much into it, but I at least want to open the possibility here. He is not a guy who's into due process. He doesn't need to be restrained, but he shows a level of restraint. It might be that he knew his guys had a dog in the hunt, I don't know.

He says, "Is it true, you guys, that you don't serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I've set up?" And they said, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves."

Bold. Probably they're saying it's obvious that you think it's true. It has an undercurrent which is always going to be present for these three guys and Daniel: you think you're in control here, but you aren't. If your org chart says Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, there's another box, Nebuchadnezzar, and it's above you - and you don't have it on the chart. "You think so? We don't need to answer to you."

Their Bold Declaration of Faith

"If we're thrown into the blazing furnace" - remember, that was the consequence - "we're thrown into the fire. The God that we serve is able to save us, and He will rescue us from your hands, O king."

Now I want to stop there. Here's what they're saying: if you put us in the fire, God is able to do it. God does extraordinary things.

I did a study a while ago on the life of David, and I was in Second Samuel, chapter 22. David breaks out really into a song, and this is the beginning of it. It expresses what the boys are saying here: "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my Savior, You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The waves of death encompass me, the torrents of destruction overwhelm me, the cords of Sheol surround me, the snares of death confront me. In my distress I call upon the Lord. Yes, I cried to my God, and from His temple He heard my voice."

When we step back and we break this out, we know we can live life - I'm going to make a transition here - to the equivalent of the fire in our life because of the character of God and the faithfulness of God and the promises of God and the sovereignty

God's Ability and Our Trust

Jamie's invited me to teach at Scottsdale December 1st and I've been trying to think about what to talk about. I think I want to flesh out what you know trumps what you feel. In life I encounter these things, good or bad—let's just call it life. In this big bucket of life, I encounter these things and especially when circumstance overwhelms me.

You sense it in this song of David when I'm overwhelmed, death surrounds me, things are overwhelming me, I'm drowning. In the midst of that I can lose sight, but what anchors me always is the character of God, the promises of God, the sovereignty of God, the word of God. So I can come back to that again and again.

This is what they're saying: "Listen, this on the surface does not look promising. You're the king, you have absolute control, you've declared if people don't bow down they're going into the fire, so that reputation is now on the line. You can throw us in the fire and our God is an amazing God—He is able to save us."

But Even If He Doesn't

Verse 18: "But even if He doesn't, we want you to know, O King, that we're not going to serve your gods or the image of gold that you've set up." We're not going to be surprised if He intervenes, but we're not going to be disappointed if He doesn't.

I think I mentioned Hebrews 11 to you last week. I remember one night sitting home watching what they call Christian TV, and there was a guy on and he was selling something—I think himself—raising dough. I tend to be cynical and sarcastic about that. He was grinding it and ramping himself up, and he gets into Hebrews 11. Now he's rocking and rolling and he's got a cadence going.

It's Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah, and then he does the summation. He says in Hebrews 11:33: "By faith they conquered kingdoms, they performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness they were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection." He's rolling along and I'm saying there is no way I'll send a donation if he goes into verse 35. Then he stops right there and he does the "here's what God does."

The Problem with Selective Scripture

He could easily go there and say look at how God spares them. I'm going to ruin the story for you—they're going in the fire, God's going to get them out. He could easily go there and say here's what happened. Here's the problem with that: the boys understand it. That's what happens sometimes, but that's not what happens all the time.

Sometimes God intervenes, sometimes in the midst of this and it will always work out to advance God's plan. We might not understand all the circumstances around it, but the boys say, "Listen, I'm not going to run my life based on physical circumstances. I'm going to run my life based on who You are. If we burn up and we die in here or we survive this, either way it doesn't matter—we're not going to serve you."

Physical vs. Spiritual Circumstances

So here you go—this is like the fourth bumper sticker of the day: you can't necessarily claim a link between your physical and spiritual circumstances.

I don't know Bill Gates. We're picking him out iconically. I don't think if I called him he'd call me back, and if he called me back I don't think he'd get together for coffee. If we had coffee I don't know if he'd buy—I assume he would. But if I look at Bill Gates from a world's perspective, we would say he has it all. He has it made.

