December 1, 2020
Dearly Beloved, I greet and bless everyone in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. The blessed word that God has given for you today is from the book of Daniel 3:17,18 , “If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fierce furnace, and He will deliver, us from your hand O King, ”But if not, let it be known to you,O king, that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship, the gold image, which you have set up. ”
From the above context we learn that Daniel’s friends were men of great faith and knew that their God would deliver them from the hand of the cruel king. So they refused to bow down or worship the golden statue. King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He dreams of a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. He dreams of a stone that destroys the statue. Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the statue: King Nebuchadnezzar hears this and thinks that he is the head of gold. So builds an enormous golden statue on the plain of Dura and commands everyone in his kingdom to worship the image.
The king told his subjects, that when the music sounds and the trumpets blare everyone in the kingdom must fall down and worship the statue. So everyone in the kingdom fell down before the statue and began to worship the golden statue but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three friends of Daniel refused to worship the statue. The king screams at them, saying, bow down or burn in Babylon’s furnace! The three men still refused, so they were thrown into the fire.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that their God was able to save them from the blazing furnace. They really didn’t know what would happen to them. They didn’t even know what God would do for them. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a real kind of faith; a faith that doesn’t pretend that nothing bad ever happens to God’s children. They didn’t know God’s ways; they didn’t know if their lives will be spared, yet, they remain completely faithful to God. They said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Even if God does not save us we want you to know, O king that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. They didn’t know what their God was going to do for them, yet they continued to have the faith to serve and worship the one and only true God.
The king was surprised to see four men walking in the midst of the fire and they were not hurt in any way. The fourth was like the son of God. So he asked the men to lift them up from the fire. The officers found that the fire had no power over their bodies. Their hair was not burnt nor where their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them. The king on looking at them spoke “saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who sent his angels and delivered, His servants. Who trusted in Him. He further said, that there is no other God, who can, deliver like this.
Do you have the faith like the three friends of Daniel when problems strike your doorstep, when someone in your family is seriously ill and is at the point of death. The doctors might have washed off their hands saying they cannot save his life, will you lose your faith in God when you go through financial crisis and think everything has come to an end in your life, will you still remain faithful to God, who considered you very precious and gave His very life for you? Will you remain true to God even though you really do not know how He can help you? Or deliver you either from your disease of financial crisis. Just Trust Him. He expects blind faith in Him then He will deliver you no matter how critical your problem might be. Increase your faith in Him like the three friends. God bless you. Live for Jesus.
Prayer: Our loving heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessed day. Thank You Lord for teaching us through this message about the kind of faith we need to have in order to be blessed. Help us to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Teach us to be bold when we are pressurised by the government or higher authorities to do what is wrong in the sight of God. Give us the strength to stand boldly for the glory of God rather than bow down to please men to receive cheap benefits from them.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen
