A couple of weeks ago the members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Wetaskiwin, AB learned that their church is NOT fireproof. The cry room now resembles a black hole a worm might leave behind after eating its way through an apple. The heat of the fire curled the plastic keys on a keyboard to look like arthritic fingers gnarled with pain. Isn’t there a way to fireproof churches so this kind of damage won’t happen? I suppose you could build a structure out of metal and concrete. But what would you do with the wooden pews and the upholstered chairs? Would you replace these with metal benches? And what about the hymnals? Should we go back to using clay tablets as in ancient times? One hymnal alone would consist of 900 or so tablets. Try fitting that under the pew in front of you! And what about the organ? I guess there are some things you just can’t fireproof.
Have you ever felt that way about your faith? Have you ever wondered whether or not your faith will withstand the test of cancer, or the death of a child or Mom and Dad? Or what if tomorrow the government of Canada demanded that you deny Christ and worship the Governor General instead? Would you willingly disobey even though it would mean losing your life? In our text today three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did disobey such a decree even though it meant being thrown into a fiery furnace. How did these friends remain cool when the heat was on? How did they fireproof their faith? Let’s find out.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or the “3 Amigos” as I’ll call them, were young men from Israel who had been dragged to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Life wasn’t too bad for the 3 Amigos. Together with their friend Daniel they became important officials in the Babylonian empire after graduating from the king’s university with honors. It must have been exciting to hold influential positions in the greatest empire of the day. But the 3 Amigos’ civil service routine was interrupted one day when they received word that they and every other official were to gather at the plain of Dura where the king had erected a 90-foot statue. This was Nebuchadnezzar’s idea of a team-building exercise. Every civil servant was to bow down and worship the statue in a show of loyalty. Anyone who disobeyed was to be thrown into a fiery furnace. This was not an idle threat. The king had burned people to death before (Jeremiah 29:22) and not too far from the statue stood a furnace already emitting a column of smoke as if to provide the exclamation mark to the king’s decree.
What thoughts do you think were going through the 3 Amigos’ minds? Did they consider: “If we don’t bow down to this statue, we’ll die and then what good will we be to the Lord and to his people? We’re so young. We have our whole lives ahead of us. Surely God didn’t bring us here only to let us die so soon! Anyway God will understand if we bow down just this once – especially if we’re just going through the motions. If he does count that as sin, we can always ask for forgiveness.”
Do you see the problem with those thoughts? They’re egocentric. Were the 3 Amigos really indispensible in God’s plan for his people? No. Just as we aren’t indispensible to the work of the church here. God doesn’t need us to keep his kingdom going. It’s a privilege for us to serve him. So what were the 3 Amigos to do? Since they realized that their goal in life was not to stay alive but to obey God, they did just that. While everyone else bowed before the king’s idol they remained standing, with pounding hearts no doubt.
It didn’t take long, however, for their disobedience to be reported to the king. He called them forward and demanded that the Jewish men bow down to his statue threatening “…if you do not worship [the statue], you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (Daniel 3:15b). Yikes! It was one thing to disobey the king when they had been far from his throne, but what were they to do now as they stood face to face with a ruler who was clearly more Hitler than (Prime Minister) Harper? Remain cool. That’s what. In measured tones the 3 Amigos responded: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
What a response! Under no circumstances were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego going to obey the king’s command. Yes, they understood the consequences. And no, they didn’t have any previous promise from the Lord that they would miraculously survive the fire. But that didn’t matter. If God wanted to rescue them, that was his business. Their business was to obey God, no matter what (John Jeske). What made for a fireproof faith in the hearts of these men? Two things: they let go of their ego, and they lay hold of their God. Conversely we often falter in our faith because we think too highly of ourselves and not enough of the Lord. We mistakenly think that our goal in life is to save our own skin at all costs. And so we read more about the H1N1 virus than we do God’s Word. We spend more time planning a winter get-away than we do thinking about how we can carve out time to help with outreach activities. We engage in shady business practices to get ahead instead of doing the right thing even when it hurts financially. We need to take to heart Jesus’ words: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 26:26a)
The 3 Amigos were ready to forfeit their earthly lives to hold on to their souls for eternity. This doesn’t mean they didn’t cringe when they saw the flames shoot out of the furnace in accord with the king’s order to make the fire seven times hotter than it already was. The fire was so hot that the soldiers who had custody of the 3 Amigos died when they approached the furnace to throw the men in. But what should have followed: the whoosh of flaming clothes, and the acrid smell of burning hair, and the screams of pain did not come to pass. The 3 Amigos who had been bound tightly with rope were not wriggling helplessly on the floor of the furnace; they were casually walking around as if inspecting an interesting art gallery. And what was more; the 3 Amigos were now 4. Someone else was in that furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – someone who, according to the Nebuchadnezzar, looked like a son of the gods. What he saw was an angel sent to protect Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Nebuchadnezzar was astounded. He called to the 3 Amigos and ordered them to come out. They did and upon close inspection it was clear to all that their clothes were not burnt, that not one of their hairs had been singed, and they didn’t even smell like smoke!! I find that last tidbit utterly amazing. When I poked around the ruins of St. John’s a couple of weeks ago, I was in the building for no more than ten minutes. Yet an hour-long car ride home with the windows open didn’t get rid of the smoke smell from my clothes. The 3 Amigos on the other hand were actually in the flames and yet they came out unscathed and “unsmoked.” Clearly, God’s hand had rescued them from Nebuchadnezzar’s foolishness.
Will God do the same for you? Will he keep you from all harm as long as you obey his commands? No. We don’t have that promise just as the 3 Amigos had no guarantee their ordeal was going to end in a miracle. Still, fireproof your faith by letting go of your ego and laying hold of your God. Resist the temptation to compromise the truth of God’s Word to keep the peace in the family for example. If you have to endure some flames as a result, God will see you through them. And encourage me not to cut corners when teaching the Bible Information Course because I’m eager to increase the size of our congregation “no matter what.” Doing things God’s way isn’t always easy but it’s always the best. Martin Luther found that to be true over 480 years ago when he stood before the Emperor and the church and took his stand on the Word of God. Did he feel the heat when he defied the Emperor’s demand to recant what he had written about salvation being a free gift? Sure he did. Luther had to go in hiding for eight months but that gave him the time he needed to translate the Bible into German so more people could read the truth about salvation for themselves.
But no, not every Christian survives the flames. Polycarp, the 2nd century bishop of Smyrna, died at the stake for his faith. But even in death, especially in death God is close to those who defend the truth. Jesus put it this way when speaking to those Christians living in Smyrna: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
Do you realize that the only thing Nebuchadnezzar’s fire destroyed besides his soldiers were the ropes that had bound the 3 Amigos? Likewise the only thing that death can now destroy is the bond that tethers you to this sinful, sorrowful world. That’s a bond we don’t mind giving up, is it? How can we be certain that we’ll survive death unscathed? Just as a baker doesn’t mind thrusting his hands into a hot oven because he’s wearing oven mitts, so we don’t mind facing death because God has covered us in Jesus’ righteousness so that God’s wrath against our sin will not burn us.
No, you may not be able to fireproof your church building but in Jesus, God has fireproofed you from his wrath. Now fireproof your faith, as did the 3 Amigos. Let go of your ego. Lay hold of your God. Put the Lord and his Word first in all things and you will be blessed...eternally. Amen.
