Day 23
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.””
Daniel 3:24-25 ESV
Immanuel. We know that the word means “God with us.” The story of the three young Jewish men in the fiery furnace is a very tangible example of what that means. Again, another Christophany where the preincarnate Jesus is seen not only by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, but by King Nebuchadnezzar, as well.
Babylon, in scripture, is consistently the root of so much evil and wickedness throughout both the Old and New Testaments. From the very beginning, the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) was a demonically inspired affront to the sovereignty and Lordship of God on the earth and the final fall of Babylon the great is recorded Revelation chapters 17 and 18. Sandwiched somewhere in the middle of Babylon’s rise and fall is Israel’s exile, a period of time when nearly 5,000 Jews were taken into captivity and servitude of this nation which, from beginning to end, represented rebellion against the one true God.
The events which preceded the appearance of Jesus in the furnace are well known, also. The king had erected a 90 foot golden statue and then commanded all of his officials to bow down and worship it. The 3 Jews would not bow before anyone except the Lord, which enraged the king and caused him to have them thrown into the fiery furnace. But, here is the part of the story that I love so much. Most of the time I heard about these events, I heard the focus being put on the incredible faith of the 3 as depicted in verses 16 and 17.
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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.”
Daniel 3:16-17 ESV
Their faith and resolve was rewarded by the Lord when He rescued them from death and stood with them in the fire. That’s a good story. That’s the kind of story that inspires people to draw their own lines in the sand, standing in faith and knowing that because of their faith, God is going to come through for them and give them what they expect. That is the kind of faith that even a pagan king would recognize and it is not a bad thing, but it is also not complete. You see, the gods of the pagan nations were not just stone and wood and metal. Those were the images that they would sometimes inhabit, but there were real spirits, Elohim, who had been given spiritual dominion over geographical regions and would sometimes respond favorably when they were worshiped. (For reference, compare the Genesis 11 account after Babel to Deuteronomy’s description of that same event found in chapter 32, verses 7-9.) Of course, bowing down in front of their statues was on the lighter side of the kinds of worship they demanded, which included human and particularly child sacrifice.
In these pagan kingdoms and nations, it wasn’t just that they attributed prosperity, sickness, weather and produce as coming from their gods, their gods did actually respond to them with shows of supernatural power. This is what makes the triumphal appearance of Jesus with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego inside of the fiery furnace so profoundly astonishing to the Babylonian king. This was the inaugural worship ceremony of this new idol and it was believed that the spirit they were worshiping would enter into the idol and inhabit it at this time. This is what made the refusal of the 3 young Jews so infuriating; they could cause the Elohim to not enter the idol or, worse yet, bring the wrath of the spirit on the people, not to mention the shame and disrespect shown to the king. Sacrificing the 3 troublemakers in response to their insolence was the obvious choice to try to keep these consequences at bay. And then, Jesus appears!
Rather than being consumed by the flames that had risen to such an extreme level of heat that the guards ordered to throw them into the furnace died themselves, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were alive, unbound, walking among the flames and joined by a fourth man who the king identified as having the appearance of the “son of the gods.” This preincarnate appearance of Christ not only provided salvation from death for the 3, but put both the Babylonian king and the demonic gods he served on full notice, there is only one Most High, and you ain’t it.
Some of you may question whether these spirits, these Elohim, are still around and active today. Do they still have the same dominion and authority they held over the nations before the first coming of Christ? Many Bible believing Christians debate those questions and even how we should interpret these beings in scripture. Were they truly fallen angels or just human priests or princes who forsook their God-ordained positions of authority and responsibility in favor of elevating their own position? To me, it is clear in the world around us that, people are still worshipping these pagan deities. As paganism, Odinism and worship of the Ancient Greek, Egyptian and native tribal gods is starting to become more popular, are we also not seeing a rise in debauchery, perversion and people fighting for their right to kill their children under the guise of religious freedom as a Satanic ritual? (A tactic recently celebrated by the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan - https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a45613416/satanic-group-abortion-clinic-samuel-alito-mom/)
The difference today is not that these demons are gone, but that the Church is here. The Spirit of the Living God resides inside of each of us who is called by His name and bought by His blood. The same power that resurrected Christ from the grave lives inside of us! And the same Christ that put to shame the Babylonian king and his gods has given us the mandate to bring the Gospel to the nations that all dominion, all power and all glory is His, forever and ever.
Amen.