In the Furnace, Daniel 3

This sermon explores the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel, focusing on how they lived in a society opposed to the gospel. The story takes place in Babylon, where these men, who were Hebrew exiles, faced pressure to worship a golden statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. They refused to comply, standing firm in their faith and trust in God's revealed will. Despite the threat of being thrown into a fiery furnace, they remained steadfast, knowing that even if God did not rescue them, they would not compromise their beliefs. In the furnace, they encountered the presence of the fourth man, believed to be a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. This story serves as an example of courageous faith in the face of opposition and the assurance of God's presence in our trials.

Takeaways

• Living in a society opposed to the gospel requires courage and a firm commitment to God's revealed will.
• Courageous faith stands firm in the face of pressure from authority, conformity, and intimidation.
• God's presence in our trials gives us the strength to endure and overcome.
• Courageous faith is not about avoiding suffering, but about trusting in God's presence and purpose in the midst of it.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Setting
03:19 Living in a Society Opposed to the Gospel
08:06 The Golden Image
13:22 Courageous Faith in the Conflict
20:42 Standing Upon God's Revealed Will
29:20 The Fourth Man in the Fire
38:01 Courageous Faith Found in the Presence of the Fourth Man
44:22 Conclusion and Prayer

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00.994)
So in Daniel chapter three and verse 13 it says, then in a furious rage, Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar asked them, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don't serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? Now if you're ready, when you hear the sound of the horned flute,

zither, lyre, harp, and drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don't worship it, you will immediately be thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. And who is the God who can rescue you from my power? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to give you an answer to this question. If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire.

and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up." Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage and the expression on his face changed towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, and he commanded some of his best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. So these men in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. Since the king's command was so urgent and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the furnace of blazing fire.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisors, "'Didn't we throw three men bound into the fire?' "'Yes, of course, your majesty,' they replied to the king. He exclaimed, "'Look, I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.'" Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called,

Aaron Shamp (02:24.618)
You servants of the Most High God, come out. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king's advisors gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire.

So it's a longer story, like I said, I encourage you to go and read the whole of chapter three later. That's just kind of the meat out of the middle of this story, where the major dialogue and action happens. But we are looking at this story as a part of an overall series, looking at the first half of the book of Daniel, where the majority of the stories happen. The first half is stories, the second half is more prophecies in the book of Daniel. But we're looking at this first half to consider, how do we live in a...

in a society that is opposed to the gospel. Because whenever these men were living in Babylon, they were living in a society where they were the minority, religiously and ethnically as well. But they were the minority religiously. They were on the margins of Babylonian society. Because King Nebuchadnezzar, he set up the Babylonian Empire. And as he was expanding his empire, he swooped down into Israel as a part of a campaign to push the Egyptians back down and their influence back down into Egypt.

In doing that, he took over Judea, he ransacked the temple, and he took many of the leading people and their best and brightest of the youth and brought them as exiles with him back to Babylon to have them assimilated into Babylonian culture. Among those exiles was Daniel, who the name of the book is named after. And then three of his friends named Shadarite, Meshach and Abednego. They were four Hebrew boys who were probably teenagers when they brought his exiles, and they were put through

the most elite of Babylonian educations, so that they might be thoroughly assimilated into Babylonian thought and culture and religion, and then serve in the king's administration. At this point, Daniel, all four of the men actually are very high up in the administration of the kingdom, serving Nebuchadnezzar as the king and working to work as administrators in various different

Aaron Shamp (04:48.454)
Once again, we've seen this last week, and you get this sense a lot when you read the book of Daniel, that Nebuchadnezzar the tyrant, the king, as tyrants often are, was a very, very insecure man. And so he's constantly looking on how to consolidate and secure his power. You know, tyrants are always trying to do that. They're afraid of losing their power, so they think, how can I make it more secure? And so what Nebuchadnezzar does in the beginning of chapter three here, is he

And he sets up this gigantic golden statue. The text says that it was 90 feet tall by nine feet wide. So it was very slender. It was something like an obelisk. It was very slender and tall. He called everyone throughout his entire empire, all of the leaders across all the Babylonian empire, to come and to fall down in worship before this statue at his command. You see, and by doing that, trying to solidify his power,

I am commanding you to do this. You will bow the knee and worship, and in doing so, showing their submission to his authority by worshiping his gods and religion. But of course, you have these four Hebrew men who cannot do that. And so that's where we find ourselves and where we started reading in the text today. They find themselves in a position that we can identify with. You see, several decades ago, there was a time in America, there was a time

in the broader West where Christianity was the dominant force in culture. Many people, regardless of whether they were personally a Christian or not, whether they were following the gospel or not, at least saw the Christian worldview as plausible. They mostly lived by Christian values and were friendly towards the church and the efforts of the church and so on, as well as Christianity's influence in the culture.

