Daniel 3:8-23

Now You Know the Rest of the Story

Do you have a favorite advertising slogan? I always liked Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?!!!”   But my favorite advertising slogan belongs to (of all things) a hot dog producer. The slogan is “We Answer to a Higher Authority.” The company? Hebrew National, a Jewish corporation that produces only kosher foods. It seems they are more concerned about producing foods that fit the stringent requirements of what can be considered kosher, than about simply turning a profit, although I am sure they do quite well for themselves.

“We answer to a higher authority.” I like that. It reminds me of our second Old Testament lesson today from Daniel.

It may help for us to know a little bit of the background behind this story to understand it a little better. Daniel is one of those books of the Bible that is part history book.

In 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacks and conquers Judah. Following his victory, Nebuchadnezzar orders that the best and brightest young men of Judah be deported to Babylon. His plan is to train these young men for three years and then give the best of them positions in the royal court.

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are among this group. One of the first things Nebuchadnezzar does is change their names. Their Jewish names honored the Lord, but their new names (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego) honor the gods of the Babylonians.

The “recruits” go through their three years of training - training which is really an attempt to brainwash them. Nebuchadnezzar wants Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the others to become so indoctrinated in Babylonian culture that at the end of their training they will think and act like Babylonians. They learn the Persian language and literature, they live in the royal palace, they are fed from the royal table…well, sort of.

You see, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to eat from the royal table. They want kosher foods. They “answer to a higher authority” and so they only eat vegetables and drink water.

After the three years’ are up, the king examines his group of recruits and finds that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are the three physically fittest in his whole court – and the smartest and the wisest. So, he rewards them by placing them into his Royal Service.

Fast forward to our text for today.  Nebuchadnezzar has authorized the construction of a statue of gold, presumably of his God, which was most likely himself. This was no little Buddha statue, mind you. It was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. When you consider that the Statue of Liberty is just 130 feet tall, you can get some idea of what a huge statue it was. No doubt it could be seen for miles. At its completion, the King proclaims a special day of dedication.

Now picture what must have happened that day. There’s this huge golden statue, shimmering in the sunlight. Thousands of VIPs from across the empire have gathered for this important occasion: the dedication of the god Nebuchadnezzar had created. Can’t you just see the colorful clothes of the VIPs from different nations milling around waiting for the festivities to start? There is an air of excitement and expectation.

The press secretary for the king gets everyone’s attention. He says, “King Nebuchadnezzar has commanded that when you hear the orchestra begin, you must fall down on your face before this image.”

There are murmurs throughout the crowd. And the messenger continues, “And as an added incentive–Do you see that smelting furnace over there? If you don’t bow down, you will be thrown alive into that fire! So get ready, here we go!”

The gathered throng looks at the golden statue and then they look over at the fiery furnace and believe me, it’s not a tough decision. Everyone is silent as they await the start of the music.

The conductor steps up to the music stand, taps his baton, and holds up his hand for the downbeat. And when the music finally begins, all you can hear is the sound of thousands of knees and heads hitting the dirt. 

A cloud of dust arises from the sudden motion. When the dust clears, all across the plain, thousands of VIPs are bowing prostrate before the image–all except for three solitary figures - three Hebrew teenagers. You might say they were outstanding in their field!

They weren’t about to follow the crowd and bow down, no matter what the circumstances.  Probably none of us will be faced with that sort of life or death temptation.  The golden statues we are tempted to worship take on forms that are much harder to identify.

But the truth is, every day we are tempted to do things that run contrary to our faith, by the choices we are asked to make.  From things like not following the Golden Rule to turning our backs on the needy and hoarding our resources, as if we didn’t have enough. 

Who do you worship?  They say you can tell that most accurately by looking at a person’s day timer and check book register.  Who is your Higher Authority?

Okay, back to our story:  Our three heroes do not bow down.  There are tattle tales in their midst who point out to the King that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are still on their feet.  This does not sit well with the King who explains to the three men that if they do not bow down to his gods, he will be forced to have them thrown into the fiery pit.  Because he likes them, he agrees to give them a second chance. 

They reply, in effect: “King, do what you need to do.  We can’t bow down.  And if you throw us into the fire our God will either save us … or maybe he won’t … but we will not serve your gods. Period!”

So that’s exactly what the king does – he has them thrown into the furnace … but before he does he orders it to be revved up to seven times hotter than usual.  It is so hot that some of the soldiers who throw SMA into the furnace themselves are burned up, just by being so close.

