Every once in awhile, a person shows their complete dedication to God through an amazing statement of faith. Think of Esther’s “If I perish, I perish,” or Martin Luther’s “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” Or think of the bold declarations of faith from Ruth and Mary, the mother of Jesus.
It is to this amazing declaration of faith from the three Hebrews that we come to in our study of the book of Daniel. We read them in Daniel 3:17-18.
17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
These three Hebrew men were confident that their God had the power to deliver them out of any situation, no matter how impossible it might seem, just like God had rescued Israel from Pharoah’s armies or David from Goliath. In fact, having grown up under the reign of godly king Josiah, they had likely been introduced to the narrative of David’s fight against Goliath. There David had said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Sam. 17:37).
Biblical faith has the assurance to say, “I know my God is able to deliver me.” We are told to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” So faith has the confidence to say, “I believe that my God will deliver me.” But it also has the submission to say, “But even if he does not, I will still trust him.” Strong faith is not presumption. It doesn’t presume that just because God can, means that He will. They had strong confidence in God’s ability and power to save them, but they submitted to his willingness to save them. It wasn’t “Could He?” but “Would He?” There were confident in God’s ability, but did not presume that it was His will.
As Iain Duguid says, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not presume to predict what the outcome would be in their case. If God were our servant, or our accomplice, he would be predictable; he would always do our bidding. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood that since God is sovereign, however, it was his choice whether he opted to be glorified in their deaths or through their dramatic deliverance. Either way, it didn’t make a difference to their decision. Whether they were miraculously delivered or left to burn in the fire, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego would not compromise their commitment to the Lord” (“Daniel” in Reformed Expository Commentary, p. 53).
It’s as if they said: “We don’t know what our God will do, O king; you may turn us into puddles of carbon; but in one sense it doesn’t matter; the bottom line is that we will not serve your gods or worship your image.” So, although they were unsure of God’s circumstantial will (whether they escape) but they were confident of God’s revealed will (‘You shall have no other gods besides me’). They did not lose sight of the most crucial matter. What mattered most is not whether they would be delivered, but whether they would be obedient!
The verb for worship (Aram., sĕgid) appears eleven times in this chapter (5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 [twice], 18, 28), while serve (pĕlaḥ, in the sense of ‘serving’ a deity) occurs five times (12, 14, 17, 18, 28). A total of sixteen usages hammers the point home: what really matters is not security but worship. And the three friends never forget this (18). (Dale Ralph Davis, the Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), p. 56).
“Nebuchadnezzar had just declared that no god could deliver them out of his hands, and now they were replaying stoutly that their God could do so. They were ready to risk their al in their earnestness to give a proper witness to their God” (Leon Wood, A Commentary on Daniel, p. 88).
The “ability” in question here is God’s ethical ability, or willingness. It is similar to the statement in Genesis 37:4, that says “when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him,” the “could not speak” does not refer to physical inabilities, but to willfulness, they “would not speak peacefully to him.” Likewise, when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, he utters, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt. 26:39). “In terms of absolute possibility, the Father was certainly able to deliver the Son from drinking the cup. Yet given the Father’s will to save sinners, the cross became the consequent absolute necessity, for that goal could not be accomplished in any other manner” (Iain Duguid, Daniel: Reformed Expository Commentary, p. 52).
They faced a challenging decision that put their faith to the ultimate test. There was a lot of pressure to conform here. I have to ask himself: What would I have done?
They knew their God to be a consuming fire (Exod. 24:17; 33:5; Lev. 10:2; Num. 11:1; 16:35; Deut. 4:24; 5:25; Heb. 10:31; 12:29). They also knew Nebuchadnezzar’s threat of being cast into the furnace was real (Jer. 29:21-23). But they elected to face a pagan consuming fire rather than a divine consuming fire.
This is similar to what the beleaguered Job said in Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Even more commendable than their stout faith that God could deliver them, was their trust in God even if He would not deliver them, if that is possible.
Leon Wood identifies two matters that stand out for notice:
- First, the young men recognized that God’s will might be different from what they would find pleasant, and they were willing to have it so, without complaining. Too often Christians are not willing to have God’s will different from their own, and then do complain most vigorously when it proves to be that way.
