Fire-Tested Faith
Artwork by Abigail Myrick
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” -Daniel 3:16-18, CSB
“Faith means trusting in God and His Word. Faith does not mean that we either know or understand what his specific purpose in our lives may be. It means a ready willingness to follow Him whatever His purpose.” – Sinclair B. Ferguson
“There is no suggestion here or elsewhere in Scripture that the beleiver will be cushioned against trouble and suffering except by the presence of the Lord with him in it.” – Joyce G. Baldwin
“Still Christ’s flock are strangely comforted here. Christ did not keep them out of the furnace but found them in it. He does not always shield you from all distresses and dangers, but it is in the loneliness, in the betrayal, in the loss that the Fourth Man comes and walks with you. He has the knack of both exposing you to, yet keeping you through, waters and rivers and fire- and operating rooms and funeral parlours and an empty house. The Fourth Man can always find his people.” – Dale Ralph Davis
The rescue gets the headline in Daniel 3. And for all the right reasons; it’s a miraculous intervention of God on behalf of His faithful followers. But, we miss so much if we stop our thinking and application at God rescues His faithful followers. The real headliner here is worship. And if against the will and power of a king who seemingly holds life and death in his hands, we will keep our worship pure. With regret, I must admit that I have compromised my worship of God with far lower stakes and to much less impressive idols. Even so, God has been gracious to restore me and help me to grow. One such crisis, and one of the more serious ones, came in the midst of a time of deep loss. I felt betrayed by God because, I had made Him into my version of who He would be. That is to say, I was sure that if I obeyed God and served Him well and followed His leading, all would go well for me. Only that’s not the God of the Bible. That’s God as some kind of Santa Claus like figure. After all, He knows if we are naughty or nice and the nice kids get what they ask for. Now, until that crisis, I didn’t even realize that I had substituted the real God for my idolized version of Him. But, in the crisis, I was confronted with how distorted my image of God had become. How much I had moved away from the God of the Bible. The God who rescues Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; but who also does not spare His only Son. The God who sustains Paul through multiple otherwise fatal ordeals but let the murderous mob finish off Stephen, despite his faithful testimony for Jesus. In other words, the God who I cannot dictate terms to or predict or always discern the clear purposes of in the real-life ups and downs of followership. And, this is where I think an oft overlooked lesson of Daniel 3 needs to be given attention. It is in the firery trial that our faith is shaped- more often than not quite profoundly. The ‘even if’ of Daniel 3:18 does not come from the lips or hearts of men who haven’t faced some serious refining well before they made their stand on Dura’s plain. They knew Who they were obeying. They knew Him well enough to know that outcomes and happy endings are neither ours to dictate or to predict. They knew obedience was the requirement on their side of the equation- outcomes those were in the hands of a God who does as He sees fit. And so it must be with us- that fire-tested faith gives us the strength to obey but also the first-hand knowledge to not presume on God’s next move. Because, fire-tested faith already knows that God is God and therefore, He may well do that which I cannot make sense of. Faith isn’t a vending machine. It never was. Faith is saying I know who God is and what He requires. I will love and obey God. He will do as He sees fit in and through my life.
Questions for application/discussion:
When has your faith been tested? What were the results?
What is one way in which your view of God was/is distorted? How can it be corrected?
How are you being tempted to give way to ‘idol’ worship in your life? How will you stand strong against the ‘drumbeat’ of the empire?
Blog Bonus: Even If by MercyMe