But what we've seen over the last several decades is that Christianity's influence and this broad assumption that many people had of plausibility towards the Christian worldview has increasingly and maybe even more rapidly going down is not the case anymore. Sorry, I fumbled that sentence really bad. It's not the case anymore. Right. Today, most people don't assume.

Aaron Shamp (07:08.63)
that the Christian worldview is probably true or at least plausible. They're not living by Christian values. Today is seen as a bad thing to be a Christian. It's seen as a bad thing to be a part of a church. Maybe it means that you're just backwards and unsophisticated. Maybe it means that you're bigoted. Maybe it means that you are hateful towards people who disagree with you and so on. And so as our culture has developed more of a negative attitude towards the Christian worldview,

We as believers who follow Christ and obey God's word, find ourselves more and more on the margins of the culture, just like they did. And so as we try to navigate the tension that we feel between the gospel that we believe, and the world around us, the culture around us, that is opposed to that gospel, as we try to navigate that tension and that conflict, we can learn a lot from these men who had to do something similar in the Babylonian empire, living under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

and especially in this story. So we're gonna look at three things in this story. First, we're gonna look at the golden image and consider some things based off that. The golden image, the bold stand, and then the fourth man in the fire. So those are the three things that we'll look at today. Let's begin by looking at the gold image. As I said before, he sets up this gigantic statue. You know exactly what was it? The text doesn't say. A lot of people have assumed, and I feel like I remember being taught when I was a child, or maybe I just learned it from VeggieTales, that

that Nebuchadnezzar built a statue of himself and had everybody come to worship the statue of himself. Maybe it doesn't say that. Maybe that's what it was. Was it a statue of one of their gods? Maybe. All it says is that it was a golden statue that he wanted people to come and worship. And whenever the three men refused to worship it, he says, do you refuse to worship my gods and the statue that I set up? It's unclear exactly what the statue is. That's not important. Okay.

What is important is what the statue represented, whether it was an image of himself, whether it was an image of one of the Babylonian gods like Bel, whether it was just, like I said before, like an obelisk statue that was engraved with all kinds of images that represented, you know, just the Babylonian religion and culture in general, whatever it was, it was set up to be a statement, a representative, a symbol of the Babylonian religion and Nebuchadnezzar's power.

Aaron Shamp (09:31.018)
That was the intention there. That's why he called, if you read in the beginning of chapter three, it says, all of the governors, all of the rulers, all of the people across the whole empire. The Babylonian Empire was the world power at this time. He calls all of them to come and worship before this image that he made, right? Which represented their religion, their culture and his authority. What we find here is an example in Babylon, in scripture.

of something that has happened many times throughout history, which is that it is an example of the humanistic use of religion in order to boost the powers of the state by pushing this ideology. If we can call it that, you know, that Babylonian religion and the statue that the religion represented. I'm sorry, the statue that represented that religion and culture. Nebuchadnezzar pushed this on them, and he was using this in order to

solidify and boost his own power. It was an ideology that everyone was expected to follow. Now, notice as well that Nebuchadnezzar didn't say to anyone, you have to quit worshipping your gods. The Babylonian empire was extremely large. There were people coming from many different regions, from different cultures, each with their own gods. And he never said to any of them, you have to quit worshipping your gods. He didn't say to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

Whenever he was threatening them with the fire, you have to quit worshipping Yahweh. You have to quit worshipping your God. He didn't say that. He just said, you just have to bow down to this one. Right. He never said to anyone, you have to quit worshipping yours. In fact, that's okay. You know, he almost takes a relativistic position. He says, it's okay for us to all worship our own gods, for us to all have our own lifestyles, for us to all have our own religions, to do whatever works right for you guys.

