Our text today reflects two cultures that are in great conflict, and even though they were people from different cultures, the conflict arose over the subject of religion. If you’ve been around church at all, you’ve probably heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. Because we only read portions this morning, let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of their story.
Daniel is one of those books of the Bible that is part history book and part prophecy. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 587 B.C., and took anybody who was anybody away into exile in Babylon, modern day Iraq. Among those were three Jewish princes named Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, along with their friend, Daniel. All these royal young people were trained up for the royal court in Babylon. They learned the Persian language and literature, they lived in the royal palace, they were fed royal food…well, sort of.
Nebuchadnezzar gave them Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These young men refused to eat from the royal table. There was a cultural conflict. They would only eat vegetables and drink water. To do otherwise, would be a violation of their conscience, and the faith they had placed in God. After three years’ time, Nebuchadnezzar examined his recruits and found that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were the most fit in his entire court. They literally got fat off of vegetables and water. He rewarded them by placing Daniel in charge of his royal court and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were appointed administrators in Babylon.
Later, Nebuchadnezzar has a golden statue erected and he orders all his royal courts to come to the dedication. Everyone is told to bow down and worship this golden statue as soon as they hear the music or they will be thrown into a fiery furnace. A group of Chaldeans (yet another culture in the mix) take notice of the Jews and they see that as everyone else is bowing down to this statue that the Jews Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not.
The Chaldeans tell the king that the Jewish princes are not bowing down to worship this golden statue, and the king becomes livid. He calls for them and reminds them of the situation they are in. He gives them a choice that their lives depend on. They can bow down and worship the statue when the trumpets sound, or they can be thrown into a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when faced with this terrible situation of denying God or denying themselves their very lives, decide that they have a higher authority than Nebuchadnezzar to answer to and refuse again to worship the golden statue.
They tell him, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up."
Nebuchadnezzar is filled with rage and orders the furnace to be heated up to seven times its customary heat. He orders some of the strongest men in his army to bind the Jewish princes and throw them into the fiery furnace. The fire was so hot that as these soldiers lifted the three young men to throw them into the fire, the soldiers themselves were killed immediately. And, down went Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace to their deaths, or so it was thought.
As soon as the three were thrown into the fire, Nebuchadnezzar noticed that it looked like there were four men walking around unbound in the furnace. He asked his guards just to make sure that there were only three men bound, and they told him that was the case. He looked again and noticed that one of those four figures in the furnace had the appearance of a god, and he noticed that none of the men were even being harmed by the flames.
So Nebuchadnezzar called to the princes and told them to come out. All the king’s royal court had gathered around by this point and they saw with their own eyes Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the furnace and not so much as a hair on their heads was singed, even their clothes were fine. Nebuchadnezzar realized very quickly that he was not the higher authority after all. He made a decree that anybody who said anything derogatory about the God of Jews would be torn limb from limb and their house destroyed. He was in utter disbelief that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s God could work like that. In the end, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego received another promotion.
I shared this story today because it is the first known recorded occurrence of religious persecution. The faith of these three young Hebrew men conflicted with the political laws of the nation where they lived, and they were faced with a decision: Obey the law, or follow their faith. They chose to follow their faith. Notice, their choice brought consequences, and they were willing to face the consequences that came with their choice. For them, conscience won over citizenship. Perhaps their story has something to teach us.
In the United States, we Christians, in spite of all the rhetoric we hear about the infringements of our religious freedom, are rarely, if ever, confronted with the kind of decision Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to make. We confuse inconvenience with persecution. We can argue all day whether our nation made a moral turn in 1962 when prayer was banned in public schools, but not being able to pray in schools is an inconvenience, not persecution. And, the irony of it all is that as long as there are tests in school, there will be prayer in school. We, too, can argue the moral decline continued when we started removing the Ten Commandments from the courthouse wall, but again, that is inconvenience, not persecution. Again, the bitter irony is that even though the Commandments may be gone from the courthouse wall, we still have laws against stealing, murdering, and even lying in court. Even when we’re forced to bake a cake for a gay couple, it’s inconvenience, not persecution. When they start putting us in jail for not baking a cake for a gay couple, then it will be persecution. We may be headed in that direction, and honestly, that might not be the worst thing that could happen.
I dare say that we Americans have become spoiled. We’ve grown accustomed throughout our history to have a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values. It has made us, perhaps, the most prosperous nation to ever inhabit the earth, and for that we give thanks and celebrate God’s goodness. But, that is not the witness of the predominance of the world, nor of history itself. Rare are those occasions when the ruling authorities of nations and states made cultural accommodation for those who followed Christ, and looking back to the Old Testament, to the Hebrew people.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego aren’t the only biblical role models for faithfulness in the face of cultural conflicts. Early in the church’s history, in Acts 5, the Apostle Peter, after he was arrested for preaching Jesus, given the opportunity to keep his mouth shut said, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). Or, the Apostle Paul, in Acts 24 – 26, bore witness to Christ in front of Felix and Agrippa. And, let’s not forget Jesus himself, who was put on trial for his claim that he was the Messiah. Talk about a cultural conflict! He refused to capitulate, and it cost him his life. But, victory was won, life came and the world was changed by his faithfulness.
Persecution continues today across the world for those who claim the name of Jesus. I saw an incredible movie this week entitled The Insanity of God, based on a book by the same name written by Nik and Ruth Ripken. The Ripken’s were missionaries to Malawi and Somalia, and it was while they were in Somalia that they lost one of their three sons. Their loss forced the Ripken’s to reconsider their calling, and after some reflective time, they were assured they were called to be missionaries, although the focus of their ministry shifted. They felt called to go into the regions of the world where Christians were persecuted greatest to discover ways they could be in ministry to them. Nik Ripken began by traveling to Russia, China and Central Asia to interview members of the persecuted church. What he discovered was not that we needed to do anything to help the persecuted church, but that it was his faith that was resurrected by the faithful witness of those Christians. They heard stories of pastors imprisoned and emaciated, yet still clung to their hope in Christ. They heard stories of fathers separated from their families because they smuggled bibles in for others to discover Christ.
In China, he was able to meet with about 150 house church pastors to hear their stories. He said no one really knew what they would find in China. In 1948, when communism came to China, the church was outlawed. At the time, there were between 400,000 and 700,000 Christians. No one really knew if the church had survived after all these years. Yet, today there are over 10 million Christians in a nation that is openly hostile to their faith. The church flourished in conditions it should not have. The 150 pastors, after telling their stories to Ripken began to ask, “Has Christ made it to the rest of the world?”
What the Ripken’s discovered was that where the church was persecuted the greatest was the very place where faith has thrived the greatest. History has taught the same lesson. The burning question Ripken had for all he interviewed was, “Is Christ worth it?” Is Christ worth the suffering, the imprisonment, the loss of family and even death? As one interviewee said, “Oh, Christ is worth it!”
The lesson for us as we live in this culture that is shifting around us is to ask ourselves, “Is Jesus worth it?” When all cultural accommodation for the Christian faith ends, will Jesus be worth it? Will Jesus be worth my family? Will Jesus be worth my job? Will Jesus be worth my life? I pray that I can say, “Oh, Christ is worth it!” My fear is I won’t have the courage.
