“Nebuchadnezzar said to them: ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: Is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I’ve set up? If you are now ready to do so, bow down and worship the gold statue I’ve made when you hear the sound of horn, pipe, zither, lyre, harp, flute, and every kind of instrument. But if you won’t worship it, you will be thrown straight into the furnace of flaming fire. Then what god will rescue you from my power?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar: ‘We don’t need to answer your question. If our God – the one we serve – is able to rescue us from the furnance of flaming fire and from your power, Your Majesty, then let him rescue us. But if he doesn’t, know this for certain, Your Majesty: we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you’ve set up.”
If you follow my facebook or twitter posts you shouldn’t be surprised the see this post. After all I did warn you. 🙂 Anyway, I love this story. It always convicts me. I’ve never had a time when it didn’t cause me to look at my faith in a different way.
These young men literally confess that even if God doesn’t rescue them that they will gladly die for their faith. They even refuse to answer the kings question, but it doesn’t matter.
Just another reminder that the only thing that matters is that we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Seriously though, what does this story tells us about our faith?
Not all of us will be threatened with a fiery furnace, or even a life or death situation, but if we truly believe and have steadfast faith in our Lord Jesus are we not dying already to ourselves? Scripture tells that we are. We die everyday to ourselves when we confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
So, what does that death look like?
In what ways are we dying to ourselves?
If we truly and honestly believe in Jesus then we are dying to ourselves because there is no other option. In fact what brings us to that faith of Jesus being our Lord and Savior is the fact that he died for our sins so that we could have everlasting life.
To experience the everlasting life we must forget what we were taught before. We must die. Because in that death we truly live.
May God bless many with the hearing of His word.