- Second, they did not make their own obedience contingent upon God’s doing what which was pleasant to them. They were ready to obey, whether God chose to deliver them from the furnace or not. In other words, they found their object of affection in God’s Himself, not in what God did for them. (A Commentary on Daniel, p. 89).
In fact, they were ready and willing to die rather than compromise their allegiance to the true God.
Studdert Kennedy was a chaplain during World War I. His role often thrust him into danger on the front lines of battle. One day, while traveling through war-ravaged France, he wrote this letter to his young son:
The first prayer I want my son to learn to say for me is not “God keep daddy safe,” but “God made daddy brave, and if he has hard things to do make him strong to do them.” Life and death don’t matter…right and wrong do. Daddy dead is daddy still, but daddy dishonored before God is something awful, too bad for words. I supposed you’ll like to put in a bit about safety too, old chap, and mother would. Well, put it in, but afterwards, always afterwards, because it does not really matter near to much” (Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, The Hardest Part, pp. 110-111).
Athanasius was one of the early church fathers. We are indebted to him for the purity of the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ against Arianism. The story is told that someone came to him and said, “Athanasius, don’t you know that the emperor is against you, the church is against you, and the whole world is against you? Athanasius answered, “Then I am against the whole world.” A phrase was coined that became rather famous in the early church: Athanasius contra mundi: Athanasius against the whole world.
Fortunately, none of these three men had to stand alone against the world; they stood together. Dan Schaeffer in Defining Moments points to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as successful because they were making a stand together. He says…
“An incredibly powerful dynamic occurs when Christians stand together. We feed off each other’s strengths and faith. An act of courage that might seem impossible on our own is made easier when we are with others of like mind and faith. One of the greatest benefits available to us is our close Christian friendships. They can be the determining factor to us to make the right decision” (Dan Schaeffer, Defining Moments, p. 142).
He says that with others we can face our fears with new courage. I don’t know if there is anything more scary than dying in a fire (except maybe drowning). Both of them are excruciating ways to die. Even the bravest among us have things we fear. But the combined faith and encouragement of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego enabled them to have a collective courage (Eccl. 4:9-12). That is why it is so important to be a part of a church fellowship or a church youth group.
Second, you will stand your ground with greater conviction. This is a God that these three young men had “served” for years. Many claim to believe, but few actually serve. And what an encouragement it was to each of them, when the instruments sounded, to look to their right or left and see someone else standing with them!
Third, together our faith can be taken to a higher level. When they were thrown into the fiery furnace they had their faith validated as few ever have. They walked with God in the fire! Even Nebuchadnezzar praised their faith, seeing that they were committed to the one true God. Iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17).
Faith in God may not translate into victory in every circumstance (see Heb. 11:32-39). To these three men the outcome was irrelevant, for what was at stake was not God’s ability or their own lives, but their faith and obedience to serve Him regardless of the cost. His glory was at stake.
We all love the first half of this equation (that God can deliver). We love it when God answers our prayers and gives a miraculous rescue or healing. Our Charismatic brothers and sisters have great confidence in God’s ability to heal and do miracles. We shouldn’t be afraid to cry out to God to show His miraculous power and show his amazing compassion to heal or to do miracles. In other words, don’t back down; don’t hesitate. Storm the gates of heaven!
But it seems that very few Christians can maintain this firm belief that God can and will deliver us while simultaneously possessing a submissive attitude to his sovereign will if it differs from our request. These three Hebrews knew that God could deliver them, IF He wanted to.
These men give us then a full-balanced picture of faith: faith knows the power of God (he is able, 17), guards the freedom of God (but if not …, 18a), and holds the truth of God (we will not serve your gods, 18b). There are some in our day, however, who would not be entirely happy with this ‘faith’. In their view, faith involves being far more cocksure about God’s ways. Their kind of ‘faith’ is allergic to any uncertainty about details. If they could re-write the chapter, they would have the friends declare: ‘Nebuchadnezzar, we are going to call down God’s deliverance; we, O king, are going to bind the fire.’ But Bible faith doesn’t do that. Faith does not predict God’s ways; it simply holds to God’s word (in this case, Exod. 20:3); faith obeys God’s truth, it does not manipulate God’s hand; faith is not required to plot God’s course but only to obey God’s command. Faith’s finest hour may be when it can oppose Nebuchadnezzar’s three words (burning fiery furnace) with three of its own: ‘But if not. (Dale Ralph Davis, The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), p. 56). Thus, the real miracle of Daniel 3 has already happened.