Fifty-five thousand square foot primary residence. If I walk in and I don't like the art, I push a button and the art changes. Billions of dollars. Seems to have stepped away with a level of integrity and say, "I'm going to nobly attack these diseases"—by the way, which is a pretty good strategy. "I'm going to look at these diseases that we can wipe out like polio. I'm going to go in and throw billions of dollars at that and we're going to make a difference."

But it would be a mistake to think because those circumstances appear so positive he's spiritually okay. I'm not accusing that he isn't—I don't know. I do have a great quote from him where he said, "On Sunday morning I can find a better investment of my time and operate more efficiently than go to church." Again, that sounds accusatory—I'm just saying he's on the record with that.

Avoiding Wrong Assumptions

But it would be a mistake to say "I've got it made, therefore I'm spiritually okay," or to look at Paul in prison in Philippi and think because he's in prison and beaten, somehow there's something wrong with him spiritually because of his physical circumstances. See that? Get that?

Now I start there—if there's disease or a hardship I better look at it and go, "Is there something I'm doing or I've done that has caused this?" But it's not necessarily so.

Why Does God Allow Hardship?

Well, these raise a whole set of questions. If that's the case and if God is who we say He is—meaning He's sovereign, meaning He can do whatever He wants to do in the midst of this—if God is that and God causes or allows everything that happens in our life, why would He cause it?

I got four things for you here. I'm sure you can expand the list.

Here's the first one: to make you stronger. If you will, the hardship becomes the spiritual aerobics.

Sunday we had an interesting day. Sunday morning Sandy was swimming in Lake Pleasant—I've never been out there, really a cool area, a little cove. She had an open mile swim, it was three miles. It was not a big long swim—and I say not a long swim, I can't swim across the pool, so a long swim for her.

So she got out of the water and I mean, I think she'd be breathing hard or want some water or sit down. She looked just as fresh as could be. Well how did she get that way? Well it's aerobic activity. She pushes herself and pushes herself and pushes herself, and each time she goes to that wall...

She can go just a little bit further. For us, trials and difficulty are spiritual aerobics. James chapter 1 verse 2 says, "Count it all joy my friend when you encounter various trials," and here's the key word, "knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance."

I presume some of you watched that Billy Graham thing last Thursday or Wednesday, whenever it was. One of the striking things about it to me was the testimony of 60 years of integrity and honesty, and even Graham now saying, "I want to finish strongly." He doesn't look to me like he has enough strength to sin with a lot of vigor right now. I mean, I think you're there, buddy. I think you're going to make it, although who knows where his mind is. But it's that "well done, good and faithful servant." I want to finish strongly. I don't want to come limping over the line.

Well, James tells us if I want that characteristic of perseverance, then I need these trials that produce this in my life. Paul says it this way in Romans chapter 5 verse 3: "Not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulation," key word again, "knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance."

The Nature of Trials

You know something, these trials James calls "various trials"—that's the English word. The original Greek is "multi-colored." They come in various shapes and sizes, so it may be a physical trial or relational trial. The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle says that for every hundred people that can pass the trial of adversity, there's only one who can pass the trial of prosperity.

Why would God put me into these rough, turbulent times? Well, so I can depend upon Him. I can go to His character and His promise and His faithfulness and His sovereignty.

Sarah's Accident

My daughter Sarah—and there have probably been a variety of these experiences in our life—but when Sarah was a sophomore in high school, she was a cheerleader and they had a game up in the mountains. It was a Friday night game, I don't remember who it was, obviously an away game. And it was the only time that Susan and I were out of town at the same time. I drove her down to Terminal 4; she was going to go up to see her mother. And she said, "I have a bad feeling about this." And I said, "Listen, nothing's going to happen."

So Sarah's coming back, it's about 11:30 at night. They've cheered the game, done the thing. She's with a friend or two—I guess a friend—they're driving home, coming down the Price Frontage Road to get to the school. And three guys in a pickup truck run a red light. They've been drinking and t-bone her right on her door.

I'm out of town doing a men's retreat—only time the two of us have been out of town at the same time with the girls. I'm doing a men's retreat. There's a knock on my door about midnight, and he said, "Tom, Sarah's been in an accident and you need to go back to the valley. This is not a call-in. You need to go."

So we're driving down. I don't have any communication. We get to about New River and a call comes in and said, "Listen, she's having a brain seizure. She's at Scottsdale Osborne Trauma and you need to get there."

