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A faith-forward podcast for people who love Jesus but also love being honest about how weird and wonderful life can be. Hosts Kerrye and Jill tell stories about the Bible, talk about their faith, and dig into what it looks like to follow God through the ordinary chaos of everyday, imperfect life. Real conversations. Real stories. No pretending to have it all together. Pull up a chair, turn the page, and let's go.
Welcome back to Chapter and
Verse Junior with Dewey and Jill.
This is a fun place for kids
to learn about God, the Bible,
and how much Jesus loves you.
So buckle up for today's story
because this is one adventure
you are not gonna wanna miss.
Let's go
hi, everybody.
We're back.
We're back, and today we're gonna be
talking about the three Hebrew children.
Yes.
So- This is, this is the one about, umâ¦
I forgot.
Shadrach- I was all excited, and then
it just left my brain ⦠Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego Of course.
You know, I just have cotton.
I mean- I'm a cotton-headed ninny muggins.
That's where my brainâ¦
Instead of a brain, I have cotton.
Okay So you can call me that.
Smartie calls me that.
I don't think it's nice to call you that.
It's not nice, but, you know, I'll just
keep thinking, "You're a puppidoo."
Exactly.
So you are one, too.
Takes one to know one.
Yeah.
But I didn't say it
'cause that would be mean.
Anyway.
All right.
So we're talking about the
three Hebrew children today.
Yes.
And this is found in
Daniel, chapter three.
Daniel.
Did Daniel write this one?
Yeah.
I mean, those are his friends.
Those were his friends.
Yeah.
All right.
Yep.
So little bit of backstory.
Like, Daniel is not in
the place that he grew up.
Like, the three Hebrew children,
like, they're all, they've been taken.
They were in a foreign land.
Yep.
I did remember, uh, Pastor
Kerry talking about it one day.
Yep.
They were taken from their family to
a foreign place and they had to live.
But at least they knew each other.
They did have some friends,
which was a nice thing.
Yeah.
So during this time- They were like
the Three Musketeers ⦠during this
time, they have been, um, promoted.
They've done a really good job.
They get to live in luxury.
Um, a little bit.
M- more luxury than the other s- the
other people, the other captives.
Yeah.
Um, but the three Hebrew children were
not as high in the hierarchy as Daniel.
So- He was, he was above them.
Yeah.
So Daniel is actually
not part of this story.
Where was he?
Um, uh, the Bible doesn't really say
exactly, but most scholars, again, most
smart- Smarty pants ⦠intellectual
people about this, um, they think
that he was away on business.
Oh, okay.
Like, he was- So, you know, he- He had
to travel and handle things, and they
handled more stuff, like, locally.
All right.
So- Got it ⦠while he's the
one telling the story, he's not
actually there for this part.
Oh, okay.
They just had to tell him all
about it and then he wrote it down.
I mean, probably if he'd have
been there, he'd have been
in the fire with them anyway.
Maybe.
Yeah, he would've.
'Cause he, he wouldn't
have come here either.
I don't remember what this is about.
You said fire.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Three Hebrew children- Let's
go ⦠in the fiery furnace.
Yep.
Okay.
So do you remember the name of the king?
I just remembered I
could not pronounce it.
It's Nebuchadnezzar.
I can pronounce it, but I can't spell it.
Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar.
We should call him King Neb.
King Neb.
He probably wouldn't have
liked it, but that's whatâ¦
He's not here, so I can call him that.
That's true.
King Neb.
Okay.
So King Neb decided he was gonna
make his workers make a gold statue.
It was- Of him?
Was it of him?
I mean, it doesn't really say in
this version that it was of him.
It just says- It probably was
'cause that- It just says a gold
statue ⦠he probably made it of him.
It was 30 meters high and 3 meters wide.
Oh, goodness.
Why are we doing the British stuff?
Well, what's nine times three?
I mean, why are you making me do this?
I didn't think this podcast required math.
I don't like the math.
Okay.
Well- I like everything
else, but not the math.
You should ask my brother Well, we
learned last time that- Oh ⦠three
meters is about nine feet, right?
This makes me wanna be sad.
So it was about nine feet wide.
All right.
And about 90- So that was
a tall thing ⦠feet tall.
Mm-hmm.
Everybody could see it.
So it says he built it on the flat
land called Dura in the Babylon region.
Dura.
Dura.