As long as none of you think that yours is better than mine. As long as none of you guys, as long as you Hebrews think that your God is superior to mine. Otherwise, it's OK. Does that sound familiar? That sounds a lot like our culture today. It sounds a lot like our culture. You know, at this point in the West, and I pray that it never gets to that point. No one is telling you that you cannot be a Christian. No one is telling you that you cannot worship God, you know, the triune God that we worship.

Aaron Shamp (11:55.314)
No one says that you can't believe in Jesus and accept the gospel. And in fact, no one says that you can't go to church as long as you don't take it too seriously. Then they have a problem. Whenever your belief and your convictions and your standing upon the word of God comes into potential conflict with the dominant ideologies of our culture, then there's a problem. Whenever you are expected to bow the knee before one of the doctrines of our culture today,

and whatever powers are represented by them and are solidified by them, whenever you're expected to bow the knee and you say, I cannot because I follow Christ, you see, then there's a problem. Then there's a conflict. They were in a very similar situation to ours here, nevertheless, with a furnace standing before, while they were standing before a furnace. But here's the first thing that I want to see. They had a conflict between the culture they lived in,

and the dominant ideologies and worldviews that they had to navigate and so do we. And so that is our first point. We're talking about courageous faith in this series. Courageous faith stands firm in the conflict with the world's religions. And we can add to that the world's religions, ideologies, worldviews, political powers, and so on. Any other power, any other ideology, any other worldview, any other political platform or else.

that would cause us to have to bend the knee to that Christianity is in conflict with. Because we as Christ followers declare that Jesus is Lord. Whenever Jesus was on the cross, he was declared to be, one of the reasons that he was up on the cross is because they declared for him to be the Lord. What that meant is, you know, it's kind of maybe for some of us, that's sort of an archaic word. And we forget what that means. We think it's just another word for God. Well, it is a word for the ruler.

Whenever we say Jesus is Lord, we are saying Jesus is King. Whenever the very first Christians in the New Testament and throughout the Mediterranean world and so on, were going about and spreading the gospel, they were not just telling a gospel of a Jesus who's a personal savior, they were telling a gospel of a Jesus who saves us from our sins and becomes our King. They were declaring the gospel of Jesus's Lordship. And they were doing that in a culture where you were expected to live by the Creed and affirm the Creed that

Aaron Shamp (14:21.42)
Caesar is Lord.

Aaron Shamp (14:26.25)
But Christians now following Christ can no longer make that statement. They can no longer say Caesar is Lord. They can no longer say he is the ultimate king, the highest power, our ruler, our highest allegiance. They now have to say if they were going to accept the forgiveness that Christ offers, no, Jesus is Lord. There's been a conflict between the people of God and the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world from

Daniel's time through the New Testament, through the first church, and even up until today. But courageous faith stands firm in that conflict. Courageous faith will try to, with wisdom and winsomeness, navigate that conflict so we might be able to continue making a persuasive case for the Christian worldview in the midst of that conflict. Nevertheless, we stand firm. Winsomeness, making a persuasive case, does not mean compromise. It doesn't mean telling half-truths.

It doesn't mean nuancing ourselves to death in order to not plainly state the truths that the world doesn't like. We stand firm. So notice that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, why isn't Daniel noticed named in this story? You know, we don't exactly know. It, we shouldn't assume that he wasn't named because he fell down to worship. That doesn't fall in line with everything else we know about Daniel from the book. And that'll be outlined as character.

More so, if you go back and read, it says that there were some people who didn't like the Jews, which is why they tattletailed on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinagot. In other words, they tattletailed on those three guys, which is why they were called. So maybe they just didn't see Daniel, right? But they knew. But notice here that those three men, they didn't make, they didn't take up a big protest. They didn't make a lot of noise in their civil disobedience.

Their civil disobedience was extraordinarily civil. It was a silent disobedience because they recognized, right? They were wise. They saw their position in the culture. They knew what would have happened to them if they would have made a loud demonstration in their disobedience, if they would have put up a protest, they would have been thrown into the fire way earlier. It would have happened before, but instead what do they do? Well, until they're told on, their civil disobedience was just silent.