Walter Luthi was right: “That there are three men who do not worship in Nebuchadnezzar’s totalitarian state, is a miracle of God. The miracle of the confessing Church. That the three were not devoured by the fire is no greater miracle. Suppose the fiery furnace had consumed them. The real miracle would have happened just the same” (Luthi, p. 50).
“But if not.” What a poignant phrase. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were resolved to obey God, whether or not he chose to save them. They knew he wasn’t obligated to help them.
In the summer of 1940, more than 350,000 soldiers—most of them British—were trapped at Dunkirk. The German forces were on their way, and they had the capacity to wipe out the British Expeditionary Force. When it seemed certain that the Allied forces at Dunkirk were about to be massacred, a British naval officer cabled just three words back to London: “But if not.”
“But if not.” These words were instantly recognizable to the people who were accustomed to hearing the scriptures read in church. They knew the story told in the book of Daniel. The message in those three little words was clear: The situation was desperate. The allied forces were trapped. It would take a miracle to save them, but they were determined not to give in. One simple three word phrase communicated all that.
For some reason, people are still not sure why, the Axis powers hesitated. They backed off, briefly, and what’s known as the Miracle of Dunkirk took place. British families and fishermen heard about the poignant telegraphed cry for help, and they answered. They answered with merchant marine boats, with pleasure cruisers, and even with small fishing boats. By a miracle, they evacuated more than 338,000 soldiers and took them to safety. (https://robertbsloan.com/2013/03/11/but-if-not-the-miracle-of-dunkirk/)
“My God will deliver me — but if not, still I will trust him. The Lord is strong enough to rescue me if he chooses. But if not, I will not give in to sin. My God is able to heal me if he decides it best. But if not, I will not forsake my confession of faith. My God can undo this disability if he but speaks the word. But if not, I will trust in the God who will raise me from the dead.”
What amazes me in the statement of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is not that they believe that God “is able to deliver” and “will deliver” them, but that even if he does not, we will still be obedient to God.
Leon Wood states: “Two matters stand out for notice. First, the young men recognized that God’s will might be different from what they would find pleasant, and they were willing to have it so, without complaining. Too often Christians are not willing to have God’s will different from their own, and then do complain most vigorously when it proves to be that way. Second, they did not make their own obedience contingent upon God’s doing that which was pleasant to them” (Leon Wood, A Commentary on Daniel).
We all believe that God is powerful enough and compassionate enough to grant our request (as long as it is not selfish, James 4:3). Even if God does not answer our earnest prayers, He is still able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). But are we willing to trust Him to work out His will as He has determined, submitting to His will even if that differs from our own?
Far too many people lose faith in God precisely at this point. They cry out to God for healing, for rescue, for a miracle, for reconciliation, and it doesn’t happen. Because they permitted God no alternative, when God didn’t come through exactly as they requested, they lose faith in God (or sometimes blame themselves for not having enough faith). Neither perspective is helpful.
But God in His sovereignty does not always answer our prayers exactly as we desire them. First of all, He is far wiser then we are and knows whether or not this is really good for us. Ruth Bell Graham, married to Billy Graham, said that “God has not always answered my prayers. If He had, I would have married the wrong man — several times!” I assume that was before she met Billy.
We need to remember that faith is not a rabbit’s foot, and God is not a genie who is bound to do for us whatever we want. God is sovereign. He has promised to “work all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose,” so we can trust Him and remain obedient to Him even if He does not answer our prayers as we think He ought.
We must pray with confidence in God’s power, but also pray with a submission to His wisdom. Matt Chandler, in his article “My Prayer for the Furnace,” was occasioned by the discovery of a brain tumor and all his treatments for that. He says, based on this passage, that we pray (1) believing that our God can heal, (2) and we pray believing that our God will heal, but (3) we continue to pray even if our God does not heal. So he ends his article with this prayer: Lord, I know you can heal. Lord, I believe you will heal. And Lord, if you don’t heal now, bring glory to your name and keep my faith in you.
Such confidence and submission are powerfully captured in the words of Samuel Rodigast written in 1675:
What e ‘er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate ‘er he doth,
And follow where he guideth.
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to him I leave it all.
Grace Still Amazes 