Faithful Unto Death
Recently in my daily Bible reading I was reading in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel. This is the story of the three Hebrew captives, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their demonstration of faith in God before the great King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The story is familiar to most people who have attended Sunday school, and it describes where King Nebuchadnezzar erects an imposing golden image in the plain of Dura. He then decrees to everyone in the land that when they hear the music, they are all to bow down and worship the image made by the king. Furthermore, it is noted that anyone who refuses to worship the image will be punished by being thrown into a blazing furnace.
Of course, the three young Hebrews do not bow to anyone or anything but the true God of heaven, and this is quickly noticed by some of the other officials of Babylon. So, as the story goes, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are brought before the king and are given another chance to show they will abide by the king’s edict. However, the young men make no excuses for their faith and even tell the king in verses 16-18 of that chapter, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 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. 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” (NIV).
Well, as can be imagined, the king was not very pleased with this statement of defiance from these three young Hebrew men, so much so that he ordered the blazing furnace to be turned up “7 times” hotter than normal so the men could be thrown into it. But what happens next is nothing short of amazing, because it is miraculous. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are bound and thrown into the fire, but shortly thereafter the king looks into the furnace and notices not 3, but 4 men walking around in it, and he says, “the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” The king bids them to come out, and when they do, they are not just unharmed, but even their clothes and hair are untouched by the flames.
This causes Nebuchadnezzar to rethink some things, and he even decrees praise for the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who saved them from the fire. What an amazing outcome for what looked like a bleak situation for the three young Hebrew men.
Some will give little thought to this story, passing it off as just “one of those Sunday school stories” we learned as children, thinking it doesn’t really have any application for adults in today’s daily life. However, it should cause us to consider what we might do if we were ever put into a similar situation as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Some might say they would never be put into such a predicament, and I would hope that to be the case for everyone. But we know that every day around the world, Christians are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, essentially saying to their perpetrators the same thing the three young men said to King Nebuchadnezzar, that even if God does not rescue us from this threat, that we will still not serve any God other than the one God of the universe. According to opendoorsus.org, 12 Christians around the world are executed every day for their faith. Even here in the United States, shooters have killed people for being Christians. An article in The Guardian gives details of a school shooter at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon 9 years ago where a man shot and killed 9 people, asking his victims, “Are you a Christian?” and if they said they were, he would have them stand up and he would say, “because you are a Christian you’re going to see God in about one second” and then he would shoot them.
What gives Christians the power to make bold statements of faith in the face of such threats? Why not capitulate and live? It is because the stakes are too high for us not to confess Jesus as Lord. Jesus himself says in Matthew 10:32 that “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (ESV). Christians are called upon to live lives that are a proclamation to the world, and whether we are faced with being killed by a mad man or just being tempted to keep something that isn’t rightly ours, Jesus waits on the other side of every potential compromise we face to see if we will acknowledge him or deny him.
But we are not without hope, though, because we know that Jesus has prepared a place for us that is free from all the pain and violence this world has to offer. We also know that God has the power to rescue us, just like he did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And even if it is not in His plan to rescue us when the shadow of death is staring us down, we have the assurance from God’s Word that He has an eternal reward prepared for us if we are “faithful unto death” as scripture says in Revelation 2:10. This truly is The Good News of the gospel, and it all starts with having that relationship with Jesus Christ, naming Him as Lord and Savior of your life, and living a life that is in keeping with His will to the best of your ability. Just ask any Christian and they will be more than happy to tell you the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
-Dan Dawson
Editor, The West Side Herald