And then he sends a message to all
of his government officials, which
includes Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, 'cause remember they worked
locally for the- Yeah ⦠the king.
And he told them to meet together
in the place where the statue was,
and he wanted them to see that
he had built this great statue.
So- He was, he was happy about it.
Yeah, he was real proud.
So all of the officers come, and
there are rulers and judges and the
wise people and all the leaders in
the different regions of Babylon.
Dun, dun, da-dun, dun, dun, dun.
I don't think that that'sâ¦
I mean, that is theme music
for government officials.
Dun, dun, da-dun, dun,
dun, dun, da-da, dun, dun.
But probably, probably not
the theme from Babylon.
Well, you know they had music.
They did.
So he's, i- he's gathering them
all, and they all come together
to give honor to the statute that
King Nebuchadnezzar had built.
You know what I just thought of?
You're not supposed to build
statues and worship 'em.
Well, you're not supposed toâ¦
You can build a statue,
you just can't worship it.
Yeah, you're not supposed to.
Nope.
And that's what he was
about to do, give honor.
Yeah.
He said- He didn't know that rule.
Bas- well.
He should've known.
He, he should have known, but he didn't.
Um, it says then an officer
shouted aloud, "Listen to me,
you people from every- Listen
country and nation who speak-" He
said, he said, "Hear ye, hear ye."
A little bit, yeah.
Everybody who speaks different
languages, the king makes this command.
Listen for the s- sound of music
from trumpets, flutes, lyres- Dun,
dun, da-dun, dun, dun, dun ⦠harps.
I'm never gonna be able to hear
that music again- Oh ⦠without
thinking of this, Dewey.
Thinking of this story.
Thank you.
When you hear the music, you
must bend low towards the ground.
Bend low?
You must worship the gold statue that
the King Nebuchadnezzar has built.
The king will punish anyone
who does not do that.
That- His soldiers will throw them
immediately into a very hot fire.
That's not really fair.
I mean, what if you were busy?
This is gonna- You had to stop
what you were doing ⦠go
off in the middle of the day.
You had to stop what you were doing.
I mean, what if you were like, what if you
were, what if you were in the bathroom?
You had to stop what you were doing.
How would they know?
I don't know.
That doesn't sound very good.
It doesn't sound very easy.
I wonder how many times it went off.
I don't know.
But it said any time.
Anyâ¦
What if you were sleeping?
You just had to roll out of
bed and fall to the ground.
Well, I mean, I guess
you'd have to wake up.
Like, I'm sure the music
would wake you up in the end.
Dun, dun.
That would get annoying.
Tell me about it.
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah.
Let's go on.
All right.
So it says- Um, so this happened.
Like, this, this whole thing
started to happen This went on.
Yep.
And so then it says, "Some wise men
went to the king and they told him
some bad things against the Jews.
They said to the king,
'King, live forever.'"
"Oh, King, live forever."
Yep.
Did they have to say that every time?
Probably.
"You made a rule.
You said that everyone must listen for
the sound of the special music, and
when they hear it, they must bend down
and they must worship the gold statue."
Even if they were in the bathroom.
"And you said that you would punish
everyone who does not obey you.
You said you would throw them in
the middle of a very hot fire.
But there are some Jewish
men who do not obey you."
They were tattling.
They are tattletales.
Yep.
They- I mean- They did not
know about the tattle tree.
They just went to the teacher ⦠what
if, you know what I just thought of?
What if they were old people there
and they just couldn't bend down?
I don't know.
I'm not sure how that would work.
That would've been sad.
Um, it says, "They are Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and you gave them
authority to take care of everything
in the Babylon region, and those
men - do not respect your authority.
They do not give honor to your gods, and
they do not worship your gold statue."
They really tattled.
They just kept going.
It makes me think that they
were either jealous or they
just didn't like these guys.
I mean, I've tattled before.
We've all tattled before.
Yeah.
The teacher was like, "Would you
please sit down and ta- stop tattling."
Yeah.
And then I, then I got upset.
Listen- She told me to go say
it to the trash can one day.
"See that trash can?
Why don't you go tell it?"
Yep.
I guess she was tired of it.
Yeah.
Probably.
But she didn't throw me in the
furnace ⦠yeah, that's, that's
a good, that's a good plan.
So anyway, so King Nebuchadnezzar
heard this, and he was super,
super, super, super mad about it.
And so he- He got mad.
Mm-hmm.