The Long Night

So I get there and here's my little girl on this slab. Because it's a brain injury, they don't want to give her drugs to kind of alter the brain waves. She's laying there stretched out. Her jaw's broken, a whole bunch of stuff. Kids are gathered outside. It's that traumatic moment. And so they quickly say, "We don't think—we don't know, we'll know by morning—but we're pretty sure this isn't life-threatening. Organs aren't hurt. Brain is all messed up. Not sure what that will mean."

And so I call Susan. Susan comes back. I spent all night in the intensive care with Sarah, wrestling with her because she'd wake up. They had a tube down her throat. She'd wake up and wouldn't feel like she was getting enough air, so she wanted to pull it out. And they said, "You can't let her get that tube out, because if she gets that tube out, we got to put it back in, and we can't put her under to put it back in." It was really a difficult night.

So Sunday—we had church on Sunday night then—I had my lesson together. So I'm walking in with my lesson out of the Gospel of John, and I had three people say to me, "God is good. Sarah's gonna live." And so I took my notes and put them away, and I did a message that I titled, "God is good even if she dies." Okay? God's not good because Sarah lived. God is good.

God's Sovereignty in Suffering

And so why would God do this? I don't know. But in its biggest sense, we can look back and we can see amazing things that came out of that. So in the midst of this, at that moment, though it may feel insufficient to you, it's sufficient for me because it's all I have and I know it's true: that whatever it is that's going on in my life, God's allowed it for my good and for His glory. So it is very basic. That's what He's doing. So He'd do it for this—He'd do it so I'd be stronger.

Here's the second one: to give me a testimony. When I'm weak, I'm strong. When I'm in the midst of this and I just don't have anything else, I'm amazingly strong. I saw it in Susan.

Susan's Strength in Suffering

One of the things that would happen, especially in the last three months—or I'd say three years, and then the degree of intensity would increase as she got closer to dying—is that people would say, "She's so strong." And that always made me mad internally because I felt it trivialized what she was going through. But even the doctors—the last time we were at the oncologist, and this guy was an oncologist, he was a nice guy, Susan liked him—we had our last meeting with him, and I'm watching him in this room, and there was something totally different about him. He saw something in Susan I didn't see.

He helped the nurse put her in a wheelchair, and then the doctor wheeled her back to get the chemo. We'd never seen anything like this. And the nurses that were there and the staff that was there, and then at her memorial service, talked about just her strength. It's like when you talk about...

Great presidents have to have a crisis or they never get to be a great president. Calvin Coolidge was a good president, but Calvin Coolidge is not going to be a great president because he doesn't have a crisis. I watched Doris Kearns Goodwin talk about her new book on Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, and she mentioned that getting to greatness would be hard for Teddy Roosevelt as a president because he didn't have a crisis.

We were in the ER a couple weeks ago, and you see really weird behavior there—strange behavior—and generally because there's some sort of urgency to that. That urgency just reveals the cracks that are there.

You have a story in the midst of crisis—that's the third thing. It gives you a chance to serve others. It is always fascinating to me how many people will rally around somebody in crisis but do not want people to rally around them when they're in crisis. The challenge now is that I have to allow you to serve me.

Crisis Opens Hearts and Creates Stories

There's one more thing: crisis gives you a story and it opens your heart. Second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God."

When our church was not very old—we maybe had a couple hundred people, maybe 300—in six months we had three couples that lost a baby right at birth, either right before, right after, or during. This was a huge percentage. The first lady that went through this unfortunately had the person who came to see her was me, and I tried to ask how she was doing, could I pray for her, whatever.

When we got to the third one, which was particularly difficult because this lady had been told for months that she would lose this baby at birth—they told her early enough to say we can terminate this pregnancy, and she said no, I don't want to do that—the baby was born on Christmas morning. I was at the hospital, and the baby died at birth. I'm there doing whatever it is I do, and then in the door came that first lady that had lost a baby. She said, "Why don't you step aside?" Then she said to her something I couldn't: "I know how you feel." God used that tragedy to connect her and use her in an amazing way at that moment.

So rather than be surprised by this suffering or push it away, it's okay to understand that God's doing something amazing in this.

Nebuchadnezzar's Fury

Verse 19: "Nebuchadnezzar was furious with the boys." I think the NIV says his attitude toward them changed; the New American says his facial expression was altered. He is mad. They have disregarded his word.