Aaron Shamp (16:47.746)
They didn't make a big noise. They didn't draw attention to themselves. They didn't make a protest. But on the other hand, they stayed faithful to the Lord. They were wise here in their protest. Okay, you see, so courageous faith and standing firm in the conflict, on the one hand, means wisdom. It means trying to choose the path of best wisdom, best winsomeness, and so on, so that we can make a persuasive case before the world, understanding our position in the culture.

Because the people who are the minority influence in the culture, right, we have to recognize our position and we can't, if you just make a big loud protest, well then you're just gonna get crushed, right? You have to be winsome, intelligent. On the other hand, that doesn't mean compromise. It doesn't mean avoiding the hard truths. When necessary, it means stating the plain truth.

They had a lot of different pressures they had to experience and stand against just like we do. They experienced the pressure of authority. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor over the empire, the most powerful man in the world at this time, his authority was standing behind the statement there. As you guys are trying to navigate the conflict between the gospel and the world, one of the pressures that you're going to face is the pressure of different authorities in your life.

whether that be authorities of bosses, supervisors, managers that expect you to kind of fall in line with what you do in the company. All right, you guys know that in order to fall in line with what you do in the company, whether that be at the after hour hangout at the bar or at different conferences getting together or whether that just be in the way that you, in the things that you.

aren't allowed to talk about in the office, i.e. Jesus, you're expected to just fall in line. And there's that thread of authority behind it, of the boss, the manager, supervisor, and so on. Maybe if it's not bosses, it is professors, it is other people who have positions of authority over your life. We experience pressure from authority too, perhaps even political authority at times. We experience pressure as they did from conformity. Everyone in the empire went and fell down on their face.

Aaron Shamp (19:09.77)
You know, it would have been very easy for them to look around and see how everyone else there was doing it and say, you know, we can fall down to worship and not really mean it in our hearts, but just do it as a formality. It's OK. Just do it as a formality. It doesn't mean anything because everyone else is. And that way we can easily just, you know, kind of skirt our way around this whole situation. But they recognized that was not an option.

We experienced pressure from conformity too. Once again, everyone is doing it, so it's okay. Or everyone believes this, so it's all right. Everyone affirms this, so how could it be that bad? We experienced pressure from conformity. Lastly, they experienced pressure from intimidation. We most likely are experiencing intimidation just from cultural means. They were experiencing intimidation against their lives because of nevacantheser, but they stood firm in it all.

Will we, as we experience pressure from authority, conformity, or intimidation, will we stand firm to? Courageous faith does.

Let's look at their bold stand. Our second point, and then I'm going to explain. Our second point is this. So courageous faith stands firm in the conflict. Courageous faith, secondly, stands upon God's revealed will. Courageous faith, when we make our stand, why do we stand? And what do we stand upon? Do we stand upon what our political affiliations say? No, not primarily. Do we stand upon what our family tradition has always been? No.

Do we stand upon whatever my heart feels? No. We stand upon something objective. We stand upon something ultimate. It is God's word.

Aaron Shamp (20:54.09)
They refused to comply with worship, even as they stood before Nebuchadnezzar and he challenged them. He gave them an opportunity to recant and to just fall down. He makes it so easy for them. He says, come on. He says, why can't you do it? As they stand next to the furnace, why can't you do it? Just go ahead, fall down and worship. And then all of this mess will be over with. But they refused to comply. Why? Because they were sure of one thing. They were sure of God's will.

that they do not worship any other gods. The first and second commandment of the 10 commandments, you shall have no other gods before me. That's number one. Bowing the knee to the gods of Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar's gods, would have been breaking that commandment that God had made so clearly. So they knew that. They couldn't, through intellectual loopholes, get out of that truth. The second commandment, you shall not bow down before any image.

here's a golden image. They can't do it. It's so clear. There's no question about it. There's no way to nuance your way out of it. There's no reasoning, loopholes to jump through. They were absolutely confident in God's will that they do not worship any other gods or any image of gods that is set up. They were so certain in that they were willing to stake their lives upon it. Nebuchadnezzar challenges them and he says, do you think that your God can save you from my power?