He told his servants to bring
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
to him, so they brought these men
to stand in front of the king.
And Nebuchadnezzar says, "Listen, guys.
Is it true that you do not give
honor to my gods and that you have
not, that you do not worship the
gold statute that I have built?
The next time you hear the sound of the
special music, you must obey my rule."
He was giving them a second chance.
Yep.
"You must bend down and you must worship
the statute that I've built, and if
you do not worship the statute, my
servants will throw you immediately
into the middle of a very hot fire."
I know what they were gonna say.
"There's no god who can
save you from my power."
Oh, he said it.
That was the part where
he went real wrong.
That, he crossed a line.
Yep.
So Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego answer the king, and
they say, "King Nebuchadnezzar,
we do not need to say anything."
Did they say, "Oh, King, live forever"?
They didn't.
Oh.
They just said, "King Nebuchadnezzar,
we do not need to say anything to
show you that we are not guilty.
We serve a great God.
If you throw us into the very hot
fire, He's able to keep us safe.
Yes, sir.
He will keep us safe
from your power, too."
He, they knew.
"But even if He does not
save us"- What do you mean?
⦠"we still would not serve your gods."
And we will not worship the gold statue
that you've built God's gonna save 'em.
We want you to understand
that very clearly.
Now listen, we know the end of the story,
so we know that God does save them.
But that's an important distinction.
That's an important point that they made,
that God is worthy of worship and honor
whether he does anything for us or not.
That'd be tough.
It is tough.
It's very hard.
It's a lot easier to be worshipful
of God while he's doing stuff for us.
Yeah.
And he does all kinds of stuff for us.
But- They just said, "Even if he
doesn't- Even if ⦠we're not
bowing to your piece of junk."
Yep, we're not doing any of that.
'Cause that's not a real god.
Yep.
So- All right, so-
Nebuchadnezzar gets really mad.
Oh, he's mad now.
Like, he was mad then but-
He was madder than a- Mm-hmm,
than a- ⦠than a wet hen.
Okay.
As my grandpa says.
Yep.
His face gets all red.
Has, has your mom or dad ever gotten
so mad that their face turned red?
Yeah, but I can't talk about why.
It was my fault.
Were you really bad?
I mean, it involved paint-
and a car.
Okay.
I feel like that's- I mean
it ⦠that's probably warranted.
It was really bad.
I can't talk about it.
Okay.
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid they were, are not done being
mad, even though they're, they don't
act mad anymore, but let's move on.
Okay.
I can't think about it.
Okay, Dewey.
All right.
But yes, their face was
red, especially my dad.
Well, n- King Nebuchadnezzar's face
got real red, and he says to his
servants, "Make the fire in the
oven seven times hotter than usual."
Seven times.
Have you ever been burned?
Yes.
Yeah.
I gotâ¦
I didn't get all the way in our
campfire, just about three meters away.
And I could feel it.
I was gonna say- I could feel it.
It burned up my hairs.
It's probably a good thing you
didn't get all the way in there,
'cause you're made of cotton.
Yeah.
It's hot.
Yeah.
All right.
Anyway, so he makes it hotter and he
tells the strongest men in the army,
"Tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and throw them into the very hot fire."
Throw 'em right on in.
So the soldiers tie 'em up, and
they're still wearing their- You
think everybody was watching?
Yeah.
I think this was a big deal.
I mean- That's pretty sad ⦠these guys
did not do what they were supposed to do.
They were, they were public officials.
Like, they were leaders.
Everybody was there.
Everybody was there watching this.
Plus, did they have a
whole lot of entertainment?
I don't know.
No.
Maybe- They didn't, they didn't have TV.
Yeah.
Anyway, so the soldiers, um, by the
way, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
still wearing all their clothes,
their hats, their coats, everything.
All the important stuff.
All the important stuff.
And so the soldiers throw them
into the middle of the hot
fire with all their clothes on.
The soldiers needed to obey the
king in a hurry, and the fire was
super, super hot, and as a result,
flames from the fire killed the men
who threw Shadrach, Meshach- What?
⦠and Abednego into it.
What?
Yes.
What?
These guys were just following orders,
threw these, threw the three Hebrew
children in- That's sad ⦠and they died.
You know, that's 'cause it was too hot.
Don't get near the campfire, it's too hot.
Yep.
So the three men, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, fall, fell into the
middle of the hot fire, and the
ropes still held them very strongly.