I can hear him saying, "Listen, I brought you into this. I could have killed you. I could have ruined you. I brought you in. I put you in this situation. I've given you favored status. You've been here for years. Look at the promotion I've given you. I've done all this for you, and this is the thanks I get from you." I know this speech because I've given it to my kids.

Then he does them a weird favor—you see it—he ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. Now that seems on the surface really cruel, not a favor. Nobody wants to be crock-potted to death. If you're going to put me in there, I don't want you to gradually oven roast me. So it's seven times hotter, probably an expression of how angry he is.

The Furnace Scene

"The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These three men were firmly tied and they fell into the blazing furnace."

The furnace was not like this where it's front-loaded. Up the stairs they'd go and then down into this kind of cylinder. The guys who took them up were burned; the boys were preserved. Then all of a sudden something happens.

Verse 24: "Nebuchadnezzar was watching this. He leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, 'Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw in the fire?' They replied, 'Certainly, O king.' He said, 'Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.'"

He's looking in. The boys are there. There's a fourth. Who's the fourth? Pre-incarnate Christ.

Christ's Presence in Your Fire

You can stop right there and ask: in your life, when you're in the fire, do people see you and see the presence of Christ in you?

My daughter Sarah has four girls, and the youngest is five months. I had her the other day—I was holding her, playing with her, poking her, probably driving her crazy—and all of a sudden she shot me a look. It was a scowl. It was the same scowl her mom used to give me, and I thought, "She is her mother's daughter."

In your life, as these fires come, as these challenges come, people will watch you, especially if you say Jesus is Lord. They're going to watch you. They're going to want to see how you operate. Do they see you and do you begin to look like your heavenly Father? Do you get to that point where you amaze and astound your friends, especially if they've known you for a long period of time? They would say, "That's not the Tom that I know. That's not the Debbie I know. That's not the person I know. There's something different there."

There's yet another thing—see how God uses that? In the midst of that, you are preaching. I have taught—I don't even know how you'd calculate it—how many thousands of lessons I've taught. But by far, the ones that had the most impact were people watching how we handled Sarah's accident and how I handled Susan's dying. I knew that. I wasn't performing—it's not like I'm saying, "Okay, I know they're going to watch, I've got to perform a certain way." I just knew everybody watched, and when people come back and talk, they'll come back and

Nebuchadnezzar approaches the fire and says, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out." Indeed he comes out, and this chapter began with a proclamation. Verse 28: "Praise be 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 to serve or worship any god except their own God."

You could carve out that verse and say that would be a pretty good thing to have people say about you. You're willing to give up your life rather than to serve or worship any false god. Here's his declaration: "I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego..." Notice he hasn't personalized it—he's not saying this is my God yet. But you do anything, then he went to what seems to be his standby incentive program: "I'll cut them into pieces, their houses will be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way."

No Other God Can Save

We're in a little Bible study where we're going to look at one verse: "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but me." Well there's a perfect expression of it—no other god can save. All false gods never fail to fail.

You live, and we live, in a pluralistic society and culture. You can drive around town and see a mosque, see a temple, see a whole bunch of places of worship that are very different. We're not looking to wipe that out, but don't confuse that and think that somehow we're saying all faiths are equally valid—they aren't. You can't have a faith that says Jesus was the Son of God and one that says He was a teacher but not the Son of God and another that says He was a good role model. They could all be wrong, but they can't all be true. Nebuchadnezzar has discovered this—he's seen that Jesus has ultimately the power to save.

God Will Deliver You

So closing line: you can trust that God will deliver you. That doesn't mean necessarily the way you'd want it to be, but He will deliver you. He's at work in your life while you're opposing this corruption.

And again, the close: you have a capacity with the Spirit of God living in you, as you yield to Him, submit to Him, filled with the Spirit, to amaze and astound your friends—but in some cases, yourself. Don't be surprised if God intervenes and pulls you through the fire, but don't be disappointed if He doesn't. Either one, it's for your good, His glory, and He'll use it in an amazing way.

Pick up right there next week.

Father, thank You for that awesome truth. For me, I love it. I know You're able to get me out of every incident in my life, but even if You don't, that's not a reflection on You. Even if You don't, we will serve You, because You are the one true God. Drill that in our heart. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.