Do you really think that your God can save you from the fiery furnace? Their answer is incredible. Verses 16 through 18, commentators say, are the core, the heart of this passage. Like I said, I encourage you guys, go back and read all chapter three later, but then as you go this week, meditate on 16 through 18. That's what you need to really soak in here. Their answer to him is incredible. They take this huge theological wager,

And the states couldn't be higher because they stake their life upon this wager. They say, if our God exists.

Aaron Shamp (22:58.442)
They say, if our God exists, then he certainly can rescue us. He can rescue us from the fire and he can rescue us from you, O King.

How many of us are willing to make that wager? That wager and stake, the most priceless thing that we have on it, which is our lives. But they make that wager. And notice here that they were uncertain. Not so much uncertain about the existence of God, but if he would rescue them. In verse 16, they said, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to give you an answer. If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us.

from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. Isn't that interesting here? They are so certain in God's will that they are willing to stake their lives upon it with this incredible wager. Yet they are uncertain in one aspect. If he will rescue them. They don't know.

They said, he can rescue us, we know that, but even if he doesn't, we will not worship. Isn't that incredible? They had uncertainty in what God's conditional will was for them in that moment. They were certain of his will for them to not worship the golden statue. They were certain of his ability to rescue them if he choose to do so, but will he do so? That they were uncertain about. They recognize he might not rescue.

However, because of what they were certain on, that he did not want them to worship that statue, they would not bow the knee. You see, so as they're navigating the conflict between the kingdom of God and Babylon, and as they were even navigating this confrontation that they had with the gold statue, with Nebuchadnezzar, and they were trying to figure out what do we do in the situation here?

Aaron Shamp (25:04.982)
They recognized that there was a set of variables and there were things that they were sure about and things that they didn't know. But just because there were things that they didn't know, in other words, is God going to rescue us from the fire? They did not compromise on what they were absolutely sure in. That is an incredible lesson for us as we are navigating our culture and we're navigating hundreds of thousands of unique scenarios that I can't.

individually apply to you right now. But all the scenarios that you guys are going through in your families, in your jobs, in your social circles and neighborhoods, in your children's education and so on, all of the different scenarios that you're going through and you're trying to navigate, how do I live out of courageous faith? How do I remain faithful to the Lord and yet navigate this conflict, navigate this confrontation with the world? What do I do here? Right?

You can look at the situation and recognize there are things that God has revealed that I can stake my life on. There are things I don't know.

But how easy is it and how often do we allow ourselves to disobey what we do know because we were left with some uncertainty? Maybe it's not even, you know, sometimes I think it's just we don't take a risk of obedience. We don't make that bold statement. We don't share the gospel with someone. We don't tell someone about the hope that we have in Christ because there are some uncertainties in the mix there. How will this?

affect my relationship with so-and-so, how this affects my standing in the company, how this affects my standing in the community if I make this stand. And because of those uncertainties, we disobey what we know with 100% certainty that God desires. They didn't. It's amazing how they say we believe that God can save us, and then they say, but if not, in the same breath.

Aaron Shamp (27:03.466)
And so they, and yet they stand firm. I want to make this point too before we continue on. It's not a lack of faith here that they have. Whenever they say, we believe that he can save us, but he might not, right? It is not a lack of faith in their part. There's this really bad assumption that we have in the church today, that whenever you pray for something,

You have to pray for it with absolute certainty. You know, whether you're praying for healing, whether you're praying for a new job opening, whether you're praying for whatever else it might be, that you have to pray for that. And you have to be so certain and so set on that you cannot say, Lord, but if you don't, right? Lord, but if you don't give this healing, you know, and recognize, but maybe God will not open that door. Maybe God will not answer the prayer in exactly who we have prayed. People have said, you know, that's bad.

That's a lack of faith. You can't say that. You can't say, well, what if God doesn't heal or what if God doesn't deliver? You got to just say, no, I'm standing upon this prayer and I'm going to make it. I'm going to put it before the Lord. And I'm not even going to question that he might do something else. That's not faith in God. That's faith in your agenda. It is not a lack of faith to say, but if not. That's trust in God. And recognizing that he might have a different plan.

Even if his different plan, from our vantage point, is incredibly more difficult, more painful, is gonna take longer, it's gonna be less convenient. True faith prays, I know you can. And this is what I, I know you can deliver. I know you can heal, but even if not.

