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.”
The story of the three brave youth who stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar is a pretty well known one. The king made a statue of gold and summoned his people to come and bow down before it. It wasn't a request or a suggestion; it was a command. To ignore it meant burning alive.
As a kid, learning this story in Sunday school, my fascination was always with their names and my inability to pronounce any of them.
Since then, reading this story has always brought on a sense of admiration for Shadrach, Meshach and Abedgnego. I admired their bravery in the face of certain death.
I loved the part where Jesus shows up in the fire. There, in the midst of what was meant to be their destruction, was the Son of Man. It resonates with the part inside of us all that hopes Jesus will walk with us through the fires of life.
It wasn't until this past Sunday, hearing the story again as our pastor recounted it, that something else really struck me. I had read it before. I had heard it before. And yet, for some reason, the words decided to finally seat themselves in my spirit.
"..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..."
Even if he does not.
Working with youth for as many years as I have, I can say that I've noticed that unfortunately many times youth conditionally serve the Lord. They feel closer to Him when things are going well and back away when things are not. It seems that as a generation, we've focused on WHAT God does and not WHO God is.
It's a sad standard, one I think that we pick up from society and bring into church with us.
Take the love of a child towards it's mother or father, for instance. We love our parents and we've loved them for as far back as we can remember. It's almost an innate love.
But then, we are asked about this love.
Ask any child, "why do you love your mother?" If they are able to answer at all, you will mostly likely get a stream of things like "because she feeds me," or "because she lets me have cookies," or "because she's nice to me" or "because she bought me the toy I wanted." Yet, this are probably none of the reasons why a child loves their mother. And a mother does those things borne out of the love for her child.
It's cause and effect: I love my mother and my mother loves me, and because of that love, she tries to make my life better. But even if she never gave me another toy or another cookie, the truth is, I would still love her.
Is that true for our relationship with God?
If you were standing in front of an oven, the heat of it on your face and the men who approached it to make it hotter dead before you, would you be able to say, "even if God doesn't deliver us, we still know who we serve. We still know who we love. We still know that our God is good and great. We will still not bow down to the gods of this world."
Today I say to the Lord, Lord, I love you and You love me. And even if I never see another "cookie" or "toy" or any other blessing, I will still love You, because I love you for who You are. I trust you. I trust your timing. I trust you know what is best for me. I trust You will know when I can stand in the fire.