And that’s the end of our text … but you probably want to know “the rest of the story,” right?  Most of you already know it. … SMA aren’t even singed by the fire. 

Amazed at what he is witnessing, the king summons the three out of the fire and yes, not a hair on their head is burned, not their clothes, why they didn’t even smell of smoke!  King Nebuchadnezzar praises the God of the Hebrews and promotes SMA to even greater positions.

THE END!

Now, most of us don’t live in royal palaces, eat royal food, and learn how to be royalty. And, we don’t exactly find ourselves faced with the alternative of worshipping a golden statue or being thrown into a furnace. In fact, there are probably very few of us who even care what brand of hot dog we are eating. Nonetheless, this story has a lot to teach us.

Many will say that the point of the story is that if we trust God, he will get us out of any fire that we may be thrown into – and that’s a nice thought.  But does that really describe the faith of our three heroes?  Did they really trust God to deliver them and thus could walk fearlessly into the flames?  I don’t think so.

Listen again to their response to the King: “Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves to you. If you throw us into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from the furnace. He will save us from your power, O king. But even if God does not save us, we want you, O king, to know this: We will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

Did you catch that?  They didn’t know for sure what was going to happen to them – yet they still had faith in God. 

They knew that true faith is NOT faith in faith.  Let me explain.  So often in Christian circles we link the effectiveness of our faith to how strongly we can convince ourselves that there will be a positive outcome to a particular situation. We refuse to let doubt enter our minds. We sing, pray, read Scripture, scold ourselves for wavering on second thoughts, and try to convince ourselves that we believe as much as is necessary to get God to do what we think is right.

But that kind of faith is not so much trust in God’s wisdom and power as it is confidence in the amount of belief we have conjured in an attempt to control God.

Recently, I read about a young husband and father of three preschoolers, who became ill with Hodgkin’s Disease. Larry was told by his side of the family that he just needed to have faith, and the disease would go away. But the disease did not go away; it spread throughout his body and it just got worse and worse. And all the while Larry was told that if he could just exercise more faith, then the disease would go away. Eventually, Larry died. His family was crushed, and they suggested that Larry died because he did not have enough faith.

Well, did Larry die because he did not have enough faith? Of course not. Larry did not have faith in faith. His faith was in God, and he understood that God’s ways were not always going to be his ways.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not have faith in faith. They did not trust in their belief. They didn’t know what would happen to them. Their faith was not measured by the quantity of belief that they could muster but by the goodness of their God. Their trust was in God alone.

Second, faith is not trust in what we want to happen. Although you may begin to see that faith is an expression of utmost confidence in God, it is possible still to believe that God should do what you think he should do.

You may have avoided having faith in faith. But have you ever found yourself trusting God to do some very “spiritual” thing that you have decided he needs to do? We all sometimes begin counting on what we would love to happen, simply because we think it is in God’s best interests to make it happen. Because the results we desire are “for God’s sake,” or for what we think will benefit another person, we are convinced they must occur.

One need just look at the Faith Hall of Fame chapter in Hebrews 11 to learn that things didn’t always work out the way God’s people wanted.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not have a faith that said that God should act in a certain way. Faith is not trust in what we want to happen. Faith is trust in God.

Okay, so then what is true faith? Well, first we must let God be God.  True faith does not depend upon our efforts or our view of what God should or should not do.  It is simply resting upon the truth that God is God and we can trust him, no matter what.

The truest test of our faith is when God’s answer is No. When there is no healing. When there is no deliverance. When the house forecloses. When you lose your job. When your loved one never recovers or even dies. And all the while you have been doing what is right. You are honestly trying to live a life that honors God.

You don’t have to be a Christian very long before you will find yourself in a tough situation. And even though you pour out your heart to God in prayer, the heavens remain silent.

That is the greatest test. Is your faith still in God when the answer is No? When there is no miracle?

Often there are no easy answers.  Often we don’t understand God’s plan for us or our loved ones.  But God is constant.  God is present.

Faced with the pressure of life and the heat of the furnace, true faith asks us to choose gratitude and to claim grace and to turn our face in the direction of God … trusting, hoping, praying, believing, living, sometimes dying, and living again.

The rest of the story … is about trusting and letting God be God.  Trusting that God will provide – in a way that possibly only God understands.  Not easy – but rewarding.

Amen…