And they, and they burned up.
No.
I, I know.
I know.
But I was just picturing- So- ⦠it
would burn up anybody else 'cause it- Yeah
killed those other men.
Okay.
What King Nebuchadnezzar n- saw
next surprised him very, very much.
He jumped up and he shouted to his
officers, "We tied up three men.
We threw them into the fire.
Isn't that right?"
And the officers answered
the king- Can't they count?
Yes 1, 2, 3.
Yes, sir, we certainly did that.
And the king said, "But I see four
men walking around in the fire."
There's four.
Hey, there's four in there.
No ropes are holding them, and
the fire has not hurt them.
The fourth man- How could he
know the fire didn't hurt them?
Well- They're just walking
around ⦠'cause they were
walking around unbothered.
It says the fourth man seems
like a son of the gods.
So King Nebuchadnezzar- What
does that say, son of the gods?
It says, like a son of the gods.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
So King Nebuchadnezzar went near- So
he thought, he thought it was a son of
one of his gods, but we know it was-
Yeah ⦠probably, it was probably
Jesus making an early appearance
even though he hadn't been here yet.
Probably.
Um, it says, King Nebuchadnezzar went
very near to the door of the oven where
the very hot fire was, and he shouted
aloud to the men inside, "Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, I see that you
are servants- We see you ⦠of the
powerful God who rules over everything.
Now come out here."
So Shadrach- So he knew right then.
Yeah.
Yep, he figured it out.
So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came out of the fire, and then the
king's officers, his wise men, and
the government rulers- So they just
walked out by themselves ⦠and
leaders- Nobody got near them Yeah.
They didn't wanna get hurt.
They, well, the leaders came near to the
three men once they were out of the fire.
They probably thought,
"What in the world?"
And, yeah, they saw that the fire had
not hurt Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego.
The fire had not burnt their hair
or their clothes, and they didn't
even have any smell from the fire.
You know, when I'm- Which is
incredible ⦠when I'm around
that campfire, it hurts- Mm-hmm
my eyes.
Mm-hmm.
And then I stink.
I smell like campfire for days.
And then I have to go take a shower.
I can't get it out of my hair.
And get- I can't get it out of my clothes.
It's awful.
I don'tâ¦
Yeah, and they didn't
have one hair burned.
Nope, not any.
So then King Nebuchadnezzar says,
"Praise the God that Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego serve.
He sent his angel to
keep the servants safe.
They continued to trust in their God.
They did not obey the
command that I made as king.
They would not agree to serve
any other god except their own
God, and they would rather have
died than worship any other god."
'Cause you know if they die,
they're going to God anyway.
Yep.
"No other god can save people
like their God has done for them.
So I make a command for the people of
every nation who speak any language
that they must- Dun, dun, dun.
Another command.
Yep.
Dun, dun, dun, dun.
They must never say anything against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach-
They're not saying one thing
and Abednego.
If anyone does that, my soldiers
will cut them to pieces.
What?
With- They will knock down
these people's houses so that
they become heaps of stones.
I mean, he's kind of a violent person.
He, he is.
He's kind of like a here's
how we handle things.
Yeah.
He's a- I, I don't think
we would've been friends.
I don't know, but it says, "Then
the king gave more authority to
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego."
They got a promotion.
They did.
So they ruled in the region of Babylon.
I would not have wanted to live there.
No.
Because if I went to the
bathroom, I'd have to bow down.
No you wouldn't.
At that thing.
During that time, I would've.
You would've bowed down, Dewey?
Oh yeah, I wouldn't have done that.
You're right.
Yeah.
But that was, that was a good story.
It would've been scary.
Yeah, it would've- Yeah ⦠it
would've been scary.
And what they did was brave.
They, they were very brave.
I liked it.
I'm glad you did.
It's one of my favorites.
Oh.
It's interesting to me that the Bible
clearly calls these guys men, and that
we call the, the three Hebrew children.
What?
Why is that?
I don't know.
We need to research it.
Another, another thing to
look up and learn about.
Yep.
There's always stuff to learn.
All right.
Well, you know what that
kinda made me wanna do?
What?
Go roast marshmallows.
Have some s'mores?
Yeah.
Do you wanna go?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
All right.
We'll see you guys next time.
Dun, dun, dun.
Dewey.
Bye.
I, I can't with that.
Bye, guys.