Aaron Shamp (28:50.99)
Nebuchadnezzar notices a few things where he looks in the furnace. I just, I love, the story is so colorful, right? It's, there's, there's a lot of satire in the story if you go and read it and pay attention closely to some of the elements here. But they throw Shadarite Meshach and Ben go into the fire. Note, Nebuchadnezzar is so furious and he's in such a haste about it. You know, he almost, he acts like a child in many times throughout the book of Daniel because of his impulsiveness.

It says that his best soldiers, he calls his best soldiers to go and bind them up. And then it says that the men who threw them into the fire because of how quickly he made them do it were killed. He killed his best soldiers, or at least some of his best soldiers in the process. That's how terrible the furnace was. But from wherever he was, he must have had a vantage point to be able to look into the furnace. And it says that he jumps out of his seat and is blown away by what he sees. What does he see? He sees a couple of things. First of all, he says there are four men.

Didn't we throw in three? He says there are four men. Secondly, he says they are unbound and walking around as if it's a day in the park. Third, they are not hurt. And then the last thing that he notices, one of them, the fourth man, has an appearance like a son of the gods, he says. Note this fourth man here who meets them in the fire and apparently who, because of the presence of this fourth man in the fire, they are unharmed.

they're able to survive the fire. The ropes that they were bound with are burned off, but as it says, when they come out of the furnace, none of their clothes are singed, none of their hair is burned, and they don't even have the smell of smoke upon them. Apparently, because of the presence of this fourth man in the fire, they were able to not necessarily escape the furnace, but endure it. This fourth man, all scholars basically agree, is a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. There's a couple times that we see this

in the Old Testament where this person appears who is not a man, not an angel, but sometimes called the angel of the Lord. It's someone else, it's someone different. And we recognize, we agree that this is Jesus making a special manifestation of himself, special appearance of himself before his incarnation in the New Testament. We all agree that this is most likely Jesus Christ who comes.

Aaron Shamp (31:18.486)
But he doesn't go and grab them right before they fall into the furnace. He doesn't go and strike. You know, think of all the things that Jesus could have done to save them. He could have gone and, like I said, grab them before they fell in. He could have made the flames be extinguished before they were thrown in. He could have struck the soldiers in Nebuchadnezzar with blindness so that they couldn't have bound them up and throw them in. There's so many different things they could have done to save them for the furnace. But he doesn't.

Aaron Shamp (31:51.126)
They have to make their stand and then stand upon it. They have to be bound up and thrown into the fire and then he enters the furnace with them. The fourth man doesn't save them from the fires, but he meets them in it. Why does he do that? You know, whenever you love someone, you can only be happy if they're happy. You know, all of a sudden, whenever you

You experience this when you become married and you experience this all over again, where you have children that now because of this relationship of deep love that you have with this person, it creates exponential potential to experience more happiness than you ever could have imagined. But it also creates the potential to experience more sadness and heartbreak than you ever could have imagined because whenever you love someone, you can only be comfortable if they're comfortable. You can only be happy if they're happy. Um,

You can only be joyful if they are joyful. I remember whenever I was a child and I would get sick and I would be suffering from a tummy ache or whatever else and I was just miserable. I remember my mom saying to me, I wish I could take this from you. And I remember not understanding that and thinking that's just, that doesn't help me. I just like, I wanna feel better. What do you mean? Like, no you don't, this sucks.

like this stomach ache or whatever else, I feel like, what does that mean? Like, really, you want to take it from me? I didn't experience, I didn't understand that, honestly. I couldn't write my mind around what that meant until we had children and we went through our first couple bouts of them being sick with tummy aches or stuffy noses or whatever else. And of course, they're cute, so that adds an element to there. But even if one of your spouse is sick, right? And they are miserable, they're uncomfortable, they're hurting, they're in pain. And the...

the more that they're in pain, there's this moment that you have where you're trying to help them to just be comfortable, to recover, and you think to yourself, it would hurt less for me to be experiencing this.

Aaron Shamp (34:02.23)
That's what it means. It would hurt me less because I love you so much. It would be less painful for me to be sick, for me to be ill, for me to be in the bed, for me to be in the hospital and to see you going through it. A lot of people said, I cannot believe in the God of the Bible because we have so much suffering in the world. How can we say that there is an all powerful and all good God while we live in a world where children get bone cancer?

where there is atrocities, where there is multitudes of examples throughout world history of man's inhumanity to man. How can we say yet there is a good God? It's a legitimate question. It is a question that we do need to answer if we are going to believe in this God. However, it is a question that all people need to answer. Every worldview, every religion needs to answer. How can there be a good God in a world full of such suffering?

Well, one of the ways that we can know is there such a thing, can there be such a thing as a God who is good and loving and there be a world where there is suffering? One way that we can evaluate that is to say, well, how does our God view the suffering that we go through?

The fourth man didn't just watch them into the flames. He didn't just rescue them from it, but he entered into it with them. The fourth man, because of his love for them, entered into the suffering. He entered into the danger. He entered into the tragedy, the horror, the inhumanity, the evil that they were experiencing. Because they were suffering, he did not just sit back and say, I'm sorry you're going through that.

I promise I love you. He entered into it with them. He jumped in it. Because whenever you love someone, that's what you do. If they are hurting, you're hurting. There's a Christian philosopher named Nicholas Volterstorff. He's a philosopher at Yale. And whenever his son was 25 years old, he died in a tragic skiing accident. And Volterstorff, after this accident,

Aaron Shamp (36:13.278)
and reflecting on this and lamenting over it for a while, wrote a magnificent, difficult book called Lament for a Son. And in that book, he wrote this, he said, God is love. That is why he suffers. To love our suffering, sinful world is to suffer. God so suffered for the world that he gave up his only son to suffering. The one who does not see God's suffering does not see his love. So suffering is down at the center of things, deep down.

where the meaning is. Suffering is the meaning of our world, for love is the meaning, and love suffers. The tears of God are the meaning of history. So whenever we examine that we have a world that is full of suffering, and we experience many wicked, we experience wickedness and trials and suffering in our life, and we say, well, could there possibly be a God who loves us? We look around at all other world religions, and there are many that claim that their God is good, that their God is powerful, that their God is loving.

but none of their gods suffer. None of their gods bled. There is only one, the God of the Bible and his son, Jesus Christ. He is the only God in all of world history in every religion that has ever been conceived and worshiped in practice. He is the only one who has ever stepped down into our suffering. He is the only God who has ever bled.

He is the only God who has ever entered into the furnace. Therefore proving that yes, even in spite of the world's suffering, there is a God who loves us because he is willing to suffer with us.

The horrors of man's inhumanity defeat the concept of any other God.

Aaron Shamp (38:04.798)
And in this fourth man that meets us in the furnace, we find our source of courageous faith. Courageous faith is not something that you just conjure up in yourself. It is not an emotion that you just work up through getting yourself excited, through emotional music, through anything else like that. It is found in an objective place in an ongoing source of sustenance.

to fuel our courage, and that is the fourth man in the furnace. My last point, courageous faith is found in the presence of the fourth man in the furnace with us. I want to just highlight this one more time before we close, not just that he entered into the furnace with them, and everything that means for us as we experience our sufferings and we recognize, you know, whenever you see that Jesus

entered into the furnace, that he does not just sit back and say, you know, I'm really sorry for how hard your life is. You know, I promise it'll be worth it one day. He doesn't just do that. He comes down, he enters into the furnace. He he goes on the cross and he bleeds. That fact of knowing that is how Jesus suffers along with us in our sufferings enables you to have this perseverance that will lead to glory.

But more than that, I don't want to make this point.

He doesn't save them from the furnace. I already said it before. They have to stand the first time, then they have to stand before Nebuchadnezzar. They have to stand as that furnace is heated, it's a seven times. They have to stand upon their conviction as they are being bound up and being pulled towards the flaming fires. They have to stand and then they have to be thrown in. And then he meets them there.

Aaron Shamp (39:56.31)
Tim Keller said this, he said, Jesus Christ suffered, not that we might not suffer, but when we suffer, we'd become like him. Jesus frequently does not save us from the storms and the fires and the wildernesses and the trials that we go through, rather, he meets us in them. And because he does not save us from the trials, but he meets us in them, what he is doing is something so much better than just saving us from the trial.

Let me once again, let me speak to you as a parent. One thing that you learn as a parent, if you're going to parent your children well, your whole job is to make them grow up into mature, responsible adults one day who can contribute something to society, right? But if throughout their entire lives you make sure they never experience difficulty, they never experience danger, they never experience any threats, they never go through any kind of discomfort, you save them from every moment of hardship. What are you doing? You are setting them up for failure because you are, you know.

that it is through those hardships, it is through the struggling, it is through whenever they're trying to do their math, you don't just tell them what the answer is, they need to struggle through it. Whenever they're learning how to read, you let them wrestle with it because it is through the struggling and the wrestling that they become the person that you know they must become. Jesus doesn't save you from every hardship and trial because it is through those things and Him joining with you in them in the suffering, in the trials, being with you.

that He is transforming you into the person that you must become. So, He meets us in our sufferings. He meets us in the furnace. I love what another scholar named Joyce Baldwin said. She said, It is worth noting that they had to endure the ordeal of being thrown into the fire, but nevertheless, their lives are spared. There is no suggestion here or elsewhere in Scripture that the believer will be cushioned against trouble and suffering except

by the presence of the Lord with him in it. Listen to what God promised his people in Isaiah chapter 43. The Lord is speaking to his people, the same people, by the way, who are experiencing exile in Daniel, and this is what the Lord says to them. In verse one, he says, do not fear for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are my...

Aaron Shamp (42:18.346)
That's a covenantal language. He says, you are mine, I am committed to you. So what does that commitment of the Lord mean? In verse two, he says, I will be with you when you pass through the waters, when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire and the flame will not burn you because he will be with us. He will be with you.

in the waters, in the fires, in the storms, in the wilderness. And friends, it is by the presence of the fourth man, in the fires, in the waters, and sufferings, that we discover courageous faith that enables us to not just

patiently suffer through the storms and through the fires that by this courageous faith rise above them. The true miracle everyone agrees as I study this week and I read different commentaries and sermons the true miracle everyone agreed wasn't necessarily that they were saved from the fires but that they stood firm in their conviction in the face of all the pressure they faced. And I love to quote Keller once again

in the way that he closed his sermon, I thought, I can't do any better, so I'm just going to quote it. He said, they believed all the way down. That's faith. And the real miracle happened before they were ever thrown into the fire. They were spiritually fireproofed before they were physically fireproofed. They had been given the faith and the humility to trust God calmly, courageously. Are you closer to Nebuchadnezzar or to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

Believe it or not, there is a continuum. You're not born a Shadrach, Meshach, or a Bendigo. There's tremendous progress that can be made. This is the faith that can take you into furnaces. This is the faith that can help you face anything. Let's pray.

Aaron Shamp (44:22.73)
So Lord, we come before you today and we recognize that there are so many people among us this morning who are going through furnaces, that are passing through waters and storms that are in the wilderness. Maybe they are going through a season of spiritual dryness. Maybe they are going through a season of deep suffering, dark depression, relational conflicts, and whatever else it might be. Father, and they have question, how could you allow it?

Why couldn't there have been another way? Lord, we don't know, but we know that you are with us. And so Lord, strengthen us by that truth that you are with us. And as we face any other trials that come from living in our post-Christian culture, that come from living in the midst of the conflict between the gospel and the world, help us to navigate those things by

in those moments and opportunities by courageous faith. Not boldness or confidence in ourselves, but confidence that comes from knowing that the fourth man is with us. And Lord, if there are any here this morning who have not yet experienced salvation, they have not yet had their sins forgiven, they have not yet seen and understood how much God loves them because they didn't see.

how he suffered for them on the cross. If there are any monks this morning, Lord, who have not witnessed Christ's suffering on the cross for them, that wonderful, ultimate, infinite display, proof and evidence of your love for us, Father, by the Holy Spirit, let them see it this morning and experience it and know that you have proven your love for them by your suffering and by your ongoing presence with us.

and let them fall down in worship, in submission, in obedience, clinging to the cross for the salvation from their sins. We pray all these things Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, the fourth man in the fire with us, amen. Let us stand now and respond to this gospel message by worshiping together.